Yemeni forces have killed over the weekend some 90 armed supporters of an anti-US preacher holding out in a remote mountainous area of the country.
The latest deaths brings to about 300 the number of people killed in a month of fighting between the army and supporters former MP Hussein Badr al-Din al-Hothi.
On Saturday, the Yemeni army also captured 18 fighters in Saadah, including a senior aide of al-Hothi, an official source in the northern province said.
The source said the captured men were immediately taken to Sana'a aboard a military plane.
Military sources said tribal gunmen loyal to the army have advanced toward al-Hakami, a most heavily fortified mountain. "The control of the mount is now imminent," said the source, according to SABA news.
Last Friday the army announced the capture of the commander of al-Howthi's bodyguards.
Meanwhile, President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Saturday that "foreign intelligence" mastermind the rebellion.
"This is never a sectarian strife nor a rivalry for power. It is a work of alien intelligence," said the President addressing veterans of Majlisu Shaab al-Taaseesi, the body that elected him to power on 17 July 1978, as they came to congratulate him on his 26 years in power.
"It is not a rivalry for power. I have devoted myself to this nation, chose freedom and democracy and peaceful taking of power."
"What is happening in a patch between 3-4 kms, in Saada, is but a collaboration, not incited by sectarian thought. It is a work of foreign intelligence," Saleh reiterated. (albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
