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Arabia
'Saudi forming militia to fight Houthis'
2009-10-12
The Houthi fighters say Saudi Arabia is recruiting gunmen to form a militia in a bid to help the Yemeni government's crackdown on the Houthis.
The rehabilitating jihadis were piling up, and no doubt most of them were not suitable for regular employment.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the Shia fighters accused the Saudi Interior Ministry of planning to form the militia to fight them on both sides of the Saudi-Yemeni border. It added that Saudi Arabia also dispatched a number of Wahabi clerics to mobilize al-Qaeda elements inside Yemen to help the army fight the Houthis in the Sa'ada region.

"The Saudi authorities have mobilized the remnants of the so-called Mujahideen forces to train Wahabi militants, who have already announced readiness to fight Houthis," read the statement

According to the report, the Saudi Interior Ministry also erected training camps for the Salafi militia.

Saudi Arabia's deputy interior minister Prince Mohammed Bin-Naif has reportedly increased his efforts to contact Wahabi elements since Ramadan, claiming that the Shia minority in the south poses a threat to the kingdom.

On Sunday, fierce clashes broke out after the army tried to force Houthi fighters out of a northern city, a military source said. The battle reportedly caused huge casualties on both sides. The Houthis said that they attacked several military bases in the town of Sufian Harf.

The Yemeni government accuses the Houthis of seeking to restore an imamate that was toppled in a 1962 coup. The Houthis, however, laugh off dismiss the allegation, saying they solely want an end to what they call discriminative policies of the government and its campaign to spread Wahabism in the mainly Zaidi north.
Posted by:Fred

#3  If it gets even a bit more complicated, nobody will be able to figure out who's on whose side.
The morning orders will be followed by a dozen "never mind" by lunch.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey   2009-10-12 16:31  

#2  It would be very unlike the Sauds to do this...

It makes a Machiavellian-sort of sense. The Sauds had no problem with the Wahabi clerics recruiting for jihad in Iraq. It was only when they returned and caused trouble for the Magic Kingdom that the jihadis became an issue. So they'll point them toward Yemen. Benefits the goevernment, gives some sort of 'honor' to the jihadis. Like the Pakistanis aiming their militant religious fanatics at the Indians.
Posted by: Pappy   2009-10-12 15:22  

#1  Press TV Iran. It would be very unlike the Sauds to do this... if there is proof, then the Iranians have REALLY rattled them I would think.
Posted by: Free Radical   2009-10-12 12:37  

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