Sana’a: Ten Yemeni soldiers have been killed, most of them by snipers, and 18 wounded in a fresh outbreak of fighting with Zaidi Shias in north Yemen, a military official said yesterday.
According to Ahlul Bayt News Afency (ABNA), The fighting took place around the northern city of Saada, in Harf Sufyan, which lies to the south of the city, and in the Malahidh border area, the official said on condition of anonymity.
He added that most of those killed were shot by snipers.
The official also said that a group of several hundred Yemeni soldiers who were besieged by Houthis in the mountains southeast of Saada were able to break out of the cordon yesterday.
The official said there “were casualties” in the fighting, but did not elaborate.
Houths, meanwhile, reported the deaths of two children in what they said was Saudi shelling near the border in northern Yemen. The children, aged five and 10, were killed when one of almost 150 shells fired by the Saudi army towards positions near the border crashed into their farm, the Zaidi Shias said in a statement on their website.
The Yemeni government on Saturday announced a timetable for the implementation of a ceasefire, after the Houthis accepted six conditions for an end to the fighting.
The details of the timetable were transmitted to Shia leader Abdul Malak Al Huthi through a go-between, presidential adviser Abdul Karim Al Ariania said.
Sana’a wants the Houthis to withdraw from official buildings and abandon military posts in the mountains, reopen roads in the north, return weapons seized from security services, free all military and civilian prisoners, including Saudis, respect the law and the constitution and pledge not to attack Saudi Arabia.
The government and the Shias, also known as Huthis, have engaged in sporadic fighting since 2004.
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