 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Saudi army has lost 113 troops since the kingdom launched a sweeping offensive against neighboring Yemen's Shiite rebels in early November, a military commander said in comments published Thursday. The kingdom's well-funded but largely untested military joined the fray after Shiite rebels from Yemen crossed the border into Saudi Arabia on Nov. 5, killing two Saudi border guards. The Al Riyadh newspaper quoted Maj. Gen. Ali Zaid al-Khawaji as saying the dead include a senior Saudi officer whose body was found with those of two soldiers after a battle last week to drive rebels out of a border village. The latest toll is a significant jump from last week, when assistant defense minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan said the Saudis had 82 dead and 470 wounded. The mounting toll underscores the ferocity of the fighting with the poorly armed Yemeni Hawthi rebels, who have been battling their own government since 2004 over neglect and discrimination. The rebels have gained a reputation for being wily adversaries, taking full advantage of the rugged mountainous terrain of their homes in northern Yemen. The Saudis have been relying on artillery and air power to defeat the rebels without risking manpower, but the casualties mostly come from mob-up operations in rebel stronghold villages. Saudi chief of staff Gen. Saleh ben Ali Al-Mohaya said the war "is close to a guerrilla war." Al-Khawaji, the commander of the southern Saudi region, identified the dead officer as Lt. Col. Saeed Ma'tuq al-Omari from Saudi parachutist units and a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War. "There are field units searching for more bodies," al-Khawaji told the paper. The world's largest oil supplier, Saudi Arabia has used its military only once before since the kingdom was established in 1932. Saudi troops played a token role in the U.S.-led effort to drive Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in 1991. Yemen, the Arab world's poorest nation, has been in the limelight since a Yemen-based wing of al-Qaida said it was behind a failed Dec. 25 plot to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner. FoxNews
 Saudi and Yemeni forces announced that they have fought renewed battles with Houthi rebels on the border between the two states. They claim to have driven the Shia rebels out of the last Saudi frontier area that they had been holding. Prince Khaled bin Sultan, the Saudi Assistant Defence Minister, said that Houthi forces had been given two days to withdraw from the border post area of al-Jabri but did not comply with the ultimatum. “All of them have been destroyed,” he said, claiming that hundreds of the rebels — named after their leader, Abdulmalik al-Houthi — had been killed. There was no independent verification of the numbers of casualties in the area, which is closed to the outside world, with only a few aid groups allowed to enter. The Saudi military said that it had lost four soldiers in the clashes, bringing total losses for the kingdom to 82, with 21 missing, since Riyadh launched its offensive against the rebels in November. “They have to go back to reason and realise that their capabilities” remain modest compared to Saudi Arabia, he said. But senior Yemeni officials, as well as other Arab intelligence agencies, believe that Iran is backing the Houthis, who are fellow Shias but of a different branch of the sect. They are however united with Iran by their visceral hatred of the United States. Yemen has also hinted they may have logistical links with al-Qaeda-related groups operating in the Horn of Africa, across the narrow Gulf of Aden. In a separate battle, Yemeni troops said that they had killed 19 Houthi fighters in a battleinside the country’s borders. The Houthi insurgency, inspired by a perceived lack of political and economic freedoms by the rebels, is seen by Yemen’s Government as the most pressing threat to national security, although the United States is leaning on it heavily to devote more resources to fighting al-Qaeda militants who are rallying in the southeast of the country. The Government is also facing growing secessionist calls in the south, which was a separate state until 1990 and whose citizens complain that their natural oil and gas reserves are enriching the regime which has neglected the interests of the south. Times Online 
 SAN'A, Yemen — Yemen's government is escalating its internal conflicts that threaten to throw the country into greater chaos even as it ramps up the fight against Al Qaeda with U.S. help. The military says that Yemeni troops have launched new assaults against Shiite rebels in the north, killing dozens of rebels. The rebellion has been raging for years on the capital's northern doorstep. Also, lethal clashes erupted in the past week between protesters and security forces struggling to put an end to a secessionist movement in the once-independent south. The violence comes as counter-terror forces on Saturday conducted exercises outside San'a, attacking a mock Al Qaeda hideout and practicing a hostage-rescue operation. Foxnews
 SHI'ITE rebels battling government forces in north Yemen are ready for talks with Sanaa once the government declares an end to hostilities, a rebel spokesman says. "When the war stops we will be ready for dialogue,'' Mohammed Abelsalam told AFP in Dubai by telephone, adding that he was reacting to an appeal from President Ali Abdullah Saleh. In an article published yesterday to mark the new year, Saleh appealed for reason from the insurgents. He urged the Zaidi rebels to agree to the conditions laid down by the government for a return to peace, saying they should cease hostilities, withdraw from official buildings and respect the law. "If these elements accept this plea for peace, the state will offer the hand of peace,'' he wrote in the government daily Al-Thawra. Abdelsalam said the rebels would announce their acceptance of the government's terms once it "brings a definitive end'' to military operations against them in the north. Last August 11, government forces launched "Operation Scorched Earth,'' an all-out offensive to stamp out the uprising among the Zaidis, a minority in mainly Sunni Yemen but the majority group in the northern mountains. The Australian
 Click here for my second FrontPage Magazine article this week, this one discussing the dynamics of the war in Yemen. The Yemeni government (along with the Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians and Moroccans) are trying to fight back the Iranian-supported Houthi rebels, some of whom are being trained by the Revolutionary Guards in Eritrea. This is a full-blown proxy war. Now, at the same time, the already-stretched-thin Yemeni government is expected to fight Al-Qaeda, which it has tried to strike deals and truces with just like Pakistan has tried to do.
The Yemeni security forces has high-level sympathizers of Salafi extremism, and so the comparison is pretty solid.
If the U.S. wants Yemen to stop tolerating Al-Qaeda and other radical Sunni elements as a way of fighting the Shiite Houthis, then the U.S. will need to threaten the Yemenis as well as offer to be a far better partner than those militants ever could be. World Threats
 MANILA, Philippines — An official says dozens of suspected Islamic militants stormed a jail in the volatile southern Philippines, freeing 31 inmates in a nighttime attack that sparked a gunbattle in which two people were killed. Vice Governor Al Rasheed Sakalahul of Basilan island says about 30 gunmen destroyed a concrete wall and then barged into the provincial jail in Isabela city before dawn Sunday to free several detained Muslim guerrillas, adding that other inmates also dashed to freedom. Police say at least 31 inmates escaped, including suspected members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a large Muslim rebel group engaged in peace talks with the government. Sakalahul says the jail assault sparked a brief clash that killed one attacker and a jail guard. FoxNews
 MOSCOW — Police released a composite sketch Monday of a man thought to be involved in the bombing of a Moscow-to-St. Petersburg train that killed 26 people, and a railroad official suggested the attack had the hallmarks of terrorism by insurgents from volatile North Caucasus. Authorities say Friday night's derailment of a train speeding from Moscow to St. Petersburg was caused by a bomb planted on the tracks. The blast gouged out a five-foot crater and sent the final three carriages of the 14-car Nevsky Express hurtling off the rails. A second explosive device partially detonated at the crash site Saturday as railway workers were clearing debris. Terrorism has been a major concern in Russia since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, as Chechen rebels have clashed with government forces in two wars and Islamist separatists continue to target law enforcement officials. A high-level official of the state-run railroad company official suggested militants from North Caucasus were likely behind the attack, citing the second explosion that he said was a hallmark of the insurgents. "The second explosion, which occurred some time later, is the so-called double-blast method, which is carried out by North Caucasus sabotage groups," Alexander Bobreshov, a vice-president of Russian Railways, said on Ekho Moskvy radio. More at Foxnews
 Debka is reporting on its headline crawl that the Saudis have sent out an emergency request to the Gulf States for their Special Forces to assist in the fight against the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen. Analysis. The previous post based upon a story in Alsharq Alaswat may not be the whole story.
The Saudis, with the assistance of the Jordanian Special Forces, may well have controlled the border. The request for additional special forces probably means that the Saudis are attempting to destroy the Houthis as a threat both military and religious. As long as the Houthis exist in some number, the Saudis are subject to Iranian meddling on their southern border and the World is subject to the possibility of Iranian control of the southern entrance to the Red Sea by proxy. Should this conflict be the one that breaks the camel’s back, removing the Houthi threat eliminates one battle front that the Saudis and their allies must contend with.
That ally would most likely be the Egyptians at this point whose forces would be better used deployed in Jordan to take on the Syrians and Hezbollah. World Threats
 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia says nine of its soldiers fighting Yemeni rebels on the border are missing and the kingdom's monarch is vowing to defend the country. A defense ministry statement said the fate of the soldiers remains unknown.
The statement was a reaction to reports that the soldiers were captured by Yemeni rebels. Saudi Arabia has unleashed an offensive against Yemeni Shiite rebels who crossed into the kingdom and killed a Saudi soldier earlier this month.
The rebels have been fighting Yemen's central government for five years, destabilizing the already impoverished nation that has become fertile ground for Al Qaeda. Saudi King Abdullah said Friday his country will not allow anyone to "desecrate" its lands. FoxNews
 The Arab newspaper Alsharq Alaswat is reporting that their border with Yemen is now under their control. Jizan, Asharq Al-Awsat-Saudi military sources confirmed yesterday that many of the commanders of the Huthi infiltrators have been killed, while a number of others have been captured attempting to flee the conflict in disguise.
This comes at the same time that the Royal Saudi Air Force is launching constant attacks against the Huthi insurgent’s strategic camps and fortifications, which sources confirmed were completely destroyed. Analysis. I don’t know if this is a win for the “good guys” or not. It is a win for the better guys at least in this conflict pairing. Whether or not this will be considered a serious set back by the Iranians is open for debate. I don’t doubt that it will deter Iranian mischief without something else to distract them. The internal dissent that world Threats documents here almost daily may be that distraction. I do believe that the internal dissent must grow to more of a threat to the Supreme Leader than it appears now.
December 7 may tell us a lot about the strength of the anti Khamenei movement. To distract the regime from foreign adventures, it must feel sufficiently threatened to recall the greater part of the Qods Force to suppress the people. The other outcome of a messy December Seventh may be an increase in foreign adventures in an attempt to generate unity through war. This Yemen adventure may be a symptom of this attempt to create unity. World Threats
 The Long War Journal reports that the Arab press has a story about an Al-Qaeda camp that just opened in Al-Jaza in the district of Mudiyah in the province of Abyan, containing 400 militants. They report that a second camp opened in Abyan Province in the spring. Iran is supporting Al-Qaeda elements involved in fighting the Yemeni government as well as the Shiite Houthi rebels. Yemen apparently is supporting these same Al-Qaeda elements in order to use them to fight the Houthi rebels.
No one ever said Middle Eastern geopolitics wasn’t complicated. World Threats
 Yemen has repeated its accusation that Iran is funding Houthi rebel fighters in their war against government forces in the north of the country. General Yahya Salih, Yemen's counter-terrorism chief, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that it would be impossible for the group to be able to wage its campaign without foreign support.
"The Houthis cannot fund and fight this war with pomegranates and grapes or drugs," he said. "No doubt there is Iranian support, especially when you consider that the Yemeni state is spending billions of riyals."
Yemen launched a military offensive against the Houthis in the northern Saada region in August after the group's fighters stepped up its campaign against the government.
Neighbouring Saudi Arabia has become embroiled in the conflict in recent weeks, launching air raids and artillery strikes on suspected Houthi targets after the group crossed the border and reportedly seized a small area of Saudi territory.
Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian foreign minister, last week warned against perceived foreign intervention in the conflict. "Countries of the region must seriously hold back from intervening in Yemen's internal affairs," he told a news conference in Tehran. Mottaki also said that Yemen needed to "rehabilitate relations" with its public, including the Shia minority from which the Houthi fightyers come, adding that Iran had already announced its willingness to mediate between them. But Salih told Al Jazeera that Tehran had no right to question Yemen's treatment of ethnic or religious minorities.
"Who has given Mr Mottaki the right to talk about minorities?
"Minorities are persecuted in Iran, just recently they executed Kurd activists. He who lives in a glass house shouldn't throw stones."
The Houthis, who are from the Shia Muslim Zaidi sect, first took up arms against the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president, in 2004, citing political, economic and religious marginalisation by the Saudi and Western-backed administration. Read more at Al Jazeera (English)
 Fighting in northern Yemen has moved into Saudi Arabia, forcing school closures and sending thousands fleeing, according to the United Nations. "Fighting has now spilled into Saudi Arabia, reportedly causing 240 villages to be evacuated and more than 50 schools to be closed, " Sigrid Kaag of UNICEF said in a statement this week. "The total number of people displaced by the conflict since 2004 has gone up to more than 175,000, from an estimated 150,000 only a few weeks ago." Battles between Yemeni forces and Shiite Houthi rebels have raged intermittently for five years. A government offensive launched this summer has caused more bloodshed. The conflict is considered to be both separatist -- over who will assert authority in the area -- and sectarian -- whether Shiite Islam will dominate in majority Sunni Yemen. The rebels are supporters of slain Shiite cleric Hussein al-Houthi. As the fighting escalates, the situation is worsening for children, Kaag said. "During the past three months, children affected by the conflict in the north have seen all their basic rights violated. Lack of safe water, nutrition and hygiene is exerting a heavy toll on their health and well-being, and threatening their very survival," Kaag said. Kaag said some camps for displaced people are filled and thousands are living just outside the camp. Yemen's official news agency SABA reported Friday that it was working with the U.N. to create a new refugee camp in Amran. CNN
 The pitched battles between Saudi Arabian troops and Yemen’s al Houthi militants which have hit the headlines over the past week are only one of the headaches for the beleaguered government in Sana’a as it battles poverty and depleting oil reserves while struggling to quell an internal secessionist movement.
Nineteen years ago the Yemen Arab Republic in the north and the southern People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen signed a unity agreement, creating the modern-day Yemeni state on the southern tip of the Gulf.
The differing historical experiences, which forged the north and south, helped cement divisions that are still apparent today and that continue to sporadically plunge the nation into bitter civil war.
With 34.8 per cent of the population living in what the UN classes as extreme poverty, natural resources including oil, on which the government is heavily economically dependent, and water, expected to run out in the next decade, concerns are growing as to how the country can withstand these myriad internal pressures. Add to this, concerns over the apparent growth in grassroots support for terrorist groups including al Qa’eda, whose leader, Osama bin Laden, hails from Yemen, and it is clear why regional powerhouses and the West are watching events ever more closely.
“In the last 12 months, many of the internal problems in Yemen have intensified: the economic crisis, the southern separatist movement, the al Houthi conflict and fears about terrorist groups establishing stronger networks inside the country,” said Ginny Hill, the author of a Chatham House briefing paper on the country entitled Yemen: Fear of Failure. “It’s clear that concern is rising among Yemen’s neighbours and international governments about Yemen’s ability to withstand this convergence of challenges.” Read more,,,, Source: The National
 At least 240 villages have been evacuated in southwestern Saudi Arabia due to fighting between Saudi forces and Yemeni rebels along the border, the UN children's fund (Unicef) has said. Unicef, citing contacts in Saudi Arabia on Friday, said more than 50 schools have also been closed in the country, after fighting between Yemeni government forces and Houthi rebels in Yemen's north spilled over into Saudi Arabia last week. "Unicef is deeply concerned about the escalation of the conflict in northern Yemen," Sigrid Kaag, the Unicef regional director for the Middle East, said in a statement. "Fighting has now spilled over into Saudi Arabia, reportedly causing 240 villages to be evacuated." Unicef said thousands of people in Yemen have also fled the fighting, with the number of displaced at a camp in Yemen's Hajjah governorate more than doubling in four weeks to 15,000 people. "Unicef urges all parties to ensure that children are protected from violence and receive all the assistance they need," Kaag said. The news came as Saudi Arabia vowed to continue its air and artillery attacks against the rebels as part of efforts to reinforce a 10km-deep buffer zone inside Yemen. The zone is designed to keep members of the Yemeni rebel group away from Saudi Arabia's southwestern border. The Houthi fighters have accused Saudi Arabia of flying over their territory and firing scores of rockets on villages. Video footage released by the fighters on Thursday allegedly contains images of Saudi missile attacks in Yemen's northern Saada province.
Hussein Shobokshi, a columnist for the Asharq Al Awsat newspaper in Saudi Arabia, said the latest video release is part of a "propaganda war" by the Houthis. "The Saudis have stated from day one that they are keen to protect their borders [and] that they are keen to create a buffer zone. These were all public announcements," he told Al Jazeera. "The activities on the Saudi-Yemeni border by the Saudis have been to clear that area from any insurgencies. "So the Saudis were doing this to defend their territories and to clear a buffer zone to protect [the country] from future attacks by the Houthis. "The Saudis have a great interest to protect that border because the Yemeni government has failed to protect that border. The Saudis had no choice but to take this severe and dynamic action against tthe Houthis immediately." Saudi Arabia launched its offensive against the Houthis, who are named after their deceased former leader, after they apparently crossed the border and seized control of a small area.
The Houthis say that the Saudis have been allowing Yemeni troops to use the area to attack their positions. But a Saudi government adviser said that there were no Saudi troops fighting on the ground inside Yemen, where the terrain is too mountainous to deploy tanks and artillery effectively. Read more,,, Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 Saudi Arabia has imposed a naval blockade along the Red Sea coast of northern Yemen in an attempt to cut off supplies to Houthi rebels along its border with Yemen. The kingdom's warships were ordered on Tuesday to search any ship suspected of carrying weapons or fighters near the Yemeni coast, a government adviser said, as Riyadh vowed to continue its offensive against the rebels until they pull back from the border area. Despite a warning by Iran to keep out of Yemen's affairs, Prince Khaled bin Sultan, the Saudi deputy defence minister, pledged to keep up the military offensive against the Houthi rebels on Tuesday, as he visited Saudi troops in the kingdom's southwest Jizan province. "We are not going to stop the bombing until the Houthis retreat tens of kilometres inside their border," he said. His comments came as the rebels announced they had taken control of more territory on the border with Saudi Arabia, heightening concerns about growing instability in the region. The fighters released a statement on Tuesday, saying: "Full control was taken last night over Qatabar directorate and control of all supplies and ammunition as well as buildings and other military sites." Yemeni officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Qatabar lies in the mountainous northern province of Saada, which borders Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil exporter. The northern province has also been the scene of most of the fighting that has taken place in recent months between Yemeni government forces and the rebels. Saudi forces have launched a series of military strikes in recent days against the Houthis after the fighters killed a Saudi soldier in a cross-border raid last week. Riyadh has become increasingly anxious about instability in Yemen, which is facing opposition from the Shia population in the north, separatist sentiment in the south and a growing threat from resurgent al-Qaeda fighters. The 1,500km border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia is a security worry for the kingdom, which is building a high-tech border fence to prevent infiltration. Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, said: "We are amid a campaign and a propaganda war with both sides saying they have made huge advances. "Saudi Arabia is a key player in Yemen, it has loyalty of tribal leaders, politicians and religious leaders here. "Saudi Arabia prides itself by saying they are the protectors of Sunni Islam and while 80 per cent of Yemen's population is Sunni, they say it is their moral obligation to protect Sunnis everywhere in the world." Saudi Arabia also has concerns that the Houthis are being used by Iran to fight a proxy war against it. Read more here,,,, Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 Shiite rebels in northern Yemen caught between a deadly government onslaught and air raids from across the border have claimed Saudi warplanes were using phosphorus bombs against them.
“The Saudi air raids resumed this morning. Saudi combat fighter jets launched intense raids against border areas inside Yemeni territory on Sunday night,” rebel spokesman Mohammad Abdessalam told AFP by telephone.
“The Saudi military used phosphorus bombs during those night raids, burning mountainous regions.”
He said that the raids targeted Malaheez, seven kilometres inside Yemen, as well as the border villages of Hassameh and Shida and several villages around Jebel al Dukhan mountain straddling the border.
The Saudi authorities insist that attacks by their forces are limited to targeting rebel locations inside Saudi territory. However, Riyadh has confirmed it launched reprisals against the Yemen-based Zaidi rebels also known as Huthis after they attacked Jebel al-Dukhan, killing one Saudi border guard and wounding 11 others.
The rebels have also accused the Sanaa military of using phosphorus bombs in Operation Scorched Earth, launched on August 11 against their stronghold in the country’s northern Saada province.
Sanaa says its forces do not possess such weapons in their arsenal. On Saturday the president Ali Abdullah Saleh said the campaign against the rebels was only just beginning.
“The real combat only started three days ago,” he said. Source: The National
 More proof that Iran is backing the extremist Shiite rebels in Yemen. From MEMRI: Abdallah Al-Mahdoun, former official in the Houthi rebel forces in Yemen, has told a Yemeni website that Iran is has funded and armed the Houthis in their war against the Yemeni regime, and that experts from Hizbullah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Al-Qods Forces trained Houthi activists. He said that Hizbullah commanders might have been killed in battles in Yemen. Source: World Threats
 YEMEN'S President warned that the government could continue its fight against Shiite rebels in the rugged mountainous north for years but said hostilities could end if the rebels agree to a conditional ceasefire. "We will continue the battle for five or six years. We will not backtrack, we will not stop," Ali Abdullah Saleh said at a celebration to mark the anniversary of the 1962 revolution that ended the Zaidi Shiite imamate and established the republic. "If the rebels abided by the six points (of the truce), we do not want war. It is a war that was imposed on us," he said to cheering crowds shouting "No" and urging him to continue the war. Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands of civilians have fled their homes since August 11 when the government began its "Scorched Earth" offensive against the Zaidi rebels, also known as Huthis. The government offered the rebels a truce but demanded that they "respect the ceasefire and the opening of roads, evacuate their positions and free captured civilians and soldiers". Mr Saleh called on political groups in Yemen to stand united to "support the army in its war against the rebels". Source: The Australian
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Saudi army has lost 113 troops since the kingdom launched a sweeping offensive against neighboring Yemen's Shiite rebels in early November, a military commander said in comments published Thursday. 
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