CAIRO (AP) — The Iran-backed Houthis on Sunday raided offices of the United Nations’ food and children's agencies in Yemen’s capital, detaining at least one U.N. employee, officials said, as the rebels tighten security across Sanaa following the Israeli killing of their prime minister and several Cabinet members.
Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the World Food Program, told The Associated Press that security forces raided the agencies’ offices in the Houthi-controlled capital Sunday morning.
Also raided were UNICEF offices, according to a U.N. official and a Houthi official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief the media.
Ammar Ammar, a spokesperson for UNICEF, said there was “an ongoing situation” related to their offices in Sanaa, without providing further details.
The U.N. official said contacts with several other WFP and UNICEF staffers were lost and that they were likely also detained.
The raids were the latest in a long-running Houthi crackdown against the United Nations and other international organizations working in rebel-held areas in Yemen.
They have detained dozens of U.N. staffers, as well as people associated with aid groups, civil society and the now-closed U.S. Embassy in Sanaa. The U.N. suspended its operations in the Houthi stronghold of Saada in northern Yemen after the rebels detained eight U.N. staffers in January.
At least 4 ministers confirmed killed in the Israeli strike
Sunday's raids came on the heels of the killing of the Houthi prime minister and several of his Cabinet in an Israeli strike on Thursday, in a blow to the Iran-backed rebels who have launched attacks on Israel and ships in the Red Sea in relation to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Among the dead were Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi, Foreign Minister Gamal Amer, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Local Development Mohammed al-Medani, Electricity Minister Ali Seif Hassan and Tourism Minister Ali al-Yafei, according to two Houthi officials and the victims' families.
Also killed was a powerful deputy interior minister, Abdel-Majed al-Murtada, the Houthi officials said.
They were targeted during a “routine workshop held by the government to evaluate its activities and performance over the past year,” a Houthi statement said on Saturday, two days after the strike.
Defense Minister Mohamed Nasser al-Attefi survived while Abdel-Karim al-Houthi, the interior minister and one of the most powerful figures in the rebel group, didn’t attend the Thursday meeting, the Houthi officials said.
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