Yemen rebels offer truce, accept government terms - Summary

Sat, 30 Jan 2010

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemen's Shiite rebel groups announced a unilateral ceasefire with the national army on Saturday, a few days after they announced a truce with Saudi Arabia. Rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi made the announcement in an audiotape posted on the group's website, www.almenpar.net.

He said he accepts the government's conditions for an end to the army's offensive against the rebels, launched last summer.

Al-Houthis said his ceasefire offer intends to "stop the bloodshed" and "prevent Yemen from falling into a catastrophic situation."

The government has set out six conditions for it to halt its all- out attack against the rebels in Saada and Amran province.

The conditions included the end of hostilities by the insurgents, known as Houthis after their leader's family, and their withdrawal from all districts and mountainous positions and the surrendering of military hardware seized from the army.

The government also called for the rebels to give up their heavy and medium weapons and hand over military personnel they captured during the fighting.

One condition that was dropped was for a clarification from the rebels about the fate of a German family of five and a British engineer taken hostage in Saada in June.

The six people were among a group of foreign hostages - seven Germans, a Briton and a South Korean - abducted by armed men in Saada, where the rebels operate.

Three of the hostages - two German women and a South Korean woman teacher - were found dead two days after the abduction.

This condition was dropped after the Houthis insisted that they had nothing to do with the abduction.

Members of al-Houthi group have been battling the Yemeni government forces since mid-2004 in Saada, along the Saudi Arabia.

They say they are fighting against the Yemeni government's corruption and its alliance with the United States.

Army forces have been pounding rebel bases in Saada since August 11. The offensive included aerial, artillery and missile strikes on rebel strongholds in strategic heights overlooking the Saudi border.

The Sana'a government accuses the Houthis of trying to reinstall the rule of Shiite imams who were toppled by a republican revolution in northern Yemen in 1962.

In November, the rebels carried out a cross-border raid, killing a Saudi border guard, and drawing Saudi forces into the conflict.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/306719,yemen-rebels-offer-truce-accept-government-terms--summary.html.