Thousands protest against Houthi rule in Yemen after embassies close

SANAA, Feb 12 (Agencies): Yemenis in the capital Sanaa and the central city of Taiz held the largest protests yet against a takeover by a Shia Muslim militia group on Wednesday after the United States, Britain and France shut their embassies over security fears.
Hundreds massed in the capital against the Houthi fighters, who manned checkpoints and guarded government buildings they control. The militants, bedecked in tribal robes and automatic rifles, shot in the air and thrust daggers at the crowds opposing their rule.
Tens of thousands of people also carried banners and chanted anti-Houthi slogans in Taiz, which the militants have not taken.
The Iranian-backed Houthi movement has called its seizure of power a revolution and says it wants to rid the country of corruption and economic peril-though Yemen's rich Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab neighbors say it is a coup.
Yemen had long been at the forefront of the US-led war against al Qaeda, but the long-standing alliance between Washington and Sanaa appears to have ended for now.
The US ambassador and diplomatic staff left the embassy on Wednesday, local workers said, a day after Washington announced it was closing the mission. Embassy workers had already destroyed weapons, computers and documents, they added.
"Recent unilateral actions disrupted the political transition process in Yemen, creating the risk that renewed violence would threaten Yemenis and the diplomatic community in Sanaa," US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said.
Despite the embassy shutdown, White House Spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Wednesday that the United States was continuing to carry out counter-terrorism operations in Yemen in cooperation with Yemeni officials.