Troops aligned with Yemen’s dominant Houthi militia shot dead at least four demonstrators on Tuesday during protests against the Shi’ite Muslim movement in and outside the central city of Taiz, medical officials said.
Hundreds of activists set up a protest camp in the city center of Taiz on Sunday when Houthi fighters and aligned army units seized the highland city, a takeover that has angered many residents but encountered little military opposition.
The Houthis, a Shi’ite Muslim group backed by Iran, swept down from their northern strongholds and captured Sanaa in September, and have since sought to extend their control beyond the capital, clashing with Sunni tribes and al Qaeda.
President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, a former general seen by the Houthis as a pawn of Gulf Arab monarchies and the West, fled the city in February and is trying to stage a comeback from a base in Aden.
An array of tribesmen, militiamen and army units loyal to Hadi are resisting the southward advance of the Houthis in skirmishes that have escalated since the weekend.
The latest action deepened the conflict in Yemen, a perennially unstable neighbor of oil power Saudi Arabia and a frontline in U.S. efforts to combat Islamist militants.
(Source: Reuters)
