Yemen’s Houthi rebels detain at least 9 U.N. staffers, officials tell AP

Duabai, United Arab Emirates — At least nine Yemeni employees of United Nations agencies have been detained for Yemen’s Houthi rebels in unclear circumstances, officials said Friday, as the rebels face increasing financial pressure and airstrikes from a U.S.-led coalition. Others who work for aid groups were likely taken as well.

The arrests come as the Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital nearly a decade ago and have been fighting against a coalition led by Saudi Arabia shortly afterwards, they were targeting shipping across the Red Sea corridor in what they say is a direct response to Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Exactly one week ago, the Houthis threatened to escalate their attacks in the Red Sea followed fresh airstrikes by American and British forces in Yemen, which rebels said had killed 16 people. Three officials told CBS News national security correspondent David Martin that the U.S. used a 5,000-pound bunker buster bomb as part of the joint attack on Houthi targets.

While gaining more attention internationally, the secretive group has cracked down on dissent in the vast territory it holds in Yemen, including recently sentencing 44 people to death.

Regional officials, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief journalists, confirmed the UN detentions. The detainees include officials from the United Nations human rights agency, its development program, the World Food Program and an official from the office of its special envoy, authorities said. The wife of one of the detainees is also detained.

The UN declined to immediately comment.

The Mayyun Organization for Human Rights, which similarly identified detained UN staff, named other aid groups whose staff were detained by the Houthis in four Houthi-controlled provinces – Amran, Hodeida, Saada and Saana. These groups did not immediately acknowledge the arrests.

“We condemn in the strongest terms this dangerous escalation, which constitutes a violation of the privileges and immunities of United Nations officials granted to them under international law, and consider it to be oppressive, totalitarian and blackmail practices for political gain and economic,” the organization said in a statement.

Activists, lawyers and others have also started an open letter online, calling on the Houthis to immediately release the detainees because failure to do so will “help isolate the country from the world.”

Yemen’s Houthi rebels and affiliated media organizations did not immediately acknowledge the arrests. However, the Iranian-backed rebels have planned mass weekly demonstrations after Friday midday prayers, when Houthi officials typically speak out about their actions.

It is unclear what exactly triggered the arrests. However, this comes at a time when the Houthis face problems in having enough currency to support the economy in the areas they control – something signaled by their decision to introduce a new currency to the Yemeni currency, the rial. Yemen’s government-in-exile, backed by Saudi Arabia and the West in Aden, and other nations criticized the move, accusing the Houthis of resorting to forgery. Aden authorities also demanded that all banks move their headquarters there.

“Internal tensions and conflicts could spiral out of control and lead Yemen to total economic collapse,” warned Yemeni journalist Mohammed Ali Thamer in an analysis published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Bloomberg separately reported on Thursday that the US planned to further increase economic pressure on the Houthis by blocking their sources of revenue, including a planned payment of 1.5 billion Saudi dollars to cover salaries of public servants in the territory. controlled by the rebels.

The war in Yemen has killed more than 150,000 people, including combatants and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands of people. The Houthis’ attacks on ships have helped divert attention from their internal problems and the war’s stalemate. But for months they have faced rising casualties and damage from US-led airstrikes targeting the group.

Thousands were arrested by the Houthis during the war. An AP investigation found that some detainees were singed with acid, forced to hang by their wrists for weeks or beaten with batons. Meanwhile, the Houthis have employed child soldiers and laid mines indiscriminately in the conflict.

The Houthis are members of the Zaydi Shiite Islamic minority sect, which ruled northern Yemen for a thousand years until 1962.