I’d been asking the Saudi Interior Ministry to take me there for several years. Now I was in the desert kingdom covering King Salman bin Abdulaziz’s ascent to the throne, permission had finally come through.
In the past few weeks Houthi rebels had taken control of Yemen’s capital, pushing the country ever closer to failed state status and giving the al Qaeda franchise there, AQAP a greater foothold.
The Saudi minister of interior, now second-in-line to the throne has a personal stake in seeing AQAP eradicated. The terror group’s top bomb-maker put a sophisticated bomb in his brother’s rectum, exploding it when the brother met the leading royal a few years ago. The brother died, the minister was only lightly injured.
This is the same bomb-maker who made the underpants bomb that came close to bringing down an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. Despite extensive drone campaigns he is believed to still be alive and remains a significant global threat.
There is no doubt in anyone’s mind here that al Qaeda in Yemen will use any chance they get to export terror over the border to their northern neighbor, with the royal family being their targets of choice.
Colonel Omar al Kahtani, our escort for the day, was in voluble mood as we sped towards the looming mountains that mark the border. “Anything could happen,” he told us, “be ready with your camera.” Gun battles are rare on this border, he told us, but only three weeks earlier, on Saudi’s northern border, ISIS fighters broke through the defenses, killing three Saudi soldiers including their commander.
–
Hajj pilgrimages to Islam’s two holiest sites Mecca and Medina draw millions of Muslims to the Kingdom. Knowing who comes and who goes is vital.
As the sun began to set we jumped in police gun trucks as another group of men were spotted near the razor wire border fence. Tearing over the bumpy ground we raced to intercept them. Surprisingly, they didn’t run. They know they’ll be freed soon, and from what we saw none of the six were beaten or abused.
Within minutes, as we were driving away, the sun sinking over the horizon and our day done we thought we passed another eight men being caught. We stopped as police emptied their pockets. Cheap cellphones, not much else. They were illegal workers on their way back to homes in Yemen after weeks of work in Saudi, their wages already sent over the border by local money exchangers.
It was already darkening as we pulled away, once again trying to set off back to Gizan. And yet again we stopped as we saw a group of guards searching two small figures. More child qat smugglers, rope and sack bags on their backs bulging with the big wraps that protect the delicate green leaves. Each boy carrying bundles with the drug baron’s name on.
Later, when we finally did get back to Jizan, we ate dinner sitting on rugs next to the Red Sea: fish, meat, salads, bread and Saudi “champagne,” non-alcoholic fizzy grape juice.
This is a land of plenty, Yemen is not. Staunching the human tide flowing over the border is only going to get harder, finding the terrorist hiding in so much human misery even harder.
