Global Arab Network | McCain visits Yemen amid fighting against Houthi rebels

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McCain visits Yemen amid fighting against Houthi rebels

Global Arab Network - - Adam Turner

Monday, 17 August 2009 22:56

A delegation of US senators led by John McCain has arrived in Yemen, amid the government's ongoing campaign against Houthi fighters in the country's northern Saada region.

The delegation held talks with Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Yemeni president, and discussed on Monday ways to help the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country battle the threat from al-Qaida.

The state SABA news agency said the American team and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh focused on "bilateral issues and fields of joint cooperation."

No details immediately emerged from the meeting, but McCain spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan confirmed earlier that the talks would include counterterrorism cooperation and Guantanamo detainees.

Yemen has been a professed U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism.

The delegation's visit to Yemen is part of a Middle East tour by the senators, which has included Iraqi Kurdistan.

The US has expressed concern over the fighting in northern Yemen.

Yemen, one of the poorest Arab countries, faces several challenges to its political stability, including rising secessionist sentiment in the south and periodic attacks by al-Qaeda.

The fighters, led by by members of the al-Houthi family, including Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, have recently accused government forces of using white phosphorous in their bombardments of the north.

The government has denied those reports and says it does not even have phosphorous weapons in its arsenal.

Mohammad Nasser Ahmed Ali, Yemen's defence minister, said on Sunday that the army had hit hard at the Houthi fighters.

"The elements of rebellion and terrorism in Saada ... have been hit hard today by the army," he said in an address to a military academy.

"They have incurred heavy losses and have been paralysed."

Government forces "have captured some of the rebels who will be brought to justice," he said without specifying the number of captive Zaidi fighters, also known as Houthis.

A Houthi leader and eight others were killed in fierce clashes during the day in the Harf Sufyan area of Amran province, south of Saada, local sources said.

Government forces have been trying since Thursday to open the road linking Saada to the capital Sanaa after rebels blocked it at Harf Sufyan, the defence ministry website quoted Sheikh Kahlan Abu Shawarib, mayor of Amran, as saying.

At least two soldiers and 16 rebels were reported killed on Friday.

Fighting between the Houthis and the military has left hundreds of soldiers and fighters dead since 2004. (AP, AFP, Reuters, Aljazera)

Global Arab Network

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