SANAA, 4 April 2005 — The police chief of the northern Yemeni province of Saada, where armed forces are hunting down rebels, was injured in an ambush yesterday, security officials said.
Brig. Gen. Muhammad Saleh Turaiq was wounded when armed men, believed to be loyalists to the slain cleric Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi, opened fire on his convoy.
Eyewitnesses said that at least three of the attackers were killed in a clash with Turaiq’s bodyguards.
Turaiq and an injured bodyguard were rushed to the Al-Salam hospital in Saada for treatment, the officials told Arab News.
In a separate attack, Saada Deputy Governor Hassan Manaa was ambushed by suspected Al-Houthi supporters, who are battling government forces in the mountainous areas of the province.
Security sources said Manaa escaped the ambush unharmed.
