By Ahmad Shihadah

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – According to Huthi rebels, Saudi Arabian forces have carried out an incursion into Yemeni territory using tanks, artillery and aircraft. The statement from the Yemen-based group said that the attacks on Monday were taking place in the border districts of Malahiz and Shada provinces.

Hashem Ahelbarra, Al-Jazeera’s correpondent in northern Yemen, said Saudi Arabia’s incursion could be a rescue operation. Witnesses from the northern border town of Razah told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the Saudis began the offensive on Monday, but a Yemeni official denied that a Saudi assault was taking place. “These are allegations and lies that the rebels often repeat to expand the scope of the conflict, and also to give themselves more importance than they really have,” he told AFP.

The Saudi military is trying to enforce a buffer zone around the border, but has denied crossing into Yemen. The Saudi media has reported that three soldiers had been killed in the raids, and said the military claimed to have stopped a rebel plan to seize the Yemeni port town of Midi. Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz Saudi, Saudi Arabia;s interior minister, said on Monday that “other countries should not interfere” in Yemen’s affairs. “We condemn any interference in Yemen, and any action is to be be taken by Yemenis themselves,” said the minister.

The Huthis pushed through the border and took over a mountainous region of Saudi Arabia on November 3rd. The incursion was wiped out by Saudi airstrikes days after it happened. The Saudi and Yemeni governments have been bombarding them in an attempt to drive them back from the border.

For more information, please see:

Agence France-Presse – Yemen Rebels Accuse Saudi of Launching Major Attack – November 23 2009

Al-Jazeera – Saudi Forces ‘Fighting in Yemen’ – November 23 2009

BBC – ‘Saudi Casualties’ in Border Fight with Rebels – November 23 2009