Saudi forces repel first full-scale border attack by Yemen’s Houthis

Three Saudi soldiers were killed in fighting after militiamen targeted their border observation posts in the Najran region.

Saudi soldiers fire artillery towards three armed vehicles approaching the country's border with Yemen on April 20, 2015. Hasan Jamali, File/AP Photo

Riyadh // Saudi forces killed dozens of Shiite Houthis, while repelling the first major attack on the kingdom by the Yemeni rebels since a regional coalition began airstrikes against them last month.

Three Saudi soldiers also died in the battle after the rebels targeted their border observation posts in the Najran region late on Thursday, the Saudi defence ministry said.

There have been deadly border skirmishes before, but this was the first time that the Saudi military has reported a full-scale Houthi attack on its borders.

The defence ministry said troops, backed by fighter jets, repelled the attack and that “dozens of the militiamen were killed”.

At least 11 Saudi soldiers have been killed in similar border clashes with the Houthis since the kingdom launched airstrikes against the rebels inside Yemen on March 26.

The kingdom’s security forces said on April 11 that more than 500 Houthi rebels have been killed in the border clashes, with most taking place along the area of Najran.

Saudi Arabia boosted its troop numbers along the roughly 1,300 kilometre border with Yemen since the airstrikes began. The forces frequently fire at suspected rebel positions with both cannon and mortar fire.

The area across the border is considered a Houthi stronghold and its fighters managed to take over several scattered Saudi villages in the southern border region of Jizan in 2009, during the kingdom’s last war with the rebels.

Jizan is about 200km east of Najran and about 10,000 tribesmen from Jizan have volunteered with their own weapons to stand at the border alongside the Saudi soldiers, commanders in the area say.

Gulf foreign ministers meanwhile have rejected a proposal to hold talks on neutral ground between rival Yemeni political forces.

The United Nations is trying to bring an end to the weeks-long air campaign and a return to peace talks.

After meeting in Riyadh on Thursday, the ministers insisted that talks between Yemen’s political factions be held in Saudi Arabia, which leads the coalition that has been bombing the Shiite rebels since late March.

Iran, which Saudi Arabia accuses of backing the Houthi rebels, has proposed holding talks on ending the war in a neutral country, one not represented in the coalition.

But in a statement after talks at a Riyadh airbase, the six Gulf Cooperation Council states “affirmed their support to intensive efforts by the legitimate Yemeni government to hold a conference under the umbrella of the GCC secretariat in Riyadh”.

All GCC members except Oman are part of the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthi rebels, who are allied with troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The air campaign was launched after the Houthis and their allies advanced on the main southern city of Aden, where the internationally recognised president, Abdrabu Mansur Hadi, fled after the rebels seized large parts of the country including Sanaa.

Mr Hadi escaped to Riyadh, which feared an Iran-friendly regime taking control of its southern neighbour.

The fighting between the rebels and pro-Hadi forces backed by coalition airstrikes has created a humanitarian crisis in the country, with thousands forced to flee their homes and shortages of food, water, fuel and medical supplies.

The UN security council was scheduled to hold an emergency session on Friday to discuss the situation after the UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday warned that humanitarian operations in the Arab world’s poorest country would end within days unless fuel imports resume, noting that the violence had “severely blocked” shipments of basic supplies such as food and medical items.

“All airports are closed to civilian traffic – some have come under direct attack – and naval shipments are being delayed,” a statement from Mr Ban’s office said. “Yemen’s health, water and sanitation systems and telecommunications services are on the brink of collapse.”

The World Health Organisation said on Friday that 1,244 people had been killed and 5,044 injured in fighting between March 19 and April 27.

* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press