Clashes in Sanaa as Houthis interfere with airport control

SANAA // Yemen’s Shiite rebels who recently overtook the capital, Sanaa, tried to impose their authority at the city’s international airport, setting off overnight clashes with security personnel that killed four people, officials said Tuesday.

The clashes erupted when airport security tried to prevent the Houthi rebels from interfering in airport affairs and trying to search passengers.

Three security guards and a rebel were among those killed, security officials said. Two other guards and an airport employee were wounded.

The Houthis, widely suspected of having links to Shiite powerhouse Iran, took Sanaa in September and later expanded their offensive to other towns and cities across the country, waging battles with Sunni tribesmen and also militants from Yemen’s Al Qaeda branch, plunging the troubled nation into even more turmoil.

Flights from Sanaa were suspended during the overnight clashes at the airport but were later back on, said the officials.

Meanwhile, a senior foreign ministry official said the ministry had received complaints from more than one embassy in Sanaa over the behaviour of the rebels at the airport before the clashes, including attempts to search foreign diplomats, diplomatic pouches and confiscating liquor from passengers.

The US embassy had also complained, saying the Houthi rebels at the airport tried to search parcels coming through the diplomatic pouch on a special plane from Washington, the ministry official said.

In Washington, the State Department said on Monday it had reduced the numbers of American staff at the embassy in Yemen due to the deteriorating of situation in the country, but the embassy would remain open.

The drawdown coincided with the Treasury imposing sanctions on Yemen’s former president and two military commanders linked to the Houthi rebels and comes amid a rise in anti-US protests. The sanctions were imposed after the UN Security Council last Friday added the same three men to its sanctions list for threatening the peace, security and stability of Yemen.

Thousands of Houthis and supporters of removed president Ali Abdullah Saleh rallied in Sanaa on Friday, denouncing the US over its push for sanctions against Saleh and rebel leaders. They also demanded that the American ambassador leave the country.

* Associated Press