SANAA, 1 April 2005 — Clashes between security forces and supporters of a slain rebel preacher community continued in Yemen yesterday, taking to 65 the toll since fighting began earlier this week, tribal sources said.
Twenty-seven members of the Faithful Youth organization, which was headed by Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi until he was killed by the army last year, have been killed in Saada province since Wednesday, the sources said.
Security forces, who have been bombing the rebels’ mountain strongholds in Nushur, Al-Shafia and Razamat, lost five reconnaissance and military intelligence personnel in an ambush laid by the militants, the sources said. Dozens have been wounded on both sides.
Thirty-three people, including 10 members of the army and security forces, were earlier killed. The fighting erupted on Monday in the most serious upsurge of violence between the two sides since the army announced Al-Houthi’s killing last September.
The army said it had killed Al-Houthi nearly three months after he started a rebellion in the mountainous northwest.
The uprising triggered clashes which left more than 400 people dead.
