At least seven Saudi soldiers have died on the southern border since late last week, according to an unusual series of official reports released.

In separate dispatches since last Thursday, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) has carried photographs of funerals for the “martyrs” it said had died “defending the southern borders.”

The most recent report, published late on Monday, named Mohammed al-Manjahi as the latest soldier to have been killed.

A Saudi-led coalition began a brutal aggression on Yemen in March 2015 to support its ally the fugitive President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

An earlier AFP tally of reports by the Saudi interior ministry and civil defence department found that at least 115 Saudi soldiers and alleged civilians had been killed on the southern border since coalition operations began.

That total has now reached at least 122.

The Saudi interior ministry regularly gives details of casualties among its border guard troops but other military services normally do not.

Official media have previously reported on funerals for dead troops but the series of dispatches since last week is unusual.

Source: AFP