Yemen says Shi'ite rebels kill 8 tribesmen, 3 police

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen accused Shi'ite rebels on Thursday of killing 11 people, including three policemen, in an attack on a convoy carrying food supplies for government forces in the north of the country.

The Interior Ministry website said eight of those killed were pro-government tribesmen helping in the transport to the center of the mountainous Saada province, a stronghold of the rebels who have fought the government in a sporadic war that has displaced 350,000 people since 2004.

The attack was one of the worst recent breaches of a truce agreed in February by the government and the rebels, called Houthis after the clan name of their leaders.

There was no reaction by the rebels on their website to the government's report about the attack which took place on Wednesday.#

Yemen has faced pressure from Western governments and neighboring Saudi Arabia to quell its domestic conflicts, including a separatist movement in the south, in order to combat a resurgent al Qaeda wing in the Arabian Peninsula country.

The militant group's Yemen-based regional arm claimed responsibility for the failed bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner in December.

(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; writing by Firouz Sedarat)