Yemen accuses rebels of kidnapping 15 aid workers (Roundup)

Aug 14, 2009, 12:04 GMT

Sana'a, Yemen - The provincial governor of the north-western Yemeni province of Saada accused Shiite rebels Friday of abducting 15 local aid workers from a refugee camp in the volatile province.

The governor, Hassan Manna'a, told the state TV that the rebels attacked the refugee camp in the al-Anad district late on Thursday and took 15 local doctors, nurses and workers at gunpoint.

The camp houses around 7,000 people displaced by the confrontations between the rebels and government forces. He said the hostages had been working for the Yemeni Red Crescent.

The governor further said the rebels, known as Houthis, forced around 17,000 families to leave their villages in 10 districts of the province's 15 districts, since the army began its military operation against the rebel strongholds four days ago.

Government officials in Sana'a told the German Press Agency dpa that authorities cut off all communications with Saada Friday to isolate the rebels.

Authorities announced on Thursday six conditions for halting the massive military attack against the rebels in Saada, some 240 kilometres north-west of Sana'a.

The conditions included the rebels' withdrawal from all districts of Saada and mountainous sites and giving up military hardware they have seized from the army, the official Saba news agency said.

Also among the conditions was a call for the rebels to clarify the fate of a German family of five and a British engineer taken hostage in Saada in June.

The committee said authorities would stop the military offensive against the rebels and release all detainees seized on suspicion of having links to the rebel group if the rebels complied with the conditions set for peace.

Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the rebel leader, rejected the conditions in a statement, saying that the government was seeking to 'mislead the public opinion' by setting them.

He called on the government to comply with the ceasefire agreement inked by the two parties in the Qatari capital Doha in June 2007.

Scores of insurgents and civilians were killed since the army began its onslaught on strongholds of the Houthi rebel group on the border with Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

The offensive included aerial, artillery and missile strikes on the strategic heights of Matra and Dhahian, the two main strongholds of the rebels.

The Supreme Security Committee said in a statement that the assault was 'the last option after the rebels rejected the call of peace made by the government.'

It vowed to strike the rebels with an 'iron fist' until they give themselves up to authorities.

On Wednesday, authorities imposed a state of emergency in the volatile district.

Tensions have been rising between the Houthis, and the army in Saada since last July when President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared the conflict over.

Five waves of fierce fighting between the rebels and the military have left hundreds of soldiers and insurgents dead since 2004.

Authorities have accused the rebels of trying to reinstall the rule of imams, toppled by a republican revolution in northern Yemen in 1962.

The Houthis belong to the Zaidi sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.