SANAA, July 17, 2008 (AFP) - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Thursday that a Shiite revolt in the country's northwest was over, but military sources said the rebels had seized a village in the area shortly after.

Military and local sources said at least 19 people, including a local official and 12 soldiers, were killed in a series of ambushes and clashes on Wednesday.

'The war in Saada province ended three days ago, and God willing, it will not resume,' Saleh said at the opening of a summer youth camp in the capital Sanaa, referring to the four-year-old rebellion in which thousands of people have died.

'We had victims because of extremism, ignorance and backwardness,' he added.

Mountainous Saada province on the border with Saudi Arabia has been the heartland of the on-off uprising launched by Zaidi Shiite rebels in 2004.