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Showing posts with label Yemeni Shia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yemeni Shia. Show all posts

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Saudi Arabia Bombs Yemeni Shia rebel targets, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News
Saudi Arabia Bombs Yemeni Shia rebel targets
November 8, 2009

The four month war against rebel Shia tribesmen in Yemen has now attracted the attention of Saudi Arabia. Saudi aircraft have, in the last week, used several hundred missiles and bombs on Yemeni rebel targets near the Saudi border. This was triggered by an incident on October 14th, when Saudi police caught two al Qaeda members trying to get past a border post dressed as women, and carrying weapons and bomb making material. The two were killed in a gun battle, along with a policeman.

The Yemeni Shia rebels have been forced back to the Saudi border, where they are hiding out among some 60,000 civilian refugees from the fighting. On October 18th, the rebels reported that Saudi troops fired across the border, to support an Yemeni army attack on some rebels barricaded inside a town. Elsewhere on the border, Saudi troops have been fighting with tribesmen opposed to the security fence the Saudis are building along the border. The tribesmen have freely crossed the border for centuries, but now the Saudis want to halt the smuggling, and movement of al Qaeda terrorists into the kingdom.

On October 26th, Yemeni patrol boats in the Red Sea, seized an Iranian ship, carrying weapons, apparently meant for the Yemeni rebels. On November 3rd, a group of Yemeni rebels entered Saudi Arabia and attacked Saudi police, killing one of them. One of the rebels was killed, and the rest fled back into Yemen. The rebels have demanded that Saudi Arabia stay out of the fighting. The rebels also called on the UN to help negotiate a ceasefire, but the Yemeni army believes it is close to capturing the rebel leaders, and crushing the rebellion.

On November 5th, in response to the Yemeni rebel attack, Saudi Arabia sent F-15 and Tornado fighter-bombers across the border to hit suspected rebel camps. Over a hundred missiles and bombs were used. Saudi artillery was also heard firing into Yemen, and Saudi army units were seen moving towards the border. Apparently those troops soon crossed into Yemen, where they have apparently been fighting the Yemeni rebels.

http://newageislam.com/saudi-arabia-bombs-yemeni-shia-rebel-targets-/islamic-world-news/d/2069


Iran warning over Saudi attack on Yemeni Shia radicals, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News
Iran warning over Saudi attack on Yemeni Shia radicals
10 November 2009

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has warned against foreign intervention in the conflict between the Yemeni government and rebels.

Unidentified parties were adding fuel to the crisis, and attempts to help or to take military action would have negative consequences, Mr Mottaki said.

Correspondents say his comments appear to have been intended for Saudi Arabia.

Shortly afterwards, Riyadh promised it would continue air strikes until the rebels moved back from its border.

"We are not going to stop the bombing until [they] retreat tens of kilometres inside [the Yemeni] border," Deputy Defence Minister Prince Khaled Bin Sultan said, according to the AFP news agency.

Saudi forces launched a ground and air offensive on the rebels, known as the Houthis, after a security officer was killed in a cross-border raid by the group in its south-western Jizan region.

The Houthis meanwhile said on their website that Saudi fighter jets had bombed villages on the Yemeni side of the frontier on Tuesday, killing two women and wounding a child.

Strikes also targeted a government building in the village of Shida, they said.

'Be careful'

In Tehran on Tuesday, Mr Mottaki was asked about Yemeni allegations that Iranian religious and media organisations were backing the rebels, who want more autonomy and a greater role for their version of Shia Islam, Zaydism.

http://newageislam.com/iran-warning-over-saudi-attack-on-yemeni-shia-radicals/islamic-world-news/d/2080