(Reuters) -
Yemenis in the capital Sanaa and the central city of Taiz 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 over security fears. Hundreds massed in the
capital against the Houthi fighters, who manned checkpoints and guarded
government buildings they control. The militants, bedecked in tribal
robes and automatic rifles, shot in the air and thrust daggers at the
crowds opposing their rule. Tens of thousands of people also carried banners and chanted anti-Houthi slogans in Taiz, which the militants have not taken. The
Iranian-backed Houthi movement has called its seizure of power a
revolution and says it wants to rid the country of corruption and
economic peril -- though Yemen's rich Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab neighbors
say it is a coup. Yemen
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. The U.S.
ambassador and diplomatic staff left the embassy on Wednesday, local
workers said, a day after Washington announced it was closing the
mission. Embassy workers had already destroyed weapons, computers and
documents, they added. "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. Despite the
embassy shutdown, White House Spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on
Wednesday that the United States was continuing to carry out
counter-terrorism operations in Yemen in cooperation with Yemeni officials. "There continue to be ... U.S. Department of Defense personnel on the ground in Yemen that are coordinating with their counterparts in Yemen," he said. France
and Britain announced the closure of their embassies on Wednesday, and
German embassy employees said the mission was 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. Abdel Malik al-Ijri, a member of the Houthi movement's political bureau, said on Facebook the decision to close the embassies was "not justified at all and comes in the context of pressure on our people". "Governments
of brotherly and friendly countries in the near future will realize
that it is in their interest to deal with the will of our people with
due respect," al-Ijri wrote. He
also dismissed a report from U.S. embassy workers that the militants
had seized more than 20 of their vehicles, saying they had been taken by
airport authorities. HOUTHI ADVANCE Houthi
forces advanced far into the south on Tuesday night, according to local
officials, continuing their 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 clamored 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 33 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 neighbors - all of them opponents of the Houthis. Those
neighbors 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.
Thousands protest against Houthi rule in Yemen after embassies close

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