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Yemen rebels begin handover of Saudi soldiers

Riyadh, sucked into the fighting with rebels in November, has said returning the soldiers would help prove their captors were serious about ending their conflict with Saudi Arabia.

The so-called Houthi insurgents offered Riyadh a truce last month and freed the first of five captive soldiers this week. A former Yemeni prime minister, Haidar al-Attas, who lives in Saudi Arabia, mediated a deal under which the Houthis would hand over the Saudi soldiers to the Yemeni government, a source close to the talks said. Under the agreement, the Saudis would also hand over rebel prisoners to the Yemeni government.

Yemen, the poorest Gulf Arab country, also faces separatist unrest in the south and is trying to crush al Qaeda militants who have been recruiting and training in the country, emboldened by instability and weak government control in many regions.

Yemeni troops will deploy on the Saudi border on Saturday under a separate ceasefire deal aimed at ending seven months of fighting with the Houthis, a member of a truce committee said.

“We expect that the engineering teams will complete the removal of mines on Friday and that the army will deploy on the border with Saudi Arabia starting from Saturday,” he said.

Yemen struck a truce last week with the Houthi insurgents, who have fought the Sanaa government intermittently since 2004 over religious, economic and social grievances. At least 113 Saudi soldiers were killed in fighting after a cross-border incursion in November by rebels who accused Riyadh of letting Yemeni troops use its territory to attack them. The truce committee member voiced optimism on the ceasefire, saying 70 percent of its first-phase conditions — clearing roads, removing mines and stopping fighting — had been met.

“This is big progress. The opening of roads in all areas must be completed and Houthi fighters must come down from the mountains. After that we will start the file of the detainees.”

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, which estimates that 250,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in northern Yemen, appealed this week for access to Saada province, the epicentre of the revolt, to allow aid deliveries to civilians.

“Displaced people and those who were trapped by fighting need urgent and massive support,” the agency said on Tuesday.

International donors met in London last month to discuss how to help Yemen tackle al Qaeda after Yemeni-based militants said they were behind the failed Dec. 25 bombing of a U.S. airliner.

Pledging broad support for Yemen, they also pressed for an end to the conflict in the north to make it easier for billions of dollars of previously promised foreign aid to be disbursed.

Gulf Arab and other donors plan to meet again in Riyadh on Feb. 27-28 to discuss aid and reforms with the Sanaa government.