Saudi-Yemeni Hostilities Continue

A follow-up to the escalating conflict along the Saudi-Yemen border.  In the last 36 hours,

• al Qaeda claimed responsibility for an attack near the Yemen capital of Sana'a that killed two high ranking military officers and four escorts
• Stratfor is reporting that Saudi airstrikes continue against al-Houthi rebels and that Saudi paratroopers have landed near the border with Yemen in preparation to infiltrate al-Houthi strongholds and five Saudi soldiers have been wounded in clashes with Yemeni militants
• the Yemeni news Web site al-Taghreer is reporting that al-Houthi militants have captured a group of Saudi soldiers and stolen their combat-equipped vehicles

While Saudi authorities have denied that their military has crossed the Yemen border and has reiterated that the Royal Air Force is only targeting sites within the borders of the Kingdom, the events seem to indicate otherwise.  But,

regardless of the location of the impact, the offensive threatens to embroil Riyadh in a conflict that has for months been a major source of worry for the oil-rich kingdom. Riyadh has been concerned about a spillover of the Yemeni fighting, of Iran's alleged involvement in the conflict, and of the possibility that Yemen-based al-Qaida militants could capitalize on the tense situation by smuggling fighters across the long and difficult-to-control border. More broadly, it raises concerns of another proxy war in the Middle East between Iran and Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally. The Yemeni government has accused Shiite Iran of aiding the rebels while the rebels have accused Sunni Saudi Arabia, Iran's fiercest regional rival, of carrying out bombing runs against them. The same dynamic has played out in various forms in Lebanon, where Iran supports the Shiite militant Hezbollah and Saudi Arabia favours a U.S.-backed faction, and in Iraq, where Saudi Arabia and Iran have thrown support to conflicting sides in the Sunni-Shiite fault-line.

The tension in the Middle East will only ratchet up with continued escalation along the Saudi-Yemeni border and any and all options for the United States in the region only become more complex with this situation.