Four Saudi soldiers missing in Yemen rebels fight

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Saudi-controlled newspaper Asharq al-Awsat said 155 rebels had been captured.

JIZAN, (Saudi Arabia), Nov 8 (Reuters): Four Saudi soldiers are missing after clashes on the southeastern border with Yemen-based Shiite rebels, Deputy Defence Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan said in remarks published Sunday.
He rejected rebel claims to have captured several soldiers after seven Saudis and an unknown number of Yemenis were killed in five days of fighting in the rugged terrain.
Speaking to troops near the front in Jizan province late on Saturday, Prince Khaled also said Saudi forces had recaptured all territory seized by the rebels earlier in the week.
"There were five missing and one came back. They are missing and not prisoners" of the rebels, he was reported by the official SPA news agency as saying.
Prince Khaled, who was inspecting Saudi forces in the border area, also confirmed the deaths of three Saudi soldiers.
"The operation resulted in the death of three members of the security forces and the wounding of 15, most of whom have left the hospital," he said, adding that the Saudi military was in control of the situation.
"The situation is reassuring," he said. "All (the areas) they have seized, especially Jebel Dukhan, are under complete control, though there is (still) infiltration in some areas."
The 2,000-metre (6,600-foot) Jebel al-Dukhan mountain straddles the border.
Saudi-controlled newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported that 155 rebels had been captured by Saudi forces in the fighting.
Prince Khaled visited the area after the three-month-old war between the rebels and Yemen government forces spilled over the border into Saudi territory.
On Tuesday the rebels killed a Saudi border guard and seized at least two small villages in area of the 2,000-metre (6,600-foot) Jebel al-Dukhan mountain straddling the border.
A day later Saudis launched a huge counter-offensive, sending warplanes to bomb and rocket rebel positions.
While officials from both countries say the Saudi attacks are taking place only inside Saudi Arabia, the rebels and a Saudi government adviser have said jets attacked rebels well inside their bastion of Yemen's Saada province.
As heavy fighting continued on Friday, doctors at the regional hospital in Samtah told AFP that they had received scores of casualties, mostly soldiers with gunshot and shrapnel wounds. In all medics had treated 126 wounded during the week, they said.
Sporadic shelling and bombing by Saudi aircraft continued on Saturday in the Jebel al-Dukhan region, a day after the rebel claim to have captured Saudi soldiers.
"With Allah's help, the Saudi tyrannical advance into Yemen's territory has been defeated," the rebels said in a statement on their website.
"A number of its troops have been captured and several military vehicles and supplies been seized."
Meanwhile: Saudi Arabia has regained control of territory seized by Yemeni rebels in an incursion last week, a senior official was quoted as saying, as the kingdom becomes more entangled in conflict to its south.