THE Saudi Arabian-led military alliance at war in Yemen said yesterday it had traded 109 prisoners of war for nine of its own.

In the latest prisoner swap in the year-long war, Yemeni Republican Guard troops and Houthi tribesmen were released on Sunday.

Riyadh was reticent to reveal how its troops had wound up in Yemeni custody.

But the coalition said the Yemenis had been detained in “areas of operations near the border of Saudi Arabia,” where they have staged numerous raids and rocket attacks in retaliation for the Saudi bombing campaign and invasion.

The two sides agreed to a ceasefire at midnight on April 10 and peace talks in Kuwait — part of the Saudis’ nine-nation coalition trying to reinstall deposed president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi — on April 18.

Tens of thousands of Yemenis rallied in the capital Sanaa on Saturday to protest against the Saudi-backed intervention in the civil war that has killed more than 6,000 people, displaced millions and brought the Middle East’s poorest nation to the brink of famine.

Former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who enjoys the support of both the army and the powerful Houthi clan, addressed the demonstration organised by his General People’s Congress party as enemy jets flew overhead.

nSecurity officials and local people said US drone attacks killed 10 suspected al-Qaida militants in the coalition-occupied south.