Al-Thawra Net
IHS Jane’s weekly website said that videos recently released by Yemen’s Ansar Allah group suggest the Saudi military is not reporting all the casualties it is suffering in what appear to be escalating raids on its southern border.
Since Saudi Arabia launched its military intervention against Ansar Allah and allied military forces in March 2015, the Saudi authorities have sporadically announced that service personnel have been killed in fighting along the border.
However, there were no such reports between 15 August, when a border guard was killed in an exchange of fire in the Dhahran al-Janub district of Asir province, and 31 August, when another Border Guard was killed in Jizan province.
During that period Ansar Allah released video footage via the supportive Al-Masirah television channel showing its fighters carrying out at least 12 cross-border attacks on Saudi forces and sometimes overrunning their positions.
The absence of dead bodies seen in the footage shot inside many of these positions suggests the Saudi defenders retreated before they were overrun, although large quantities of spent casings beneath some .50 cal heavy machine guns suggest there was resistance.
Nevertheless, the videos together showed 14 different dead bodies dressed in Saudi military uniforms.
In what appears to have been the worst incident for the Saudi military, one video released on 26 August showed from a distance a militarised Toyota Land Cruiser carrying many Saudi soldiers who were apparently attempting to flee a battle. Close-up footage then showed what appeared to be the same vehicle, now stationary, with eight bodies wearing Saudi military uniforms in and around it.
Another incident frequently replayed by Al-Masirah showed one of the Royal Saudi Land Forces’ (RSLF’s) new Delta Didgori armoured ambulances moving at high speed across rough terrain, then stopping abruptly, possibly because an axle broke. This resulted in the LAV-90 armoured vehicle that was following closely behind hitting the Didgori at speed.
