Press Reports of Dammaj Students Fighting Houthis (Again) Disputed by Abdul Malik al Houthi
The Yemen Post among other media reports that the Houthi rebels are fighting Salafi groups in Dammaj, headquarters of the Dar al Hadeith network of schools, the Ivy League of hardcore Salafi institutes. The YP reports 16 dead.
In late April 2007, a firefight occured between rebels and the students of the Dammaj school which left one French student dead. The school at that time insisted that they were well protected by the government and not fighting the rebels.
Remarking on the current incident, Abdelmalik al Houthi insists the reporting is untrue propaganda intended to stoke sectarian tensions and frame the war in religious terms, which apparently as he sees it, it is not.
Yemen, Sa’da, 26/8/2009
There is no truth of what has appeared in some media reports of clashes in Sa’ada city between us and Salafis, and this is not true, but is an attempt which are in the attempts from some quarters to make it as a doctrinal conflict.
Press Office of Al-Sayed. / Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din
The Yemeni government insists that the goal of the rebels is to re-institute the Imamate, but the rebels’ terms of cease-fire are centered on military disengagement, some political empowerment within the central government, areas of autonomy and religious freedom.
Also included is the never ending refrain for prisoner releases- which the government promised in every mediated agreement since 2005. The families of the Sa’ada detainees have been sitting-in for about a year now, and I have a copy of Saleh’s directive ordering their release. Maybe the hundreds of prisoners died in jail and no one has the courage to admit it. Maybe they were tortured and their release would provoke an uproar. Maybe Saleh doesn’t have the authority to effect their release. But the continuity of this issue for years points to a greater disfunction or at least the failure to negotiate in good faith.
As we know the government appointed fact-finding committee found that the government failed to implement its part of the 2006 bargain, leading to the resumption of hostilities in 2007. And the committee members were promptly jailed.
A large part of the residual nature of the conflict harkens back to the Yemeni military’s lack of qualified and unified command and control, not just the soldiers harrassing the women in the markets, but also the inclusion of tribal militias. The Yemeni military/security is a series of conflicting fiefdoms which accounts in part for the failure at border control and in combating smuggling, for the shooting of the southern protesters and the deals with al Qaeda.
Marib Press also reported on the fighting:
Armed clashes were still ongoing between Houthi and Salafists Saada
الأربعاء 26 أغسطس-آب 2009 الساعة 05 صباحاً / مأرب برس- خاص: Wednesday, August 26th – August 2009 at 05 am / Marib Press – Special:اندلعت مواجهات مسلحة بين الحوثيين من جهة, والسلفيين الذين يدعمهم رجال القبائل من جهة أخرى في منطقة دمّاج بمحافظة صعدة, بعد مغرب الثلاثاء. Armed clashes broke out between the Houthis the one hand, and the Salafis who are backed by tribesmen from the other hand, in the northwestern province of Saada Dammaj, after Morocco on Tuesday.
وقال مصدر محلي لـ”مأرب برس” أن مجاميع مسلحة من أتباع الحوثي هاجمت سلفيين إضافة إلى أشخاص آخرين كانوا متمركزين في مدرسة الفتح التي تبعد 100متر عن مركز دار الحديث السلفي, وأطلقوا عليهم أعيرة نارية وبوازيك وقنابل, ما أدى إلى سقوط أربعة قتلا وجريح واحد من السلفيين, واثني عشر قتيلا وأربعة جرحى من الحوثيين بالإضافة إلى إحراق سيارتين تابعة لهم. He said a local source for “Marib Press” that the armed groups attacked the followers of the Salafi-Houthi in addition to other persons who were stationed at a school opening, which lies 100 meters from the center Dar Al-Hadith Al-Salafi, and shot them, shot and Boizik and bombs, which led to the downfall of four were killed, wounded, and one of the Salafis, and twelve dead and four wounded in addition to the burning of Huthi car belonged to them.
