Shelling from Yemen kills 3 Saudi children

Riyadh — Cross-border shelling from Yemen has killed three children in Saudi Arabia and wounded nine others, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Monday. In one of the attacks, two Saudi girls were killed and five of their family members wounded when a rocket hit their home in the border region of Najran. In the same region, an 11-year-old boy was killed and his mother wounded in similar shelling, spokesman of the Directorate of Civil Defense in Najran Lt. Col. Ali Al-Shahrani said. A third attack in the region of Jazan wounded a Saudi child and two women, one of them Ethiopian, spokesman of Directorate of Civil Defense in Jazan region Major Yahya Al-Qahtani said. All the attacks took place on Sunday. Cross-border attacks from Yemen have intensified since the suspension in early August of UN-brokered peace talks between Houthi rebels and their allies, and Yemen’s internationally-recognized government. On Saturday, a rocket fired from Yemen killed a three-year-old boy in Najran, where shelling struck a power station a day earlier. At least 19 soldiers have also died in the Najran region, which is just a few kilometers (miles) from the border and has borne the brunt of rebel attacks. “They target the civilians. The main ones suffering are the civilians,” says Al-Shahrani. He says the bombardment worsened after the suspension in early August of United Nations-brokered peace talks. “Now it’s continuous,” he told visiting foreign reporters. On Friday, rebels hit the Saudi Electricity Company’s Najran Power Plant at the base of a mountain. — Agencies