Sunday, April 03, 2005
Yemen clashes kill 36 soldiers and Shia militants
SANAA: Yemeni army tanks and helicopters pounded Shia rebel strongholds in the north on Saturday, killing at least 36 people, officials and rebel sources said.
Fighting broke out late on Friday in the northern area of Nishour after rebels tried to attack an army camp. Ten soldiers and six rebels died in the battle, an official said.
Clashes spread close to Saada province on Saturday, killing at least 20 rebels, rebel sources said.
It was the latest in a series of clashes between government forces and rebel followers of slain Shi’ite Muslim cleric Hussein al-Houthi. Local sources said the government was using tribal leaders to mediate a rebel surrender.
Houthi, a Zaidi Shia Muslim who founded a radical group called Believing Youth, was killed last September after two months of clashes with security forces in which at least 200 rebels and state troops died.
Yemeni security sources have blamed Houthi’s father, Sheikh Badr El Deen, for the new round of violence which has killed dozens of government soldiers and rebels since erupting in late March in Saada and surrounding areas of Nishour, Al Shafaah and Al Rizamat.
reuters
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