SANAA, 7 February 2006 — At least 20 people were killed and scores injured in clashes broke out yesterday between government forces and members of an outlawed group in the restive province of Saada in northern Yemen, tribal sources said.
The sources said the fighting erupted in the mountainous Al-Saifi district of Saada, some 250 kilometers north of Sanaa.
Witnesses said military vehicles were seen transporting injured army men to a hospital in the provincial center of Saada, but a toll on casualties among the troops was not available.
Saada has been the scene of sporadic and sometimes fierce confrontations between army forces and armed followers of the slain Shiite leader Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi since mid-2004.
Authorities have accused Al-Houthi of fomenting sectarian strife and establishing an underground armed group called “Believing Youth” that led anti-US protests in Sanaa in 2003 and 2004.
Two rounds of fighting broke out in Saada, the first of which ended with the death of Al-Houthi in clashes in September 2004. Some 400 insurgents and troops have been killed by then.
Some 525 troops and hundreds of Shiite rebels were killed in the second wave of battles with army forces in Saada last year.
Last month, eight army soldiers and eight rebels were killed after fighting renewed in Saada.
