Yemen is to launch a fresh attempt to secure the surrender of a rebel Muslim preacher whose supporters have been locked in a deadly five-week battle with the army in the north, a source involved in the mediation said Tuesday. At the behest of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a group of leaders of opposition parties and religious and tribal officials will on Wednesday return to the Maran area in northern Saada province, where Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi and thousands of his supporters are besieged, the source said. Mediation efforts last month failed to resolve ongoing clashes between Huthi's men and the army, while an MP involved in the aborted talks accused elements within the army of undermining efforts to end the crisis peacefully.
| That would be the part of the army that wants to kill him. |
The newly-formed group will try to persuade Huthi to turn himself him with the guarantee that he will be judged fairly, the source said. The group includes Huthi's brother Yahya, who is an MP, and Abdul Karim Jadban, a co-founder of Huthi's "Faithful Youth" organisation, formed in 1997 as a breakaway from the Islamist opposition movement Al-Haq. "Fighting continues with deaths and injuries on both sides, preventing the previous mediation group from reaching Maran," a military source in the region said by telephone from the Yemeni capital. Tribal sources also said the clashes continued "at least until Monday". Sanaa will "request that the military command on the ground cease operations to help the new mission to reach Huthi and his supporters" in their stronghold, said the mediation source.
| And give him a chance to get away. |
The unrest has left about 300 dead on both sides as Huthi continues to resist government pressure. The president has vowed that his forces would stand their ground in the uprising by the self-styled "Emir al-Mumineen" or Prince of Believers. The authorities have offered a 10-million-rial (55,000-dollar) reward for information leading to the capture of Huthi, whom they accuse of seeking to foment sectarian strife. Huthi, a Zaidi preacher, said last week that the conflict was a result of his anti-US stand and accused Saleh of seeking "to please the United States at the expense of his own people." |