Sana'a, Yemen - A Yemeni state security court Tuesday sentenced four Shiite rebels to death and 11 others to jail terms of up to 15 years after convicting them of taking up arms against government troops last year.

The defendants were convicted of forming an "armed group to execute a criminal plan" and attacking security forces in Bani- Hushaish district, some 30 kilometres north of Sana'a, in clashes that broke out in May 2008 and went on for three months.

Presiding judge Muhssein Alwan said the convicts were fighting to show their support to Shiite insurgents fighting government forces in north-western provinces of Saada and Amran.

This is the latest in a series of trials involving Shiite insurgents this year.

The verdicts bring to 26 the death sentences handed down by the court on the Bani-Hushaish group so far.

The defendants were among 190 insurgents captured by security forces during the clashes in Bani-Hushaish.

Last week, the court sentenced 10 Shiite rebels to death and gave five others 15-year jail terms over the same charges.

Fighting between the army and the Shiite rebels has flared intermittently in Saada since mid-2004, leaving hundreds of soldiers and insurgents dead. The rebels belong to the Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam.

On Monday, the court began the trial in absentia of an MP charged with playing a leading role in the Shiite rebellion led by his brother in the Saada.

Yahya al-Houthi, the elder brother of the insurgents' commander Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, was charged with "forming a terrorist armed group." He lives in Germany now.

Government forces began a massive attack on the Houthis' strongholds in Saada on August 11, and authorities have vowed to continue until the rebels give up.

Hundreds of insurgents, troops and civilians have been killed during the past two months. Around 150,000 people were forced to leave their villages, according to UN estimates.

Authorities accuse the rebels of trying to reinstall the rule of Shiite imams, which was toppled by a republican revolution in northern Yemen in 1962.

Houthis say they are in revolt against government corruption and the Yemeni alliance with the United States. (IANS)