SAADA, 28 June 2004 — Deadly clashes continued in northern Yemen yesterday as an anti-US preacher besieged by government soldiers refused to negotiate an end to the fighting that has left 64 people dead.
Hours before a security source announced that the peace efforts had failed, mediators accused Yemeni troops of undermining their efforts to negotiate the surrender of Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi and his followers.
But the SABA news agency quoted the source as saying that Al-Houthi “refused to cooperate with the mediation delegation ... which tried to bring about an end to the rebellion and a voluntary surrender” to authorities.
The mediation effort, launched Saturday at the behest of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, reached a deadlock after Al-Houthi “refused to cooperate ... and is resolved to continue the rebellion” in his stronghold in Maran, a remote mountainous region in Saada province, the source said.
The mediators, who include lawmakers, among them Al-Houthi’s brother Yahia, have left the Maran area, where the army has been deployed in strength, the source added.
Residents of Malahidh, near Maran, said they heard an intense exchange of gunfire around midday yesterday and that they witnessed a bombardment of the Maran area by Yemeni troops.
Heavy fighting that broke out on June 18 in the region, 250 km north of Sanaa, has left 55 insurgents and nine Yemeni soldiers dead, while 61 militants, including the scholar’s brother Abdul Aziz, have been captured.
Dozens on both sides have also been wounded in the clashes between the army and the hundreds of armed supporters of Al-Houthi, who is surrounded in his stronghold in the rugged terrain near the Saudi border.
“We hope for the surrender of Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi and his supporters but some soldiers in the area appear to be deliberately seeking to escalate” the fighting, mediator Abdul Karim Jadban said.
“We are following the orders of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, but some want the clashes to continue, which is dangerous for the population,” Jadban said, before it was announced that the talks were fruitless.
The tension was palpable in the area where the militants, equipped with machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades, have dug trenches to thwart the army’s advance, soldiers and residents said.
Residents said some families had already started leaving the troubled region, fearing an all-out offensive against Al-Houthi and his men.
— Additional input from agencies
