Four Saudi soldiers were killed in clashes with Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels near the Saudi-Yemeni border, Saudi state TV reported on Tuesday.
The four Saudi soldiers have been killed in clashes at a border post near Yemen in which Saudi forces recaptured the position and destroyed the
Shi'ite infiltrators, Saudi Deputy Defense inister, Prince Khaled bin Sultan, said.
Saudi Arabia has demanded the Houthi infiltrators withdraw from the Saudi border region of al-Jabri in 48 hours, he said.
The rebels did not comply with the order, so the Saudi forces have destroyed them, Sultan was quoted as saying.
But he did not say how many Houthi rebels were killed in the clashes. "As many as 82 Saudi soldiers were killed since the beginning of
military confrontations between Saudi forces and Houthis," he said.
Saudi troops have been fighting Houthi rebels since Nov. 3 after a group of the rebels, in a cross-border attack, killed a Saudi soldier and
injured 11 others.
Saudi army stresses its operations were conducted within Saudi territories, but the rebels say Saudi fighters had bombed sites in Yemeni
territories. Yemeni officials, for their part, denied that Saudi army had targeted posts of Houthi rebels within the country.