90 Al Houthi rebels surrender

By Nasser Arrabyee/12/12/2009

The number of Al Houthi rebels who surrendered themselves until due to the storming operation being implemented by the army for the fifth consecutive day in the old city of Sa'ada raised to 90 including 30 women, said security and independent sources in Sa'ada Saturday.

The sources said the remaining rebels are now under tightened blockade in the in the northwestern part of the old city where about 400 rebels have been barricading since the beginning of the war in August 10th.

The rebels in the old city have been trying to control the whole city of Sa'ada where which is full control of the local authority and army.

The sources said that the 30 women, who were cooperating with Al Houthi fighters in the old city, were put in the hotels of the city before their relatives were summoned by the security authorities to take them.

The women were released home after each male relative of the 30 women wrote a pledge note that the women will never cooperate with Al Houthi rebels any more and that they will keep in their houses.

All the 60 men were put in custody under investigations, the sources said.

The spokesman of the army, Askar Zuel, and deputy minister of interior Mohammed Al Kawsi, who supervise the storming operation of the old city, confirmed that the noose is increasingly being tightened on the remaining rebels. Both officials expected the remaining rebels to surrender during the coming few hours.

The spokesman of the army also said that the army was advancing in the other frontlines.

Weapons store of the rebels was destroyed in Muhdha, in the areas surrounding the city of Sa'ada, and the rebel field leader Saeed Ali Mohammed Meftah was arrested in Harf Sufyan, he said.

Politically, the Yemeni foreign minister Abu Bakr Al Querbi, is heading for Kuwait later today Saturday to hand a letter to Emir of Kuwait from President Ali Abdullah Saleh on the latest development in Yemen.

Al Querbi said in a statement he would brief the leaders of GCC in their summit conference to held during 14 and 15 December in Kuwait, on the developments in Yemen far from the exaggeration of media.