The Washington Post is running this Reuters story online right now. In response to a cross-border attack on a Saudi security post earlier this week, which resulted in the death of now two Saudi officers, the Saudi Air Force has launched attacks on northern Yemen. The attacks, said to be coordinated with the Yemeni Ministry of Defense, were aimed at six villages around Saada.

The report says that the Saudi government has not yet decided whether to send ground troops across the border. Houthi parties allege that the Saudis have already been crossing the border in raids.

Saudi air force hits Yemen rebels after border raid
Souhail Karam

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia has launched heavy air strikes on rebels in northern Yemen and is moving troops nearer the border after a raid into its territory by the Shi’ite insurgents, a Saudi government adviser said Thursday.

Saudi government officials said only that the air force had bombed Yemeni rebels who had seized a border area inside the kingdom, which they said had now been recaptured. The officials said at least 40 rebels had been killed in the fighting.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, has become increasingly anxious about instability and militancy in Yemen, which is also facing separatist sentiment in the south and a growing threat from resurgent al Qaeda fighters.

“As of yesterday late afternoon, Saudi air strikes began on their positions in northern Yemen,” the adviser said, asking not to be named because operations were still going on.

“There have been successive air strikes, very heavy bombardment of their positions, not just on the border, but on their main positions around Saada,” he said, alluding to the capital of the northern province where the rebels have been battling Yemen government forces since August.

Al Jazeera television quoted a rebel spokesman as saying the Saudi air force had raided six locations inside Yemen. One position had been hit by about 100 missiles in one hour.

There was no official confirmation from Riyadh or the Yemeni capital Sanaa of cross-border Saudi air strikes, which the Saudi adviser said were coordinated with Yemen’s armed forces.

Saudi Arabia said Wednesday 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 Saudi-owned Elaph website reported that a second soldier had died later from the same clash.
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