SANAA, (Reuters) – Yemeni Shi’ite rebels killed a Yemeni soldier in the flashpoint city of Saada, security officials said late on Friday, the latest breach of a truce to end a northern war.
The soldier, Namran Suleiman Jaber Hadshan, was a bodyguard to a member of parliament, the government’s security media office said in a statement. His body was dumped in a well, the statement added.
On Friday, officials said Houthi rebels a day earlier had opened fire on a military plane flying above Saada, one of the most serious breaches of the truce.
The aircraft, which state media said was carrying military and government officials, was not hit. Houthis denied involvement in the incident, Yemeni media said.
The Yemeni government, struggling to stabilise a fractious country where al Qaeda is trying to strengthen its foothold, agreed a truce in February with the northern rebels to halt fighting that has raged on and off since 2004 and displaced 250,000 people.
The shooting was one of the most serious breaches yet of the truce, and came just days after rebels killed a school guard and lost one of their own in a gunfight on Tuesday.