Three leaders of the Shia Zaidi rebellion in northern Yemen were killed in a dawn attack on Friday on their hideouts in Saada province, centre of the rebellion, a military statement said. "Leaders of the rebellion, among the most dangerous terrorist elements, were killed" in the attack at Malahidh, Yemen's official Saba newsagency cited the statement as saying.
The report named the men as Jarallah Mohammed Ismail, Ali Abd Rabbo Jabal and Abdel Aziz al-Uraimi. Government forces have been waging operation "Scorched Earth" against the Zaidi rebels since August 11. A recent deployment of elite marksmen to the conflict zones "has inflicted enormous losses" on rebel forces, the army statement said.
Friday's assault destroyed or damaged several vehicles delivering weapons and food to the rebels' mountain strongholds in Saada province, and government forces also removed barriers the rebels had put across main roads to halt the army's advance, the statement added. In a video clip broadcast by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television, the Yemeni rebels accused the government of using phosphorus bombs in their campaign in Saada province.
They also alleged Saudi Arabia is providing military support to Sanaa. In the video clip, an unidentified person says the rebels have seized weapons and ammunition abandoned by government forces near Malahidh and "most, including shells, are Saudi."
He showed a weapon appearing to carry an emblem of the Saudi kingdom. Saba cited the military statement as denying that the rebels had seized Saudi weapons belonging to Yemen's army. "They are lies without foundation," the statement said.
On Wednesday the leader of the rebellion threatened a war of attrition the day after the government refused his offer of a truce. In a statement released in Sanaa, Abdel-Malek al-Huthi said that by their refusal, "the authorities have missed the chance" to end the confrontation and "they will be responsible for the consequences of the war."
Huthi threatened to implement a "much longer war of attrition" and promised the government "big surprises." Thousands of people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in intermittent fighting between the government forces and rebels since 2004. An offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Zaidis - also known as Huthis - are a minority in mainly Sunni Yemen but form the majority community in the north. They want to restore the imamate overthrown in a 1962 coup.
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