Saudis tackle border spillover from Yemen war

AL KHUBAH, SAUDI ARABIA — Gas masks lie abandoned among rusting debris in a shell-pocked Saudi military outpost on the border with war-torn Yemen, an enduring flashpoint in more than two years of fighting against Huthi rebels.

The post in Al Khubah, a deserted village framed by barren mountain ridges, is one of several border guard bases the rebels have targeted since a Saudi-led coalition began its military intervention in Yemen in 2015.

The Iran-backed insurgents' hit-and-run incursions and rocket barrages have not jeopardised Saudi control of the vast frontier, but they have underscored how the raging conflict in Yemen is spilling across the border, threatening scores of villages like Al Khubah.

"The Huthis thought we will withdraw," Saudi border guard Colonel Mohammed al-Hameed said as he gave AFP a rare tour of the battered base.

"But we are still very much in control," he added, broken glass and bullet casings crunching under his feet.

The base showed signs of close-range combat. The scorched walls were scarred with shrapnel and the metal ceiling was pitted with bullet and shell holes. A cat prowled behind a mountain of wrecked furniture.

Gas masks had been procured for fear of potential chemical attacks, Al-Hameed said.

He described the Saudi base on the edge of the frontier as an "arrowhead", directly exposed to Huthi mountain posts on the other side that give the rebels a strategic vantage point.

The rebels, well-versed in the region's rugged topography, have mounted numerous cross-border raids in retaliation against Saudi airstrikes on their Yemeni strongholds.