Yemeni forces clashed with Shi'ite rebels, killing 11 in the poor Arab country where the US and Saudi Arabia fear al Qaeda will exploit instability to prepare attacks, a government source said today.
The 26 September news website, quoting an unnamed government source, said Yemeni forces had destroyed a ‘terrorist den’ in the northern Saada region yesterday in what was described as a combing operation by security forces and military.
Rebels from the minority Shi'ite Zaidi sect in northern Yemen launched a rebellion against the government in 2004, complaining of social, economic and religious marginalisation.
The conflict drew in neighbouring Saudi Arabia in November when rebels staged a cross-border incursion into the world's biggest oil exporter.
Yemen, which is also facing separatist sentiment in the south, was thrown into focus when the regional wing of al Qaeda said it was behind an attempt to bomb a US passenger plane on Christmas Day.
The US and Saudi Arabia fear al Qaeda will exploit the instability in Yemen to turn it into a launchpad for attacks.
Yesterday's strikes destroyed a group of rebel vehicles near the town of Saada, and flames were seen rising from the area, the website said. A car carrying ammunition was destroyed.
According to a government source ‘eleven terrorists were killed and others were wounded in widespread combing operations and strikes by military and security units yesterday against gatherings of Houthi terrorists in a number of areas.’
The source said several of the rebels were killed by sniper fire, while others died when a bomb exploded prematurely.
Rebels said a child was also killed in a Saudi airstrike.
The rebels, who often report attacks by Yemeni and Saudi warplanes, said in an emailed statement they had also repulsed several advances by Saudi troops on their positions near the Yemen-Saudi border, killing an unspecified number of soldiers and blowing up a Saudi tank and armoured vehicle.
‘The Saudi army tried for a second time to infiltrate into a northwest village without firecover, and they were detected and repelled,’ the rebels said.
They said rebels had also attacked ten Saudi soldiers in a mountainous area near the border, killing some while others fled, and that Saudis had pounded rebel positions with rockets.
A Saudi Defence Ministry spokesman, Ibrahim al-Malek, said he doubted the rebel claims: ‘If it was true, we would have issued a statement about it. That is why I highly doubt it is true.’
Riyadh is an ally of Yemen but denies providing it with military aid, saying it only defends its own territory against the rebels.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called a high-level international meeting in London at the end of the month to discuss countering radicalisation in Yemen.
