Saudi Forces Flee Border Bases

Concurrent with the advances of the Yemeni army and revolutionary forces, Al Saud’s officers have begun fleeing Mazab military base in Southwestern Saudi Arabia, al-Jadid Press news website reported.

Meantime, the Yemeni army and popular forces gained control over strategic al-Khomri region near the borders.

The Yemeni forces also gained control over the strategic region Jabal al-Arous in Taiz province as they were making their way towards the Saudi borders.

In late April, almost 4,000 Saudi forces fled their border bases in anticipation of Riyadh’s order for launching a ground assault on Yemen, European diplomatic sources said on Sunday.

“The intel gathered by the western intelligence agencies showed that the Saudi military forces have fled their bases, military centers and bordering checkpoints near Yemen in groups,” diplomatic sources were quoted as saying by Iraq’s Arabic-language Nahrain Net news website.

The European sources said that the Saudi forces’ mass AWOL forced Riyadh to declare ceasefire and dissuaded it from launching ground attacks against Yemen.

Other reports also said that over 10,000 soldiers from different Saudi military units have fled the army battalions and the National Guard.

Experts believe that the Saudi army lacks strong morale to launch a ground invasion of Yemen and such an attack would be considered as a suicide for Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has been bombing Yemen in the last 61 days to bring its ally, fugitive president Mansour Hadi, back to power.

The airstrikes have killed, at least, 3,897 Yemenis, according to FNA’s independent tally.

According to a recent report by Freedom House Foundation, most of the victims of the deadly Al Saud campaign are civilians, including a large number of women and children.