Yemeni forces have ended a major offensive against an anti-U.S. cleric after more than a month of fighting but troops are still hunting the fugitive rebel and a handful of his followers, security sources said on Friday.
They said troops had seized the last stronghold of Hussein al-Houthi in the mountainous Saada province on Thursday and are now conducting house-to-house searches for him.
More than 200 rebels and troops have been killed in fierce clashes in Saada, 240 km (150 miles) north of the capital Sanaa, since the government launched a crackdown on Houthi on June 20.
On Thursday, at least 40 people were killed in renewed fighting that erupted after efforts to mediate an end to the standoff failed.
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.
It has offered a $54,000 reward for his capture.
Government sources say hundreds of Houthi supporters have been wounded or arrested or have surrendered to authorities in Saada.
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 some 19 million people, is also fighting to root out militants linked to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Houthi has not been accused of links to the group.