Yemeni forces kill Shiite rebels

SANA'A // Yemeni forces killed 19 rebels in a military operation to rid a northern town of Shiite rebel hideouts, and the insurgents said their civilian population was the target of a deliberate campaign of deadly violence. Security forces mounted house-to-house sweeps in the old city of Saada, where rebels from the Houthi tribe had been taking refuge in homes, Yemen's Interior Ministry said on its website. Some 25 were arrested, it said.

It did not say if there were any civilian casualties. The operation, dubbed "Blow to the Head", was continuing against rebels who have fought Yemen's government since 2004, complaining of social, economic and religious marginalisation. The government did not say when the sweeps began. Yemen, the Arab world's poorest nation, came to the foreground of US-led efforts to battle militancy after a Yemen-based wing of al Qa'eda said it was behind a failed December 25 plot to bomb a US plane.

As well as its fight against the Shiite rebels, the Yemeni government also faces separatist sentiment in the south and is fighting a resurgent al Qa'eda in multiple provinces. The Shiite revolt drew in Saudi Arabia after a cross-border rebel raid into the world's biggest oil exporter in November. "The 'Blow to the Head' operation to cleanse the old city of Saada of nests of Houthis that had occupied houses of a number of citizens in the city achieved all of its goals of annihilating these destructive dens of Houthi rebel gangs," the ministry said.

Yemeni rebels from the minority Shiite Zaidi sect have said they were the target of a series of Saudi air strikes in recent days, and that their positions were also frequently pounded by mortars by Yemeni forces. The leader of the rebels accused their enemies, whom they did not name, of intentionally targeting civilians as a means of pressing for an end to their fight. "It is clear, brothers, that the enemies made the targeting civilians a basic strategy, and are trying through that to pressure us because they know our humanity and morals and our pain for our civilians," rebel leader Abdul Malik al Houthi said.

He cited a series of strikes in December that he said killed more than 50 women and children, and said civilians had been attacked previously in their homes, markets and mosques by US, Saudi and Yemeni planes in what he termed "joint aggression". The conflict in Yemen's mountainous north has killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands. * Reuters