Sana’a: The death toll from a Shiite Al Houthi attack on a mountain town in north Yemen held by their Salafist Sunni rivals has risen to 24, a Salafist spokesman said on Thursday as the two sides fought for a second day.
Fighting erupted despite government mediation efforts to shore up a ceasefire in place since late last year in a province long beyond the control of the authorities in Sana’a, capital of the turbulent Arabian Peninsula state.
Salafist spokesman Abu Esmail Al Hajouri said more than 100 people were also wounded in the town of Damaj, which he said the Al Houthi rebels, who dominate the northern province of Sa’ada, had besieged for weeks.
He said most of the casualties had been inflicted in the past two days when rockets and tank shells hit a mosque and dormitories for students at a nearby religious school. He said Salafists were fighting back with light automatic weapons.
There was no independent account of the clashes and no immediate report on any Al Houthi casualties.
The Red Cross called for an immediate halt to the fighting to allow emergency assistance for the injured and to assess the humanitarian situation.
“We are in contact with all sides to ensure an end to the fighting and our team is in Saadeh and ready to enter the area, but cannot in light of the fighting,” a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Sana’a said.
An Al Houthi statement late on Wednesday accused the Salafists of igniting strife by bringing thousands of foreign fighters to Damaj, which lies near Sa’ada, a Al Houthi-controlled city near the Saudi border 130km north of the Yemeni capital.
The Salafists say the foreigners are students there to study Islamic theology in a seminary built in the 1980s.
“Many of the wounded are in serious condition and we can’t move them to hospitals because the Al Houthis are surrounding the area,” Hajouri, the Salafist spokesman, said by telephone.
The Al Houthis blockaded Damaj for weeks last year, accusing the Salafists of stockpiling weapons, a charge they deny.
A member of a mediation committee set up by President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi blamed the Al Houthis for the latest flare-up.
“The Al Houthis caught the Salafis by surprise when they bombed Damaj with heavy weapons,” he said, declining to be named. “We are trying to stop the confrontations.” Officials said fighting continued around Damaj on Thursday, and the government urged all parties to cease violence.
Long-running rebellion
Sa’ada province is the base for a long-running Al Houthi rebellion against the Yemeni government. Saudi Arabia’s military intervened in 2009 before a ceasefire took hold the year after.
The province has since fallen openly into Houthi hands with an Al Houthi-imposed governor.
