YEMEN CLASHES LEAVE 25 PEOPLE DEAD

Sana’a, 5 Sya’ban 1435/3 June 2014 (MINA) – At least 25 people have been killed and dozens of others injured in clashes between Yemeni troops and Houthi fighters in an area near the capital Sana’a.

According to tribal and medical sources on Monday, seven Yemeni soldiers and 18 Houthi fighters were killed in the clashes. The sources further said that 16 Yemeni soldiers were wounded in the fighting, Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

They also noted that the deadly confrontation began as troops tried to expel a group of Houthis from a strategic area near the city of Amran.

Yemen’s Houthi movement, which draws its name from the tribe of its founding leader Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, has been fighting against the central government in Sana’a for years.

The Shia fighters blame the government for political, economic, and religious marginalization of the country’s Shia community and violating their civil rights.

In February, the Yemeni government agreed to transform the impoverished Arab state into a federation as part of a political transition.

This would create four regions in the north and two in the south. But the government’s plan was flatly rejected by both the separatists in the south and the Houthi fighters, who argue that the initiative would divide Yemen into rich and poor regions.

The Houthi movement also played a key role in the popular revolution that forced former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down in February 2012. (T/P012/E01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)