SANAA, 10 August 2004 — Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has vowed to quell the rebellion led by the dissident cleric Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi, as government troops face robust resistance in their hunt for the religious leader.
Describing Al-Houthi and his supporters as a “stray group”, the Yemeni leader said in remarks published yesterday the army’s drive against them was “a patriotic and religious duty.”
In an interview with the Emarati newspaper Al-Khaleej, the Yemeni leader said Al-Houthi was leading “a rebellion against the constitutional legitimacy in the country by extremists who have linked themselves with foreign parties.”
“Confronting this stray group is a patriotic and religious duty to keep Yemen free from any Satanic thoughts aimed at dividing it and plant split among the people through stirring sectarian strife,” Saleh said, according to a transcript made available by Yemen’s official SABA news agency.
“Such a phenomenon has spread in many countries recently, but unfortunately the rebellion took a violent character here,” he added.
Sanaa has deployed hundreds of troops in the northern province of Saada supported by artillery, tanks and helicopter gun ships and launched extensive attacks against mountain strongholds of Al-Houthi.
The attacks, launched on June 18 and centered on the far-northern Maran district, where the cleric and hundreds of his armed followers have been fortified, left around 400 people killed, according to unofficial estimates.
Authorities accuse Al-Houthi of creating an underground armed group called the “Believing Youth”, and inciting against the United States and Israel through violent protests.
Tribal sources in Saada, 250 kilometers north of the capital Sanaa, said government forces are still facing tough resistance from armed men loyal to the fugitive cleric yesterday, three days after the army’s Chief of Staff Brig. Gen. Mohammad Al-Qassimi vowed to put down the resistance “within 24 hours.”
A tribal chieftain told Arab News that artillery bombardment could be heard in some parts of Maran district, from where dozens of armed Al-Houthi supporters open fire at government troops.
The offensive since Aug. 4 has left a total of at least 89 dead, including 47 soldiers and 42 militants, and about 106 wounded as the military battles through Al-Houthi’s stronghold in the Maran mountains, military sources and medics said.
The army units combed the region in house-to-house search for the rebel preacher and his followers that left six soldiers dead and 11 others wounded in clashes in the past 24 hours, they said.
Military sources said on Sunday that government troops encircled a cave in which Al-Houthi was believed to be hiding with a handful of supporters. Tribal sources, however said the fugitive had managed to flee Saada.
