At least three people were killed in fighting between rival Muslim clans in northern Yemen yesterday, a local official said, bringing the death toll from five days of clashes to 58 as the government tried to broker a ceasefire.

The battles between Shi’ite Muslim Houthi fighters and rivals from a Sunni Salafi group erupted last Wednesday in the mountainous Saada province, which has long been outside the control of the central Yemeni government.

Yemen’s stability is a priority for the US and its Gulf Arab allies because of its strategic position next to oil exporter Saudi Arabia and shipping lanes, and because is home to one of al-Qaeda’s most active wings.

The sectarian fighting in the north has cast a shadow over national reconciliation efforts launched this year after long-serving President Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to step down following a popular uprising in 2011.

Fighting cast shadow over reconciliation talks

The Salafis say the fighting began with a Houthi attack last week on their Damaj stronghold, about 40 kilometres from the Saudi border. All the 58 dead are from the Salafi side, according to a Salafi spokesman. The Houthis have reported no casualties.

The Houthis accuse the Salafis of igniting the strife by bringing thousands of foreign fighters into Damaj. The Salafis say the foreigners are students there to study Islamic theology.

The head of a presidential committee tasked with ending the fighting said Houthi fighters had stopped him and a Red Cross delegation from entering Damaj, despite an agreement to stop the fighting and evacuate the wounded.

“The Houthis are blocking the implementation of the ceasefire agreement,” Yehia Abuesbaa told Reuters by phone from a checkpoint at the entrance to Damaj.

Abuesbaa said the Houthis, who had won the release of six comrades held by pro-Salafi fighters from the Al-Ahmar clan in the neighbouring Omran province, had demanded the six be flown by an army helicopter to Saada before they allowed the evacuation of about 70 seriously injured people from Damaj.

Surour al-Wadi’i, a spokes-man for the Salafi group, said the Houthis were pushing ahead with their offensive on Damaj. “The fighting hasn’t stopped,” Wadi’i told Reuters by phone.

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