SANAA // An international rights group has denounced Yemen’s Shiite rebels over what it says are unlawful detentions and torture by the Houthi rebels in the war-torn country.
Human Rights Watch said the rebels, who captured the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and other territories in 2014, have held hundreds of opponents in arbitrary detentions.
The group said it has documented two deaths in custody and 11 cases of alleged torture and abuses in a new report released on Thursday.
HRW also called upon the Houthis in Sanaa to hold officials accountable and to release the detainees – without forcing them to sign false confessions of cooperating with a Saudi-led coalition that is waging a war to expel the Houthis from territory the rebels captured.
Sarah Leah Whitson, the Mideast director at HRW, said the war between the rebels and the coalition “provides no justification for torture and ‘disappearance’ of perceived opponents.”
Meanwhile, government forces on the ground expelled rebels from several districts in the western city of Taez - one of the worst-hit cities in Yemen’s conflict.
Residents in Taez said fighting escalated in the city’s eastern districts on Thursday. Images were posted on social media showing pro-government fighters on tanks and armored vehicles, flashing the victory sign in front of newly captured positions, including the city’s military hospital.
Air strikes resumed on other Yemen front lines: in the eastern province of Marib, outside of Sanaa, and in the northern Houthi stronghold of Saada.
Dozens were killed and wounded in the fighting but a precise death toll among fighters from the two sides was not available.
After descending from their northern enclave in 2014 to take Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, the rebels forced president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi to flee the country and seek shelter in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh subsequently launched the intervention with the alliance, made up mostly of Gulf Arab states.
Coalition air strikes, together with the ground fighting, have pushed the already impoverished nation to the brink of famine and displaced nearly three million people. The conflict has killed over 4,000 civilians.
On Thursday, the Houthis confirmed their endorsement of a US-brokered ceasefire deal previously announced by US secretary of state John Kerry.
However, the backing of the deal by the rebels was a moot point since Yemen’s internationally-recognised government has already dismissed the plan as “unilateral” and said it was not involved in recent talks between Mr Kerry and a Houthi delegation in Oman.
Mr Kerry had said the ceasefire was supposed to start on Thursday and lead to the formation of a unity government before the end of the year.
Mohammed Abdel-Salam, the Houthis spokesman, told Al-Masirah TV on Wednesday that the rebels agreed to the deal.
The peace plan, however, sidelines Mr Hadi, transferrring his authority to a newly appointed vice president. It also gives the Houthis a share of power – something the Hadi government has consistently rejected.
* Associated Press
