Yemen rebels may free Saudi soldiers in days

RIYADH/SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni Shi'ite rebels are expected to hand over five captive Saudi soldiers within a week, a Saudi-owned newspaper reported on Sunday, following a 48-hour ultimatum set by Riyadh.

Yemen promised on Sunday to extend state control into rebel areas, including the border with Saudi Arabia, and said some violations of a ceasefire newly agreed with Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the northern rebels' leader, should be expected.

Saudi Arabia has demanded that the rebels, who are in conflict with both Riyadh and Sanaa, should hand over the five missing soldiers. It says this would prove they are serious about ending the fight with Riyadh which has raged since insurgents seized some Saudi territory in November.

"We have enough time to deal with this issue (the release of the Saudi soldiers) as the deadline set by the authorities ... is 72 hours," Ahmed al-Salami, a parliamentarian who is a member of a committee overseeing the truce, told Reuters.

"We will deal with the issue in the meeting of the committee tomorrow (Monday)," he said.

Salami said rebel representatives in the committee had helped organize efforts to clear mines and unblock roads, making it possible for the Yemeni army to deploy to the Saudi border region on Monday.

Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat newspaper quoted an unidentified Yemeni security official as saying the handover of the soldiers, part of the ceasefire agreement, was expected to be completed in less than a week.

Officials at the Saudi defense ministry could not be immediately reached for comment.

In addition to fighting the rebels, Yemen is battling southern separatists and al Qaeda, which has made the country its regional base. The Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a U.S. passenger plane in December had links to Yemen.

Riyadh and Western powers fear impoverished Yemen may become a failed state and that al Qaeda could exploit the chaos to use the country as a base for attacks in the region and beyond.

Last month the Shi'ite rebels offered Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, a truce and said they had left the kingdom's territory. They had previously accused Riyadh of letting Yemeni troops use Saudi land to attack them.

Riyadh later declared victory over the rebels, and on Saturday gave them 48 hours to hand over the captured Saudis.

TRUCE VIOLATIONS

The rebels, whose main battle is with Yemen's central government, agreed on Thursday to a truce with Sanaa to end a conflict that has raged on and off since 2004, with rebels complaining of social, religious and economic discrimination.

The car of Interior Ministry undersecretary Mohammed al-Qawsi came under fire on Friday, hours after the ceasefire agreement was to have officially begun, in the northern city of Saada, and a soldier was also killed by rebels on Friday.

Qawsi said after the attack that minor truce violations had occurred because not everyone was aware of the ceasefire, but that the deal still held. [ID:nLDE61B1QI] The rebels denied carrying out the assassination attempt.

Ten more Yemeni soldiers were believed to have been killed in a helicopter crash in the Saada region, an official said on Sunday, blaming a technical fault.

Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi said Sanaa was operating on the basis that the rebels were serious about ending the war. "Ending war does not come without violations here or there," he told Sunday's edition of Asharq al-Awsat.

"This is because of the nature of wars and the nature of fighting elements and that is because of differences there may be between them. But I don't expect that to cause a problem in the path to achieve peace and security," he added.

Previous truces with the rebels have not lasted.

"We are proceeding on the basis of there being sincere intent from the Houthis just as there is a sincere intent from our side to make this war the last one," Qirbi said.

"As His Excellency President Ali Abdullah Saleh said, we want to move on from wars to development," he said, noting that Sanaa had set up a special reconstruction fund in 2008.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa; Writing by Cynthia Johnston and Firouz Sedarat; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)