30 killed in renewed fighting in Yemen

Government soldiers and Shiite rebels are fighting again in northern Yemen, breaking a 6-month-old cease-fire with clashes that have killed more than 30 people, government officials and rebels said Thursday.

Yemen, a poor country at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, has struggled with a three-year insurgency that has killed thousands on both sides. This is the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden but the Shiite rebels are not linked to his Sunni-dominated al-Qaida network, whose members have also carried out attacks in Yemen.

The new bloodshed broke out last week, with Yemeni troops shelling villages in Saada province, a Shiite rebel stronghold, a local government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to journalists.

He said fighting had escalated in the preceding 24 hours, with guerrillas staging dawn attacks on army camps nestled in the nearby Marran mountains. Soldiers responded with artillery, helicopter and tank cannon, he said.

More than 30 people were killed, the official said.

An aide to rebel leader Abdel Malak al-Hawthi said at least 12 Shiites — a mix of rebels and civilians — had been killed. He also insisted on speaking anonymously.

Last June, the government of Qatar helped broker a cease-fire between Yemen's administration and rebels who accuse Yemeni leaders of being corrupt and too close to the West. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Salih has declared support for the U.S.-led war on extremist groups.

The cease-fire called for the government to free rebel detainees, pay compensation to victims and rebuild villages ravaged by more than three years of fighting.

In exchange, rebels promised to turn over their weapons and expel al-Hawthi from the country. The rebel leader has refused to go, however, and accuses the government of not fulfilling its obligations.

The rebellion began in June 2004, when cleric Hussein Badr Eddin al-Hawthi ordered his followers to challenge the government. Al-Hawthi, brother of the rebels' current leader, was killed in a battle later that year.