Iran-backed Houthis raid UN offices in Yemen and detain at least 11 employees

In this Nov. 6, 2017 photo, the U.N. World Food Program's logo is seen at the agency's headquarters in New York. (AP Photo/Robert Bumstead)

CAIRO — The Iran-backed Houthis raided offices of the United Nations’ food, health and children’s agencies in Yemen’s capital Sunday, detaining at least 11 U.N. employees, officials said. The rebels tightened security across Sanaa after Israel killed 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 offices of the World Health Organization and UNICEF, 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. The U.N. official said armed forces raided the offices and questioned employees in the parking lot.

Ammar Ammar, a spokesperson for UNICEF, said a number of the agency’s staffers were detained, and UNICEF was seeking additional information from the Houthis.

Both Etefa and Ammar said their agencies were conducting “a comprehensive head count” of their employees in Sanaa and other Houthi-held areas.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement late Sunday said at least 11 personnel had been detained. He condemned their detentions and the “forced entry into the premises of the World Food Program, the seizure of U.N. property and attempts to enter other U.N. premises in Sanaa.”

Guterres called for the immediate and unconditional release of the personnel detained Sunday as well as those detained in the past.

The raids were the latest in a long-running Houthi crackdown against the U.N. 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 5 ministers confirmed killed in the Israeli strike

Sunday’s raids followed the killing of the Houthi prime minister and several of his Cabinet members in an Israeli strike Thursday. It was 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, Tourism Minister Ali al-Yafei and Information Minister Hashim Sharafuldin, 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 Saturday, two days after the strike. The Houthis said a funeral for all those killed is scheduled for Monday in Sabeen Square in central Sanaa.

Defence Minister Mohamed Nasser al-Attefi survived the attack 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.

U.N. envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg expressed “great concern” over Israel’s recent strikes in the Houthi-controlled areas following Houthi attacks against Israel.

“Yemen cannot afford to become a battleground for a broader geopolitical conflict,” he said in a statement. He called for de-escalation.

Thursday’s strike came after the Houthis attacked Israel on Aug. 21 with a ballistic missile that its military described as the first cluster bomb the rebels had launched at Israel since 2023. The missile, which the Houthis said was aimed at Ben Gurion Airport, prompted air raid sirens across central Israel and Jerusalem, forcing millions into shelters.

The Houthis are likely to escalate their attacks on Israel and ships in the Red Sea, after they vowed in July to target merchant ships belonging to any company that does business with Israeli ports, regardless of nationality.

“Our military approach of targeting the Israeli enemy, whether with missiles, drones or a naval blockade, is continuous, steady, and escalating,” al-Houthi, the group’s secretive leader, said in a televised speech Sunday.

Samy Magdy, The Associated Press