Yemeni Shia rebels turned over two captive Saudi soldiers to Yemeni authorities on Thursday as part of efforts to end a long-running conflict in northern provinces bordering Saudi Arabia, a government official said. "The two were handed over to the Yemeni government and are in the hands of the truce committee. They will be handed over to the Saudi side shortly," the official told Reuters.
He gave no information on when two remaining Saudi soldiers might be freed. Riyadh, sucked into the fighting with rebels in November, has said returning the soldiers would help prove their captors were serious about ending their conflict with Saudi Arabia.
The "Houthi" insurgents, named after their leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, offered Riyadh a truce last month and released one Saudi soldier earlier this week. A former Yemeni prime minister, Haidar al-Attas, who lives in Saudi Arabia, mediated a deal under which the Houthis would hand over the Saudi soldiers to the Yemeni government, a source close to the talks said. Under the agreement, the Saudis would also hand over rebel prisoners to the Yemeni government.
Yemen, the poorest Gulf Arab country, also faces separatist unrest in the south and is trying to crush al Qaeda militants who have been recruiting and training in the country, emboldened by instability and weak government control in many regions.
Yemeni troops will deploy on the Saudi border on Saturday under a separate ceasefire deal aimed at ending seven months of fighting with the Houthis, a member of a truce committee said. "We expect that the engineering teams will complete the removal of mines on Friday and that the army will deploy on the border with Saudi Arabia starting from Saturday," he said.
International donors met in London last month to discuss how to help Yemen tackle al Qaeda after Yemeni-based militants said they were behind the failed December 25 bombing of a US airliner. Pledging broad support for Yemen, they also pressed for an end to the conflict in the north to make it easier for billions of dollars of previously promised foreign aid to be disbursed. Gulf Arab and other donors plan to meet again in Riyadh on February 27-28 to discuss aid and reforms with the Sanaa government.