Thursday, November 5, 2009

Saudis Bomb Yemen Rebels Across Border


Did the Saudis get UN approval, before they took military action? Will the world condemn them for taking matters into their own hands? If Muslims want to have their civil war, let them. Not everything is our problem.


Saudis bomb Yemen rebels across border

By AHMED AL-HAJ and SALAH NASRAWI

SAN'A, Yemen – Saudi Arabia sent fighter jets and artillery bombardments across the border into northern Yemen on Thursday in a military incursion apparently aimed at helping its troubled southern neighbor control an escalating Shiite rebellion.

The Saudis — owners of a sophisticated air force they rarely use — have been increasingly worried that extremism and instability in Yemen could spill over to their country, the world's largest oil exporter. The offensive came two days after the killing of a Saudi soldier, blamed on the rebels.

Yemen denied any military action by Saudi Arabia inside its borders. But Yemen's president is a key ally of the Saudis, making it highly unlikely the kingdom would have launched the offensive without tacit Yemeni agreement.

The offensive immediately raised concerns of another proxy war in the Middle East between Iran and Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally. Shiite Iran is believed to favor the rebels in Yemen while Saudi Arabia, which is Sunni, is Iran's fiercest regional rival.

The same dynamic has played out in various forms in Lebanon, where Iran supports the Shiite militant Hezbollah and Saudi Arabia favors a U.S.-backed faction, and in Iraq, where Saudi Arabia and Iran have thrown support to conflicting sides in the Sunni-Shiite struggle.

A top Saudi government adviser confirmed "a large scale" military operation underway on the Saudi-Yemeni border with further reinforcements sent to the rugged, mountainous area.

"It is a sustained operation which aims to finish this problem on our border," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. He said Saudi troops were coordinating with Yemen's army, but Yemen's defense ministry denied the Saudis were inside the country.

The northern rebels, known as Hawthis, have been battling Yemeni government forces the past few months in the latest flare-up of a sporadic five-year conflict. They claim their needs are ignored by a Yemeni government that is increasingly allied with hard-line Sunni fundamentalists, who consider Shiites heretics.

The rebels said the Saudi airstrikes hit five areas in their northern stronghold Thursday but it was not possible to independently verify the reports. They said there were dead and wounded, and that homes were destroyed.

"Saudi jets dropped bombs on a crowded areas including a local market in the northern province of Saada," Hawthi spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Salam told The Associated Press. "They claim they are targeting al-Hawthis, but regrettably they are killing civilians like the government does."

He said the attacks were followed by hundreds of shells from the border, but there was no reliable information about casualties.

The fighting is more than 600 miles from Saudi Arabia's oil fields on the kingdom's eastern Persian Gulf coast. But northern Yemen overlooks the Red Sea, the world's busiest route for oil tankers.



Link to Article

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This firing Buy GW2 Gold started off about 1:35 s.l. Cone says that all of the casualties happened for the base's Jewellry Willingness Middle wherever troopers who definitely are planning to become started or maybe that are coming back again undertake professional GW 2 Gemsmedical screening process.

Anonymous said...

Ces professions incluent blacksmithing, les d3 gold Pierres précieuses, les Armes et les sacs peuvent être d'énormes brasseurs d'affaires pour vous mais ils sont trop difficiles pour apprendre. Vous pouvez utiliser l'exploitation minière et blacksmithing pour niveler, mais la combinaison d'eux avec une profession se rassemblant peut vous aider à gagner plus d'argent. Avec cette approche goldwow vous serez en mesure de gagner de l'or tant aux plus bas que niveaux supérieurs. Le Monde suivant de bouts de réalisation Warcraft d'or vous aidera si vous décidez de poursuivre les professions plus mystiques d'alchimie ou enchanteur. jewelcrafting, le fait d'adapter et leatherworking. Aux niveaux supérieurs vous pouvez créer des articles pour vendre avec de hauts goldwow prix à la maison de vente aux enchères.