From the news desk

Saudi Arabia boosts security on Yemen border

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The Saudi military is boosting security along the Yemeni border, moving in tanks, artillery units and border guards to counter the threat posed by Houthi fighters.

The extra troops and equipment have been dispatched to the country’s south western border adjacent to the northern Yemeni province of Saada, the main stronghold of Houthi fighters.

Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall, reporting from the Saudi side of the frontier on Tuesday, said he saw a convoy of tanks and armoured personnel carriers head towards a mountain range that marks the divide between the countries.

The deployments come nearly three weeks into a Saudi-led offensive against the Houthis, who have taken control of large parts of the country and forced President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee the country.

“It’s very clear that Saudi Arabia is not willing to take any chances in this war … one of their main objectives of the campaign is to make sure that it is not affected by the conflict,” our correspondent said.

Three Saudi soldiers were killed by Houthi mortar shells in the border area of Najran on Saturday, a military spokesman said.

The Saudi army says it does not yet have orders to chase the attackers beyond the border.

“We deal with them from a distance. We make sure to spot them before they get close and before they can shoot,” a commander told Al Jazeera.

“We have an advantage being able to shoot them from a longer range. We rely on information that we collect through various means including goggles and other types of surveillance.”

In 2009, Houthi rebels were able to infiltrate the border and inflict heavy casualties on Saudi troops.

In the recent escalation of fighting, the UN has warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in the country, and said the ongoing conflict is taking a heavy toll on civilians.

“Over 600 people [have been] killed, but more than half of them are civilians. This is particularly concerning,” Ivan Simonovic, UN’s deputy secretary-general for human rights, told Al Jazeera on Monday.

The Saudi army says it is taking precautionary measures in order not to harm civilians, but with densely populated areas on both sides of the border, the risk of civilian casualties is high should fighting escalate in the area.

Riyadh says it will not stop air strikes until Hadi is reinstated.

The UN Security Council will vote on a resolution on Tuesday to blacklist the son of Yemen’s former president and a Houthi leader, and effectively impose an arms embargo on the rebels who rule most of the country. Al Jazeera


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2 comments

  1. some news folk are afraid to write their own news, parroting al jazeera reuters et al, houthis a threat to the saudis? last we saw and till now, its the saudis who invaded yemen bombing people and infrastructure a la israel and usa,

    of course the tyrant who resigned is hadi, is their and the usa's "man"

    as with syria…….watch this space….

    even our locals including mjc et al supported the fsa alnusra etc then when it explodes in their faces now they "distance" themselves from isil…..

    know them by their roots and fruits

    saudi salafi wahabi taliban al qaeda boko haram alnusra isil etc etc and whatever they morph into……. all the same…..

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