SANAA (Jalal al-Sharaabi, AlArabiya.net)
The office of the Zaidi insurgency leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi accused the Yemeni government of hiring American commandos to crush his opposition group, a claim dismissed by security sources, Al Arabiya reports.
In a written statement obtained on Saturday, Al-Houthi's office alleged that Yemeni security forces are holding clandestine meetings in the northern Saada governorate, to identify strategies to target the Houthi movement and its leader.
The statement said plans include operations by U.S. commandos and special forces paratroopers carrying out heavy bombardment of the movement's strongholds.
"We have reliable information from inside the camps that there are foreigners, and we know exactly what their mission is, especially as far as war tactics and missile launching are concerned," Abdul-Malik al-Houthi told AlArabiya.net in a phone interview.
In addition, more than 30 rocket missiles had arrived in Saada accompanied by Yemeni Republican Guard officers and senior American military staff under the pretext of "fighting terrorism," the statement added.
Al-Houthi said the American presence was a flagrant violation of Yemeni sovereignty, adding that the problem would never be solved militarily.
The claims were later dismissed by a high-level security official, who told AlArabiya.net they only demonstrated the growing weakness of the insurgency.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that al-Houthi's accusations "are nothing but excuses to evade his commitment to the Doha treaty and abort the Qatari mediation."
Meanwhile, confrontations in Saada between the government and the rebels claimed the lives of 4 and injured 6 in an attack of the Houthi movement on one of the government camps.
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid). |
