Sanaa--Shia militiamen fired warning shots and used batons and knives Wednesday to disperse a demonstration in Yemen's capital against their power grab, leaving four protesters injured, organisers and witnesses said.
"No to Huthi, and no to the coup," hundreds of protesters who had gathered near the presidential residence in Sanaa chanted, in reference to militia leader Abdel Malek al-Huthi.
Similar protests were held elsewhere across the capital, despite a newly announced ban on unauthorised anti-Huthi demonstrations.
The militia, which is also known as Ansarullah, overran Sanaa in September and on Friday formed of a presidential council and a security committee in a move widely denounced as a coup.
In Sanaa's Change Square, the epicentre of Arab Spring protests, thousands of Huthi supporters gathered for a rival protest to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the start of the uprising that forced out strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Pro-Huthi women covered in black from head to toe and waved Yemeni flags at a separate demonstration at Sittin Street, near the residence of recently-resigned President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
Armed militiamen deployed in force across the capital searching vehicles carrying supporters in an attempt to secure their own demonstrations.
Following their takeover in Sanaa, the Huthi militia seized more territory in the Sunni-majority country this week, sparking fears of a backlash from its feared Al-Qaeda branch.
Thousands held anti-Huthi protests in several other Yemeni cities, including Baida, Ibb, Hudeidah and the main southern city of Aden.
The Arab Spring protests of 2011 had raised hopes of democratic reform after more than three decades of iron-fisted rule by Saleh.
But his departure from office the following year created a power vacuum that the Huthis and Al-Qaeda have been vying to fill.
Western governments evacuated their diplomats from Yemen on Wednesday over security fears as the conflict deepened in the impoverished Saudi neighbour.
AFP
