A Shia rebel group that has fought the national army in northern Yemen for more than five years released 178 captured soldiers Tuesday, a ceasefire monitoring committee said.

'The Houthis released 178 military men today,' a source in the government committee monitoring a ceasefire with the rebels told DPA.

The freed soldiers were handed over to government representatives in the northwestern province of Saada, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Yemen's government and the rebels, called Houthis after the family of their leaders, reached a peace agreement Feb 11, ending fighting that has raged on and off since mid-2004.

Houthis claim discrimination by the majority Sunni population in Yemen, while Yemeni authorities accuse them of trying to reinstall Shia religious rule overthrown in 1962.