55 killed as extremists, army lock in clashes in Yemen

Dozens of soldiers and supporters of firebrand preacher Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi were also wounded in the fighting, which began late last Sunday in the Hidane region, some 250km north of Sanaa, a statement said.

Forty-three extremists were captured and are being questioned, it added.

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A ministry source, meanwhile, told the state news agency SABA that the extremists "used mortars, landmines and rocket-propelled grenades against the army."

"The rebels in custody are being interrogated and justice will be brought to them," the source added.

"The deviant defiant elements who broke the law and order under (Huthi's) command are accused by the government of acts of vandalism including the hoisting of the flag of another country instead of the Yemeni flag," SABA said.

Arms and ammunition were also seized from their hideouts.

"Since security and military forces cordoned off the area, a number of the surrounded surrendered," the source said.

Yemeni authorities accuse Huthi of stirring trouble by organising anti-US demonstrations after weekly Muslim prayers on Fridays.

His supporters have been branded "outlaws ... extremists and trouble-makers", and accused of opening fire on government institutions, breaking into mosques and "roughing up students to stop them from going to school."

Yemen has cracked down on suspected al-Qaeda members and other Islamist militants since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and a series of attacks at home, once a hotbed of armed Muslim extremism.