SAUDI ARABIA admitted it has troops on the ground in Yemen on Saturday after 10 soldiers died in a Houthi rocket attack.

The announcement of the deaths in the same attack on Friday that killed 45 United Arab Emirates (UAE) troops was Riyadh’s first admission of a ground invasion.

The rockets hit a munitions dump, setting off a huge explosion that flattened several small buildings nearby.

The UAE had already come clean after sending armoured vehicles to militias loyal to ousted president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi — along with crews to man them.

The Saudi-led coalition of Arab nations as far-flung as Morocco has been bombing Yemen since March in support of Hadi forces driving out Houthis, allied with former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The bombings have slaughtered thousands of civilians but failed to turn the tide in Mr Hadi’s favour. Mr Saleh’s allies in the military and the Houthi group still control the capital Sanaa and the west of the country. In the latest incident, 17 people were wounded when coalition jets blitzed the capital yesterday, including schoolchildren taking final exams.

Bombs hit the Saudi and Emirati embassies as well as restaurants.

US President Barack Obama, who has backed the air strikes, met new Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud on Friday.

Mr Obama said the two agreed on the need to restore a functioning, inclusive government, a possible hint at a power-sharing solution to the war.