Battles between the Yemeni government and rebels belonging the Al-Houthi clan have left 12 people dead, and thousands have fled their homes in the northern city ‘S’ada, the pan-Arabic A-Sharq Al-Awsat reported.

Yesterday’s fighting follows clashes last week in which 20 rebels were killed as the army tried to retake a military position that Al-Houthi fighters captured three months ago.

The renewed violence comes despite efforts to implement a peace deal brokered by Qatar earlier this year.

According to a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), an estimated 100,000 people have been directly affected by the fighting between the government and Al-Houthi fighters.

Iman Moankar, a spokeswoman for the ICRC in Yemen, told the United Nations IRIN news agency that the living conditions of the war-affected population had been deteriorating since the beginning of 2008, not only because of clashes but also as a result of soaring food prices.

A spokesperson for the rebels told IRIN that numerous civilians were killed as the army used airplanes and artillery to bomb and shell various provinces in Northern Yemen and that the army’s efforts to retake ‘S’ada had been stopped. These reports could not be independently confirmed.

Fighting in the ‘S’ada district, north of the capital ‘Sana, began in 2004 between rebels from a local Shi’ite minority and government forces. Hundreds of people from both sides have been killed in the rebellion.

Al-Houthi fighters belong to the Zaidi minority, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam. They wish to restore the Zaidi imamate to Yemen after it was overthrown in a coup in 1962.

The Zaidis are a minority in Yemen, which is mostly Sunni, but they are a majority in the northwest of the country.

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