Yemeni security officials said yesterday the countryâs military forces were closing in on an anti-US cleric and scores of his armed followers in a remote mountainous area in the north of the country. âSecurity forces in collaboration with armed forces today cornered cleric Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi and his followers,â in Saada province, about 250 kilometers north of Sanaa, said a security source quoted by the state-run Saba news agency. According to the source, some Al-Houthi followers were arrested, while others surrendered to authorities voluntarily. Mediation between the cleric and government forces reached a deadlock Sunday after authorities said the besieged religious leader refused to surrender. Authorities blame Al-Houthi for protests against the United States and Israel in mosques of Saada and the capital Sanaa.
The central government deployed hundreds of troops last week in Marran and launched a massive chase for Al-Houthi, a former MP and a leader of the Shiite sect. Security officials said that during fierce clashes that erupted on June 21, some 62 people including seven soldiers were killed. Sixty-eight followers of the cleric have been arrested. Al-Houthi is also accused of âreceiving a Samoan foreign financial aid aiming at disturbing the countryâs security and stability,â according to an Interior Ministry statement. |