Houthis capture town south of Yemen capital

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Yemen's Shia rebels captured a town south of the capital early yesterday, when they also blew up the home of a rival Islamist politician, security officials said.

In Sana'a, the rebels, known as the Houthis, stormed the headquarters of the capital's local government. According to officials, the rebels chased out the governor, Abdul Ghani Jameel, who they accuse of corruption.

Yesterday's developments reflected the growing strength of the Houthis, who overran Sana'a last month and captured a key Red Sea port city last week along with a province south of the capital.

Early in the day, the Houthis captured the town of Yarim about 170km south of Sana'a in the province of Ibb. Yarim has a population of more than 100,000 and lies along the main road to Yemen's southern provinces.

The Houthis, widely suspected to have links with Iran, took over the house of a prominent Islamist politician in Yarim on Saturday, setting off clashes that left 12 people dead. The politician, who comes from the powerful Islah (Reform) Party, was not home at the time. Yesterday, according to the officials, the Houthi rebels blew up the house.

The Houthis are at sharp odds with the Islah party and powerful Sunni tribes allied with it. The rebels say they are demanding a bigger share of power and a change to the country's political order following the 2011 protests that forced longtime leader Ali Abdullah Saleh out of office.

But their military advances suggest they are seeking to take full control of Yemen's northern provinces at a time when secessionist sentiments are growing in the once-independent south of Yemen.

Thousands in the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida demonstrated to press demands for the rebels to leave the city. Similar protests had taken place in Sana'a in recent weeks. In Yarim and in Ibb, where the Houthis have some military presence but are not in full control of the city, local authorities closed all schools yesterday because of the tense security situation.

Meanwhile, Houthis dismantled a protest camp blocking the country's main airport in Sana'a, authorities said, but was keeping its fighters on the streets of the recently seized capital.

The dismantling of the encampment, which allowed traffic to move unobstructed between the airport and the capital for the first time in weeks, came as newly appointed Prime Minister Khaled Bahah, Yemen's ambassador to the United Nations, flew back home to take up his post as part of an agreement aimed at stabilizing the conflict-prone country.

The Houthis captured Sana'a on September 21 after weeks of anti-government protests centering on fuel price rises. The group signed a power-sharing agreement with other political parties soon afterwards, a deal that was sanctioned by President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, but this has not deterred them from pushing in to other parts of the country.

Under the terms of the power-sharing agreement, the Houthi group was supposed to start dismantling the protest encampment and withdraw its fighters from the capital once a new prime minister had been appointed.

The Yemeni Defence Ministry's website said that the encampment had indeed been dismantled.

"The airport road has been opened after the tents were removed yesterday (Saturday) in implementation of the partnership and peace agreement," the website said, quoting an official at the capital's municipality. "Life in neighbourhoods of the airport road is back to normal."

Yemen is one of the most active battlegrounds in the US campaign against Al Qaeda's leaders, hideouts and camps.The country's proximity to the vast oilfields of Washington's Gulf Arab allies also adds to Yemen's strategic value.