Amid reports that Saudi Arabia has deployed some 30,000 troops to its border with Iraq, President Obama has called King Abdullah to discuss the developments in the region.
Reuters quotes the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television as saying the kingdom has deployed forces to its border after Iraqi troops abandoned their positions amid a Sunni-led insurgency.
According to Reuters:
"The Dubai-based al-Arabiya said on its website that Saudi troops had fanned out into the border region after Iraqi government forces withdrew from their positions, leaving the Saudi and Syrian frontiers exposed.
"It aired a video which, it said, showed some 2,500 Iraqi soldiers in the desert region east of the Iraqi city of Kerbala after pulling back from the border, which is reinforced on the Saudi side by a system of fences.
"However, the Iraqi prime minister's military spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassim Atta, told reporters in Baghdad: 'This is false news aimed at affecting the morale of our people and the morale of our heroic fighters.'"