Yemeni security forces besieging an anti-US rebel cleric have killed his deputy and 11 other supporters in the last two days, bringing the death toll in two weeks of clashes to 130, official sources said yesterday. One source told Reuters government forces had killed 11 followers of Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi in the last 48 hours and that 185 of his supporters had also surrendered peacefully over the last few days. The newspaper September 26 separately said Houthiâs deputy Mohammad Ali Muslih had also been killed. Muslih had replaced Zaid bin Ali Al-Houthi who was killed on Tuesday.
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The government accuses Houthi of setting up unlicensed religious centers in Saada and other provinces and forming what it described as an underground armed group called the âBelieving Youthâ, which has staged violent protests against the United States and Israel. President Ali Abdullah Saleh urged Houthi on Saturday to turn himself in and end the fighting which has claimed the lives of 98 rebels and 32 government troops in Saada province, 240 km north of the capital Sanaa. Saleh told Muslim scholars he had only sent forces to besiege Houthi in the mountainous region after he refused to be taken into custody and stand trial for âharming Yemenâs stability and interestsâ. The president said Houthiâs group had attacked mosques, urged Yemenis to arm themselves against possible attacks by the United States and that the cleric had said in his lectures that democracy would bring a Jewish leader to power in Yemen. |