Saudi Arabia Deploys Soldiers to Border with Iraq

Saudi Arabia has deployed 30,000 soldiers to its border with Iraq after Iraqi soldiers withdrew from the area, the Dubai-based Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television said on Thursday.

The world's top oil exporter shares an 800-km (500-mile) border with Iraq.

King Abdullah has ordered all necessary measures to protect the kingdom against potential "terrorist threats", state news agency SPA reported on Thursday.

Al-Arabiya justified the alleged troops deployment into the border region by what it reported earlier that Iraqi government forces abandoned positions, leaving the Saudi and Syrian frontiers unprotected.