SANAA, 16 June 2004 — At least four people including two soldiers were killed and seven injured in fierce clashes between armed tribesmen and government troops hunting down a tribal leader in northern Yemen, municipal officials said yesterday.
The officials told Arab News by telephone from the remote district of Harf Sufian, near borders with Saudi Arabia, that the shootout between tribal fighters and military forces erupted two days ago after the troops besieged the house of Mujahid Haidar.
Haidar is wanted in connection with a running vendetta with a tribe loyal to Parliament speaker and prominent tribal figure Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ahmar.
Two tribesmen died yesterday in gunfire and artillery shelling by army units surrounding areas housing the Bani Haidar tribe in Harf Sufian, while two soldiers were killed Sunday when tribesmen clashed with the troops. “Two people were killed today and seven injured,” said a local official, adding the “situation is still tense,” with hundreds of armed tribesmen taking positions in the area to prevent the arrest of their chieftain.
The official, who asked anonymity, said intensive efforts were being put by tribal figures from neighboring tribes to end the standoff. Government officials in the capital Sanaa refused to comment.
Official Shot Dead
A senior official at Yemen’s Ministry of Endowments and Guidance was gunned down in front of his home yesterday.
Muhammad Hussein Al-Maamri, head of the Higher Institute for Guidance, was shot six times with a pistol when he was stepping out of his home. He died on the way to hospital. The gunman was immediately arrested.
The assailant, identified as Kamal Hawash, in his thirties, was a former employee Al-Maamri had fired over charges of financial irregularities, police said. He was working for a religious guidance institute in the southern city of Aden run also by Al-Maamri.
