AFP/Sanaa
Shia rebels took control of a strategic army post in north Yemen yesterday and captured some 70 soldiers, in the latest clash to endanger an increasingly fragile truce, army and tribal sources said.
“Houthi (rebels) took control of a military position in Al Zaala and captured all remaining soldiers,” a tribal source said. “Violent clashes erupted since the early morning hours.”
A local military official said the rebels captured some 70 soldiers.
The attack came after residents contacted on Sunday by telephone said six soldiers were killed in fighting between the Zaidi Shia rebels, also known as Houthis, and a government-backed tribe in tense northern Yemen.
Al Zaala controls the road between Sanaa and Saada, the rebels’ stronghold.
The rebels’ spokesman Mohamed Abdul Salam confirmed that the rebels attacked Al Zaala but said he had no information about the soldiers.
“The situation is now calm in the area after the warlords (army officers) were expelled from it,” following several hours of fighting that subsided in the afternoon, Abdul Salam said.
“The fall of Al Zaala is likely to bring peace and stability into the region,” he added. “We do not intend to pursue fighting... We want peace.”
Asked about the fate of the captured soldiers, the spokesman said: “I have no information” adding however “the soldiers are our children and we welcome every soldier whose hands are not stained with Houthi blood.”
The fighting comes a day after President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he did not want another war with the Houthis.
“Peace, security and stability are the choice of the state... I say no to another war,” Saleh said on Sunday at a military ceremony.
“Stop jeopardising the security and stability of the province of Saada,” he said, referring to on-off confrontations in the restive region between government forces and the Houthis since the rebellion began in 2004.
“Houthis who are defying rules and laws should implement” the ceasefire agreement which ended the last round of fighting in February, Saleh said.
At least 70 people were reportedly killed in clashes earlier this month with both sides accusing each other of violating the truce.
Yesterday’s fighting, in which automatic weapons and cannons were used, erupted after a truce negotiated on Saturday foundered over differences “about control of a position held by men of the bin Aziz tribe,” a mediator said.
He said tribal chief Sheikh Saghir Aziz had rejected rebel demands to pull out his men from Al Zaala but without handing over the position to the army.
After Al Zaala, the rebels are seeking to impose their control over another position, Al Madaen, another tribal source said - a charge which Abdul Salam denied.
Mediators, headed by Sheikh Abdo Hubeish are trying to secure the evacuation of Aziz, whose son was killed during yesterday’s clashes after his nephew was killed in an earlier round of fighting.
Aziz is a member of the parliamentary bloc of the ruling General People’s Congress party.
Last week 62 MPs in a petition addressed to the government threatened to suspend their parliamentary membership if the authorities failed to help Aziz.
The Zaidi rebels complain of political, social and religious marginalisation, and have repeatedly fought with government forces in a conflict that has killed thousands and displaced some 250,000 people.
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