Saudi border guard killed on Yemen frontier: SPA

RIYADH A mortar shell killed a Saudi Arabian border guard patrolling on the frontier with Yemen on Thursday, the Interior Ministry said, bringing to 11 the number of Saudi Arabia's casualties during its five-week campaign against Yemen's Houthi rebels.

Private Gharbi Rajah al-Hassan al-Mujaishi was patrolling on Thursday morning in the Hareth sector in Jizan province when he was killed, the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The frontier adjoins Yemeni territory controlled by the Houthis, whose seizure of the capital Sanaa in September and advance south early this year triggered Saudi air strikes aimed at pushing them back and restoring Yemen's government.

The air strikes have targeted Houthi weapons dumps and concentrations of the Iran-allied militia in areas close to the border with Saudi Arabia, where there have been some exchanges of mortar and small arms fire.

(Reporting by Angus McDowall; editing by Andrew Roche)