SANAA, Yemen – Security officials in Yemen say clashes in the northwest have left five Shiite rebels and two soldiers dead.
Shooting broke out on Saturday when security forces prevented thousands of armed members of the Hawthi rebel group from entering the city of Amran to take part in a protest calling for the fall of the government, the officials said. They said five Hawthis and bystanders were also wounded in the fighting.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.
Though the clashes stopped, the city remains tense and security forces are deployed, they said.
A six-year insurgency in the north led by the Hawthi tribe, members of a Shiite sect, officially ended in 2010. But the group has recently clashed with Sunni ultraconservatives.
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