Yemen's army, battling a two-month rebellion led by a Muslim preacher in the country's North, lost many more soldiers in an ambush by the cleric's supporters, a military official said last week. "Dozens of soldiers of the Yemeni army were killed on a road in Maran during an ambush by supporters of Sheikh Hussein [Badreddin] Houthi against a brigade heading for one of the villages where the army is searching for the rebel preacher," the official said, requesting anonymity.
"Lieutenant Abdelalim Abdelhamid Hattar, who commanded the brigade, was killed in the ambush", the official said, adding that the lieutenant was a brother of Judge Hammoud Hattar, who headed a delegation trying to mediate between the preacher and the authorities. Houthi and thousands of his supporters have been holed up in the rugged mountains of Maran, in Saada Province, since the rebellion erupted on June 18 and which has so far left more than 400 dead on both sides. Military sources meanwhile said one of Houthi's brothers, who commanded the marksmen among the rebels, was also killed and another, Abdelkarim, arrested by the army during a night raid targeting pockets of resistance in the area. "Abdelmelek Houthi was killed by the Yemeni army during fierce clashes between the armed forces and rebels in an assault on the Shaab Salman region", near the border with Saudi Arabia, the sources said.
The Zaidi preacher's fate remains a mystery. Sources among the military said he may have been killed in the same raid that claimed his brother's life. Others, however, said that "the army could locate Sheikh Hussein Badreddin Houthi in less than 24 hours" and put an end to the protracted rebellion. Mediation attempts, one of them led by a third brother, Yahya Houthi, a member of Parliament, have failed to resolve the crisis or broker the preacher's surrender. President Saleh has described Houthi as a "deviant... who has nothing to do with Islam," the state agency Saba reported. "What this rebel is trying to do is a deviance. Undoubtedly he is a deviant who has nothing to do with religion... he has nothing to do with Islam", Saleh was quoted as saying in a recent meeting with clerics. |