Sana’a: Fighting in central Yemen between Al Houthi rebels and an influential tribe in the town of Radda killed at least 250 people over three days of clashes, security officials said on Monday.

The violence in Yemen’s central Bayda province saw fighters from the strong Qifa tribe force Al Houthis out of the Manasih area in Radda, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorised to speak to journalists.

Last week, Al Houthis entered Radda, some 200 kilometres south of the capital, Sana’a, after the commander of the army’s Battalion 193 gave up his troops positions. The commander is said to be a loyalist of the ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was deposed after the country’s 2011 uprising.

Late on Sunday, a suicide car bomber killed around 20 Al Houthi rebels in central Yemen, tribal sources said.

“The suicide bomber drove a car, attacking a group of Al Houthis in the Al Menassah district and killed 20 of them,” a tribal leader said on condition of anonymity, adding that a prominent tribal leader who had previously defected to the rebels’ side was among the dead.

Al Houthis, widely suspected of having links to Iran, gained control of Sana’a in September and have waged ongoing battles with opposing tribes and militants from Al Qaida’s Yemen branch.

A peace agreement signed between Al Houthis and the government so far has failed to end the fighting.

Meanwhile, Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi has lashed out at Al Houthis for the first time since they seized Sana’a.

“The armed expansion of Al Houthis in several provinces and areas under different unsubstantial excuses and slogans is incomprehensible nor acceptable after signing the peace and national partnership agreement,” Hadi said on Sunday.

Hadi spoke at a joint meeting of the National Defence Council attended by presidential advisers and the country’s newly nominated Prime Minister, Khalid Bahah.

Saleh and his party have joined ranks with Al Houthis against a common enemy — the Islamist Islah party and its allied tribe of Al Ahmar, traditional power brokers in Yemen.

The Al Houthi offensive has pushed Yemen into even deeper turmoil. Apart from the rampant Al Qaida insurgency and the rebel blitz, the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country has also endured crushing poverty that has bred resentment — and outright rebellion — that took root in a secessionist movement in its once-independent southern region.