Friday 28 August 2009

Yemen denies Saudi air strikes on Al Houthi rebels



By Nasser Arrabyee/28/08/2009

Yemen denied Friday allegations that Saudi Arabia fighters are participating in the ongoing air strikes on Al Houthi rebels in Sa'ada north of the country.

The leader of the rebels, Abdul Malik Al Houthi said in statement Thursday they saw Saudi fighters striking on his supporters in Al Malahaidh, west of Sa'ada, where the rebels try to block the highway between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Al Houthi said the alleged Saudi air strikes made him to prepare for long-run depleting war with the Yemeni government.

In an official denial, Yemeni government said Al Houthi allegations are "untrue and baseless" and aim only to plunge Saudi Arabia into the ongoing confrontations with the rebels.

In unprecedented attacks, the air strikes continued on the main strongholds of the rebels in Dhahyan, Mutrah, and Naqa'a, in addition to the raids carried out in the areas of fighting in Haraf Sufyan and Al Malahaidh, local sources confirmed Friday.

These developments came after President Ali Abdullah Saleh his army would change tactics to match with Al Houthi's guerrilla's war, expecting that troops would cleanse Sa'ada from rebels in a matter of weeks.

Meanwhile, the Secretary General of GCC, Abdul Rahman Al Atyah, said in statement to the Yemen official news agency (Saba), that the foreign ministers of GCC will discuss the developments of the war in Sa'ada in their meeting in Riyadh next Tuesday.

On his part, the Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al Querbi said Thursday that his government would take appropriate procedures against any foreign body proved to be supporting Al Houthi armed rebellion.

He told the Defense Ministry 26 September weekly that Yemen now is collecting evidences about the external support for Al Houthi.




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