Yemen government says rebels should free prisoners ahead of talks

Yemen’s government said the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels should release all detainees and captives held in their prisons ahead of peace talks. The Yemeni news agency SABA quoted the government Sunday as saying that the Houthis should also hand over their arms and withdraw from all rebel-held areas including the capital, Sanaa, which they seized in September 2014.

The agency said Prime Minister Ahmad Obaid bin Daghr made the remarks to the U.N. special envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths.

Yemen was plunged in March 2015 into a war pitting an Arab-led coalition backing the government of self-exiled president Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi against the Houthis.

Griffiths has been shuttling between the warring parties to avert an all-out assault on the Houthi-controlled city of Hudaida that the United Nations fears will exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.

Hudaida seaport is the main lifeline for aid to reach most Yemenis.

In other developments, loyalist officials in Marib said a drone Sunday targeted a house used by Al-Qaeda in the central province, killing four militants.

The U.S. military is the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen.

Separately, six Al-Qaeda members and two pro-government soldiers were killed in clashes Friday following an attack on a militant site in southern Shabwa province, security sources said.

The United States considers the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be the radical group’s most dangerous branch. AQAP has flourished in the chaos of the country’s civil war.

A long-running drone war against AQAP has intensified since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January 2017.

The conflict has killed nearly 10,000 people since 2015 and pushed the impoverished country to the brink of famine, triggering what the United Nations says is the world’s worst single humanitarian crisis.

Separately, Yemeni officials said unidentified armed men have killed well-known preacher Mohammad Ragheb in Aden, base of the internationally recognized government.

They said Ragheb was known to be close to the Islah party, a local affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood group that is allied with Hadi.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.