The death toll from clashes in Yemen has climbed to 50, after 19 insurgent forces were killed in fresh clashes in Saada province. The Zaidi group chief Abdul Malak al-Huthi, has blamed the army for the renewed bloodshed in northwestern Yemen that broke out Friday. A local Yemeni official in anonymity said six soldiers were wounded in the fighting in the Haydan district village of Dafaa for control of the camp.
The clashes erupted when army assault was launched to regain Dafaa military camp, which has been controlled by the opposition group for the past three months, al-Huthi said. "The renewed tension is due to the repeated aggressions of the army ... which is using tanks and other weapons ... in unjustified operations" in the mountainous province of Saada, Huthi told RMC Middle East. "Military chiefs refuse to bring an end to the war because it serves their interests," he charged, while at the same time denying any links between the revolt and Iran.
The dissident group are fighting to restore a Zaidi Shia imamate, which was overthrown in a 1962 republican coup in Yemen. The group is known as Huthis after the death of their late commander Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi who was killed in September 2004.