RIYADH: Rockets fired by Yemeni rebels into a Saudi border city on Saturday killed a Saudi civilian and wounded six others including a Pakistani man, the Saudi civil defence agency said.

Quoted by Al-Ekhbariya state television, the agency said the five other wounded in the city of Najran were all Yemeni citizens.

Video footage posted on social media networks showed two blazing buildings in the city centre.

Pakistani national among six injured

Cross-border attacks into Saudi Arabia have increased since a Saudi-led Arab coalition this month stepped up air strikes on insurgent targets inside Yemen in an attempt to shore up the beleaguered government. Saturday’s attack was the third this week.

On Friday, five foreign residents of Najran were wounded in a rocket strike just west of the city.

Seven civilians were killed on Tuesday when the city centre was shelled, with three victims said to be expats.

Tuesday’s toll was the highest reported number of civilian casualties in Saudi Arabia for a single day since the Arab coalition intervened in Yemen in March last year against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

More than 100 civilians and soldiers have been killed in southern Saudi Arabia by retaliatory rocket strikes or skirmishes since the coalition began operations in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi’s government.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2016