IED explosion targets Saudi troops in southern Yemen

Sanaa: Local authorities here on Monday confirmed of an explosion that targeted a Saudi Arabian military unit deployed in Yemen's southern province of Abyan.

Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosion on Friday night struck a high school building used by Saud soldiers as temporary post in the coastal town of Shuqrah, reports say.

The explosion caused no casualties among the Saudi troops other than partially damaging the exterior wall of Shuqrah's high school building, the official said.

The Saudi military unit here was monitoring the ceasefire and overseeing the mutual withdrawal of Yemeni troops from the flashpoint areas in Abyan, according to the official.

After the explosion, a number of Saudi military trucks reportedly left the location and headed to the southern port city of Aden.

In December 2020, military officials of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition arrived in war-ravaged Yemen and began redeployment of forces affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and the government in the country's southern provinces.

Saudi Arabia sought to implement a long-delayed power-sharing deal signed between the STC and Yemen's government last year as well as putting an end for internal military conflict between its nominal allies.

In 2019, Saudi Arabia persuaded the STC and the Yemeni government to hold reconciliation talks, which succeeded in reaching a deal to form a new technocratic cabinet of no more than 24 ministers.

Yemen has been locked in a civil war since late 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the warn-torn Arab country and seized all the northern regions, including capital Sanaa.

IANS report with edits