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| Arabia |
| 50 Soldiers, Rebels Killed in Yemen |
| 2004-08-05 |
| Some 2,000 troops backed by helicopters and artillery battled followers of an anti-U.S. leader in Yemen's northern mountains Thursday in a new offensive aimed at putting down a six-week rebellion. Fighting in the past two days killed 50 soldiers and rebels. The offensive targets supporters of Hussein Badr Eddin al-Houti, a Shiite Muslim regarded by the government as an outlaw, whose forces are holed up in the Jabal Maraan mountains outside the town of Sa'dah, 125 miles northwest of the capital, San'a. Long-simmering tension between the government and al-Houti, who leads an armed group called the Believing Youth, erupted into conflict June 21 when security forces tried to arrest his supporters in Sa'dah. More than 500 soldiers and rebels have been killed since the conflict began. President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose government has supported the U.S.-led war on terrorism and has received American military assistance, ordered a temporary halt to military operations against al-Houti's forces to give mediators a chance. But the fighting continued. Heavy artillery, tanks, helicopter gunships and fighter jets are backing Yemeni troops in the campaign launched late Tuesday, and the government also has recruited armed tribesmen from elsewhere to fight al-Houti's followers, government officials said on condition of anonymity. "We've been ordered to end the standoff once and for all," an official said Thursday. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |