RIYADH, Feb 13, (Agencies): Saudi Arabia’s deputy defence minister said on Saturday he has given Yemeni Shiite rebels 48 hours to hand over five Saudi soldiers believed to be held captive.
“They must return our five prisoners, and we have given them 48 hours to do so,” Deputy Defence Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan said at a defence show in Riyadh, adding his country would “not permit militants to remain on our soil.”
The countdown started from Friday, his aide, General Ibrahim al-Malek, told AFP.
“He gave them 48 hours from yesterday,” said the aide, who like Prince Khaled did not specify what action Saudi Arabia would take if the prisoners were not released by the deadline.
Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel Salam earlier told AFP that the Shiite fighters were preparing to free Saudi prisoners captured in border clashes that broke out in November.
“Measures are underway to hand over the Saudi prisoners to a mediator, Ali Nasser Kersha,” a tribal official from the northern province of Saada, the spokesman said.
He did not specify how many prisoners the rebels were holding, how many would be freed, or the timing of the releases.
From Nov 4, the Saudi military unleashed a campaign of aerial bombing along with artillery and ground attacks against the rebels, saying they had crossed into Saudi territory, killed a border guard and occupied two villages.
The fighting killed 109 Saudi soldiers and an unknown number of Zaidi Shiite rebels.
“It is very quiet now” on the border, a Saudi military official said on Saturday, declining to be named.
The rebels, also known as Huthis, have begun implementing a ceasefire deal with the Yemeni government, part of which stipulates the release of all prisoners, including Saudi soldiers.

Assassination
Yemeni Shiite rebels denied an assassination attempt on an Interior Ministry official which took place on Friday, only hours after a ceasefire agreement, Al Jazeera television reported on Saturday.
Yemen’s government and rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi agreed late on Thursday to a truce that began a few hours later at midnight (2100 GMT).
Interior Minister undersecretary Mohammed al-Qawsi, whose car was shot at on Friday in the northern city of Saada, said shortly after the attack that minor violations had occurred because not everyone was aware of the ceasefire, but that the deal still held.
A soldier was also killed by rebels on Friday.
No further details of the assassination denial were given by the television station on Saturday.
The Yemeni government, which is also battling a resurgent threat from al-Qaeda and a separatist movement in the south, had been exchanging ceasefire proposals with the rebels for several days. Both Houthi’s rebels and the government issued statements late on Thursday calling for an end to the fighting, which the United Nations says has displaced 250,000 people.
Yemeni forces have been battling Houthi’s supporters for more than five years and and previous ceasefires have not lasted.

The rebels, from the Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam, have long complained of social, religious and economic discrimination in a country with a Sunni Muslim majority.
One demonstrator was killed and six wounded when police opened fire on them as they tried to take the body of a fallen comrade from a hospital in Hutah in south Yemen, witnesses told AFP on Saturday.
Police attempted to prevent demonstrators from the separatist Southern Movement from taking the body of one of their comrades killed in previous unrest from the Ibn Khaldun hospital in Hutah, which lies about 15 kms (9 miles) north of Aden, the south’s largest city, witnesses said.
The demonstrators tried to take the body by force, but police guarding the hospital fired on them, “wounding seven, one of whom later died,” according to witnesses.
South Yemen became an independent state following the end of British rule in 1967. It was united with the north in 1990, when Yemen became the Arabian Peninsula’s only republic.
Southerners seceded in 1994, sparking a short-lived civil war that ended with the region overrun by northern troops.
Residents of the region who complain of discrimination and a lack of financial aid frequently demonstrate to demand either increased autonomy or independence from the north.
Yemen is the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula.