SANAA: Two Yemeni soldiers were killed yesterday as they deployed to police a truce between Shia rebels and hardline Sunnis in the north, a military official said.
“A mine exploded as a military vehicle passed by, killing one soldier instantly and grievously wounding another who died later,” the source said.
The explosion came as the soldiers were moving in to place themselves between Zaidi Shia rebels and Salafist fighters in the town of Dammaj, the official said.
The deployment was taking place under a ceasefire obtained by the presidency and parliament to separate the two groups that have battled sporadically since the end of last month.
Fighting has centred on a Salafist mosque and Koranic school in Dammaj that has been besieged by the rebels, known as Huthis after their leading family.
Huthis have been battling the central government for nearly a decade in remote Saada province, but the latest fighting between the rebels and the Salafists has given an added sectarian dimension to the clashes.
As part of the truce — the third since the fighting erupted — supplies would be sent to the surrounded Salafists, one mediator said.
In Shahr, in the extremist stronghold of Hadramawt province, authorities arrested four female Al Qaeda suspects as they attempted to flee the scene of deadly clashes between police and jihadists.
The women, three of them Saudis, were arrested on Wednesday as they tried to flee a house the source said.
Al Qaeda suspects hiding in two houses had opened fire at police searching the area, and three people from each side were killed, police said on Wednesday.
AFP
