A Yemeni colonel loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and two Houthis have been killed in Sanaa, in an unprecedented escalation of violence between the two groups, AFP reported Sunday (August 27th).
An anti-government alliance between Saleh and Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the Houthis, has crumbled over the past week, with the two accusing each other of treason and back-stabbing.
Witnesses in Sanaa, which Saleh and al-Houthi jointly control, said the ex-president's forces had spread in southern parts of the capital near the presidential offices, which Saleh still holds despite resigning in 2012.
They said the forces had deployed in Sabaeen Square and the district of Hadda.
Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party said in a statement on Sunday that "remaining silent on the incident would open the door to strife that would be difficult to contain".
Col. Khaled al-Rida, the deputy head of foreign relations in the GPC, was killed in the clashes between supporters of Saleh and al-Houthi late Saturday, the statement said.
A source within the GPC said the clashes erupted at a Houthi rebel checkpoint in Hadda after a dispute between fighters manning the checkpoint and armed supporters of Saleh who were driving by.
Local media reported that two members of the Popular Committees, a tribal alliance largely dominated by the Houthis, also were killed.
