Sana'a, Yemen - Twelve Shiite insurgents appeared before a state security court in Sana'a on Monday accused of battling government forces near the Yemeni capital last year in support of Shiite rebellion in north-western the Arab country.

The men, aged between 19 and 34, faced the charges of "forming an armed gang to carry out sabotage, murder and bombing acts," according to the charge sheet.

Prosecutors said the group were among 190 insurgents captured by security forces during the battles that broke out in Bani-Hushaish last May and continued for nearly three months.

They said the accused were fighting government forces in in Bani-Hushaish, some 30 kilometres north of Sana'a, to support Shiite rebels battling the army in the northern province of Saada.

The Saada rebels are led by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, and are known as Houthis.

Prosecutors told the court that the defendants use heavy and light weapons in their fight that led to the killing of "a big number of army and police troopers as well as women and children."

The defendants admitted of being followers of the Houthis group, but denied the other charges.

Tensions have been rising in recent months between Houthis and the army in Saada, near the border with Saudi Arabia, some 230 kilometres north of Sana'a.

Sporadic but fierce clashes between the Shiite rebels and the army have left hundreds of soldiers and insurgents dead since the fighting erupted in June 2004.

The fighting erupted after the rebel Shiite group, Believing Youth, was founded by Shiite rebel leader Hussein al-Houthi.

Hussein, the eldest brother of the current group leader Abdul-Malek, was killed by the army in September 2004.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared the conflict over last July.

Authorities have accused the rebels of trying to reinstall the rule of imams, which was toppled by a republican revolution in northern Yemen in 1962. (dpa)