VIOLENCE CONTINUES IN DAMMAj

Published on 5 November 2013 in NewsNasser Al-Sakkaf (author)

SA’ADA, Nov. 4—Ongoing clashes between Salafis and Houthis that began last Wednesday in the Dammaj district of Sa’ada governorate, have left anywhere from 60 to 100 dead, including

a student at the Islamic school Dar Al-Hadeeth, and more than 140 injured, according to various reports.

Houthi fighters have not yet released official numbers of casualties on their side in the fighting.
Abu Ismael Alwadie, a Dammaj resident, told the Yemen Times that the city of Dammaj’s 15,000 people has been terrorized by what they call a Houthi siege.

“Houthi fighters first warned citizens in Dammaj to leave their homes,” said Alwadie. “And then the shelling started.”
The town is reportedly facing an extreme shortage of food and medicine.

Soror Alwadie, a Salafi spokesman in Dammaj, told the Yemen Times that although the International Committee of the Red Cross managed to enter the town after several days of effort, they were only able to assist a small fraction of those injured.
He added that the temporary ceasefire which allowed for the Red Cross to conduct efforts in Dammaj still did not stop fighting completely. The humanitarian ceasefire itself only lasted for one hour, according to local sources.
Ali Al-Bukhaiti, the spokesman for Ansar Allah, the political wing of the Houthis, in the National Dialogue Conference, proposed on Saturday a ten-point plan for ending the conflict including a ceasefire, relief for the injured and a withdrawal of both sides from new military positions.

Sa’ada has long been under Houthi control.
Houthis have asked a presidential mediation committee to force the release of prisoners detained by pro-Salafi fighters during clashes in mid-September, according to al-Bukhaiti.
“But this was not a condition to stop the fighting [in Dammaj],” he said.
Yahia Abu Asbu, the head of a presidential mediation committee said the Houthis prevented the committee from entering Dammaj on Saturday and asked them to release the Houthi detainees as a preliminary measure.
Abu Asbu stated that the committee “will try again to enter Dammaj and implement a ceasefire. After that, we will begin exploring permanent solutions to the dispute between Houthis and Salafis.”
According to an expert on Islamist movements, Mujeeb Al-Humaid, the Houthi-Salafi conflict in Dammaj began in 2007 when Houthis attempted to persuade local residents to join their cause against the state during the Sa’ada wars against the government, from 2004 to 2010.

After residents refused to join them, Houthis attempted to take control of the city by force