BAHRAIN: Bahrain announced Friday that five of its soldiers were killed in southern Saudi Arabia where they had been posted to help defend the border with neighbouring war-wracked Yemen.

Bahrain is a member of a Saudi-led Arab coalition that since March has battled Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen to restore the rule of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi exiled in Riyadh.

The Bahraini armed forces command in a statement carried by state news agency BNA named the soldiers killed "while defending the southern border of the Saudi kingdom" but gave no details on the circumstances.

Around 60 people mainly military personnel have been killed in cross-border rebel attacks in the south of the kingdom since the launch of air strikes on the Huthis and their allies.

On Friday an arms depot blast at a military base in eastern Yemen killed 22 soldiers from the United Arab Emirates another member of the coalition.

The Yemeni government said it was an "accidential explosion" but the rebels said their fighters launched a rocket attack that caused the blast.

AFP