Prince Khaled made the comments while talking to reporters who mentioned that Yemeni intruders wanted to negotiate an end to the fighting that began Nov. 3. “Our condition is very clear: They should go back beyond our borders and stop their groupings,” the prince said. He estimated the number of intruders at 100 to 200. “Some of them tried to enter the Kingdom through Jabiriya and all of those were killed.”
Prince Khaled said the number of Saudi soldiers killed in the fighting had reached 82 and that 39 soldiers had been injured. Twenty-one soldiers were missing. He said 90 percent of the 470 soldiers who sustained minor injuries were discharged from hospitals after receiving treatment.
Referring to the intruders’ threats that they would open a new front in the southern border province of Najran, the minister said: “They should know that our armed forces are now deployed all along the border with a total length of over 480 km. God willing, none of them will be able to escape.”
Prince Khaled commended the support that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, the supreme commander, and Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, have given to the armed forces. “I can tell the Saudi people that the Kingdom’s borders are in safe hands. When we say that we dedicate our lives to the nation, we mean it,” he added.
