Sanaa - Yemen's Shi'ite rebels said they released on Monday 100 soldiers and pro-government tribesmen they had captured in clashes last month, in the second such move aimed at cementing a fragile truce in the north of the country.
"These releases came ... on the occasion of (the Muslim fasting month of) Ramadan, and to prove our seriousness in bringing about peace and creating conditions for a resumption of mediation by Qatar," rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Salam said.
The rebels, who announced a similar release on Sunday, and the government have welcomed an offer by Qatar to try to revive a Qatari-mediated peace agreement in the north of the Arabian Peninsula country.
In February, Yemen reached a new truce with the rebels to halt sporadic fighting that has displaced 350,000 people in the impoverished country since 2004.
In continued unrest, two rebels and two tribesmen were killed in a clash in the northern al-Jouf province, a Defence Ministry website said.
Yemen is also struggling with a southern secessionist movement and faces a resurgent regional wing of al Qaeda, which claimed responsibility for a failed bomb attack on a US-bound airliner in December.
Yemen's Western and Saudi allies want Sanaa to resolve domestic conflicts and consolidate power so that it can focus on fighting al Qaeda, which is seen as exploiting instability in the Arabian Peninsula country.
(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; writing by Firouz Sedarat; Editing by Jon Boyle) - Reuters