Hundreds of Houthi militants launched an offensive on the Yemeni city of Taiz Sunday, overrunning its international airport and taking over key government buildings, the latest turn in a conflict that appears to be lurching increasingly toward civil war.
Houthi forces drew toward Taiz, a city in the southern part of Yemen, on Saturday night, according to Houthi security officials. By Sunday morning, they were in control of its airport.
Later they took over the intelligence headquarters and court buildings, and surrounded the residence of the city’s governor, the officials said.
Anti-Houthi protests erupted after the militants arrived. Protest organizers claimed the Houthis fired live rounds to disperse them, but that couldn’t be independently verified.
“Houthi militants in military uniforms fired at us directly,” said Sami Al Ghobari, an anti-Houthi protester. “They seek bloodshed, since they want to enter Taiz by force, a province they are unwanted in.”
The Houthis’ push in Taiz puts them within easy striking distance of the southern port city of Aden, where their enemy, Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, is based, raising the specter of an increasingly violent confrontation.
The Houthis, a minority group that hails from northern Yemen and is part of the Zaidi offshoot of Shiite Islam, began extending their control southward last year. Houthi militants overran the capital, San’a, in September and demanded a greater say in the government, then overseen by Mr. Hadi.
United Nations-brokered talks for a political compromise failed, however, and the Houthis took over government in early February. The Houthis put Mr. Hadi under house arrest, but he soon fled to Aden, where he enjoys strong support among local security forces.
Mr. Hadi has since been trying to make a comeback, leaning on support from neighboring Saudi Arabia and countries including the U.S., which considers him Yemen’s legitimate president.
The conflict between Mr. Hadi and the Houthis has grown increasingly violent over the past week, raising concern that Yemen is slipping into a state of civil war fought along Yemen’s fragmented sects and political factions.
“A civil war would be a terrible development for Yemen,” U.S. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said in a briefing Friday. “But that’s why we believe it’s essential for all the parties and groups to avoid unilateral actions, to avoid violence.”
The latest round of violence began Thursday, when special forces loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh, who preceded Mr. Hadi as president, assaulted Aden’s international airport. Mr. Hadi sent in government troops backed by a column of tanks and expelled them.
Two airstrikes, apparently carried out by the Houthi-controlled air force, later hit an Aden presidential compound where Mr. Hadi is staying, security officials there said. Mr. Hadi was evacuated to a safe location, according to aides to the president.
On Friday, a series of bombings in San’a and Saada province killed 152 people, according to senior Houthi officials. The attacks targeted the two biggest Zaidi mosques in San’a and a government compound controlled by the Houthis. It was Yemen’s deadliest-ever single coordinated terrorist attack.
San’a Province, an Islamic State affiliate, later claimed responsibility. If the claim is accurate, it would be the first known attack in Yemen by an Islamic State-linked group.
The following day, Mr. Hadi made his first public address since fleeing to Aden, calling on the Houthis to withdraw forces from government buildings and leave San’a. He asked the United Nations to intervene to stop the violence. The U.N. Security Council has anemergency meeting scheduled Sunday to discuss the situation.
The Houthis issued a statement the same day that called on the military to be on high alert. The assault on Taiz followed shortly after.
Yemen’s turmoil led at least a dozen countries to shutter embassies in February, including the U.S., Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The U.S. has temporarily relocated its remaining personnel out of Yemen because of the security situation, the State Department said in a statement Saturday.
Yemen’s instability is of concern to the U.S. in part because of its long-running cooperation with Mr. Hadi’s government against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the potent Yemeni terror group that claimed responsibility for January’s attack on the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
It is so far unclear how the operations, which include drone strikes, will be affected by the removal of U.S. personnel.
(Source: The Wall Street Journal)
