AFP
Sanaa
Houthi militiamen who control the Yemeni capital attacked the house of a senior army commander yesterday, killing one guard and detaining two more, an army source said.
General Mohamed Rajah Laboudha was not home at the time.
The source said the Shia militiamen were “responding to a gun attack on Sunday on the convoy of the Houthi military commander, Abu Ali al-Hakam”.
General Laboudha heads the Fifth Military Region, which covers the strategic Red Sea province of Hudeida, which has been partly held by the Houthis since they seized power in Sanaa on February 6.
Yesterday’s attack came the day after the Houthis fired air force commander General Rashid al-Jund and one of his deputies, General Abdellatif al-Zuhairi, replacing them with officers close to Sanaa’s new masters.
The sacking of the senior officers was announced by a Houthi security body that said the two officers would also face questioning for refusing to comply with orders from the militia.
Yesterday’s developments come after Prime Minister Khalid Bahah said on Monday he was poised to leave Sanaa after the Houthis agreed to free him from two months of house arrest.
Bahah was forced to stand down by the militia in January, as was President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who escaped from Aden last month and fled to second city Aden in the south, where he re-established his authority.
Hadi has since said he never accepted the Bahah government’s resignation and has called on ministers to join him in Aden.
