A video grab from Yemen's state television shows army soldiers firing a machine gun on the frontline at rebel targets on a mountain in Saada province August 17, 2009. Fighting between Yemeni troops backed by fighter aircraft and Shi'ite rebels has killed dozens on both sides since the government launched a wide offensive against the rebels earlier this month after weeks of skirmishes.
"The bodies of more than 100 rebels have been recovered from the roadside outside the town of Hafr Sufyan," a government statement said.
"It seems that the bodies were those of rebels who were trying to flee the town during a mopping-up operation over the past two days," the statement said, adding that two of the dead were identified as commanders Mohsen Saleh Hadi Gawd and Salah Jorman.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh pledged on Wednesday to crush the Shia rebellion in the north as the army pressed on with an offensive launched two weeks ago.
The campaign, dubbed Operation Scorched Earth, aims to end once and for all a rebellion by Zaidi Shia rebels, also known as Huthis, in the rugged mountainous region.
Fighting began in Saada province on the border with Saudi Arabia and has since spread to Amran province to the south where Hafr Sufyan is located.
An offshoot of Shia Islam, the Zaidis are a minority in mainly Sunni Yemen but form the majority community in the north. Saleh is himself a Zaidi.
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