At least five Saudi soldiers killed near Yemen border

At least five Saudi Arabian soldiers were killed in two days near the kingdom’s border with war-torn Yemen, the official SPA news agency reported Sunday.

SPA did not provide details about the circumstances of the deaths but said the soldiers lost their lives in the southern Jizan region.

Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition that launched a massive air campaign in 2015 against Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, who overran much of Yemen a year earlier.

Tens of thousands of Yemenis are believed to have been killed in the conflict, while another 14 million are at risk of starvation, according to the UN.

Meanwhile, hundreds protested in Yemen's remote island of Socotra in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia, demanding the United Arab Emirates withdraw from the island and from the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi rebels.

Footage circulated on social media showing crowds waving Yemeni flags and chanting anti-Emirati slogans.

Yemeni security officials said Sunday's protests erupted in response to a sit-in staged by separatists loyal to the UAE at Socotra government headquarters. They spoke on condition of anonymity under regulations.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates' coalition has battled the Houthis since 2015 to restore the internationally recognised government of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

The anti-Houthi coalition has fractured over the past months, as violence erupted in Yemen's south between the UN-recognised government and the UAE-backed separatists.