Security and military officials in Yemen say Shiite rebels known as Houthis backed by supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh have seized the country's third largest city of Taiz and its airport, the Associated Press reported Sunday.
The AFP news agency reported that Shiite militia had seized the city's airport, located in the southwest of the country. Citing unnamed security sources, it said 300 men — including Houthis in military uniform and their allies — deployed at the airport and reinforcements were arriving by air and land from the capital Sanaa.
Thousands of people took to the streets of Taiz to protest against the Houthis and Saleh loyalists, prompting the rebels to disperse them by firing into the air and beating them back with batons, the AP reported.
It comes the day after the Houthis called for a general mobilization against forces loyal to Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the current president, the AP said.
On Saturday, U.S. troops evacuated a southern air base after al-Qaeda seized a nearby town amid growing violence in the war-torn nation. About 100 American troops and special forces units were stationed at the Al Anad air base, near the southern city of al-Houta, which was seized by al-Qaeda's Yemen branch — considered the terror organization's most dangerous — on Friday.
In a statement, U.S. State department spokesman Jeff Rathke said: "Due to the deteriorating security situation in Yemen, the U.S. government has temporarily relocated its remaining personnel out of Yemen." He said there is "no military solution to Yemen's current crisis," and added: "We urge the immediate cessation of all unilateral and offensive military actions."
The BBC, citing unnamed officials, said the militants were later pushed out of al-Houta by Yemen's armed forces.
The evacuation of U.S. troops comes amid growing sectarian violence in the mostly Sunni nation under assault from the Houthis, who are the sworn enemies of the Sunni al-Qaeda terrorists.
The Houthis took over Sanaa in September. The rebels control at least nine of Yemen's 21 provinces and have seized parts of the U.S.-backed government, threatening a key American anti-terrorism partner in the region.
Embattled President Hadi fled to Aden in the south of the country last month after escaping house arrest at the hands of Houthis in Sanaa. Over the weekend, he made a defiant speech challenging the Houthis in his first public address since leaving Sanaa, the AP reported.
Diplomats from the United States and several European nations fled Yemen in February amid embassy closures resulting from deteriorating security conditions.
Violence in the country has grown in the past week. On Friday, 137 were killed and 357 wounded after four suicide bombers targeted two Shiite mosques in Sanaa in one of the deadliest attacks in the nation's history.
The U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting to discuss the situation on Sunday.
Contributing: Katharine Lackey
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