Saudi Arabia drafts in up to 10,000 troops ahead of protests

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Saudi Arabia drafts in up to 10,000 troops ahead of protests

Saudi Arabia is drafting in up to 10,000 security forces to the north eastern

Muslim Shia provinces ahead of mass protests planned next week.

12:37AM GMT 05 Mar 2011

Desperate to avoid mass uprisings against the House of Saud, security forces

have deployed in huge numbers across the region.

King Abdullah is also reported to have told neighbouring Bahrain that if they do

not put down their own ongoing Shia revolt, his own forces will.

In response to the massive mobilisation, protesters are planning to place women

on the front ranks to discourage Saudi forces from firing on them.

In Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh set off a deadly battle for survival last

night as he rejected an opposition peace proposal and ordered troops to fire on

demonstrators, killing four. Efforts to suppress demonstrations by the key ally

in the " war on terror " could jeopardise rising volumes of Western aid flooding

into the country, diplomats warned.

President Saleh rejected an opposition proposal that would have brought

demonstrations to a standstill in return for a promise to step down by the end

of the year. Yemeni troops used rockets and machineguns to attack demonstrators

in the north of the country, killing four and injuring nine.