Yemen rebel chief mocks death reports

The chief of Shiite rebels in northern Yemen appeared in a video posted on the internet yesterday denying his own death in a military air strike in December, as claimed by the government.

"All these allegations are fabricated and baseless," Abdul Malek al-Huthi said in the video in response to the reports that he had been either killed or wounded.

"These allegations are intended to justify the massacres of civilians committed by the authorities," he said of an intensified government military offensive against the rebels since late last year.

Mr Huthi appears in the video with his head uncovered and wearing a dark jacket over a white robe, with a traditional Yemeni curved dagger on his belt. It is unclear when the footage was taken.

Reports about his death or serious injury, often distributed by the authorities in Sanaa, have circulated in recent weeks. But they have been denied by the rebels, who are also known as Zaidis or Huthis.

One such report was on December 27, when a website linked to the defence ministry said Mr Huthi may have been killed and buried following an air raid.

"There are increasing reports of the death of the terrorist Abdul Malek al-Huthi, who suffered serious injuries in a raid" in the northern mountainous province of Saada, www.26sep.net said at the time.

"Information indicates that he was buried in Jebel Talan... near the house of one of the relatives of the Huthi family, Ahmed al-Hadawi," it said.

A week earlier, Sep26.net said Huthi had been hit in an air strike and forced to leave Matra, southeast of Saada town, after delegating a relative named Youssef Madani to head the rebels.

The Sanaa government has been engaged in sporadic fighting with the rebels since 2004.