Saudi security forces have freed two German girls kidnapped in Yemen last year, the official SPA news agency said on Tuesday.

The SPA news agency quoted a security spokesman for the Interior Ministry as saying that the Saudi security forces in communication with Yemen counterparts were able to recover two German girls in the border region between the two countries on Monday.

The two girls were transferred across the border into Saudi Arabia on Monday, the spokesman said.

The two German girls are part of a group abducted by "criminal elements last year," according to the report.

They are currently undergoing medical check-ups, and the German embassy in Riyadh has been notified of the case, the report said.

Nine foreigners were abducted in the northern Saada region in June last year. Two Germans and a South Korean were found dead soon after the abduction.

Yemeni security forces have been searching for the other six, a British engineer and a German family of five.

Saada was the main battlefield between the Yemeni government and Shiite rebels, known as the Houthis, who went though intermittent battles since 2004 before two sides reached a ceasefire agreement on Feb. 11.

The Yemeni authorities have accused the Houthis of conducting the kidnapping, who strong denied the accusation and laid blame on the al-Qaida group.

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