Yemen's president has vowed his forces would stand their ground in a bloody uprising led by a Muslim preacher that has left some 300 people dead in the past month.
"We will never give up, whatever our sacrifices," Ali Abdullah Saleh said, as a military source reported that more of rebel preacher Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi's supporters had been killed by the Yemeni army since Thursday.
"Almost 90 supporters of al-Huthi have been killed in violent battles with army forces over the past three days," said the source, who was among the army troops in the remote mountainous area of Maran near the border with Saudi Arabia.
The latest violence brings to about 300 the number of people killed since Huthi launched an uprising a month ago. But the overall toll could be even higher as the army has reportedly sustained an unknown number of fatalities.
"Dozens were killed and wounded among the armed forces, who since Thursday have launched an offensive to take control of the last hideouts of al-Huthi, whose supporters continue to put up a tough resistance," the source said.
Huthi, the self-styled "Emir al-Mumineen" or Prince of Believers, launched an uprising on June 18 and is believed to be holed up in the Maran area in northern Yemen with as many as 3,000 armed suppporters.
The president accused Huthi, a former MP, and his supporters of being "foreign agents", and made references to "foreign intelligence services" without identifying them.
"The signs have started to become clear and they will be made public," said Saleh, quoted by the state news agency Saba in comments marking 26 years of his presidency.
The president told Lebanon's Al-Mustaqbal newspaper in an interview earlier this month that "outside parties" were supporting Huthi's rebellion, "but we cannot point the finger at any country or party."
Saleh had said the cleric was paying his supporters the "huge sum" of 18,000 Yemeni rials, or 100 dollars.
"Where does he get all this money? Who is the party financing him and to what end? We're leading an investigation into this but it's not possible that a local source is financing him," he told the daily.
According to residents, the army has been in control of an area known as Wadi Al-Futi since Friday, depriving the rebels of a key position used to supply them with logistics.
The protracted unrest meanwhile continued to force out inhabitants of the vast region.
More than 2,000 families fled on Thursday, and measures have been taken to supply them with food and shelter until military operations have ended, residents and aid workers told AFP.
A mediation effort last month led by MPs, including one of Huthi's brothers, to end the unrest was abandoned after the Zaidi preacher refused to surrender.
One of the MPs involved in the abortive effort, however, accused elements of the army of undermining efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully.
The president has promised Huthi a fair trial should he turn himself in.
The authorities have offered a 10-million-rial (55,000-dollar) reward for information leading to the capture of Huthi, whom they accuse of seeking to foment sectarian strife.
Huthi heads the "Faithful Youth" organisation formed in 1997 as a breakaway from the Islamist opposition movement Al-Haq.
The Zaidis are a moderate Shiite Muslim sect dominant in northwest Yemen but in the minority in the mainly Sunni country.