(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Yemen has fallen deeper into turmoil since an uprising ousted strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2012 after a year of unrest, with rivals, including the Houthi rebels and Al Qaeda, battling each other.
The Houthis captured Radmah - on a road linking Sana'a with the main southern city Aden - after 24 hours of fighting against local tribesmen, a security official said. Radmah is in Ibb province, where the rebels have been locked this month in battles with mostly-Sunni tribesmen.
After easily overrunning the capital in September, the Houthis moved on to the Red Sea port city of Hudeida as well as Shia-populated Dhamar and entered Ibb, the provincial capital.
The rebels, from the mountainous north, are seeking greater political clout in impoverished Yemen, which is located next to Saudi Arabia and key shipping routes in the Gulf of Aden. Radmah is a stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Al Islah party, whose supporters have been resisting the Houthi advance.
Tribal sources said nine fighters from both sides were killed during the battle for the city.
Further southwest, in Ibb city, dozens of rebels stormed the main security headquarters overnight and members of the security forces fled, an official said.
With the fall of Ramdah, the Houthis now virtually control Ibb province with the exception of Udain, which is in the hands of Al Qaeda and allied tribesmen, a local official said. In Rada, in the neighbouring province of Baida, 12 Houthis were killed in an attack by Al Qaeda suspects, tribal sources said.
The Houthis, who had long been concentrated in their northern highlands where Shias form a majority, have been facing fierce resistance from local tribesmen as well as Al Qaeda.
In Sana'a, meanwhile, an explosive device planted close to a Houthi office at Amran Roundabout, killed nine people, police and witnesses said. Several others were wounded. And two Huthis were shot dead by gunmen on a motorbike in Mahjaza, in Marib province, east of the capital, sources said. AFP
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