DUBAI - Saudi Arabia has been forced to evacuate more residents and extend a restricted zone along the mountainous Yemeni border as fighting rages between Yemeni and Saudi forces and Shi’ite rebels, the daily Saudi Gazette reported on Wednesday.The Saudi military has been bombing rebels inside Yemen since Nov. 7 when rebels killed a Saudi border guard and seized territory inside the kingdom from which they said the Saudis had been allowing Yemeni troops to use to attack their positions.
Since then the fighting has spread increasingly further along the southwestern border as rebels attempt to stretch Saudi forces, dragging more and more civilians into the conflict zone.
The Saudi military has now evacuated the villages of Abu Rdeef, Al-Magroob, Al-Serdah, and Ghaweyat Al-Qufool in the Jizan Province, taking the total number of villages evacuated since the conflict began to around 400, the Saudi Gazette reported.
The total number of refugees displaced by the violence inside Saudi now stands at 7,500, the paper said, citing a World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) official.
The new evacuated area is west of Jebel al-Dukhan mountain, where the Saudi soldier was killed in a skirmish with rebels, the newspaper said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has voiced concern at the worsening plight of civilians as the conflict intensifies.
Inside Yemen the United Nations says some 175,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.
Yemen launched "Operation Scorched Earth" against the insurgents in the north of the country on Aug. 11, the latest military offensive against Shi’ite rebels in a conflict that has flared on and off since 2004 in the northern province of Saada.