Shots fired at US Embassy vehicle in Yemen as crisis deepens

Clashes ... a Houthi Shiite Yemeni wearing an army uniform stands guard in front of a building damaged during recent clashes near the presidential palace in Sanaa, Yemen. Picture: AP Photo/Hani Mohammed Source: AP

 

ASSAILANTS have fired shots at a US Embassy vehicle at a checkpoint in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. 

Embassy officials told CNN the unknown shooters fired in the air before turning the guns on the vehicle in which US diplomatic staff were seated. No injuries were reported.
Monday’s shooting comes amid growing political turmoil and intense clashes between government and opposition forces in the impoverished country, considered an important US ally in the battle against al-Qaeda.
On Monday, heavy street fighting between government forces and Houthi rebels engulfed the capital, killing at least nine people and injuring 67.
The Houthis (Shiite Muslims) seized control of state media in Sanaa and clashed with Yemeni soldiers near the presidential palace. Witnesses said heavy machine gun fire could be heard as artillery shells struck around the presidential palace. Civilians in the area fled as columns of black smoke rose over the palace and sirens wailed throughout the city.
By the end of the day, a tentative ceasefire was in place and held through the night and into Tuesday.

Damage ... Shiite Houthis stand amid the debris outside a damaged mosque near the presidential palace in the Yemeni capital Sanaa following fierce clashes. Picture: AFP/Mohammed Huwais Source: AFP

The clashes represent the biggest challenge to US-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s government since September, when they swept in from the Houthi northern stronghold and seized the capital.
Sanaa, meanwhile, remains on edge, with armed Houthi rebels roaming the streets on foot and in pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns. They also manned checkpoints across Sanaa and near the prime minister’s residence in an indisputable show of force, and beefed up their presence around other key building, including the intelligence headquarters.
Both Houthis and Hadi’s forces blamed each other for Monday’s outbreak of violence.
The fighting, described by one official as a coup attempt by the Houthis, also threatened to undermine efforts by the US and its allies to battle al-Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate, which claimed responsibility for the attack on Paris satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo this month.
The US has long viewed al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP as the Yemeni branch is known, as the global terror network’s most dangerous affiliate.

Debris ... a Yemeni man stands next to a burnt car near the presidential palace in Sanaa. Picture: AFP/Mohammed Huwais Source: AFP

Destruction ... a Yemeni man inspects the damage near the presidential palace in Sanaa. Picture: AFP/Mohammed Huwais Source: AFP

At the presidential palace on Tuesday, Hadi and a Houthi adviser met to negotiate the makeup of an 85-member commission tasked with coming up with the outline of Yemen’s future federation, as stated in the draft constitution, Cabinet spokesman Rageh Badi, told the AP over the phone.According to the official news agency SABA, Hadi also met with his advisers and members of the country’s top security body.
“Today, we are at a crossroads, either to be or not to be,” he was quoted as saying.
Reforming the commission has long been overdue and was part of a UN-brokered peace deal following the Houthis’ capture of Sanaa.
But the Houthis accuse Hadi of violating that deal by calling in the current members of the commission to a meeting days ago, prompting the rebels to retaliate and abduct his top aide, Ahmed bin Mubarak, and setting the wheels in motion for Monday’s spasm of violence.
The Houthis’ power grab in the capital and expansionist aspirations in central Yemen, where Sunni tribesmen dominate, also threatens to transform the current conflict into a sharply sectarian one, pitting Sunnis against Shiites. Al-Qaeda in Yemen, which has waged deadly attacks targeting both the Houthis and Hadi’s forces, stands to benefit.

Clashes ... Houthi Shiite Yemeni stand guard in front of a building damaged during recent clashes near the presidential palace in Sanaa, Yemen. Picture: AP Photo/Hani Mohammed Source: AP

The Houthis are also seen by their critics as a proxy of Shiite Iran and are believed to be allied with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled Yemen for more than three decades before he was ousted in 2012 after Arab Spring protests. The rebels deny any Iran links.
Meanwhile suspected al-Qaeda militants ambushed the convoy of a brigade commander in the restive south-eastern province of Hadramawt on Tuesday, killing five Yemeni soldiers and wounding seven, a military official said.
General Yahya Awja, commander of the 135th brigade, escaped unharmed from the attack by militants firing automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, the official added.
The convoy was hit on the outskirts of Qatan, a village in the Hadramawt valley in the province’s mountainous interior which hosts an army base that was struck repeatedly by militants last year.
The militants have also carried out repeated attacks on the historic towns of Shibam and Seiyun further east.
Washington regards the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as the global jihadist network’s most dangerous branch and has carried out a sustained drone war against its leaders.