France

AFP – Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday accused the northern Shiite rebels of rejecting a February truce, through repeated acts of aggression.

“In their latest acts of aggression, the Huthi rebels attacked the MP Saghir Bin Abdel Aziz in his home and army units,” Saleh said in a speech reported by the state news agency Saba.

“The state has abstained from all military action, while knowing that the rebels are pursuing other plans, as advocates of war who do not want peace.”

“We will, however, insist on implementing the six provisions (of the truce) and on returning to peace,” he said, adding that he hoped to see Qatar “convince the rebels to apply the points of the ceasefire.”

The army and the rebels, who are known as Huthis, have been fighting off and on since 2004. In February both sides agreed to a truce that ended a six-month round of fighting.

Earlier in July Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani visited Yemen, and said Doha was prepared to help safeguard the country’s unity and consolidate the truce, an offer welcomed by the rebels.

Meanwhile on Saturday Yemen’s security commission, which is responsible for ensuring compliance with the ceasefire agreement, accused the rebels of repeated violations.

These have included “killing and wounding numerous citizens, kidnapping others, cutting off roads, dynamiting houses and looting property,” a spokesman for the commission was quoted as saying by Saba.

He said the rebels had for two months surrounded Aziz’s house, in the Al-Amishiya region of the northern province of Amran, killing 12 people, wounding 55 and capturing 228 soldiers.

The rebels on Wednesday announced that they had freed 200 soldiers they had captured two days earlier and promised to release other prisoners.

Source: France24 – TOP STORIES