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'Saudi jets pound Yemen rebel camps'
SAUDI jets pounded Shi'ite rebel camps inside Yemen yesterday and ground troops could move across the border against them after they killed a Saudi border guard, an informed Saudi source said.
"They've been hit hard and it's ongoing," he told AFP. "This is not a hit and run, this is a sustained action" that could involve a ground incursion into Yemen to "clean out" the rebel camps in coordination with Yemen authorities, he said. The assault was launched after a small group of Zaidi militants entered Saudi territory Tuesday in the rugged Jebel al-Dukhan area and occupied two small frontier villages before being driven out by Saudi troops. "We took back a small piece of territory and hit their camps around Saada" in northwest Yemen, the source said. The source also said that one and possibly two more Saudis had been killed in the fighting, and that the Saudi government was likely to issue an official statement on the unrest later today. Earlier Zaidi officials said that Saudi jets "had used phosphorous bombs" on them, but the allegation could not be independently verified. The Saudi assault comes nearly three months after Yemen government forces launched a campaign on August 11 against the rebels, also known as Huthis, driving them across the mountainous landscape toward the Saudi border. Posted by: tipper 2009-11-05 |
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