Sanaa: Twenty-five gunmen have been killed
in three days of fighting between tribesmen and Shiite rebels
in Yemen's troubled north, an official said on Sunday.
The clashes flared Friday in the province of Hajja, just
a day after 20 other gunmen were killed in fighting between
Sunni Salafists and Zaidi Shiite rebels in a separate northern
town, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Tribes involved in the latest fighting, which took place
in Hajja's Wadi Misyar region, are aligned with the Sunni
fundamentalists that have for months been battling Shiites in
the country's north, the official added.
Fighting between Sunni fundamentalists and Huthi rebels
has also raged in the northern town of Dammaj, where a
Salafist Islamic teaching school was besieged by the Shiite
rebels.
At least 71 people were been killed in clashes that
erupted in mid-October, a spokesman for the Dar al-Hadith
school said in late December.
In 2004, Zaidi Shiites, who regularly complain of
inequality and marginalisation by the central government,
rebelled against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime.
Thousands of Yemenis were killed before a ceasefire was
declared in February 2010.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, January 15, 2012, 21:22