FROM inside his headquarters in the southern Saudi city of Najran, Major-General Saad Olyan, the area commander, looks up at the craggy mountains looming over the city and wonders what Yemen’s rebels on the plateau above will do next. They have pushed Saudi forces out of some border posts, and forced the evacuation of more than 7,000 civilians from Saudi villages near the ill-marked frontier.
Saudi artillery rhythmically thumps suspected rebel positions. But it has not prevented them from regularly rocketing Najran and other border towns, killing 80 people, 25 of them in Najran. One Katyusha rocket fell a few yards away from General Olyan’s office; the windows were blown out, pitting his walls with shrapnel. Another blew out the glass front of a nearby hotel shortly before it was due to open. A banner with a picture of King Salman and his designated heirs declares forlornly: “We are all soldiers of the homeland.”
Residents of the area have fled to safer parts of the city. Kindergartens and homes near the military base lie in ruins. Bar the Pakistani workers obliviously playing cricket, the streets feel like a ghost...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1larwJl
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