War against rebels ends within days, Saleh says

By Nasser Arrabyee/14/10/2009


The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Wednesday that victory over Al Houthi armed rebellion will be announced very soon.

"The army is achieving great, great progress in all frontlines, and over the coming few days the victory will be declared," said Saleh in his speech on the occasion of the 46th anniversary of 14 October revolution.
He said Al Houthi rebels forced women and children to leave their houses and prevented the people of Sa'ada from development services.

"They attack the government interests and kill citizens and soldiers, and then they say they defend themselves," he said in a small ceremony held in the college of war in Sana'a.
"From whom they defend themselves," he wondered.

Saleh did not speak about the unrest in the south where demonstrations were taking place while he was speaking in Sana'a. Thousands of demonstrators in Lahj and Al Dhale'e demanded Wednesday separation of the south, which united with the north in 1190.

Observers said the end of the ongoing war may be very close that will not be necessarily the end of the problem.

"If the government imposed it's sovereignty on the whole of Sa'ada province, sporadic clashes will continue there or some other areas," said Najeeb Ghalab, political analyst and politics professor at Sana'a university.

"The ideological extremism of the racial Al Houthi and his connections with the Iranian revolution will not help to reach a political solution," Ghalab said.

He agreed with the idea that the military victory over rebels has become imminent.

"Because Al Houthi rebels were only committing suicide attacks on the troops over the last few days."

President Saleh speaking about the imminent victory over the rebels coincided with distributing the pictures of the most wanted list of 55 rebel leaders and hanging their pictures in public places in the province of Sa'ada.

Some were already arrested of the 55-wanted list, which includes the top leaders Abdul Malik Al Houthi, his brother Yahya who is in Germany, and their father Badr Al Deen Al Houthi.

The arrests continued Wednesday in the city of Sa'ada where Al Houthi sleep cells tried repeatedly to help semi-suicide attackers control the city of Sa'ada without success.

Three rebels were killed today Wednesday in the old city of Sa'ada where the security forces arrested four rebels according to the deputy minister of interior Mohammed Al Kawsi , who has been supervising special security operations in the city from the beginning of the war last August 10th .

Al Kawsi also said that 12 other rebels were arrested Wednesday in Alab area in the far north of the city.

More than 200 rebels were arrested in the city so far, and about 40 of them were already referred to prosecution for charges of forming armed gangs for carrying out sabotage acts.