Sana’a – Death To Israel Slogans At Yemeni Shiites Mass Demo

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    Yemeni officers who are members of Shiite protesters chant slogans to demand the government to step down and to support Palestinians, while attending a demonstration in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, Aug. 22, 2014. Arabic writing on the sign at right reads, "Allah is the greatest. Death to America. Death to Israel. A curse on the Jews. Victory to Islam." (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)Sana’a – Tens of thousands of supporters of Yemen’s Shiite rebels rallied Friday in Sanaa pressing the government to quit as a presidential team held crisis talks in their stronghold to end the impasse.

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    After the rally, a group of Zaidi rebels began erecting an encampment on a road in northern Sanaa that leads to the airport and where the interior, communication and electricity ministries are located, an AFP reporter said.

    The protest was staged the final day of an ultimatum set by rebel commanded Abdulmalik al-Huthi for the government, which they accuse of corruption, to resign.

    But on the streets protesters chanted: “The people want to overthrow the government” and demanded that the cabinet revoke a decision to double fuel prices.

    They also repeated the Iranian revolutionary slogan: “Death to America. Death to Israel. Allahu Akbar.”

    Authorities in Sanaa have long accused Shiite-dominated Iran of backing the Zaidi rebellion.

    Friday’s protest marks the start of the “second phase of the peaceful revolutionary escalation” through “legitimate means”, Huthi said Thursday.

    Thousands of armed Shiite rebels, also known as Ansarullah or Huthis, have strengthened their positions around Sanaa as they press their campaign against the government.

    The movement has raised fears of a new wave of violence in impoverished Yemen, which is in political transition at a time of an Al-Qaeda insurgency and a southern separatist campaign.

    “The situation in Sanaa is indeed combustible and ripe for miscalculation,” said April Longley Alley, a Yemen specialist with the International Crisis Group.

    “At this point the Huthis are capitalising on widespread frustration with the government and the recent rise in fuel prices to rally support and extract political concessions,” she said.

    Bracing for an escalation, President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi on Thursday urged the armed forces to “raise their level of vigilance”.

    But apart from the usual guards for the ministries, there was no sign Friday of a police or military presence near the makeshift protest sites, around which armed Huthi militants set up checkpoints.

    The rebel commander has vowed: “We will not remain with our arms folded … if the armed forces attacked protesters.”

    Yemeni security personnel join to a rally of the Shiite Houthi movement to demand the dismissal of the government, in Sana?a, Yemen, 22 August 2014.

    Yemeni supporters to the Shiite Houthi movement shout slogans during a rally demanding the dismissal of the government, in Sana?a, Yemen, 22 August 2014.  EPA


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    9 years ago

    So the small Jewish community of about 100 Jews still left in Yemen are in more danger.
    How come the US is not helping to get them out from this dangerous country.