Yemen’s Houthi rebels have detained another official of the long-closed US embassy there, bringing the number of local former US embassy staffers in the rebel group’s custody to at least 11, Yemeni officials and others said.
The Houthis — an Iran-backed group that controls the capital, Sana’a, and much of Yemen’s north — last week took into custody a former press officer from the US embassy, Abdel-Majeed Sabra, a human rights lawyer in Sana’a, and a family member of a detainee said.
The family member spoke on condition of anonymity.
Photo: AP
The former embassy press officer was being held in the Houthi-run Security and Intelligence Authority facility, Sabra said.
It is not known whether Houthis have charged the man or any of the other detainees from the US embassy staff, he said.
The latest staffer was detained a month after the rebels arrested his former deputy, Sabra said.
Houthi rebels took the latest embassy staffer back to his home on Tuesday to search it, and took him away again.
The US Department of State said in an e-mail this week that the US government has been “unceasing” in its efforts to secure the release of the local embassy staffers.
Washington shut down its embassy in Yemen in 2015.
Houthis had swept down from their base in the north the year before at a time of mounting political upheaval, seizing the capital and other territory.
A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia entered the war in 2015.
Houthis, with increasing support from Iran, have been able to hold off the Saudi Arabian-led military coalition.
UN and aid agencies call the overall situation in Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with millions of Yemenis vulnerable to famine.
Houthis have rebuffed repeated attempts by US President Joe Biden’s administration to get them into peace talks, and accuse the US of supporting the coalition.
Houthis in October last year seized the US embassy, detaining dozens of former staffers, many of whom were later released.
However, at least 11 staffers from the closed embassy remain in Houthi custody, a security official and a family member of the detainees said on condition of anonymity.
UN agencies late last year said that the Houthis also had arrested two of their employees in Sana’a in early November.
UNESCO and the UN Human Rights Office said that no legal grounds were given for their detention.
Both sides in the war in the past have used detainees as leverage in negotiations.
The new detention comes as the Biden administration is considering redesignating the Houthis or individual Houthi leaders as terrorists, a step that carries harsh US government penalties for those doing business with them.
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