NAJRAN: A three-year-old boy was killed and three others were wounded in Najran in the latest cross-border rocket attack from Yemen, a Civil Defense official said on Saturday.
Major Ali Al-Shahrani, civil defense spokesman in southwest Saudi Arabia, said a nine-year-old brother of the boy was also wounded when a Katyusha rocket hit their family’s home.
Al-Shahrani said the rocket strike happened at about 8:50 a.m.
The attack came a day after rockets fired from Yemen struck a power station in Najran, marking a rare hit on Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure after months of periodic bombardment of the area.
Attacks have intensified since the suspension in early August of UN-brokered peace talks between the Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies, and Yemen’s internationally recognized government which has the military support of a Saudi-led Arab coalition.
Ten people have been killed in Najran since August 16, when a single strike claimed seven lives.
The Arab coalition has also stepped up its air raids in Yemen since the peace talks collapsed.
The coalition intervened in March last year to support President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after the Houthis and their allies seized much of Yemen.
Meanwhile, the Houthi militias in Yemen have refused to surrender their ballistic missiles in an implicit rejection of the initiative put forward by US Secretary of State John Kerry two days ago in Jeddah, according to Anatolia news agency.
According to the statement, the Houthis have pledged to carry on with the will to fight, and to retain the necessary capacity and capabilities.
The Yemeni Army has made a series of advances with the assistance of the UN-backed Saudi-led coalition forces, army spokesman Brig. Gen. Samir Haj has said. He said Houthi militias and the ousted Ali Abdullah Saleh were deploying more heavy weaponry around Taiz in an attempt to lay the city under siege.
(Additional input from agencies)
