SANAA, 3 July 2004 — Yemeni forces killed 23 more supporters of an anti-US cleric and overran mountain hide-outs where he and scores of armed followers took refuge, a military official said yesterday.
The official said that a brother of Shiite cleric Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi and 22 followers were killed in the past two days in bombardments of their hide-outs. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the troops captured most of the lairs of the Al-Houthi’s group, in the northern province of Saada in a massive military assault using artillery and Katyusha rockets.
Yemeni authorities accuse Al-Houthi of organizing protests against the United States and Israel in mosques of Saada and the capital Sanaa.
Al-Houthi is also accused of leading an armed rebellion with foreign financial aid aiming at disturbing security and stability of the impoverished Arab country.
The new fatalities took to over 90 the death toll of the heavy fighting between military forces and supporters of the Al-Houthi that erupted on June 21 when security forces tried to arrest the religious leader in his remote mountainous stronghold.
At least nine soldiers were killed in the clashes. Hundreds of army troops backed by tanks, artillery, heavy machine guns and helicopters launched an offensive in the rugged area in the remote mountainous Marran area of Saada to net Al-Houthi and his henchmen.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a top military commander said government forces faced sporadic resistance from the surrounded hide-outs hit by the government forces fire yesterday.
“Their resistance is diminishing and we expect those besieged rebels to give up when food and water supplies run out,” the commander who oversees the operation said by phone from Saada. Witnesses said government forces pushed into adjacent mountainous terrain yesterday in search for armed followers of Al-Houthi who reportedly fled the besieged area.
Two rounds of negotiations with the cleric last week ended in a deadlock, after the man made it clear that he would rather fight than surrender.
The Defense Ministry said that a close aide of Al-Houthi, identified as Zaid Bin Ali Al-Houthi was killed in a raid on a house that belonged to the cleric in the besieged area of Marran.
Meanwhile, Yemen said yesterday it would send troops to Iraq only when US-led coalition forces withdrew and were replaced by multinational peacekeepers under the umbrella of the United Nations and Arab League.
