Saudi Arabia vows to keep up offensive on rebels

Wael Mahdi, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: November 07. 2009 12:11PM UAE / November 7. 2009 8:11AM GMT

JEDDAH // Saudi Arabia said yesterday it would continue its offensive against Yemeni rebels who have infiltrated the kingdom and attacked border guards until they are forced out of its territory.

Saudi suspended two days of heavy air strikes on the rebels along its southern, mountainous border with Yemen early yesterday, but the government said ground battles between soldiers and the insurgents were continuing.

“The entry of the gunmen to Saudi territory, the aggression against border patrols … and presence on Saudi soil is a violation of sovereignty that gives the kingdom every right to take all measures to end this illegitimate presence,” the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

“The operations will continue until all sites within Saudi territory are cleansed of any hostile element,” SPA said, citing an unidentified official source as saying yesterday.

Extra units of armed forces have been deployed to support border guards and prevent any further incursion by the rebels, it said.

Saudi stressed that its military action was confined to areas within the Sunni kingdom’s borders only and not across the border in northern Yemen, where the Shiite al Houthi rebels have been waging an insurgency against the Yemeni government for five years.

However, the rebels, in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg, said that ground troops were moving towards Yemen territory.

The UAE has announced its support of Saudi Arabia’s offensive against Yemeni rebels.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the Minister of Foreign Affairs described Saudi Arabia’s actions as a “defence of its own territories and maintaining of its sovereignty and stability. We deem any threat to Saudi Arabia’s security, as a threat to our own, and that requires us to confront it strongly and firmly.”

The battle taking place in Jabal Dukhan has also forced hundreds of Yemeni and Saudis to flee their villages.

Farms and public schools in at least four villages in Saudi’s southern Jazan province have been ordered closed.

Ahmad al Zailai, a reporter in Jabal Dukhan, said hundreds of Saudi farmers fled with their cattle to camps set up by the Saudi government, following air strikes that have destroyed homes and buildings.

Saudi authorities have not said how many rebels or refugees it believes have crossed over the border, but Abdullah al Bargi, a correspondent for Al Watan daily based in Jabal Dukhan, said there were at least 200 people who entered the kingdom over the last couple of days.

Youssef No’maan, from Almalaheet in northern Yemen, told Al Watan he fled his home with his eight children to escape the al Houthis. Another Yemeni, Mansour Kaadoom, said he had brought his sick father on a donkey along with his mother and five children to Saudi Arabia to escape the insurgency.

Al Bargi said a group of 40 rebels had surrendered to Saudi authorities.

“I think the battles are in their final stages as many rebels are surrendering while other retreated to Yemeni soil. It may take two days to finish them off,” he said.

The United Nations refugee agency said yesterday it was looking into whether the Saudi air strikes had affected an estimated 3,500 to 4,500 displaced people gathered near the border in Yemen.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees hopes an aid convoy carrying shelter supplies would be able to enter northern Yemen from Saudi Arabia in coming days, spokesman Andrej Mahecic told a news briefing in Geneva.

“We have no information whether these actions have had any impact on displaced people or whether they have caused new displacement,” he said.

Saudi Arabia launched the attacks on Wednesday after a security officer was killed and 11 were wounded in an attack by gunmen who had crossed the border from Yemen – the first such reported incursion since the long-running Houthi revolt flared up again in August.

The rebels warned on November 2 that they would retaliate against Saudi Arabia after accusing the kingdom of allowing Yemeni forces to attack them from inside Saudi territory. A day later, they crossed the border and claimed to have seized a slice of territory.

Mohammed Abdulsalam, a spokesman for the Shiite rebels who are supported by Iran, said more than 200 missiles were launched by the Saudi air force on the Yemeni areas on Thursday, killing and wounding dozens.

The Saudi government denies this.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, has become increasingly anxious about instability in Yemen, which is not only facing a Shiite insurgency in the north, but separatist sentiment in the south and a growing threat from resurgent al Qa’eda fighters.

wmahdi@thenational.ae

* With additional reporting by Reuters / WAM / MAB