Thousands protest against Houthi rule in Yemen after embassies close

Yemenis in the central city of Taiz and the capital Sanaa held the largest protests yet against a takeover by a Shi'ite Muslim militia group on Wednesday after the United States, Britain and France shut their embassies in Yemen over security fears.

Armed Houthi rebels seized more than 20 US vehicles after the ambassador and diplomats left from the airport on Wednesday, local staff told Reuters. Embassy workers had already destroyed weapons, computers and documents, they added.

The Iranian-backed Houthi movement has called its seizure of power in Yemen a revolution and says it wants to rid the country of corruption and economic peril. Yemen, which borders oil giant Saudi Arabia, had long been at the forefront of the U.S.-led war against al Qaeda, but the long-standing alliance between Washington and Sanaa appears to have ended for now.

On Tuesday, the United States said it had stopped work at its embassy and was withdrawing its diplomatic staff. France and Britain followed suit on Wednesday. Employees of the German Embassy said its mission was also getting rid of sensitive documents and would close soon.

The Houthis, who overran Sanaa in September and formally took power last week, are stridently anti-American, and chant "death to America" at rallies.

"Recent unilateral actions disrupted the political transition process in Yemen, creating the risk that renewed violence would threaten Yemenis and the diplomatic community in Sanaa," U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said.


SHOTS, DAGGERS

Houthi fighters, bedecked in tribal robes and automatic rifles, were out in force manning checkpoints and guarding government buildings they control in the capital. Gunmen shot in the air and thrust daggers at hundreds of protesters opposing their rule.

In Taiz, which the Houthis do not control, tens of thousands carried banners and chanted slogans against the group. Houthi forces advanced far into the south on Tuesday night, according to local officials, continuing with their of expansion of recent months which is raising fears of an all-out civil war.

Leaders and Sunni tribesmen in the southern and eastern regions, which the group has so far not seized, are arming themselves against their push and are in some cases making common cause with Yemeni Al Qaeda militants.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the global militant group's most powerful arms, has repeatedly bombed and attacked Houthi targets. Other tribes from Yemen's formerly independent south, which has clamoured for secession for almost a decade, vowed on Wednesday to repel any Houthi attack. The Houthi forces are bolstered by army units widely believed to maintain loyalty to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh -- though he denies any link.

Saleh ruled the country for thirty-three years, balancing the competing interests for Yemen's kaleidoscope of armed tribes, political bosses and militants - a feat he called "dancing on the heads of snakes."

But he was eased out of power after "Arab Spring" protests against his rule in 2011 under a delicate transition plan drawn up by Yemen's rich Sunni Gulf Arab neighbours - all of them opponents of the Houthis. Those neighbours have called the Houthi takeover a coup. Saleh and his former ruling party have denied an attempt to settle old scores and reassert its control over the country through the Houthis.

The tenure of Saleh's successor, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, was defined by gridlock among Yemen's array of feuding parties. Hadi resigned last month along with his whole government after Houthi gunmen attacked his home.