Yemeni forces kill rebel cleric

A $55,000 bounty was on offer for Hussein al-Houthi

Yemen says its forces have killed rebel Shia cleric Hussein al-Houthi.

Hundreds of people have been killed since he launched a revolt against the authorities two months ago.

A statement from the Yemeni interior and defence ministries said Sheikh Houthi had been killed with a number of his aides.

Sheikh Houthi and his men had been hiding in caves in a mountainous area close to the border with Saudi Arabia.

"Today, all the military and security operations to quell the rebellion launched by the so-called Hussein al-Houthi and his supporters have finished with the killing of Houthi and a number of his aides," the statement said.

Bounty

Sheikh Houthi is accused of setting up unlicensed religious centres, creating an armed group called Believing Youth and of staging violent anti-American protests.

He had accused Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh of seeking to please the United States at the expense of his own people.

Anti-US sentiment in the region is high following the occupation of Iraq and some Yemeni clerics are known to preach hatred of the West.

In June, Yemen placed a $55,000 bounty on the head of Sheikh Houthi and launched an operation to capture him.

The battles have been ongoing in the mountainous province of Saada, some 150 miles (240km) north of the capital, Sanaa.

Sheikh Houthi is a member of the Zaidi community, a moderate Shia sect in the north of the mainly Sunni country.