Yemen militia bolsters south force amid war fears
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Yemen’s Shiite militia sent reinforcements south and clashed with local fighters yesterday after the United Nations warned the country is on the brink of a protracted civil war.
Security sources said the militiamen, known as Houthis, had sent several thousand troops south and clashed with local Sunni tribes, with their sights set on the main southern city of Aden, where President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi has taken refuge after fleeing the capital last month.
The militia on Sunday seized the airport and a nearby military base in Taez, 180 kilometers north of Aden and seen as a strategic entry point to Hadi’s southern refuge.
Yemen, a long-time US ally which borders Saudi Arabia, is increasingly divided between a north controlled by the Houthis, who are allegedly backed by Iran, and a south dominated by Hadi supporters.
Mounting unrest — including suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group that killed 142 people in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on Friday — have raised international concerns and prompted an emergency session of the UN Security Council on Sunday.
Its 15 members voiced unanimous support for Hadi, with UN envoy Jamal Benomar warning that without immediate action the country will slide into “further violence and dislocation.”
Recent events “seem to be leading Yemen to the edge of a civil war,” Benomar told the meeting by video link from Qatar, warning of a protracted crisis like “a Libya-Syria combined scenario.”
The Houthis seized Sanaa in September and have been expanding their territory, clashing with Hadi loyalists, local tribes and Sunni Islamist groups, including al-Qaida.
The Houthis moved to expand their reach in the south after taking Taez airport, security sources said, and pushed toward Aden although two convoys were repelled in overnight clashes with tribesmen. It was not immediately clear how many Houthis or tribesmen may have been killed or wounded in the clashes near al-Abd, about 40 kilometers from Taez, and al-Maqatara, 80km from the city.
The Houthis have also deployed some 5,000 militiamen and more than 80 tanks to an area of neighboring Ibb province, 30km northeast of Taez, local and military sources said.
The reinforcements have converted schools into barracks, the sources said.
Troops and southern paramilitary forces loyal to Hadi have also reportedly deployed in Lahj province, north of Aden, to ward off any Houthi advance.
Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi in a televised speech on Sunday called for his supporters to mobilise for an offensive in the south, condemning Hadi as “a puppet in the hands of forces of evil, led by the United States.”
Western countries and Sunni Arab Gulf monarchies have backed Hadi as the country’s legitimate ruler.
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