Yemen rebels insist they are implementing ceasefire terms

Shiite rebels said yesterday they have pulled out of an occupied airport in northern Yemen and were preparing to release their Saudi prisoners in line with a truce agreed with the Sanaa government.

"Today, we carried out our withdrawal from the perimeter of the airport of (the city of) Saada, where a plane will land for the first time" since August, rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel Salam told AFP.

He said the insurgents had also started to dismantle roadblocks in the north and were preparing to free Saudi prisoners captured in border clashes that broke out in November.

Salam said "measures are underway to hand over the Saudi prisoners to a mediator, Ali Nasser Kersha," a tribal official from the northern province of Saada.

He did not specify how many prisoners the rebels were holding, how many would be freed, or the time or date of the releases.

The northern Shiite Huthi rebels, named after their late leader, agreed to stop fighting earlier last week after they accepted ceasefire terms laid down by Sanaa.

Calm prevailed in the north yesterday, the second day of a shaky truce that broke into deadly violence only hours after it went into effect late last Thursday, both sides said.

"The situation is calm on all fronts in Saada province," which straddles Saudi Arabia and is the centre of a six-year-old rebellion, said one military source.

"But the calm is precarious," said another of the latest in a string of truces over the years that have broken down.

A spokesman for rebel leader Abdul Malak al-Huthi confirmed there was no fighting, saying the "ceasefire is being respected and the situation is developing positively."

The ceasefire is the government's latest bid in a six-month campaign to crush a rebellion that began in 2004, killing thousands and leaving 250,000 homeless in recurring fighting.

The latest round of clashes erupted on August 11, when government forces launched 'Operation Scorched Earth' - an all-out offensive to stamp out the uprising.