Yemen: Yemeni forces killed 10 supporters of anti-US rebel cleric Hussein al-Houthi yesterday and tightened their siege of his mountain stronghold, a government official said.
The latest fighting raised the death toll in two weeks of clashes in the northern Saada province to at least 140.
"The siege is getting tighter and tighter around Houthi and his supporters. Ten of them were killed today and another eight were wounded," the official said.
The government accuses Houthi, a leader of the Zaidi Shia sect, of setting up unlicensed religious centres in Saada and other provinces and forming what it described as an underground armed group called the "Believing Youth", which has staged violent protests against the United States and Israel.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh urged Houthi on Saturday to turn himself in and end the fighting which has claimed the lives of 108 rebels and 32 government troops in Saada province, 240 km north of the capital Sanaa.
President Saleh told Muslim scholars he had only sent forces to besiege Houthi after he refused to be taken into custody and stand trial for "harming Yemen's stability and interests".
The president said Houthi's group had attacked mosques and urged Yemenis to arm themselves against possible attacks by the United States.
The cleric had also said in his lectures that democracy would bring a Jewish leader to power in Yemen.
Sources close to Houthi have put the death toll from the clashes, which began on June 20th, at about 200.
Anti-US sentiment is high in the region over the US-led occupation of Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. -(Reuters)