Six killed in Yemen clashes

Six Yemeni army and police troops were killed and 20 others injured in clashes in the past 24 hours with followers of a Yemeni Shiite rebel leader in the Saada province, a police statement said today.

The police did not say if there were casualties among the attackers, led by Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi, a Shiite Muslim. Yemeni troops have often clashed with the al-Hawthi followers in Saada, about 112 miles north of the Yemeni capital.

A al-Hawthi rebel source said the rebels accused the army of shelling their positions by tanks and artillery, which “forced … (rebels) to retaliate”.

The was no information on possible rebels casualties, but the army shelling, which started Saturday, continued today and government re-enforcements had been sent to the area.

The government has been fighting the rebels since June 2004 when rebel Shiite Muslim cleric Hussein Badr Eddin al-Hawthi – of the same al-Hawthi tribe – led his forces in an uprising against the government.

The cleric was killed in clashes with government troops in September 2004, but his followers continued with their minority rebellion.

The government had accused the late cleric of sedition; forming an illegal armed group and inciting anti-American sentiment.

His loyalists, who say the government is too closely allied with Washington, have accused authorities of seeking to silence the cleric’s criticism of corruption.

The US has provided military training to Yemen and assistance in safeguarding its borders.

In March, the Yemeni Security Supreme Committee, which includes the interior and defense ministers, announced the release of 627 followers of the murdered rebel Shiite cleric, following a pardon from President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The committee said at the time the release was the result of the president’s “keenness to achieve security and stability, and to restore quiet to all the districts which were considered theatres for rebellion and sedition”.