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Yemen Shiite rebels capture 200 soldiers according to military official
Shiite rebels have captured 200 Yemeni soldiers in the country's north where deadly fighting between the rebels and army-backed tribes is endangering a fragile truce, a military official said on Tuesday.
"Huthi (rebels) captured 200 soldiers," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that "these soldiers belong to regiment 72 of the army's republican guard."
On Monday, another military official told AFP that the Shiite rebels had captured some 70 soldiers after they seized a strategic army post in Al-Zaala, a day after six soldiers were killed in fighting between the rebels and a government-backed tribe in the tense north.
Al-Zaala in Amran province controls the road between the Yemeni capital Sanaa and the rebels' stronghold of Saada.
The rebels' spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam declined to confirm or deny that soldiers were captured.
"It might be true that there are prisoners, but no information is available on either their number or their fate," he said.
The rebels transferred the imprisoned soldiers to the north-eastern regions of Matra and Naqaa, the rebels' main strongholds, a tribal source told AFP.