Yemeni security authorities on Thursday released hundreds of Houthi-led northern Shiite rebel prisoners following a Qatari mediation, the rebels and local media said, Xinhua reported.
The authorities released some 460 Shiite rebels from jails in provinces of Sanaa and Saada, according to independent local media News Yemen.
A source close to the rebels told Xinhua that the process of releasing is confirmed, but they have not known the exact number of the released yet.
The release came several days after Qatari mediators visited Yemen in a mission to promote the implementation of a Qatari- mediated ceasefire agreement between the Yemeni government and the northern Houthi rebels, which the Yemeni government has been accusing of seeking the clerical rule overthrown by the 1962 Yemeni revolution.
On Aug. 26, the Yemeni government and the northern Shiite group signed an agreement in Doha to cement a fragile ceasefire in northern Yemen that ended sporadic battles since 2004. The agreement set a timetable for implementing previous truce deals, including the 2008 Doha peace agreement and the Feb. 11, 2010 ceasefire deal.