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Sana'a: A presidential mediation committee, including Qatari mediators, arrived on Sunday in Sa'ada to contain the volatile situation and sporadic clashes between government troops and rebels after the Friday mosque bombing, sources in the committee said.
Rebels led by Abdul Malek Al Houthi seized a government building in the town of Manbah after clashes on Saturday and the army has surrounded the compound, local tribal sources said. Tribes were mediating an end to the standoff.
Meanwhile, a security official told AP news agency that at least 12 people have been killed in renewed clashes between Shiite rebels and Yemeni troops in and around Sa'ada.
The chairman of the seven-member committee, Ali Abu Hulaika, said they would resume talks to make the Qatari-brokered deal to end the four-year-old armed rebellion, a success.
"We are here in Sa'ada to resume talks. We have been in meetings all the time today," Abu Hulaika told Gulf News over phone from Sa'ada.
When asked if Al Houthi rebels had agreed to resume talks he said, "It's too early to speak about anything more than [that] we are resuming talks."
The new presidential committee, the third since the Qatari-brokered deal was signed last June, includes Saleh Habra, one of two Al Houthi representatives.
Habra said he was not a member of the committee, although he said he was the representative of Al Houthi in the Doha-sponsored deal. "I'm not a member of the committee. I was surprised to see my name published in papers. Nobody informed me before," Habra told Gulf News. "Yes, I was one of Al Houthi representatives [at] the Doha deal, but for this committee, they [officials] did not inform me before forming the committee," he said.
"There is a chance [for peace] but it requires strong and serious will from the political leadership," Al Houthi told Al Jazeera TV. "We have the will and we are serious ... the problem is that the other side conducts continual assaults on us."
A security source said several suspects had been detained in Sa'ada on Friday and investigations suggested that followers of Al Houthi, who belong to the Zaidi sect, were behind the attack, a charge Al Houthi denies.
- With inputs from Reuters
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