Armed fighters from Yemen’s powerful Houthi movement yesterday stood guard outside the private residence of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, whose home is normally protected by presidential security officers, witnesses said.
Sentry posts were empty and there was no sign of the presidential guard at the compound, scene of clashes between Houthis and guards on Tuesday, the witnesses said.
The Houthi fighters were accompanied by an armored vehicle.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi politburo, said: “President Hadi is still in his home. There is no problem, he can leave.”
Houthi fighters battled guards at the Hadi’s home and entered his palace on Tuesday, raising the stakes in a drive for more political power that has enfeebled state authority and thrown the Arab state deeper into turmoil.
In a televised speech hours after his fighters’ display of force, Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi warned Hadi that he had to implement a power-sharing deal struck when his men seized the capital in September last year.
“All the options are open and without exception and the ceiling is very, very high. And this is why, I here advise the president: Implement this deal. It is for your benefit and for the benefit of your people,” he said on live television.
Houthi prizes the accord, as it grants his Shiite Muslim group participation in all military and civilian state bodies.
“We ... will not hesitate to impose any necessary measures to implement the peace and partnership agreement,” Houthi said.
His group is widely seen as an ally of Iran in its struggle with Saudi Arabia for regional influence.
Hadi, an ally of the West and staunch supporter of US drone attacks on al-Qaeda fighters in Yemen, has been increasingly at odds with Houthi over a draft constitution intended to help end decades of conflict and underdevelopment.
The emergence of the Houthis as Yemen’s de facto top power last year has scrambled alliances and stirred tensions across Yemen’s political spectrum, raising fears of deeper instability in a nation that has one of al-Qaeda’s most active branches.
Persian Gulf Arab foreign ministers were due to discuss the crisis in Yemen at an emergency meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh yesterday.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the violence and called for order in the nation.
The US remains “firmly committed” to supporting Hadi and his government, and is calling for an “immediate cessation of hostilities,” a US Department of State official said.
The US officials said Iran was backing the rebellion with financial and political support. Some officials said that shipments of weapons from Iran to the Yemeni Houthis had been tracked by foreign governments.
Washington has been concerned about the turmoil in part because it relies on the Yemeni government for help in counterterrorism operations against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed responsibility for the Jan. 7 Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.
Yemeni Minister of Information Nadia al-Saqqaf said the clashes at Hadi’s residence amounted to an attempt to topple Yemen’s government, a charge denied by a senior official of the Houthi group.
The clashes followed some of the worst fighting in Sana’a in years on Monday. Guards loyal to Hadi fought artillery battles near the presidential palace with the Houthi.
“Yemeni president under attack by armed militias seeking the overthrow of the ruling system,” al-Saqqaf said on Twitter on Tuesday.
Residents said later that the fighting had died down. A Yemeni government official said two people had been killed.
The minister did not identify the militias, but she said they were firing from nearby houses. Hadi lives in his private home and not in the palace.
Al-Bukhaiti said his group had no plans to target Hadi.
“Ansarullah has no intention of targeting president Hadi or his house,” al-Bukhaiti told reporters, using the group’s official name.
He said what happened at Hadi’s house was the result of a “provocation” by Hadi’s security and that the incident has been contained.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS