Saudi deploys army reinforcements to Iraq border after mortar attack

Reports from America claim that Saudi Arabia has deployed army reinforcements along its border with Iraq. The World Tribune confirmed from Saudi officials that the Interior Ministry and the National Guard have sent troops to control the desert area.

“The troops,” it said, “were deployed after a mortar strike from the Iraqi side against a Saudi border post on November 21.” An Iraqi Shi’ite group claimed responsibility for the attack.

A spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry told the media that the area in question is very close to the Iraqi and Kuwaiti borders. “This could be just a training exercise gone wrong or there could be another reason,” said Major General Mansour Al-Turki. “We have to wait for the investigation to show what happened.”

The attack, added World Tribune, was the first reported attack “in decades” against Saudi Arabia from Iraq. “The mortar strike happened less than two days after an Al Qaida-aligned militia took responsibility for the twin car bombings of the Iranian embassy in Lebanon,” it noted.

Officials confirmed to the news site that the Saudi army is cooperating with its counterparts in both Iraq and Kuwait, while Saudi aircraft are intensifying their reconnaissance missions near the border.

The attack also comes in the wake of the agreement with Iran over its nuclear programme. The government in Riyadh is against the deal. Officials suggested that the agreement with Iran may prompt Tehran to expand its intervention in the affairs of Gulf Cooperation Council member states.

The chairman of the Saudi Shura Council Foreign Affairs Committee, Abdullah Al- Askar, told World Tribune that the government of Iran has proven that it has an “ugly agenda” in the region. “In this regard, no one in the region will sleep and assume things are going smoothly,” he added.

The head of the security committee in the Basra provincial council, Jabbar Al-Saadi, denied that Iraq’s armed forces had fired missiles towards the Saudi border.