AFP/Sanaa
At least eight Zaidi rebels and four pro-government tribesmen have been killed in fighting in north Yemen, a tribal source said yesterday, as Saudi forces continued to attack insurgents on the border between the two countries.
The casualties were inflicted in fighting between members of the Popular Army of pro-government volunteers and rebels in Malahidh, the source said, without giving a date.
There was also fighting between units of Yemen’s presidential guard and rebels in Harf Sufyan, with rebel positions being heavily bombarded, the source said.
Meanwhile, the Zaidi Shia rebels announced a new offensive against Saudi troops in the Marwi region.
But in Riyadh, a senior defence official said media reports that Saudi forces had attacked the rebels inside Yemen were “lies” and “fabrications,” state news agency SPA reported.
The unnamed official said King Abdullah had expressly ordered armed forces only to expel the rebels from Saudi territory and not to cross the border, SPA said.
Amid reports the Saudis were trying to create a buffer zone, the Zaidis, also known as Houthis, said they destroyed two Saudi tanks yesterday as they tried to cross into Yemen and that clashes were continuing into the evening.
Yemen’s defence ministry reported that it had destroyed several rebel hideouts in the border area and had captured a “Houthi leader,” Abud Shamlan.
“Yemeni forces gained full control of Sabkhanah Hill in Malahidh, expelled the terrorist partisans from the area and captured many weapons, including light and medium machine-guns, mortars and large quantities of ammunition,” the ministry’s website said.
Saudi newspapers reported yesterday that Saudi soldiers continue to fight along the rugged border of Yemen’s Saada province and Saudi Arabia’s Jizan province, three weeks after Riyadh mobilised land, air and sea forces in response to a Houthi attack in Jizan. |
