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Houthis put Yemen president, PM under house arrest: Government

Thursday, 29 January 2015 4:03 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 29 January 2015 4:32 PM ]

The supporters of Shia Ansarullah revolutionaries rally in Sana’a, Yemen, Jan. 28, 2015. (AFP photo)

The Yemeni government claims Shia Ansarullah revolutionaries of the Houthi Ansarullah movement have put a number of senior government officials under house arrest.

"The Houthis put the president, prime minister and several ministers under house arrest in an incident unprecedented in Yemen's political history," read the statement issued by the Yemeni government on Thursday.

The statement added that the administration of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah is no longer responsible for what is going on in the Arab country, blaming the Shia revolutionaries for "paralyzing the state and the country's political transition."

The accusations of the US-backed Yemeni government against Houthi fighters came a week after President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and the cabinet of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah resigned over pressure from Ansarullah revolutionaries. The Yemeni parliament has yet to accept Hadi's resignation.

The impoverished Arab country is currently grappling with a severe political crisis.

In September 2014, Ansarullah revolutionary fighters gained control of Sana’a following a four-day battle with army forces loyal to General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the half-brother of the country’s former dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

In the same month, Ansarullah fighters and the Yemeni government inked a UN-backed ceasefire deal that called for the withdrawal of the revolutionaries from the capital once a neutral prime minister was picked. The deal has failed to deliver any practical results so far.

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