Yemeni gov't says rebels violate peace deal

The Yemeni government Friday accused the country's northern rebels of violating a newly-signed peace deal brokered by Qatar.

The rebels recently beefed up armed presence in Harf Sufian district of Amran province, south of the troubled province of Saada, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The rebels also deployed militants on several locations along the main highways linking Harf Sufian to Saada, and Harf Sufian to Barat region, it said.

With such acts and recent attacks on government troops and local tribal residents, the rebels have seriously breached the six-point truce agreement that they inked with the government on Feb. 11 and re-approved in Qatar on Aug. 26, according to the statement.

It said the rebels have occupied public schools, hospitals and other state facilities in the Harf Sufian region, and were continuing building strongholds in the areas they still controlled.

On Aug. 26, the Yemeni government and northern Shiite rebels signed an agreement in Doha to cement a fragile cease-fire in northern Yemen that ended sporadic battles since 2004.

The agreement, mediated by the Qatari government, set a timetable for implementing previous truce deals, including the 2008 Doha peace agreement and the Feb. 11, 2010 cease-fire deal.

However, two days later, rebels shot dead a pro-government tribal leader in the flashpoint province of Saada.

There have been sporadic battles since 2004 between Yemeni government troops and rebels.

The government has been accusing the rebels of seeking to re-establish the clerical rule overthrown by the 1962 Yemeni revolution that created the Yemeni republic.