US evacuates staff from Yemen
Hadi calls for ‘urgent intervention’ by UN
ADEN: Shia militia in Yemen seized parts of a key central city yesterday as deteriorating security prompted Washington to evacuate personnel and the UN Security Council to call an emergency session.
The Security Council was to meet last night after President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi called for “urgent intervention” amid mounting unrest and the US evacuated its staff, including about 100 special operations forces.
“Due to the deteriorating security situation in Yemen, the US government has temporarily relocated its remaining personnel out of Yemen,” State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said in a statement.
The evacuation comes after several suicide bombings admitted by the Islamic State (IS) group killed 142 people in Sana’a on Friday, with the jihadists seeking to exploit the chaos gripping the country.
Late on Saturday Houthi fighters opposed to Yemen’s president seized parts of the country’s third-largest city, Taiz. The key city’s residents said Houthi militias took over the city’s military airport from local authorities as well as a number of government buildings and a prison.
The impoverished nation is torn between a north controlled by Iran-backed Shia Houthi rebels and a south dominated by allies of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled house arrest in Sana’a to Aden in February.
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting yesterday following Mr Hadi’s appeal.
In his letter to the Council, Mr Hadi denounced “the criminal acts of the Houthi militias and their allies”, saying they “not only threaten peace in Yemen but the regional and international peace and security”.
“I urge for your urgent intervention in all available means to stop this aggression that is aimed at undermining the legitimate authority, the fragmentation of Yemen and its peace and stability,” Mr Hadi wrote.
Yemen has been torn by unrest since ex-strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down in early 2012 after a year-long popular uprising against him, with powerful armed groups sidelining the government since.
The country is now on the brink of civil war, with a deepening political impasse and an increasingly explicit territorial division along sectarian lines, with rising violence between the Houthi and Sunni tribes and al-Qaeda.
Washington late on Friday pulled out troops from the al-Anad airbase in southern Yemen amid fighting involving al-Qaeda militants nearby which left at least 29 dead.
The US would “continue to actively monitor terrorist threats emanating from Yemen and have capabilities postured in the area to address them”, Mr Rathke said.
Yemen has acknowledged that US personnel gathering intelligence for drone strikes on al-Qaeda are deployed at al-Anad.
Mr Hadi pledged on Saturday to fight Iranian influence in his country, accusing the Houthis of importing Tehran’s ideology.
The Houthis vowed to take further “revolutionary steps” following Friday’s blasts.
In his first televised speech since he fled to Aden from house arrest in Sana’a, Mr Hadi said he would ensure that “the Yemeni republic flag will fly on the Marran mountain in (the Houthi militia’s northern stronghold) Saada, instead of the Iranian flag”.
“The Iranian Twelver (Shiism) pattern that has been agreed upon between the Houthis and those who support them will not be accepted by Yemenis, whether Zaidi (Shias) or Shafite (Sunnis),” President Hadi said.
The Houthis belong to the Zaidi offshoot of Shia Islam. They are believed to have converted to Twelver Shiism, which is followed by Iran, but insist that Tehran does not meddle in Yemeni affairs.
In a letter to relatives of the mosque bombings victims, Mr Hadi condemned the attacks in the country as “terrorist, criminal and cowardly”.
“Such heinous attacks could only be done by the enemies of life,” who want to drag Yemen into “chaos, violence and internal fighting”, he said.
“Shia extremism, represented by the armed Houthi militia, and Sunni extremism, represented by al-Qaeda, are two sides of the same coin who do not wish good and stability for Yemen and its people.”
Mr Hadi has declared Aden the country’s temporary capital.
Friday’s bombings came a day after clashes in the southern city between Hadi loyalists and forces allied with the Houthis.
Since t aking Sana’a t he Houthis have tightened their grip on government institutions but have faced fierce resistance from Sunni tribes allied with al-Qaeda.