Qatari intelligence officer arrested over Al Houthi links
AL KARBI WAS NABBED BY YEMENI AUTHORITIES AS HE WAS ABOUT TO LEAVE FOR OMAN
AQatari believed to be an intelligence officer, was arrested by Yemeni authorities as he was about to leave for neighbouring Oman.
He was held on suspicion that he was providing support to the Al Houthi militias fighting the legitimate government in the country, media reports said.
Authorities named the suspect as Mohsen Al Karbi and said that he was on his way out of Yemen through Shan in the Mahra Governorate, the border crossing checkpoint between Yemen and Oman.
Yemeni sources said that Al Karbi was a major in the Qatari intelligence and that he operated as a coordinator between the Al Houthi militia and Qatar.
Doha confirmed the arrest through a statement issued by the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC). Al Karbi was arrested on April 21 as he was on his way to visit relatives in Yemen, the statement said.
Officials loyal to Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in December said that they had arrested a Qatari intelligence officer, Mohammad Al Otaibi, as he attempted to influence leaders of the Popular Congress Party to support Al Houthi militias and reconsider their decision to break up the alliance between Saleh and Al Houthis.
Heavy setbacks
On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed ties with Qatar over its continuous support of extremists and terrorist organisations.
Repeated attempts at reconciliation have failed because Qatar has refused to meet the demands of the quartet.
The arrest comes as Al Houhave suffered heavy setbacks on the battlefield as government troops backed by the Saudi-led coalition advance into their main strongholds such as the northern province of Saada.
The state-run Saba news agency yesterday quoted a local military source on the on Saada front as saying that government troops liberated a number of mountains in the Baqoum district after heavy clashes with Al Houthis.
A video posted by Yemen’s Defence Ministry show dozens of Yemeni soldiers firing at Al Houthis and raising the Yemeni flag over a liberated mountain.
Yemen’s Defence Ministry said Saudi-led coalition fighter jets helped to clear the battlefield in order for government forces to advance.
Yemen’s army and allied resistance fighters have pushed forward on several fronts around Saada with the aim of cutting the militants’ supply lines. Al Houthis’ largest arsenal of ballistic missiles and heavy weapons are stored in Saada, according to military commanders.
If government troops push further inside Al Dhaher district, they could reach Marran mountain, where the Al Houthi leader is thought to be hiding.
On the Red Sea front, Hassan Doubla, a pro-government tribal leader, and several of his associates were killed on Wednesday night when an IED ripped though their car on the main road between the towns of Hays and Khokha in the western province of Hodeida.
The Saudi-led Arab coalition entered the Yemeni war in 2015 just months after an Al Houthi coup forced internationallyrecognised Yemeni president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi out of power.
Since then, the coalition has gained back 86 per cent of Yemeni territory but major population centres still remain under Al Houthi control.