US embassy staff abducted by Iran-backed Houthis

The Iran-backed Houthis, in a show of strength, have abducted two more Yemeni employees of the US embassy in Sanaa. Meanwhile the militia has ordered the seizure of more properties belonging to its opponents.

The two press officers at the shuttered US embassy in Sanaa have been detained. They were identified as Abdul Rahman Al-Sharabi and Nabiel Sultan.

The latest detentions come almost four months after the Iran-backed Houthi forces stormed the embassy compound, seized the property and detained about two dozen local workers.

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers condemned the action and said that a failure by Houthi authorities to release U.S. staff would have unspecified consequences.

“Breaching the sovereign territory of a foreign embassy and threatening and detaining its staff clearly demonstrate the Houthis have no interest in peace, nor in making the changes necessary to become legitimate members of the international community,” US Senators said in a statement.

The US closed its embassy in the Yemeni capital in 2015 and American staff left the country as the Houthis tightened their grip on power after overthrowing the internationally recognized administration of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

In December, two UN organizations accused the Houthis of abducting two members of their staff a month earlier and called on the militia to release them immediately.

Also, a court run by the Houthis in Sanaa sentenced three people, including the principal of a private school in the city, to death. They were charged with forming armed groups and colluding with the Yemeni government and the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen.

Since seizing power militarily in Yemen in late 2014, the Houthis have used judicial authorities in the areas they control to issue seizure orders and justify looting the properties of hundreds of Yemeni military officials, politicians, lawyers, human rights activists and journalists who fled rebel-held territories.