Global Courant
The Houthis have not yet acknowledged carrying out a drone strike, while the Saudi-led coalition said it reserves the right to respond.
Bahrain’s military command has accused Yemen’s Houthi fighters of killing two Bahraini soldiers in a drone strike on Saudi Arabia’s southern border with Yemen.
A number of Bahraini soldiers were also injured in the attack, the Bahraini army said in a statement carried by the official Bahraini News Agency on Monday. The exact number of wounded soldiers was not released.
“This terrorist attack was carried out by the Houthis, who sent aircraft targeting the position of Bahraini guards on the southern border of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, despite the cessation of military operations between the warring parties in Yemen,” the statement said. Bahraini military statement. .
The island nation of Bahrain is a close ally of Saudi Arabia, which has been at war with Iran-allied Houthi fighters in Yemen for years.
The Houthis did not immediately acknowledge carrying out the attack. There was also no mention of an attack on the media and social media activities of the Houthis, whose negotiators held talks with Saudi Arabian officials earlier this month about a possible deal paving the way for an end to the conflict in Yemen.
It was unclear whether the drone strike and killing of Bahraini soldiers would derail the peace talks.
The Saudi-led coalition warned the Houthi fighters that “such repeated hostile and provocative actions are inconsistent with the positive efforts being made… to end the crisis and achieve a comprehensive political solution.”
The coalition said it “reserves the right to respond at the appropriate time and place.”
Nabeel Khoury, former head of the US mission in Yemen, told Al Jazeera that the attack appeared to be the result of “normal tensions” on the front lines.
“I would think that unless someone tries to provoke something, it’s an incident that will pass and not have too many consequences,” Khoury said.
Yemen’s internationally recognized government condemned the drone attack on Monday.
Foreign Minister Ahmed Bin Mubarak said he spoke by phone with Bahrain’s chief diplomat Abdullatif al-Zayani and expressed his condolences and solidarity with Bahrain.
The Houthis have been fighting a Saudi-led military alliance since 2015 in a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and left 80 percent of Yemen’s population dependent on humanitarian aid.
The war in Yemen began in 2014, when the Houthis abandoned their northern stronghold and captured the capital Sanaa, along with much of the north of the country. In response, a Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 to try to return the internationally recognized government to power.
The fighting quickly evolved into a stalemate war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, causing widespread hunger and misery in Yemen, which was the Arab world’s poorest country even before the conflict.
Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic ties earlier this year in a Chinese-brokered deal, further boosting hopes for an end to the conflict in Yemen. Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia welcomed a Houthi delegation for peace talks and said the negotiations had “positive results.”
A U.N.-brokered ceasefire had already largely halted violence and Yemen has seen only sporadic clashes since the ceasefire expired nearly a year ago. But diplomats have warned the situation remains volatile.
