Two Saudi soldiers were killed Thursday in a rocket attack near the border with war-torn Yemen, the interior ministry said. They died in a simultaneous landmine explosion and rocket attack while on duty patrolling the border around Jazan, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

Saudi Arabia leads a Gulf coalition that has battled Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen for two years. The coalition is allied with forces loyal to internationally recognised President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi. Hadi's forces have struggled to wrench control of large swathes of Yemeni territory from the Huthis, who control the capital Sanaa, much of the northern highlands and key ports on the Red Sea coast.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017