www.latimes.com...

Reporting from Cairo - Saudi Arabian warplanes attacked Shiite rebel strongholds in northern Yemen on Thursday in a surge of fighting along the border that followed the death of a Saudi security official at the hands of insurgents, according to news reports.

Saudi fighter jets targeted as many as six rebel positions in Yemen and along the mountainous border. Saudi troops reportedly were heading toward the region to secure villages and prevent further cross-border incursions by Houthi rebel forces, which have been sporadically battling the Yemeni government since 2004.

The offensive immediately raised concerns of another proxy war in the Middle East between Iran and Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally. Shiite Iran is believed to favor the rebels in Yemen while Saudi Arabia, which is Sunni, is Iran's fiercest regional rival.

The same dynamic has played out in various forms in Lebanon, where Iran supports the Shiite militant Hezbollah and Saudi Arabia favors a U.S.-backed faction, and in Iraq, where Saudi Arabia and Iran have thrown support to conflicting sides in the Sunni-Shiite struggle.

Saudi jets and ground forces have carried out more raids against Yemeni Houthi fighters, the government has said.

The operations were to "neutralise the firing by intruders" and to clear areas where they had encroached on Saudi territory, the government said in a statement on the official SPA news agency on Friday.

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
reply to post by SLAYER69

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I think that both Yemen and Sudan have a worse fate than Iran or Iraq.
Yemen because it's the most poorest country in the arab world and Sudan because it's the most extreme in the religious arab world.

And i'm not surprised that the Saudis are letting Israel use their airspace.
I'm sure the U.S. sent some $$$$$$ to the saudis on Israel's behalf.

Anything for $$$$