Dozens killed and wounded as Yemen ceasefire cracks

Dozens of people were killed or wounded in clashes between the army and Shiite rebels in northern Yemen yesterday when a ceasefire collapsed after only four hours, a military official said.

"The armed forces and rebels engaged in violent clashes overnight which continued until dawn yesterday in Malaheez and Hafr Sufyan" in Saada province, and Amran province further south, the source told AFP.

"Dozens of people have been killed and wounded in both camps," added the source who was contacted by telephone from Sanaa.

There was no official confirmation of the toll, and neither the army nor the Zaidi rebels have provided casualty figures since government forces launched operation 'Scorched Earth' on August 11.

Last Friday, the government said it would observe a ceasefire in response to requests from humanitarian agencies to help ensure the safety of civilians, and to an offer from the rebels to cooperate in that effort.

The Zaidi rebels said they were ready to cooperate with a UN plan for a "humanitarian corridor" to allow aid into areas where the fighting is taking place.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR has said Saada City is practically cut off from the outside world, and called for corridors to allow people out and aid in.

"The situation is deteriorating by the day," a UNHCR spokesman said last month, estimating that more than 35,000 people have been displaced in the latest fighting.

Around 150,000 people have been displaced since the rebellion first broke out five years ago, and thousands of people have died.

Late on Friday the government suspended its offensive - the sixth armed conflict with rebels since 2004 - and calm briefly returned to the mountainous Saada province, the rebels' stronghold.

But military officials said the insurgents - also known as Huthis - resumed operations just four hours after the 6 p.m. ceasefire took effect.

The rebels "planned an attack on army positions, and the army responded," a military source said.

They "broke (the ceasefire) and resumed their acts of sabotage in the Malaheez and Hafr Sufyan regions," a spokesman for the senior security commission said in a statement yesterday.

"They will suffer the consequences."

On Wednesday, rebel leader Abdel-Malek al-Huthi threatened a war of attrition after Sanaa rejected his offer of a truce, saying the authorities "will be responsible for the consequences of the war."

The brief halt in hostilities came hours after the military said three rebel leaders were killed in a Friday attack in Malaheez, during which vehicles delivering weapons and food to rebel strongholds were destroyed or damaged.

Fifteen rebels were also killed in a village northwest of Saada city on Friday afternoon, the military said.

Witnesses also reported that the army moved heavy reinforcements into Harf Sufyan over the two days preceding the ceasefire.