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Tens of thousands protest after president resigns in Yemen

 
A Houthi Shiite fighter wearing an army uniform chants slogans during a demonstration to show support for his comrades in Sana, Yemen.
A Houthi Shiite fighter wearing an army uniform chants slogans during a demonstration to show support for his comrades in Sana, Yemen.
Published Jan. 25, 2015

SANA, Yemen — Tens of thousands of Yemenis marched in protest on Saturday against Shiite rebels who hold the capital, amid a power vacuum in a country that is home to what Washington describes as al-Qaida's most dangerous offshoot.

Some 20,000 hit the streets of the capital, Sana, where demonstrators converged on the house of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who resigned Thursday along with his Cabinet. It was the largest protest since the rebels, known as Houthis, swept into the capital in September.

Protesters carried banners and chanted slogans denouncing the rebels and demanding the restoration of the president.

One slogan accused the Houthis, who adhere to a sect of Shiism, of being clients of mostly Shiite Iran, while another said they were colluding with Hadi's predecessor, longtime autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The Houthis, who captured several cities as they drove south from their northern strongholds last summer, seek greater representation in government ministries and on a committee to rewrite the country's constitution. They now face mounting pressures and internal divisions however, and there have been signs they do not want to rule the country outright and would prefer that Hadi remain as a figurehead president.

Ali al-Bukhaiti, a prominent member of the group's political arm, resigned Friday over what he described as a dangerous political polarization that could turn regional and secular and eventually break up the country.

The national parliament meets today to consider Hadi's resignation. Should it be accepted, or should Hadi simply refuse to rule, law dictates that the job would go to parliament Speaker Yahia al-Rai, a close Saleh ally.