Saudi, Qatari Reports Differ on Border Clash Leaving at Least 2 Dead

Saudi and Qatari officials reported that a clash Wednesday in a disputed desert border region left at least two dead, but they gave wildly different versions of the encounter.

Qatari military officials said Saudi soldiers attacked a Qatari border post, killing two soldiers and taking a third prisoner, the Qatar News Agency reported. But a Saudi government spokesmen, in a Saudi press agency report several hours later, called the Qatari report “totally baseless.”

The spokesman charged that Qatari troops had fired on Saudi Bedouins, or nomads, in an area within Saudi territory. It claimed the ensuing clash left two Qataris and one Saudi dead, with one Saudi injured.

The fighting took place Wednesday afternoon at the outpost of Khofous, about 80 miles southeast of the Qatari capital of Doha, according to the Qataris.

The area has been claimed by both Saudi Arabia and Qatar--a tiny peninsula in the Persian Gulf--since British domination of the region ended in the early 1970s. It is one of many border disputes in the region.