10 Killed In Clashes Over Control Of Yemen Mosque
SANA'A, Yemen (AFP)--Ten people have been killed in clashes over control of a
north Yemen mosque between Shiite Zaidi rebels and militants from the country's
main Sunni opposition party, both groups said Monday.
They said the violence erupted late Saturday between Huthi rebels and the
Islamist party Al-Islah.
"Huthis attacked the Zine al-Abidin mosque in Zahra to take it over, killing
three members of Al-Islah," the Islamist party's chairman Abdel Hamid Ameur told
AFP.
He added that shortly afterwards an attack on mourners for the three victims
resulted in the deaths of another two Al-Islah members, sparking clashes in
which five rebels were also killed.
Rebel spokesman Mohammad Abdel-Salam confirmed the incident to AFP, but also
expressed surprise at the incident: "We have good relations with Al-Islah," he
said.
An official in the mixed Sunni-Shiite population city of Zahra, in Al-Jawf
province, said mediation by an opposition socialist official brought an end to
the confrontation.
Al-Islah, led by Sadok Abdullah al-Ahmar, is the second largest grouping in
the Yemeni parliament, with 62 lawmakers, just behind the ruling General
People's Congress party of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Among Al-Islah's top members is Sheikh Abdel Majid al-Zendani, its second most
senior official, who runs an Islamic university described by its critics as a
hotbed of radicalism.
The festering Shiite Zaidi rebellion in mountainous north Yemen's Saada
province is led by Abdel Malek al-Huthi.
Clashes between government forces and the rebels, who want to restore the
Zaidi imamate overthrown in a republican coup in 1962, have led to thousands of
deaths since the uprising broke out in 2004.
The insurgents are known as Huthis after their late commander, Hussein Badr
Eddin al-Huthi, who was killed by the army in September 2004. Hussein was
succeeded as field commander by his brother.
An offshoot of Shiite Islam, Zaidis are a minority in mainly Sunni Yemen but
form the majority in the north.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
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