Police stand guard as Zaidis protest outside the headquarters of Yemen’s national security services in Sanaa yesterday.
AFP/Sanaa
Ten Shia Zaidi rebels were killed and 38 wounded in clashes with police outside the headquarters of Yemen’s national security services in Sanaa yesterday, a senior security official said.
The official said the violence broke out as the rebels, among a crowd demanding the release of members of their community, attacked the building with automatic weapons and grenades.
The assailants were “well-prepared and aimed to infiltrate the headquarters”, he said, adding they had used neighbouring buildings to launch their raid on security forces backed by special police units.
The official said 10 attackers were killed, 38 wounded and 87 others detained.
They had infiltrated a crowd of around 500 Zaidis demonstrating in front of the building to demand the release of fellow Zaidis being held by the authorities, he said.
The official said earlier that some of those detained were “suspected of (sharing) intelligence with Iran”.
The Zaidi rebels, also known as Houthis after their leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi, had rebelled in 2004 against the government of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, accusing it of marginalising them politically and economically.
Fighting between them and Yemeni forces killed thousands of people before a ceasefire was reached in February 2010.
The Zaidis are participating in an ongoing national dialogue launched in March to discuss the impoverished country’s main problems, including the issue of the Houthi rebellion.
The Zaidis belong to an offshoot of Shia Islam and are a minority in Sunni Yemen.
lAn air strike believed to have been carried out by a US drone killed six presumed members of Al Qaeda in north Yemen yesterday, a tribal source said.
The air raid targeted a vehicle in the Khab al-Shath area near Al Jawf, the source said, adding that the six dead included suspected Al Qaeda member Hassan al-Saleh Huraydan and his brother.
The tribal source had earlier put the number of dead at five.
“A Saudi national is among the dead,” the source said of the air strike that took place in the province bordering Saudi Arabia.
Witnesses said that three raids followed the first strike, but they did not provide details about the targets.
American drones frequently conduct strikes against suspected militants as part of Washington’s war on the jihadist network across several countries, and in support of Yemen’s war on extremists.
Two air strikes last week in the southern province of Abyan killed seven suspected members of Al Qaeda and wounded two more.
Al Qaeda exploited a weakening of central government control during the 2011 uprising that forced Saleh from power to seize large swathes of the south and east.
The Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is considered by the US to be the most dangerous branch of the global extremist network.
