Yemen said 46 followers of an anti-US Muslim cleric were killed and 35 wounded in clashes with security forces in the Arab state in the last few days.
An Interior Ministry statement, carried by the official Saba news agency late on Thursday, also said 43 "rebel" supporters of Hussein al-Houthi had been arrested since clashes began last Sunday, when police tried to arrest Houthi, a Shiite Muslim leader.
The statement did not mention any casualties among security forces, but a security source had told Saba that two policemen were killed and five wounded in the clashes in Saada, 240km north of the capital Sanaa.
Security and military forces are still surrounding Houthi and a "small number of deviant elements" in the mountainous area, the ministry said.
"The clashes that started several days ago between security and armed forces and unconstitutional and illegal rebel elements destabilizing security ... have resulted in the death of 46 and the wounding of 35 of those rebel elements," it said.
"The number of those arrested is 43 and they are being questioned before appearing before judicial authorities," the statement said, adding that guns, rocket-propelled grenades and land mines had also been seized in their hideouts.
Yemeni authorities believe Houthi, a leader of the Zaidi Shiite sect in Saada, is also head of the rebel group The Believing Youth, which has led violent protests against the US and Israel at mosques, security sources say.
The poor country of 19 million people is fighting to root out militants linked to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda. Houthi has not been accused of having links to al-Qaeda.
Anti-US sentiment is high in the region over the US-led occupation of Iraq and Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.
The ministry accused Houthi of trying to incite sectarian strife and said his "extremist ideology" harmed national unity and security.
A security official earlier told Saba the group faced charges of killing security and armed forces, attacking government establishments, attacking mosque preachers, flying the flag of "foreign parties" and spreading "deviant and extremist thought" to destabilize the country.
The official said some of the group's members were involved in a separatist rebellion to form a breakaway state in Yemen's 1994 civil war. North and south Yemen were unified in 1990.
The government has tried to crack down on the bearing of arms but has had little success in the majority of the country at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula.
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