SAUDI ARABIAN border guards have killed “possibly thousands” of unarmed refugees in recent years, a leading rights group said in a new report today.

Human Rights Watch reports eyewitnesses telling of troops launching machine-gun and mortar attacks on migrants from Ethiopia trying to cross into the kingdom from war-torn Yemen with a shocking death toll, according to the report.

The United Nations has already questioned Saudi Arabia about its troops opening fire on the refugees in an escalating pattern of attacks along its southern border with Yemen, where the Saudis have been engaged in a conflict with Houthi insurgents since 2015.