SANAA, 25 August 2004 — Fifteen Yemeni soldiers have been killed in an ambush by supporters of a rebel cleric whose followers are battling government forces in the north of the country for more than three months, military officials said yesterday.
The officials said the troops came under attack late on Monday as they were hunting armed followers of Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi in a mountainous area in the northern province of Saada.
Local sources in Saada, roughly 25 km to the north of Sanaa, said the rebels fired rocket propelled grenades at military vehicles heading to a village in the Marran district where followers of Houthi were believed to be hiding.
A colonel commanding an army brigade, identified as Abdul-Alim Al-Hitar, was among those killed, a Defense Ministry source told Arab News.
The commander was a brother of judge Hammoud Al-Hitar, who heads a religious commission appointed by the government to conduct dialogue with the extremists.
Tribal sources in Saada said military forces had been engaged in a massive search for Houthi’s fighters for the past three days in five villages. They said military helicopters using machine guns and rockets pounded suspected hideouts of the heavily armed rebels, killing dozens of them.
However, no information about casualties among the cleric’s followers was available.
A state-run newspaper said yesterday that a brother of Houthi was also killed in the army raids, but military officers declined to confirm the report.
Military forces launched a massive operation on June 21 to arrest Houthi, whom authorities accuse of setting up an underground armed grouped called the “Believing Youth” and inciting them against the United States and Israel through violent protests.
