DUBAI (Reuters) - A Yemeni expatriate killed a policeman in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday by running him over with his car and then stabbing him, the state news agency SPA reported.

It was not immediately clear if the attack was related to a 16-month-old war in neighboring Yemen in a Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in support of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi against Iran-allied Houthi forces that had deposed him.

SPA, quoting a police spokesman in the Asir region of the southwestern province of Bisha, said police Corporal Muhthil al Salouli “was deliberately run over and stabbed” after emerging from dawn prayers at a mosque in Bisha town.

Police arrested the assailant, identified as a Yemeni of around 20 years of age, and were questioning him, SPA said.

Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis live and work in oil-rich Saudi Arabia to support families in their impoverished homeland.

Saudi Arabia and an alliance of mostly Gulf Arab allies have launched thousands of air strikes against the Houthis and their allies in Yemen’s army since they entered Yemen’s civil war on behalf of the exiled government.