DUBAI: Yemeni rebels said on Tuesday they had withdrawn from Saudi soil as part of a truce offer extended to Saudi Arabia following months of border fighting, but the pullout could not be independently confirmed.
Rebel leader Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, whose fighters have been battling both Saudi and Yemeni government forces, made the cease-fire offer on Monday.
“There has been a complete withdrawal from all Saudi positions and territory,” the rebels said in a statement posted to their website.
However, Yemeni tribal sources working alongside the Yemeni government denied the rebels had withdrawn.
Yemen’s central government has been fighting the rebels on and off since 2004, but the conflict intensified last summer when Sanaa launched Operation Scorched Earth to quash the latest upsurge in violence.
Rebel leader Houthi said he was offering a truce “to avoid more bloodshed and to stop aggression on civilians.”
Violence flared in northern Yemen in the hours leading up to the rebel truce offer, with Yemeni sources saying government forces had killed 20 rebels in clashes that also killed four Yemeni soldiers.
The conflict raging in north Yemen has already displaced around 200,000 people, according to the United Nations.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday humanitarian conditions in northern Yemen were worse than ever.
Sanaa declared open war on Al-Qaeda this month, stepping up air strikes and security sweeps after the Yemen-based regional arm of Al-Qaeda said it was behind a failed Dec. 25 bid to blow up a US-bound airliner.
Western powers fear Yemen will become a failed state, allowing a Al-Qaeda to exploit chaos and use the country as a base for more attacks.
