Houthis open fire on protesters in southern Yemen, one dead
Members of the Shi'ite Muslim militia that controls much of Yemen opened fire on hundreds of people protesting at their presence in the southerly city of al-Bayda on Thursday, killing one and wounding eight others, local officials and medical sources said.
The Houthis, who are led by a northern clan of the same name, have in recent months become the de facto rulers of northern Yemen, seizing the capital Sanaa in September and forcing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to announce their resignations. The province of al-Bayda, which is mostly Sunni Muslim, is one of several that the Iranian-backed Houthis have effectively taken over since September by sending in gunmen and forcing local officials to cooperate.
