Fierce clashes and shelling were reported early Sunday in Sana'a as Houthi rebels appeared to be moving in on a key army base in the north of the Yemeni capital.
Witnesses reported loud explosions in the early hours, Yemeni news site Al-Masdar Online reported, hours after UN Yemen envoy Jamal Benomar announced that a ceasefire agreement had been reached between the government and the Shiite rebels.
A military source told Al-Masdar that Houthi fighters had shelled the headquarters of the officially dissolved First Armoured Division near Sana'a University, and that troops had responded by shelling Houthi positions. The First Armoured Division was commanded by retired general Ali Mohssen, who led several wars against the Houthis in northern Yemen during the rule of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The Houthis, who seek to revive the Zaidi Shiite traditions of Yemen's historically dominant northern highlands, say their fight is against Mohssen and his allies in the Sunni Islamist Islah party, and not against the Yemeni army.
Fighting between the Houthis and Sunni rivals backed by army forces broke out in Sana'a early last week, and spread to wider areas on Thursday. Unofficial estimates put the death toll since Thursday at more than 100. The Houthis have expanded the areas under their control this year, from their original stronghold in the northern province of Saada on the Saudi border to the outskirts of Sana'a.
Their followers have set up protest camps in recent weeks near key ministries in Sana'a to press for the removal of the government and reinstatement of full energy subsidies. Opponents accuse the Houthis of seeking to reinstall the rule of the hereditary Zaidi imams - who were toppled by a republican revolution in northern Yemen in 1962 - with the support of Iran. Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Arab world, faces a further secessionist movement in the south and an al-Qaeda insurgency.
