SANAA: Yemen’s government is ready to fight rebels in the mountainous north for “years”, President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed on Saturday, though he said hostilities could end if the rebels agree a ceasefire.
“We will continue the battle for five or six years. We will not backtrack, we will not stop,” Saleh said at a celebration to mark the anniversary of the 1962 revolution that established the republic.
“If the rebels abided by the six points (of the truce), we do not want war. It is a war that was imposed on us,” he said to cheering crowds shouting “No” and urging him to continue the war.
Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands of civilians have fled their homes since Aug. 11 when the government began its “Scorched Earth” offensive against the rebels.
The government offered the rebels a truce but demanded that they “respect the ceasefire and the opening of roads, evacuate their positions and free captured civilians and soldiers.”
Two separate ceasefires have lasted only a few hours before fighting erupted again.
Saleh called on political groups in Yemen to stand united to “support the army in its war against the rebels.”
On Thursday at least 50 people were confirmed dead in clashes in Yemen’s Saada and Amran provinces. Dozens more may have died in the provincial capital of Saada, where army officials and eyewitnesses said street battles intensified late on Thursday.
