SANAA, 17 July 2004 — Yemeni forces captured two top aides of the rebel preacher Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi, whose armed followers are battling government forces in the northern mountains, the Defense Ministry said yesterday.
In a statement posted on its website, the ministry said chief of Al-Houthi’s bodyguards, Hamdi Ali Qassim Bajir, was arrested during clashes on Thursday in the province of Saada, 250 kilometers north of Sanaa. Also arrested on Thursday was Faisal Ahmad Al-Hatfi, the head of Al-Houthi’s media team, the ministry said, adding that Al-Hatfi was responsible for circulating leaflets urging tribesmen to back the cleric.
Military officials in Saada told Arab News government forces were closing in on Masnaa village in Marran district, where Al-Houthi and an unspecified number of his armed followers were hiding.
“Our forces are about 200 meters from Masnaa. They have launched a search operation in the area to capture the followers of the rebel preacher,” the official, who asked not to be named, said by phone.
He said the government forces continued their bombardment of the hide-outs of Al-Houthi yesterday, but he had no figures on casualties.
Around 200 people have been killed in the clashes, according to an unofficial toll. Over the past two days, Yemeni forces have taken control of seven of Al-Houthi’s positions in Marran and seized arms and ammunition from three fortified shelters, one of which held the bodies of eight fighters, the ministry said.
A mediation effort on June 28 led by MPs, including one of Al-Houthi’s brothers, was abandoned after the rebel cleric refused to surrender. One of the MPs involved in the abortive effort, however, accused elements of the army of undermining efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully.
The authorities have offered a 10-million-riyal ($55,000) reward for information leading to the capture of Al-Houthi, himself a former MP whom they accuse of seeking to foment sectarian strife.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, declared solidarity with Yemen in its fight against terrorism. An official source said the Kingdom condemned the fighting by the group of extremists, which is aimed at destabilizing security and damaging the country’s economy.
In another development, a legal advocacy group said in Washington lawyers filed habeas corpus petitions in US federal court on Thursday, challenging the legality of the detentions of 15 Yemenis held for more than two years at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“Today’s papers assert that the Yemenis’ confinement lacks any legal basis, and ask that they be released forthwith,” the Center for Constitutional Rights said in a statement.
The petition asks the United States federal court in Washington DC to “declare that the prolonged, indefinite and restrictive detention of petitioner(s) is arbitrary and unlawful” under the US Constitution and international law.
