Dammaj

Dammaj (Arabic: دماج‎) is a small town in the Sa'dah Governorate of north-western Yemen, southeast by road from Sa'dah in a valley of the same name.

Map of Dammaj Valley, Yemen

Muqbil bin Hadi al-Wadi'i established the Madrasah Dar al-Hadith in Dammaj in 1979, an important center of learning for Salafi Sunnis. Terrorism and extreme views about Islam were both strictly forbidden in the Dar-al-hadith and has been criticized and warned against by the Madrasah leaders. In 2014 the non-local Sunnis, including all of the students there, were evicted.

The town was at the epicenter of the Siege of Dammaj, and in November 2013, further sectarian violence between militants of the Houthi-led Shia movement and Sunni Salafists erupted in the town, creating many casualties; some 50 had been killed by the start of the second week. In one incident in late November a mine exploded as a military vehicle was passing by, killing two Yemeni soldiers.