Cross-border missile kills 7 people in Saudi Arabia

RIYADH

Saudi Arabian media is reporting that a missile launched from neighboring Yemen on Tuesday has killed seven people in a border region.

The missile landed in the Najran area and took life of four Saudi citizens and three foreign residents, according a spokesman on Al-Ihbariyya TV late on Tuesday.

Najran province's Civil Defense media spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Ali bin Omair al-Jarman al-Shahrani said the missile hit an industrial area of the town, causing material damage as well.

Yemen is in the grip of chronic instability and has been ravaged by civil war since late 2014 when Houthi rebels overran the capital Sanaa forcing President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and his Saudi-backed government to temporarily flee to Riyadh.

In March last year, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive military campaign in Yemen aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and restoring Hadi’s embattled government.

Backed by Saudi-led airstrikes, pro-Hadi forces have since managed to reclaim large swathes of the country’s south -- including provisional capital Aden -- but have failed to retake Sanaa and other strategic areas.

*Reporting by Ramazan Turgut; Writing by Satuk Bugra Kutlugun