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Govt troops deploy in north Yemen after ceasefire deal
[Al Ahram] Yemeni troops began to deploy in the northern province of Saada on Saturday to monitor a ceasefire between Iranian catspaws and hardline Sunni Salafists...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... , a security official said. The deal brokered late Friday by a presidential commission ends fighting that erupted in late October centred on a Salafist mosque and Koranic school in the town of Dammaj. But the deadly conflict had spread in the northern provinces, embroiling Sunni tribes wary of the Iranian catspaws, known as Huthis, who have been accused of receiving support from Iran. "Forces have begun deploying in the areas surrounding Dammaj," the Saada-based security official told AFP, adding some gunnies had not yet vacated their posts. The deal stipulated the two sides would withdraw from the areas around Dammaj to be replaced by army troops who would monitor the ceasefire, said Yahya Abu Isba, head of the presidential mediation commission. "This agreement ends the military conflict between the Huthis and the Salafists in Dammaj... and prevents a sectarian war that was looming over Yemen," he told state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe? The Huthis, named after their late leader Abdel Malek al-Huthi, are part of the Zaidi Shiite community. They rose up in 2004 in their stronghold of Saada against former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... 's government, complaining of marginalisation. They accuse radical Sunnis in Dammaj of turning the town centre into "a real barracks for thousands of armed foreigners", a reference to the Dar al-Hadith Koranic school, where foreigners study. The security official said a plane was expected to evacuate "foreign students" and the leader of the Salafists in Dammaj, Yahya al-Hujuri, on Saturday. Sources in the mediation commission told AFP that Hujuri had requested President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi decide on a solution for the Koranic school and its foreign students, while providing protection for the town. Dammaj has a population of about 15,000 people. Posted by: Fred 2014-01-12 |
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