Shia rebels have kidnapped 15 local aid workers, and government forces and rebels clashed today in northern Yemen as days of fighting continued, a government official said.
Followers of rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi took Red Crescent doctors, nurses, officials and administrators from a refugee camp yesterday, said Hassan al-Manna, governor of Saada province.
The rebels have displaced around 17,000 families from their homes in the mountainous northern province of Saada over the past four days, the governor said, according to the Yemeni Defence Ministry website.
Yemen yesterday issued the rebels with the terms of a ceasefire to end a government offensive against them in the north of the mainly Sunni Muslim Arab country.
The rebels rejected the truce offer and denied holding any kidnapped civilians.
Officials say the rebels want to restore a form of clerical rule prevalent in Yemen until the 1960s. The rebels say they are defending their villages against government oppression.
The government ceasefire conditions included a rebel withdrawal, the removal of their checkpoints and the clarification of the fate of kidnapped foreigners.
They also required rebels to return captured military and civilian equipment, hand over those behind the June kidnapping of nine foreigners and refrain from intervening in local authority affairs.
Fighting between Yemeni troops backed by fighter aircraft and Shia rebels killed and wounded dozens in the north of the country, local officials said on Wednesday.
As well as its battles with the Shia rebellion, Yemen, one of the poorest Arab countries, faces rising secessionist sentiment in the south and a wave of al-Qaeda attacks.
Reuters