Yemen's Houthi rebels hand over captured Saudi soldier to Red Cross

Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-29 23:26:58|Editor: WX

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YEMEN-SANAA-CAPTURED SAUDI SOLDIER-RELEASE

A plane of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) takes off as it carries Musa Awagi released by the Houthi rebels at the Sanaa International Airport, in Sanaa, Yemen, on Jan. 29, 2019. Yemen's Houthi rebels on Tuesday handed over a captured Saudi soldier to the ICRC, the rebels said in a statement. "The sick Saudi soldier Musa Awagi will be transported to his country through an ICRC plane today (Tuesday)," the statement said. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed)

SANAA, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi rebels on Tuesday handed over a captured Saudi soldier to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the rebels said in a statement.

"The sick Saudi soldier Musa Awagi will be transported to his country through an ICRC plane today (Tuesday)," the statement said, obtained by Xinhua.

Meanwhile, the Saudi prisoner was seen along with an ICRC team at the Sanaa International Airport waiting for the plane, a Xinhua photographer at the airport witnessed.

The ICRC spokeswoman Marie Claire Feghali told Xinhua at the airport that "the Saudi prisoner will be transferred to his country today (Tuesday) via an ICRC plane."

Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam said in a statement on Monday that the decision to release the captured Saudi prisoner came as a "humanitarian initiative" presented by the group's leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi to the visiting United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths.

There were over 10,000 war prisoners from all warring parties, including the Houthi rebels, the exiled Yemeni government and the Saudi-led coalition which backs the government.

Griffiths arrived in the capital Sanaa on Monday to break a stalemate in the country's flashpoint Red Sea port city of Hodeidah and push forward the implementation of a cease-fire and withdrawal of rival forces from the port city in line with a peace deal reached in Stockholm last month.

Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the internationally-recognized government of Hadi after the Houthi rebels forced him into exile and seized much of the country's north, including Sanaa and Hodeidah.

The four-year war has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, displaced three million others and pushed the country to the brink of famine.