After three month of siege, killing of 600, Sanaa kills al-Houthi
Yemen, Politics, 9/11/2004

The Yemeni authorities took three months to eliminate the rebellion of the Zeidi clergy Hussein Bader Eddine al-Houthi and hundreds of his supporters in Marran mountains in Saddah province to the northern west of the country and announced his killing together with 200 of his supporters. This, however, increases the number of the killed between the two sides since the eruption of the fighting on June 18 to 800 persons and detention of 3,000 persons of al-Houthi supporters.

After 2000 members of the Yemeni army launched the last attack on the rebels, Yemeni security sources said that al-Houthi was killed ater the security forces and armored vehicled imposed a three day siege on a series of caves in Haidan. His body and bodies of many of his aides were found in a cave in Salman area after a strong fighting yesterday morning. Also several Yemeni government security men were killed by Sanaa disclosed not its losses.

In a joint official statement, the Yemeni ministries of defense and the interior said following the announcement of killing al-Houthi that "thanks to the cooperation of all civilian people with the armed and security forces and the groups of volunteers, all military and security operations concluded in ending the rebellion, and the sedition it flared was eliminated." The statement said that "several members who were with him and fought beside him including many of his brothers and family members were arrested and all places where they were hiding in Marran of Haidan district in Sadaah governorate are controlled."

The Yemeni army killed al-Houthi brother, Abdul Malik, during violent confrontations in August, while another brother called Abdul Karim was detained. The third brother Yahya, a parliamentarian, took place in the mediation for the surrender of the Islamic advocate but his efforts and other mediations were doomed to failure. The Yemeni authorities accused al-Houthi of provoking sectarianism and damaging national unity and peace, and announced a reward of $ 55,000 to the one who helps in detaining him. Al-Houthi denied that, and considered that his hostility to the US is the reason behind his conflict with Sanaa.

Al-Houthi was a parliamentarian between 1993- 1997. He is the son of a prominent figure in the Zeidi sect which constitutes the majority in northern Yemen. He was running the "believing youths" forum which was established in 1997, following a split in the opposition Islamic al-Haq ( the rightful) movement.

Previous Stories:
  Zeibari in Yemen ignores the question of dispatching forces to Iraq   (9/9/2004)
  Yemen: closure of an opposition paper   (9/6/2004)
  Yemeni army fighting continue with al-Houthi supporters   (9/3/2004)

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