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Yemeni Rebels Attack Official’s Home Yemeni Rebels Fire at U.S. Embassy
(about 2 hours later)
SANA, Yemen — Shiite Muslim rebels attacked the home of Yemen’s intelligence chief here in the capital on Saturday, residents and security officials said, showing the fragility of a power-sharing accord that has failed to halt fighting in the capital. SANA, Yemen — A splinter group of Al Qaeda fired a rocket toward the United States Embassy in Sana on Saturday, wounding local guards. In a post on Twitter, the group said the attack was carried out to retaliate for what it said was an American drone strike in a northern province on Friday.
The Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, seized control of much of Sana last week, hours before they agreed to a cease-fire and the formation of a new “technocratic national government.” Although the details of the agreement remained vague, analysts said the Houthis’ control over the capital had made them the main power brokers in Yemen, whose political, tribal and sectarian turmoil poses risks to the world’s top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, next door. The rocket landed about 200 yards from the heavily fortified embassy, which is in a compound surrounded by high walls, wounding at least two members of the Yemeni special police force who guard the site, the police said.
But there have been several clashes between Houthi rebels and security forces in Sana since the accord was signed. The rocket was fired from an M72 light antitank weapon from a car before speeding away, a police official said.
On Saturday, the rebels attacked the house of the national security chief, Ali al-Ahmadi, in the capital’s upscale Hadda neighborhood. Clashes continued for two hours, residents and security officials said. Several hours after the attack, Ansar al-Shariah, an affiliate of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said on its Twitter account that it had targeted the embassy with a rocket, wounding several guards and damaging a vehicle.
One soldier and two insurgents were killed in the fighting, and 15 people — six soldiers and nine Houthis — were wounded, they said. The group said the attack was revenge for a drone strike on Friday that had seriously wounded children in the northern province of Al Jawf.
Houthis continue to patrol many parts of Sana, especially around government buildings, and to search passers-by. Soldiers and police officers blocked off the Hadda area, home to many diplomatic missions and foreign citizens, after the fighting on Saturday. Tribal officials said a drone strike killed two Qaeda members and wounded two more in Al Jawf on Friday, and that there were reports of some children having been wounded.
The stability of Yemen is a priority for the United States and its Persian Gulf Arab allies because of its position next to Saudi Arabia and the shipping lanes that run through the Gulf of Aden. The United States regularly uses drones to attack Islamist militants in countries like Yemen as part of a strategy to combat Qaeda militants without putting troops on the ground.
The power-sharing deal signed on Sept. 21 gives the Houthis a role in the government, but it is not clear if that will satisfy their demands, or if it will instead embolden them to seek to expand their powers. Before the agreement was signed they were calling for the reinstatement of fuel subsidies cut by the government and a cabinet shake-up. American officials acknowledge using drones in Yemen but do not comment publicly on the practice.
Against the backdrop of the fragmented political, tribal and sectarian scene, any escalation of the fighting could also allow an array of other factions, including southern separatists, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and even Al Qaeda to take advantage. The United States Embassy in Yemen had said earlier on social media that it had no reason to believe that it was the target of the attack and that the Yemeni government was looking into the situation.
President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi has said that Yemen may be heading for civil war. The attack came a day after the United States told its citizens to leave Yemen and said it was reducing the number of American government staff members there because of political unrest and fears of a possible military escalation.
Gunmen suspected of being Qaeda militants attacked a military vehicle in the southern province of Shabwa on Saturday, killing two soldiers and wounding five, a local official said. President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi has said Yemen may be heading for civil war.
The army launched a campaign this year to flush out fighters belonging to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula from their strongholds in the provinces of Shabwa and Abyan. In recent weeks there have been regular clashes between Shiite rebels and government forces in Sana, the capital. The rebels, known as the Houthis, seized control of the capital last week hours before the signing of an accord for the creation of a new government. Despite a declared cease-fire, clashes between the rebels and security forces in Sana have continued since the accord was signed.
Analysts have said that the Houthis’ control over the capital makes them the main power brokers in Yemen.
The embassy compound was stormed in 2012 by demonstrators angry at a film made in the United States that they saw as blasphemous.