Local Editor
Pakistan is deploying a brigade of combat troops to Saudi Arabia as the kingdom struggles to coup with retaliatory attacks from Yemeni forces.
Unnamed sources told the Middle East Eye (MEE) online portal that the brigade will only be deployed inside southern Saudi Arabia.
"It will not be used beyond Saudi borders," a source stressed.
The decision to dispatch the troops came after a three-day official visit by General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the Pakistani Chief of Army Staff (COAS), to Saudi Arabia in December 2016.
The Pakistani military said in a statement that Bajwa had met chief of general staff of Saudi Forces, General Abdul Rehman bin Saleh al-Bunyan, "to discuss military to military relations, defense cooperation and regional security situation.”
The deployment is politically sensitive in Islamabad. Two years ago the Pakistani parliament voted against joining Saudi Arabia in its deadly air campaign against Yemen.
Saudi Arabia began its deadly campaign against Yemen in late March 2015. The strikes were meant to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
About 11,403 people have been killed and over 19,343 injured since Riyadh launched the airstrikes. The Saudi aggression has also taken a heavy toll on Yemen’s facilities and infrastructure.
Yemeni forces have been engaged in retaliatory attacks striking targets deep inside Saudi Arabia.
Source: MEE, Edited by Website Team
