Local Editor
Yemen PM resigns amid escalating clashes between Ansarullah fighters and Al-Qaeda militia, TV and government official said.
The resignation of Prime Minister Mohamed Basindawa, who accused the president of being “autocratic”, came as Ansarullah fighters seized the government headquarters in the capital on Sunday, senior officials said.
Al-Manar correspondent reported that Ansarullah movement will submit the military and govenrment headquarters which they seized to the military police.
The fighters, who have been locked in deadly clashes for days with militants and troops, also took over the state radio station, officials said.
A spokesman for the movement, Mohammed Abdulsalam, confirmed on his Facebook page that the government complex had been taken and the premier had stepped down.
The fighting raged in the Yemeni capital on Sunday despite an announcement by the UN envoy that pro-government forces and Houthi fighters were poised to sign a deal.
The shelling and gunfire in the north of Sanaa was heard across the capital, as Al-Qaeda militiamen battled the fighters prompting an exodus of terrified residents, an AFP correspondent reported.
A week of fighting between the two sides has left dozen of people dead and forced the suspension of all flights into or out of Sanaa airport, which lies within the battle zone.
There was no let-up in the fighting during the night despite an after-dark curfew ordered by President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi. The fighting centered on the campus of Al-Iman University.
It came despite the announcement by UN envoy Jamal Benomar late on Saturday that a deal had been reached after “intense consultations with all the political parties, including (rebel movement) Ansarullah.”
Benomar did not specifically mention a ceasefire nor did he say when the deal would be signed, although he said preparations were under way for the signing. He said the accord will be a “national document that will advance the path of peaceful change, and will lay the foundations for national partnership and for security and stability in the country”.
He said he regretted the continuing bloodshed and reiterated that the “time has now come to overcome narrow interests and that the higher national interest should prevail”.
Source: Al-Manar Tv
