Sanaa, February 05: Shiite rebels in north Yemen said on Thursday 14 people, including women and children, had been killed by Saudi warplanes more than a week after the group pulled out of Saudi territory on the border.
“Women and children were among the 14 people killed when Saudi air strikes targeted several areas of north Yemen,” the Zaidi rebels, also known as Huthis, said in a statement on the Internet.
It added that on Wednesday alone Saudi artillery had fired more than 620 shells.
On January 25, rebel chief Abdul Malak al-Huthi said his men had withdrawn from the last positions they occupied inside Saudi Arabia after nearly three months of clashes. Riyadh said they had been chased out of its territory.
Clashes between Saudi forces and the Zaidis – the target of an all-out offensive launched by the Sanaa government last August – broke out after a Saudi border guard was killed by rebel infiltrators on November 3.
Yemen’s interior ministry said on its Internet website on Thursday that one rebel was killed in a clash with armed tribesmen in Al-Jawf province bordering Saada province, heartland of the rebellion.
On Tuesday the defence ministry website 26sep.net said at least 16 rebels, including senior members, were killed in separate clashes across Saada province.
The fighting came despite the Zaidis pledging on Tuesday not to attack Saudi Arabia — a key condition laid down by the Sanaa government to end its campaign against them.
On Saturday, Huthi offered to accept the government’s five-point truce terms if Sanaa halted attacks. Sanaa rejected the offer, saying he had not accepted a key condition: a promise to stop attacking Saudi territory.
—-Agencies