Local Editor

A foreign Qatari soldier serving with the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has been killed, Qatar’s first fatality of the conflict, the country’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

The death of the soldier, the country’s first reported casualty since the aggression on Yemen, was announced by Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid Bin Mohammed al-Attiyah on Twitter on Wednesday.

Government officials later confirmed the death, though no more details were given.

There have been no previous deaths reported among the Qatari force though two soldiers had previously been injured, officials said.

Qatar’s air force, along with those of other Gulf Cooperation Council members, has taken part in the aerial aggression which began in March. Doha sent 1,000 troops into Yemen in September as part of the ongoing Saudi-led coalition against the impoverished country.

A Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States has been carrying out a military aggression on Yemen by launching airstrikes against the country since March 26. The attacks began in a bid to restore power to the country’s fugitive former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Saudi Arabia.

The airstrikes have not been authorized by the United Nations [UN].

Over 2,615 civilians have been killed in the conflict in the last six months, according to the UN. Yet, other organizations put the death toll at much higher. 

According to the Yemeni health ministry, the death toll from the Saudi-led aggression is more than 6,000 so far, adding that 1,277 of those killed were children.