Yemeni forces killed anti-U.S. rebel cleric Hussein al-Houthi and dozens of his supporters on Friday, ending over two months of clashes in which over 200 rebels and troops have died.
Houthi was one of a number of rebel leaders in Yemen, but he represented a considerable target having engaged the security forces over a long period. His group is not linked to al Qaeda.
The Yemeni defence and interior ministries, in a joint statement, announced that their forces had killed Houthi in a mountainous area north of the capital Sanaa.
"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.
"President Ali Abdullah Saleh urges all citizens who were affected by the fighting to return to their homes and carry on with their lives," it added.
The government accuses Houthi, leader of the "Believing Youth" group and a Zaidi Shi'ite sect, of setting up unlicensed religious centres and of forming an armed group which has staged violent protests against the United States and Israel.
Security sources said Houthi was killed after troops and armoured vehicles maintained a three-day siege of a series of caves in the Haidan area of the mountainous Saada province, some 240 km (150 miles) north of the capital Sanaa.
His body and those of several aides were found in a cave after an intense bout of fighting early on Friday. Several government troops were also killed, but there was no word on casualties from the defence ministry.
Yemen had offered a $54,000 reward for Houthi's capture and in June security forces launched an operation to capture him in the Saada province. Several top Houthi aides were killed in July and August when most of the rebels' strongholds were seized.
Anti-U.S. sentiment is high in Yemen and other countries in the Middle East over the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Yemen, a poor country of 19 million people, is also fighting to root out militants linked to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.