Major military operations in Jizan are ‘over' SAUDI-YEMEN BORDER – Prince Khaled Bin Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, Assistant Minister of Defense and Aviation, said Tuesday that “all major military operations on the border are over.” Prince Khaled said that “only individual efforts carried out by sole infiltrators remain, and they are being dealt with immediately.” Prince Khaled issued a stern warning for an unstated number of infiltrators shored up in the village of Al-Jaberi. “The village will be destroyed over their heads if they do not surrender in 48 hours,” a deadline that ends after midnight Wednesday. The Prince added that Saudi forces did not wish to see any avoidable bloodshed on either side, and called on the infiltrators to “have faith in Allah and return to their path and their country,” warning them that “force will be employed should a single infiltrator return to Saudi territory.” Prince Khaled revealed that captured infiltrators contained persons of both Yemeni and Saudi nationalities, but declined to provide further details saying only that they are “being well-treated.”.73 dead, 26 missing Earlier in the day, Prince Khaled announced that 73 Saudis had been killed and 26 remained classified as missing since hostilities with infiltrators from Yemen first broke out in Jizan in November. Speaking at a televised press conference in Al-Khobah, Prince Khaled did not say whether the figures consisted of military personnel or civilians. Meanwhile, sources said Saudi forces had on Monday inflicted ?heavy lossesî on a group of armed infiltrators. The sources, commenting from the front lines, said that ground artillery with air support struck the ‘hide-outs' of infiltrators who were attempting to reach Saudi army sites in the areas of Al-Mu'taridh and Qayim Al-Siyat. The hide-outs, the sources said, were ‘completely destroyed.' According to the sources, large numbers of armed infiltrators have been forced into surrender after seeing their supply lines cut off and morale fall in the face of continued strikes from the Saudi forces controlling the border region.
