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Latest Update: Tuesday21/7/2009July, 2009, 12:30 AM Doha Time 10 die in Yemen mosque clashes AFP/Sanaa Ten people have been killed in clashes over control of a north Yemen mosque between Shia Zaidi rebels and militants from the country's main Sunni opposition party, both groups said yesterday. They said the violence erupted late on Saturday between Houthi rebels and the Islamist party Al Islah (Reform). "Houthis attacked the Zine al-Abidin mosque in Zahra to take it over, killing three members of Al Islah," the Islamist party's chairman Abdel Hamid Ameur said. He added that shortly afterwards an attack on mourners for the three victims resulted in the deaths of another two Al Islah members, sparking clashes in which five rebels were also killed. Rebel spokesman Mohamed Abdel-Salam confirmed the incident, but also expressed surprise at the incident: "We have good relations with Al Islah," he said. An official in the mixed Sunni-Shia city of Zahra, in Al Jawf province, said mediation by an opposition socialist official brought an end to the confrontation. Al Islah, led by Sadok Abdullah al-Ahmar, is the second largest grouping in the Yemeni parliament, with 62 MPs, just behind the ruling General People's Congress party of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Among Al Islah's top members is Sheikh Abdel Majid al-Zendani, its second most senior official, who runs an Islamic university described by its critics as a hotbed of radicalism. The festering Shia Zaidi rebellion in mountainous north Yemen's Saada province is led by Abdel Malek al-Houthi. Clashes between government forces and the rebels, who want to restore the Zaidi imamate overthrown in a republican coup in 1962, have led to thousands of deaths since the uprising broke out in 2004. The insurgents are known as Houthis after their late commander, Hussein Badr Eddin al-Houthi, who was killed by the army in September 2004. Hussein was succeeded as field commander by his brother. An offshoot of Shia Islam, Zaidis are a minority in mainly Sunni Yemen but form the majority in the north.
