Shiite Houthi rebels and government forces fought for a fourth straight day in the Yemeni capital, residents said, despite the announcement of a UN-brokered agreement which was due to be signed yesterday.
Residents reported sounds of heavy shelling throughout Saturday night in an area of the capital near the headquarters of the 1st Armored Division camp and close to the Islamic Iman University.
The fighting, which intensified on Thursday after weeks of protests and clashes, appeared to be the biggest challenge yet to a UN-backed transition to democracy launched after former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to step down in 2012.
Photo: Reuters
UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar, who had held talks with Houthi leader Abdulmalek al-Houthi in their home province of Saada on Wednesday and Thursday, announced late on Saturday that an agreement had been reached which was to be signed yesterday.
Despite the accord, one Houthi rebel leader told reporters that they had intensified the shelling of the army division camp and driven soldiers out.
“We controlled a military unit east of the 1st Armored Division ... and we continued heavy shelling of the division headquarters and the nearby Iman University in all directions,” Ali al-Emad told reporters late on Saturday.
Al Jazeera television reported the sounds of two explosions to the north of the capital toward dawn.
Fighting raged on throughout Saturday on the outskirts of Sana’a, and rebels said they had taken control of the headquarters of state television. Yemen’s Higher Security Committee announced a curfew in four areas of the capital from 9pm until 6am and schools were shut until further notice.
Still, Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi expressed support for the UN-brokered deal on Saturday and Houthis said their representatives would reach the capital yesterday to sign it.
Insecurity and political turmoil have grown since Saleh was ousted by the Arab Spring protests. The Houthi insurrection is one of several threats to the stability of Yemen.
In recent weeks, Houthi protesters have blocked the main road to Sana’a’s airport and held sit-ins at ministries. They have called for the government to step down, and for the restoration of subsidies cut by the state in July as part of economic reforms.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion