Saudi national guards reach Yemen border area as fighting continues

The fighting in Yemen showed no signs of abating on Monday, with Saudi Arabia moving its national guard to the southern border, airstrikes continuing and street battles between rival Yemeni forces still raging in several cities.

While Saudi Arabia announced early last week that it would send its well-trained National Guard to the border, the deployment only began late on Sunday night, Saudi media reported.

The troops will reinforce the border guard and the army, which stepped up their presence on the border a month ago when the Saudi-led coalition first began carrying out airstrikes.

The vanguard of National Guard troops "have arrived in Najran region to participate in the defence of the southern borders... so as to confront any possible threats," the official Saudi Press Agency said.

King Salman announced the National Guard's mobilisation just hours before the coalition declared an end to its air campaign - dubbed ‘Operation Decisive Storm’ - and said it would be replaced with ‘Operation Restore Hope’.

While the bombing has calmed a little, the coalition has continued daily airstrikes against Houthi militias and army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has allied himself to the Houthis.

Fighting and bombing continues

They are fighting forces loyal to President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi who has fled to Riyadh with members of his government, as well as southern separatists who would like to gain independence from the north.

Saudi Arabia says the strikes come in response to appeals by Yemeni President Hadi for help against the Houthi militia, who overran capital Sanaa late last year and advanced on other provinces.

At least 12 Houthi militiamen were killed on Monday in a Saudi-led strike on anti-government forces in south Yemen on Monday, military and local sources told AFP.

Coalition aircraft pounded five schools converted by the Houthi militia into military bases in Ataq, the capital of Abyan province, military sources said.

Meanwhile, shelling carried by Houthi militiamen killed at least 10 civilians on Sunday in residential areas in the central city of Taiz, medical sources and witnessed said.

The United Nations says more than 1,000 people – including more than 500 civilians - have been killed in fighting since 19 March.

Houthis rush armoured vehicles to Sanaa

Meanwhile, the Houthi militia has assembled a large number of its tanks and armoured vehicles inside capital Sanaa for the first time, eyewitnesses said Sunday.  

They said this is the first time the Houthi militia has concentrated such a large array of military equipment in Sanaa since the start of the Saudi-led military operation on 26 March.

The Houthis, the eyewitnesses said, have erected sand barriers in a number of Sanaa streets and created new checkpoints in these streets.

The eyewitnesses said the new Houthi checkpoints contained young Houthi militants, including some not older than 15.

The Houthis on Sunday raided and looted an office of a satellite TV channel owned by Yemeni activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman in Sanaa, sources at the channel have said.

And militiamen affiliated with the Houthis on Saturday blew up the premises of the Muslim Brotherhood's Al-Islah Party in the southern province of Lahij, a party leader has said.

The Saudi-led coalition has long accused Iran of backing the Houthi militia, although the extent of their support is contested.  

Iran lashes out at Saudi Arabia

The head of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards on Monday accused Saudi Arabia of "treachery", saying the bombing of Yemen had put the kingdom in the same camp as arch foe Israel.

The remarks, by General Mohammad Ali Jafari, are a further sign of deteriorating relations between Tehran and Riyadh, after recent heavy criticism by Iran's supreme leader and other top officials.

"Today, treacherous Saudi Arabia is stepping in the footsteps of Israel and the Zionists. This wasn't the case in the past and right now the Islamic revolution's opponents are becoming clearer," the official IRNA news agency quoted Jafari as saying.

"Now that these attacks have taken place, reservations should be put aside," Jafari said.

In an implication that Iran was in the ascendancy, Jafari said that: "Today the Saudi dynasty is on the verge of decline and fall. Everyday we are witnessing the strengthening of the Islamic revolution's power and dimensions outside. Enemies and America have submitted to it."

The Houthis have demanded an end to the air war as a condition for resuming UN-sponsored peace talks, but the Saudis said that the militiamen must first retreat from the areas they took from the government.  

Iran has offered to mediate peace talks, but Riyadh has so far refused the offer, accusing Tehran of supporting the anti-government militancy in Yemen.

New talks proposal rejected

On Monday, the Houthis rejected conditions set by Yemeni Foreign Minister Riad Yassin for resuming talks.

"No one from Hadi’s camp has the right to set conditions for resuming talks," leading Houthi member Mohamed al-Bekheeti told the Anadolu Agency by phone.

"Yassin's statements are not realistic because Hadi and his government no longer have a foothold in Yemen and are not part of the dialogue, since the talks are not being held between individuals but between political forces," Bekheeti said.

Yassin had expressed his government's willingness to negotiate with the Houthis, provided the talks don't include group leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi or ousted Saleh.

Bekheeti went on to note that his group had "invited the country's political camps to resume dialogue under UN sponsorship, but the talks are now contingent upon the return of the UN envoy to Yemen as mediator."

Donor meeting for rebuilding Yemen

Meanwhile, some Arab and western states are preparing to organise a meeting of major international donors for the reconstruction of Yemen, an Algerian diplomat said Saturday.

Saudi Arabia told Algeria that countries participating in the Saudi-led campaign have started preparing for a meeting of major international donors for the reconstruction of Yemen, the diplomat told AA on condition of anonymity.

He added that Arab and Western donors were expected to participate in the meeting.

The diplomat said Algeria was notified about the initiative in its capacity as a neutral mediator between parties to the Yemeni crisis since the start of the Saudi-led campaign.

Yemen has been in turmoil since 2011 when a popular uprising forced ex-President Saleh to step down a year later.