Yemeni Shiite group announces anti-gov't march in north on Monday

Yemeni Shiite group announces anti-gov't march in north on Monday

SANAA, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Yemeni northern Shiite Houthi-ledrebels announced Sunday they would stage rallies in northern Saadaprovince on Monday to press for the resignation of the country'slong time president.

"Protest demonstrations will be staged on Monday in Saadaprovince to call for overthrowing the regime and to end thecorruption and tyranny," the spokesman of the Houthi-led groupMohammed Abdusallam told Xinhua.

"The rallies would support voices of those anti-governmentprotesters across Yemen's major cities, including the capital ofSanaa," he said.

The northern Saada province, which was under the control of theHouthi group, had not witnessed any demonstration calling for theouster of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh yet as similarprotests already flourished among many other cities across thecountry recently.

Inspired by the Egypt-style protests that forced EgyptianPresident Hosni Mubarak out of power, thousands of Yemeni anti-government protesters marched through streets of the country's majorcities since Feb. 11, demanding political and economic reforms aswell as resignation of President Saleh.

The Yemeni government had long been accusing the Shiite rebels ofseeking to dominate northern provinces and restoring a clerical ruleoverthrown in the 1962 Yemeni revolution.

On Aug. 26, 2010, the Yemeni government and the Shiite groupsigned an agreement in Doha cementing a fragile ceasefire innorthern Yemen to end the sporadic battles since 2004.

Northern Shiite rebel commander Abdulmalik al-Houthi pledged in astatement posted on the Internet earlier this month to order hisarmed groups to support Yemeni people against President Saleh if therevolution breaks out.