SANAA: At least 338 civilians have been killed and more than 200 injured since the skirmishes between government forces and Shiite rebels renewed in the northwestern Yemeni province of Saada in 12 months ago, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday.
Fierce battles between the rebels, known as the Houthis, and army forces are raging on and off since July 2007 when Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared the conflict over after four years of fighting that have left hundreds of soldiers and insurgents dead.
“The number of innocent citizens who martyred during the last 12 months reached 338; of whom 300 were men, 28 women and 10 children,” the ministry said on Thursday.
It blamed the rebels, led by Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, for the deaths of the civilians, adding that they have also kidnapped more than 500 civilians, including children, women and elderly people.
The rebels denied the accusation, and said that authorities were not disclosing the real number of fatalities in Saada, some 240 km northwest of the capital Sanaa.
“Authorities, the army are the oppressors and they are to blame for the civilian casualties,” a leading rebel member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Arab News in Sanaa by telephone.
“We do nothing but defending ourselves and houses,” he added.
The rebellion began in 2004 under Shiite leader Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi and was revived after Al-Houthi’s death, by his brother Abdul-Malik.
