AL-KHUBAH: Saudi Arabia will keep up its air strikes against Yemeni rebels until they pull back from the two countries border, Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan said on Tuesday.
We are not going to stop the bombing until the Huthis retreat tens of kilometers inside their border, Khaled said on a visit to Saudi troops in Jizan province of southwest Saudi Arabia.
He appeared to confirm reports by Shia Zaidi rebels, also known as Huthis, that Saudi warplanes have continued to pummel them inside Yemen, a week after a rebel raid into Saudi territory sparked heavy retaliatory air and ground bombardment of Huthi positions.
Two women were killed and a child was wounded on Tuesday in a Saudi air strike on a Yemeni village near the border, the rebels said.
The air strike hit a house, martyring two women and wounding a child, the rebels said in a statement on their website. Strikes also targeted a government building in the village of Shida, they said.
Prince Khaled, meanwhile, said four Saudi troops were still missing but he did not comment on a Huthi video posted on the Internet of a man they said was a captured Saudi soldier.
Saudi forces have been shelling rebel positions in the 2,000-meter (6,600-foot) Jebel al-Dukhan mountain area straddling the border since last Wednesday, after the rebels killed a border guard and occupied two small villages inside Saudi territory.
It was the first overt action by Saudi forces against the Huthis since Yemen s government launched its Operation Scorched Earth against them in the north of the country on Aug. 11.
But the Saudis have been providing funds and intelligence to support the Yemen military since the outset and also took part in operations before last week, according to security experts.
While in official statements Riyadh says it is only hitting the Huthis inside Saudi Arabia, foreign analysts and a Saudi advisor have said the shelling has targeted rebel positions inside northwest Yemen s Saada province.
On Monday, the advisor said the Saudi military was scaling back its shelling and that special forces teams were combing the mountainous area for remaining Huthi fighters, after capturing hundreds of them.
Saudi Arabia would continue to go after the rebels if necessary to secure the country s borders, he added. -AFP
