'War beyond imagination' Al Houthi threatens

By Nasser Arrabyee/24/09/2009

The Yemen rebel leader Abdul Malik Al Houthi says he has not started the war yet, despite the intensification of the battles day by day, with the military officials claiming the end of the armed rebellion is very close.

In a statements sent through emails, Al Houthi said his fighters withdraw from positions only as tactics for the war of attrition.

He threatened to launch a war "that can not be imagined" by the troops and whose results and consequences will be worse than all "the results and consequences" of the previous five rounds of war which started in the middle of 2004.

This is the third time, the rebel leader, released such threats, since the beginning of the war on August 10^th, 2009.

The rebel leader admitted that the army had controlled important positions in Harf Sufyan, the most important frontline of the rebels.

"We attacked the position of Al Shakra at the beginning of this war and we controlled it and seized all equipments, and then we left the position," he said in his statement.

He denied any progress achieved by the troops in Harf Sufyan after the state-run TV showed the troops controlling it and the places around it in the direction of Sa'ada city.

Al Houthi accused the government of killing the prisoners of war and mutilating their bodies, pretending that his fighters "kindly treat the prisoners of the war according to the Islamic instructions." The rebel leader refers to the video footages shown by the state-run TV for positions controlled by the army in Harfy Sufyan with dead bodies thrown in the ground.

Meanwhile, the security authorities in Sa'ada city said Thursday they had arrested a group of 8 rebels including two leaders.

"The two terrorists and rebel leaders, Ali Ebrahim Abdul Elah Al Hashush and Qasem Abdullah Ali Bashir were arrested during a search operation implemented in cooperation with the citizens in the old city of Sa'ada," said a security statement.

The security forces are still implementing special operations in the city of Sa'ada to finish off the asleep cells who attack the security men from time to time.

On Wednesday, the Deputy Minister of Interior Mohammed Abdullah Al Kawsi, who supervises those special operations in the old city of Sa'ada, said 12 rebels of these asleep cells surrendered them selves.

The battles continued Thursday in the three main frontline of Harf Sufyan, around Sa'ada city, and Al Malahaid, while the aircrafts continued bombing the main strongholds of the rebels in Dhahyan, Mutrah and Naqa'a.