SANAA, 4 July 2004 — Yemen’s interior minister said yesterday nearly two weeks of clashes between government forces and supporters of an anti-US cleric had left 118 people dead, including 32 soldiers.
Brig. Gen. Rashad Al-Alimi told Parliament that 32 soldiers and 86 followers of the radical preacher Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi had died since the clashes erupted on July 20 when security forces tried to arrest the religious leader at his mountain stronghold in the north of the country. Sources close to Al-Houthi have put the death toll at about 200.
The minister said 120 policemen and army soldiers and 21 supporters of Al-Houthi were wounded and 185 insurgents arrested in the fighting in the Maran area of Saada Province, 240 km north of the capital Sanaa.
Two rounds of negotiations with the cleric last week ended to a deadlock. “Al-Houthi refused all mediation efforts by parliamentarians, scholars and government officials to surrender peacefully,” Alimi said.
As the minister spoke, fighting continued to rage in the area with residents saying that seven soldiers were reportedly killed yesterday in the Nashoor area of Saada.
A witness in Malaheet, also in the province, said four more of Al-Houthi’s supporters had been killed, while six were wounded.
A website run by the Defense Ministry reported yesterday that Al-Houthi and some of followers had fled his stronghold which had been surrounded by troops backed by tanks, artillery and helicopters. The September.net website quoted a local official in Saada as saying that residents of the district where the cleric had taken refuge expelled him and his supporters from their areas.
Commanders overseeing the operation said Friday that the insurgents’ resistance was diminishing as their food and water supplies are running out.
Yemeni authorities accuse Al-Houthi of leading an armed rebellion with foreign aid.
The minister told Parliament the preacher established an underground armed group named “The Believing Youths” in 1997.
“Each member of this group receives $200 a month which indicates they may have foreign support,” Alimi said but did not elaborate.
