Clashes leave 17 dead in western Yemen

Clashes between Houthi Shias and Salafis have claimed 17 lives in western Yemen, officials say.

The Yemeni security officials, who were speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Saturday’s fighting broke out in the province of Amran.

The officials did not elaborate on which sides the casualties belonged to or any other details.

Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was reportedly expected to send mediators to the region.

The Houthi movement, which is led by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, played a key role in the popular revolution that forced the country’s former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.

Saleh, who ruled Yemen for 33 years, stepped down in February 2012 under a US-backed power transfer deal in return for immunity, after a year of mass street demonstrations demanding his ouster.

Yemen is the Arab world’s poorest country. Forty percent of the people of Yemen are living on two US dollars a day or less and one third are wrestling with chronic hunger.