At least 30 schools of the Harth Governorate along the Bani Malik-Khubah border line with Yemen were closed down Saturday for a week due to the military operations against the Huthi rebels at Jabal Al-Dokhan. The students will be transferred to schools in more secure areas in Samtah and Ahad Al-Masareha, according to Prince Muhammad Bin Nasser, Emir of Jizan. The curfew is still imposed on the Khubah and Harth areas despite driving the rebels out of the previously captured mountainous areas. Elsewhere in the Jizan region near the border, slow life has picked up speed. The Quful school complex, however, reopened Saturday after it was closed down on Wednesday following the border raid attack by Huthi infiltrators. Presence of Saudi armed forces was reassuring for both students and teachers, said the school principal Abdo Alawani. In a different location, six young Huthi infiltrators, aged between 15 and 20, disguised in women's clothes sneaked on Saturday into the premises of a girls' school in Daghareer to find out if it vacant. Arousing his suspicions, the school caretaker reported them to the authorities who arrested them at a cemetery, close to the school, where they were hiding. The authorities combed the Khulab valley, 25 km from the conflict area, in search for armed infiltrators. Legal movement through the border checkpoints with Yemen continued as normal on Saturday. A camp was set up in Ahad Al-Masareha by World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) and Ahad Al-Masareha Charity Organization to receive more refugees from border villages of Qawa, Al-Qarn, Kaem, Gawiah and Al-Arsah. The residents around the conflict area were seen communicating with deployed armed forces and offering them food, water, and beverages. Some local snipers, who know the rugged area well, have volunteered to join the Saudi forces. “We are not afraid to die for our land,” said 60-year-old Abdo Al-Faifi. “All we want now is to drive the enemy out from our territory,” he said. “These traitors attacked our villages at night, taking refuge in a mountain that they believe it would protect them, he said. Salem Al-Faifi was busy all day long farming near the conflict area. “I and my tribesmen are confident that the rebels will be defeated and they don't mean any thing to us,” he said. “They have no public or moral support to fight our country.” Mousa Zawali said that all tribesmen who were out of their areas have now come back to defend their land. “You cannot imagine how willing the tribesmen are to fight the Huthis now,” he said.
