SANAA, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Iranian soldiers on Saturday assaulted a group of Yemeni fishermen off the southern coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, Yemen's coast guard said.

    After receiving the distress signal sent by the Yemeni fishermen, Yemeni naval forces dispatched two vessels to the area where the assault took place, the coast guard said in a statement posted on the Interior Ministry's website.

    "The Iranian soldiers assaulted us and searched our fishing boats from top to bottom," the fishermen were quoted as saying.

    An investigation was still under way, said the statement.

    The incident came as Yemen has recently stepped up accusations that non-governmental Iranian Shiite groups are backing Shiite rebels in their fights with government troops in Yemen's Saada province.