AFP/Khubah, Saudi Arabia
Yemeni and Saudi forces pounded Shia rebel positions along the border between the two countries yesterday, witnesses and military officials said.
“Saudi jet fighters resumed their attacks on Saturday night and bombarded rebel hideouts” in the border area, witnesses said.
“There was relative calm on Sunday morning but air operations against the border area are continuing.”
The Saudi military presence in the Jizan region has been boosted over the past two days, according to an AFP correspondent, who said reinforcements were seen on the route to Khubah, close to the rebel positions.
The rebels, meanwhile, claimed they had launched an attack yesterday on a Saudi military base in Jizan to avenge the deaths of civilians killed in the artillery and air strikes.
“After more than eight days from the start of Saudi artillery attacks and air strikes on civilians in Yemeni territory, today ... we attacked Ain Al Harra military base with Katyusha rockets and fires were seen in that camp,” the rebels said in a statement.
“The Saudi regime should review its belligerent position towards the Yemeni people who refuse injustice.”
Saudi forces have been shelling and bombing rebel positions in the 2,000m Jabal Dukhan mountain area straddling the border since November 4, after rebels killed a border guard and occupied two small villages inside Saudi territory the previous day.
Riyadh has said the air strikes and shelling will continue until the rebels withdraw tens of kilometers from the Saudi-Yemeni border.
Meanwhile, Yemeni forces on Saturday night pounded rebel positions in their Saada province stronghold and in Harf Sufyan in Amran province, both north of Sanaa, a Yemeni military official said.
“Strong clashes erupted in Harf Sufyan between the army and the rebels, supported by tribes,” the official said, adding that five tribal members were killed and seven others were wounded.
The clashes came after reinforcements from Sanaa arrived at Harf Sufyan to “help the army gain control of the area,” the official said.
Casualties were reported on both sides in the fighting in Saada.
l Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, yesterday accused Washington of masterminding Saudi Arabia’s bombing of Shia Yemeni rebels, parliament’s website reported.
“The deplorable events in the Islamic nation of Yemen which have intensified over the past two weeks and the Saudi interference in Yemen through repeated bombings by warplanes is astonishing,” Larijani was quoted as telling deputies.
He accused the US of being behind the bombing, saying: “Reports indicated that the government of the US is co-operating in the oppressive measures.”
Larijani’s comments come less than a week after Sanaa slammed Iranian “interference” in its affairs after Tehran criticised regional intervention in Yemen’s war with the rebels in a barely veiled allusion to Saudi Arabia.
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