Al Houthi rebels kill and injure 25 people, new war concerns

By Nasser Arrabyee/29/04/2010


A total 25 people were killed and injured in about 64 shootout operations implemented by Al Houthi rebels over the last week in Sa'ada despite the 77-day old fragile cease-fire, official sources Thursday.

Al Houthi rebels kidnapped 23 people including soldiers, carried out 14 operations of plundering properties of citizens loyal to the government, and deployed their fighters in 26 new positions over the last week, the defense ministry said in a statement.

One of the four committees in charge of supervising the implementation of the six conditions set by the government and accepted by the rebels last February 12th, to end the 6-year old sporadic war, returned to Sana'a after Al Houthi rebels attacked the team of removing mines and seized their car in Harf Suyan, said the statement.

A group of rebels led by Hadi Shaya Zainah killed three citizens and injured four others in an ambush made earlier this week in Al Sahwa area, said the statement.

Another group of the rebels killed three citizens from Al Sawma'a in Al Safra, the statement added.

In many areas of the war-torn Sa'ada, the rebels started to distribute papers calling for fighting the State, use loudspeakers for chanting their provocative slogans, take down the flags of the republic, still position in more than six schools and prevent students in other schools from using the national anthem, according to the official statement.

The statement considered those incidents obvious violations of the cease-fire truce and attempts to obstruct the efforts of bringing peace to Sa'ada, holding the rebels responsible for those violations.

Meanwhile, the tribal sheikh, Sadek Abdullah Al Ahmar, the most influential tribal sheikh in Yemen, warned from a new a round of war between the government and Al Houthi rebels.

"The agreement to end the war in Sa'ada is ambiguous, and we do not know what's going on, we are afraid that the seventh of round of war may break out," Al Ahmar said in a tribal gathering this week.

Earlier, Al Houthi rebels said the government did not fulfill their demands especially those related to the release of their detainees. They demand of releasing about 10,000 detainees. They said those were already released by the government earlier this month and last month (about 240 men) were not members of their armed rebellion movement.