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| Arabia |
| Houthis capture 200 Yemeni soldiers: Official |
| 2010-07-28 |
| Autoedited by Rantburg [Al Arabiya Latest] Houthi rebels captured 200 Yemeni soldiers in the country's north where deadly fighting between the rebels and army-backed primitives is endangering a fragile truce, a military official said on Tuesday. The higher the corpse count the more fragile it gets... "Huthi (rebels) captured 200 soldiers," the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that "these soldiers belong to regiment 72 of the army's elite republican guard." On Monday, another military official said that the Houthis had captured some 70 soldiers after they seized a strategic army post in Al-Zaala, a day after six soldiers were killed in fighting between the rebels and a government-backed tribe in the tense north. Al-Zaala in Amran province controls the road between Sanaa and Saada, the rebels' secret lair. The rebels' front man Mohammed Abdul Salam declined to confirm the number of captured soldiers. "It might be true that there are prisoners, but no information is available on either their number or their fate." At least 70 people were reportedly killed last week in clashes that have rattled an already fragile truce agreed in February that ended a six-month round of fighting in the conflict between the rebels and the army, which started in 2004. The Houthis and the government have repeatedly exchanged accusations of violating the February ceasefire. |
| Posted by:Fred |