Saudi Arabia claims it has captured a strategic mountain on its side of the border with Yemen in its campaign against Shia Houthi fighters, Press TV reported.
Saudi Assistant Defense and Aviation Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan told Al-Ekhbariya Television on Saturday that his country's military forces have taken full control of Jabal (Mount) al-Dood and that the area has been cleared of all infiltrators.
Riyadh says it only entered the war with Shia Houthi fighters on November 4 after they killed two border guards in a cross-border incursion.
Meanwhile, a Yemeni military official said that in a pitched battle on Saturday, the country's soldiers thwarted an attempt by Houthi fighters to enter the northern city of Sa'ada, Reuters reported.
The Houthis, who took up arms in 2004 to fight what they say is the central government's discrimination against Yemen's Shia minority, accuse Riyadh and Sana'a of waging a campaign of social, economic, and religious marginalization of Shia communities and of funding al-Qaeda and Wahhabi extremists to help quell the Shia resistance.
Aid organizations have expressed concern about the deteriorating situation in northern Yemen, where the United Nations says 175,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.