Sana’a: Fighting between Al Houthi rebels and Salafists in northern Yemen has killed more than 120 and a government official in charge of enforcing a ceasefire accused the Al Houthis of breaking the truce, a newspaper said on Sunday.
The latest round of fighting between the Houthis and Salafists has added to the challenges facing US allied Yemen, already grappling with a southern separatist movement and an insurgency by Islamist militants linked to Al Qaida.
Amin Al Hemyari, head of government observers monitoring a ceasefire reached last month, said the death toll among Salafists in the town of Damaj had risen to more than 120, with dozens wounded, the government-run Al Thawra newspaper said.
He said no casualty figures were available for the Al Houthis.
Clashes started after Al Houthi rebels, who control most of Saada province, accused the Salafists of massing thousands of fighters, including foreigners, in a religious school in Damaj with the aim of attacking them.
The Salafists say the foreigners are religious students who have travelled to study Islamic theology at the Dar Al Hadith academy, established in the 1980s.
Al Thawra also quoted the head of a presidential committee tasked with ending the fighting as saying Al Houthi fighters had seized two government soldiers monitoring the truce on Saturday on charges of delivering guns and ammunition to the Salafists.
“Shooting with light weapons has not stopped throughout the past few days,” Al Thawra quoted the committee head, Yehia Abuesbaa, as saying, adding the situation in Damaj was tragic, with bodies lying in the streets and residents suffering food shortages.
An Al Houthi spokesman was unavailable to comment on the report.
Abuesbaa also urged the leader of the Al Houthis, Abdul Malek Al Houthi, to enforce last month’s truce, Al Thawra said.
The Al Houthi rebel movement emerged in the early 2000s, claiming it would fight against what it saw as the marginalisation of Shiites of the Zaidi sect, which prevails in the Yemeni highlands. One of its grievances was the encroachment of Salafist doctrine in Zaidi areas.
