Shiite rebels kill 11 in northern Yemen ambush: ministry

Jul 15, 2010, 19:22 GMT

Sana'a, Yemen - Shiite rebels ambushed a convoy of police officers and tribesmen loyal to the government in a restive northern Yemeni province, killing 11 people including three officers, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

The rebels, known as Houthis after the family of their leaders, ambushed a police vehicle carrying food supplies in the Majaz district of Saada province, killing three officers on Wednesday, the ministry said in a statement.

The assailants 'fired a hail of bullets' at the convoy, the ministry said.

It said eight pro-government tribesmen accompanying the vehicle were also killed in the attack that the ministry said was intended to 'hamper efforts to bring peace to the Saada province.'

Houthi sources were not available for comment.

Fighting between Shiite rebels and government forces has continued sporadically in the north-western Saada province since mid-2004. The two sides signed a truce in February, but both sides have since been accusing each others of violating it.

Waves of clashes since mid-2004 have left hundreds of government troops and rebels dead and displaced around 350,000 civilians from their villages.

Saada is a remote mountainous province located the border with Saudi Arabia, some 230 kilometres north of the capital Sana'a.

The ministry said the rebels have committed 635 ceasefire violations since the truce took effect in February, including attacks on military and police personnel and setting up checkpoints on main roads in the volatile province.

On Tuesday, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Qatar would resume its mediation efforts to cement the fragile truce.

The Qatari mediation would be based on a 2007 Qatari-brokered peace agreement signed by representatives of the Yemeni government and the rebels in Doha, Saleh told reporters after talks with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, in Sana'a.

Yemeni officials declared the collapse of the Qatari mediation in August 2009, accusing the rebels were unwilling to abide by its terms.

Under the Qatari-sponsored peace deal, signed in Doha in June 2007, the rebels should vacate their locations in the mountains of Saada, while the government in turn would gradually release detained rebels.

The agreement also provides for rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi and his two brothers, Yahay and Abdul-Kareem, to live in exile in Qatar.

Yemeni officials have repeatedly accused the Houthis of trying to topple the republican regime and re-establish the rule of the Zaidi Imamate, a royal regime that was overthrown by a revolution in 1962.

The Houthis belong mostly to the Zaidi sect of Islam, which is regarded a moderate sect.