Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Shiite Muslim rebels fighting in northwestern Yemen said that Saudi Arabia allowed Yemeni forces to use the kingdom’s territory as a launch pad and warned they may retaliate.

“Saudi authorities opened its territories for the Yemeni army to position at a Saudi base at al-Dokhan mountain, from which it began its aggression against us,” the rebels said today in an e-mailed statement. The mountain is located on Yemen’s northwestern border with Saudi Arabia.

The rebels accused Saudi Arabia of committing a “flagrant violation and a dangerous intervention in Yemen’s internal affairs.” Saudi Arabia should “stay impartial and not allow the Yemeni army to use its lands to attack us, otherwise we would be forced to fire back,” the rebels said in the statement.

The rebels claim discrimination by the majority Sunnis in Yemen and want to restore a Shiite imamate overthrown in 1962. Up to 150,000 civilians have been displaced since the insurgency first started in mid-2004, including tens of thousands in the latest fighting. United Nations agencies have warned of a humanitarian crisis and called for a cease-fire.

”This is totally a Yemeni domestic issue,” the kingdom’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Osama al-Nuggali, said in an interview in Riyadh today. “We don’t interfere in another country’s domestic issues. The stability and security of Yemen is very important to Saudi Arabia and other neighboring countries,”

Allegations that the Houthi rebels have ties with Iran have prompted concern in Saudi Arabia. The Sunni Muslim-ruled kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter, is locked in a battle for regional influence with Iran’s Shiite clerical regime.

Short Range Missiles

Security officials cited by Yemen’s state news agency, Saba, said Aug. 21 they had seized rebels’ short-range missiles, shells and machine guns, some made in Iran. Yemen said they seized on Oct. 26 an Iranian-crewed ship loaded with weapons off the coast from a rebel stronghold. Iran has denied any involvement in the conflict.

Yemen’s Defense Ministry said in a statement earlier today that military units took control yesterday of rebel positions near al-Dokhan in the far east of Saada province, where the army has been pursuing an offensive against the rebels since Aug. 11. The ministry didn’t comment on the rebel claims.

To contact the reporter on this story: Khaled Abdullah in Sana’a via the Dubai newsroom at

mideastnews@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 2, 2009 11:55 EST