The official gave no further details on the attack or said whether there were any casualties. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The rebels said Saturday they had taken Al-Jabiri, which the Saudis say is a tiny outpost protected by a small number of border guards and surrounded by Yemeni territory from three sides. Also yesterday, the rebels, known as Hawthis, alleged in a statement that Saudi aircraft bombed areas they control inside Yemen near the Saudi border, killing 70 people and injuring 100. The statement said the airstrikes targeted refugee camps and a marketplace. It was not immediately possible to independently confirm the
alleged Saudi airstrikes.
The Yemeni rebels complain that the Yemeni government ignores their needs and that it is giving a big say in running the country to Sunni extremists advocating Saudi-influenced conservative Islam. The Sunni radicals, who consider Shiites to be heretics, gained influence in Yemen after helping the government win the 1994 civil war against the secessionist south. Saudi Arabia last month unleashed its military against the Yemeni rebels after they crossed into the kingdom and killed a Saudi soldier.
Yemen, troubled by a weak central government, is also struggling to confront a threat from al-Qaida militants, pirates roaming the waters off its shores and an increasingly powerful secessionist movement in the south of the country.