Saudi soldiers near the border with Yemen have been issued with a 'shoot on sight' order after Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has established a major presence amid deepening instability. PHOTO: AFP

RIYADH: A Saudi border guard was killed on Tuesday by gunfire from neighbouring Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is battling rebels, the interior ministry said.

The corporal was hit during a patrol in the Saudi border district of Najran, a ministry spokesperson said.

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More than 90 civilians and soldiers have died in shelling and skirmishes along the frontier since last March, when the coalition launched a military intervention in Yemen.

The coalition is backing Yemen’s government against Iran-supported Shia Huthi rebels and their allies who overran the capital Sanaa in September 2014.

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In Yemen itself, the United Nations says more than 6,100 people have been killed in the fighting since March, about half of them civilians.