Saudi Arabian city of Najran hit by mortars; flights, schools suspended

Jeddah, May 6: Mortar shells and Katyusha missiles fired by Houthi rebels across the Yemeni border have hit a field hospital, school, cars and houses in the town of Najran, the Saudi-led coalition said on Tuesday.

Brig. Gen. Ahmed Assiri, coalition spokesman, said there were no casualties in the town. However, there were injuries reported at the field hospital.

Saudi Airlines has now suspended its operations to Najran until further notice. Director of Education in Najran Nasser Al-Manea visited the school affected by the shells, and later the department tweeted that the education minister had suspended all classes in the region. The department is now looking at ways to hold examinations.

“Air and ground forces will respond in the right way to these hazardous acts and will not allow them to be repeated,” Al-Assiri told Saudi TV.

The Saudi military had already deployed Apache combat helicopters to target the rebels in the border area.

He said that this type of attack had been expected, and was a reaction to attempts by the coalition to suspend military operations until humanitarian assistance could be delivered to the Yemeni people.

The Houthis had refused to abide by UN Resolution 2216 to lay down their arms, which showed that they have “no political program” and only intend to “kill for the sake of killing,” he said.

“I would like to reassure the citizens of Najran that the situation is under control, and ground troops and the Border Guard are now doing their job in dealing with the source of the fire and the elimination of those who dare to fire across the border. The Air Force will do its duties in this regard, and will not leave this matter to pass without a response.”

He said this is not a significant threat because the Saudi-Yemen border area is rugged mountainous terrain, “which allows for a few infiltrators with one mortar to cause losses at border posts.”

One shell fell on the house of a journalist in the city but did not cause any injury or loss of life. Another shell landed on a kindergarten school but the building was empty, a source said.

“No one was hurt when one of the mortars tore into a room on the second floor of the house of Saleh Al-Swan, the bureau chief of Al-Watan in Najran,” the source said. Al-Swan later said his family was safe.

Some of the mortars fell on open land, while others landed close to residential homes and caused slight damage to some cars and buildings, the source said.