JEDDAH: An officer was killed and three of his colleagues were injured by Houthi shelling on the Rejla district in Najran on Tuesday morning, according to the Interior Ministry.

Slain Capt. Mashhour Al-Qahtani and his colleagues had been collecting samples of rockets and shells in the area when they came under fire.

According to eyewitnesses, the Houthis had been launching rockets in the area. In response, Saudi land forces and National Guard troops returned fire with Apache helicopters.

Meanwhile, fighters backing Yemen’s exiled government captured a city on the road to the port city of Aden. The fighters took Dhale, a significant gain as the city is home to the command center of the 33rd Armored Brigade, the country’s largest army unit that had been loyal to deposed leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Government-allied fighters seized tanks, rocket launchers and ammunition caches from the base at Dhale, some 120 km from Aden.

Footage from Dhale aired on the Saudi-funded Al-Arabiya satellite news network showed fighters in one armored vehicle flying the flag of once-independent South Yemen.