Sanaa: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh
has said the army will use new tactics to crush a Shiite
rebellion in the north of the country, the official Saba news
agency reported on Thursday.
"I am sure that we will manage, in the weeks to come, to
clean up these regions," the news agency quoted Saleh as
saying of rebel strongholds in the rugged Saada region on the
Saudi border.
"We have the experience," Saleh told soldiers yesterday
as they prepared to be sent to the battlefront, where Zaidi
rebels, also known as Huthis, have been locked in fierce
fighting with government troops.
"I am sure we will bring an end to this sedition," said
Saleh, a Zaidi himself.
"But nevertheless we will change our tactics and our
military strategies in order to root out the rebels and put a
final end to their criminal acts."
There have been no reliable casualty figures since Yemen
launched "Operation Scorched Earth" against the rebels more
than two weeks ago, but the rebels say that dozens of
civilians have been killed.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said last
week that around 35,000 people have been displaced by the
fighting.
An offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Zaidis are a minority in
mainly Sunni Yemen but form the majority community in the
north and want to overthrow the imamate overthrown in a 1962
coup.
Bureau Report
