Yemeni political forces who oppose the Shiite militia that seized control of Sana’a formed an alliance against it on Saturday, saying that they want to restore state authority and rebuild weakened security forces.
Yemen descended into chaos after the militia, known as the Houthis, seized Sana’a in September last year and then began a push to spread their influence.
The Houthis dissolved the government and parliament last month, forming a presidential council, after Western and Persian Gulf-backed then-Yemeni president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi submitted his resignation.
However, Hadi slipped through a Houthi siege of his Sana’a home and fled to Aden, where he rescinded his resignation and declared the southern port city to be Yemen’s new capital.
The newly formed National Salvation Bloc groups Sunni Muslim and secular parties, youth groups, tribal alliances and members of the Southern Movement, which seeks greater autonomy for the formerly independent south.
It also includes dissident members of the General People’s Congress, the party of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is suspected of backing the Houthis.
It aims to restore state authority and “prevent the collapse of the army and security forces and rebuild them,” it said in a statement after a formational meeting in Sana’a.
The bloc includes such major political parties as al-Islah, Sunni Muslim al-Rashad and the Nasserist Unionist People’s party.
In other developments on Saturday, armed Houthi militants reportedly attacked the Sana’a office of local human rights advocacy group Siraj Development, a group official said.
Najla al-Zamari told reporters that the assailants destroyed computers and accused staff of collaborating with foreign nation, “immoral activity” and allowing men and women to mix.
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