Region

CAIRO — Egypt on Monday ordered a probe into a stampede and clashes at a Cairo stadium that left 19 dead, as pressure mounted on authorities over the country's latest outbreak of violence.

Egypt suspended all major football games indefinitely after Sunday's violence, which broke out when police fired tear gas and birdshot at disruptive fans.

Egypt's hard-core football fans have been repeatedly involved in the country's explosive political mix and Sunday's violence showed once again the willingness of police to use force.

President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi ordered an investigation "to uncover the root causes" of the violence, his office said, as fans blamed the police.

The radical supporters of one of the clubs involved in Sunday's match, Cairo-based Zamalek SC, accused the authorities of carrying out a "planned massacre".

The Ultras White Knights, who have been at the forefront of previous anti-government protests, said on their Facebook page that most of the victims had been trapped inside a metal enclosure that was only set up at the grounds the day before the match.

Others also pointed fingers at the authorities, including several youth groups who demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim.

Prominent journalist Ibrahim Eissa, usually known for his pro-Sisi stance, blamed the president and the interior ministry for the violence.

Sisi "is directly responsible and politically accountable for the blood that has been spilt," he said in televised remarks.

The violence — reminiscent of clashes that killed more than 70 people after a football match in Port Said in 2012 — erupted as thousands of fans tried to force their way into a Cairo stadium to watch a game, triggering panic as police fired tear gas and birdshot at the crowd.

Health officials and police said all the victims, mostly youngsters, were crushed in a stampede.

"Nineteen people died," interior ministry spokesman Hani Abdel Latif said, revising an earlier death toll of 22 given by prosecutors.

He said that 22 policemen were also injured in the clashes and 18 people were arrested.

"The deaths were caused due to a stampede. There are no signs of gunshot or birdshot," senior health official Khaled Al Khatib said.

"The victims had lots of bruises, while some had broken necks... People were trampling each other."

At least 25 others were injured, the health ministry said.

Tense days ahead 

Television footage showed crowds of fans squeezed inside the narrow metal enclosure, jostling to get inside the stadium to watch Zamalek play another Cairo-based club, Enppi SC.

"One fan set off a flare as he waited in the queue, which caused the police to fire tear gas at the crowd that was squeezed in a narrow pathway leading to the gate," said a witness who gave his name as Ibrahim.

Fans were further outraged as the match continued despite the unrest.

The clashes prompted the government to suspend the Egyptian Premier League indefinitely.

What happened on Sunday was a "disaster for Egyptian sport", said Khaled Al Mortagy, a former board member of Al Ahly club, which announced three days of mourning.

"Matches are being played behind closed doors. This is leading fans to be against the police. It's becoming a culture. If you can't secure a match, how can you secure the country?"

The 2012 Port Said riots erupted after a match between Al Ahly and Al Masry clubs.

Sunday's match had been open to the public, unlike most other games between Egyptian clubs since the Port Said riots, the country's worst-ever sport disaster.

The interior ministry had restricted to 10,000 the number of spectators allowed into the stadium on Sunday.

Thousands of fans without tickets scaled the stadium walls before police dispersed them, officials said.

Experts predicted tense days ahead.

"Tension could rise further if the government decides... to re-impose a ban on spectators attending soccer matches," said James Dorsey, an expert on Middle East soccer at the Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

The incident also dashed hopes that Sisi's government "may adopt a less brutal approach to its civil society opponents," he said.

More than 1,400 people have died in a government crackdown targeting supporters of former president Mohamed Morsi since he was ousted by then army chief Sisi in July 2013.

Sunday's deaths could inflame football fans, who have repeatedly clashed with police in recent years and can bring thousands to the streets.

CAIRO — A riot broke out Sunday night outside of a major football game in Egypt, with fighting between police and fans killing at least 20 people, security officials said.

The riot, only three years after similar violence killed 74 people, began ahead of a match between Egyptian Premier League clubs Zamalek and ENPPI at Air Defence Stadium east of Cairo. Such attacks in the past have sparked days of violent protests pitting the country's hard-core fans against police officers in a nation already on edge after years of revolt and turmoil.

Three security officials said some people died during a stampede, while others died in clashes with police. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorised to speak to journalists.

What caused the violence wasn't immediately clear. Security officials said Zamalek fans tried to force their way into the match without tickets, sparking clashes.

Zamalek fans, known as "White Knights", posted on their group's official Facebook page that the violence began because authorities only opened one narrow, barbed-wire door to let them in. They said that sparked pushing and shoving that later saw police officers fire tear gas and birdshot.

The group later posted pictures on Facebook it claimed were of dead fans, including the names of 22 people it said had been killed. The Associated Press could not immediately verify the images, nor their casualty count.

Egypt's hard-core soccer fans, known as Ultras, frequently clash with police inside and outside of stadiums. They are deeply politicised and many participated in the country's 2011 uprising that forced out president Hosni Mubarak. Many consider them as one of the most organised movements in Egypt after the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, which the government later outlawed as a terrorist organisation following the 2013 military overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

The violence comes as police come under increasing scrutiny following the shooting death of a female protester in Cairo and the arrest of protesters under a law largely banning demonstrations. President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi has pledged bring stability to Egypt amid bombings and attacks by Islamic militants, but also has said Egypt's emergency situation meant that some violations of human rights were inevitable, if regrettable.

The deadliest riot in Egypt soccer history came during a 2012 match when Port Said's Al Masry team hosted Cairo's Al Ahly. That riot, at the time the deadliest worldwide since 1996, killed 74 people, mostly Al Ahly fans.

Two police officers later received 15-year prison sentences for gross negligence and failure to stop the Port Said killings, a rare incident of security officials being held responsible for deaths in the country. Seven other officers were acquitted, angering soccer fans who wanted more police officers to be held accountable for the incident and other episodes of violence.

In response, angry fans burned down the headquarters of Egypt's Football Association, also protesting its decision to resume matches before bringing those behind that 2012 riot to justice. They've also protested and fought officers outside of the country's Interior Ministry, which oversees police in the country.

SANAA — The United Nations said all parties in Yemen have agreed to resume talks on Monday, three days after a Shiite militia took power in a move widely condemned as a "coup".

Factions including the Houthi militia accused of seizing power would take part in the talks, envoy Jamal Benomar said Sunday as the UN chief called for Western-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to be restored to power.

On Friday, the militia dissolved parliament and created a "presidential council" in a move it said was designed to fill a power vacuum after Hadi and Prime Minister Khalid Bahah resigned last month.

The militia also sought to portray the move as a way of heading off the threat from Al Qaeda, which has a strong presence in east and south Yemen.

Benomar told reporters in Sanaa that Shiite militia leader "Abdelmalek Al Houthi and all political parties in Yemen have agreed to resume dialogue... which will begin tomorrow [Monday]".

The UN envoy insisted that all political leaders "take up their responsibilities and achieve consensus" in order to reach a "peaceful solution" to the crisis.

Tensions remained high in the south and southeast, where authorities said they did "not recognise" the rule of the Houthis and that they "totally reject the constitutional declaration" under which they seized control.

Speaking to reporters after talks with King Salman in Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned "the situation is very, very seriously deteriorating, with the Houthis taking power and making this government vacuum".

"There must be restoration of legitimacy of President Hadi," Ban said.

Fears of chaos 

The fall of Hadi's government has sparked fears that impoverished Yemen — strategically located next to oil-rich Saudi Arabia and on the key shipping route from the Suez Canal to the Gulf — would plunge into chaos.

Yemen's Gulf neighbours, led by Saudi Arabia, on Saturday voiced alarm and condemned what they called a "coup" in Sanaa.

A US official at a security conference in Munich said Washington and its Gulf Arab allies "don't agree" with the Houthis' plans for a transition.

Arab League chief Nabil Al Arabi on Sunday echoed that statement, branding the Houthi move as a "coup against constitutional legitimacy to impose that group's will at gunpoint".

Hadi had been under virtual house arrest since the Houthis seized the presidential palace and key government buildings last month, prompting him to tender his resignation to parliament, along with Bahah.

The Houthis have said they will set up a national council of 551 members to replace the legislature in the violence-wracked country.

Yemen is a key American ally in the fight against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed responsibility for last month’s deadly attack on French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

Abdelmalek Al Houthi said creating the transitional bodies, which include a security committee, would also head off the threat from Al Qaeda.

Heavily armed tribes

However, the statement by authorities in the south, which was independent until 1990, said forces in these provinces — Aden, Abyan, Lahj, Shabwa, Daleh and Hadramawt — rejected the Houthi takeover.

In the oil-rich eastern province of Marib, which the Houthis have long been eyeing, deputy governor Abdelwahid Namran told AFP that Sunni tribesmen were “discussing means of facing any developments”.

Marib residents said heavily armed tribes were preparing to counter any attempts by the Houthis to take over their region.

“The Houthis are incapable of governing [Sunni-majority] Yemen alone,” said analyst Ali Al Bakaly.

Any attempts to expand beyond Sanaa and nearby cities “under the cover of the constitutional declaration... will provoke a civil war” in the deeply tribal country awash with weapons.

The Houthis, also known as Ansarullah, have been met by deadly resistance from Al Qaeda and Sunni tribes since they descended from their northern strongholds and expanded south of Sanaa last year.

Ban said his envoy Benomar had been “working very hard in Yemen, facilitating a way out of the current political crisis and a return to the path of the peaceful political transition”.

UN Security Council President Liu Jieyi said on Friday its 15 members were ready to “take further steps” if UN-brokered negotiations to resolve Yemen’s political crisis were not resumed “immediately”.

MUNICH — The "Quartet" of Middle East peace mediators urged a prompt resumption of talks between Israel and the Palestinians after a meeting in Munich on Sunday and voiced concern about the slow pace of reconstruction in Gaza, damaged in last year's war.

Talks broke down last April with the Palestinians angry at continued building of Jewish settlements in occupied territory and Israel furious at attempts to bring Hamas into the Palestinian government.

"The Quartet underlined the importance of the parties resuming negotiations as soon as possible," the group comprising the US, EU, UN and Russia said in a joint statement after their meeting in Germany.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, Russia's Sergei Lavrov and deputy UN head Jan Eliasson reiterated that talks must respect Palestinian aspirations for statehood and Israel's security concerns.

"The Quartet is deeply concerned over the difficult situation in Gaza where the pace of reconstruction needs to be accelerated to address the basic needs of the Palestinian population and to ensure stability," said the diplomats.

They urged donors to disburse the $5 billion in aid for the Palestinians pledged last October in Cairo to repair damage from the war in the strip. More than 2,100 Palestinians died in the Israeli aggression.

BENGHAZI, Libya — A strike by security guards has closed Libya's eastern oil port of Hariga, the country's last functioning export port apart from two offshore fields, a port official said on Sunday.

The closure will lower oil output to less than 300,000 barrels per day, a fraction of the 1.6 million Libya used to pump before the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Qadhafi.

Libya is in the middle of a struggle between two governments and parliaments allied to armed factions fighting for legitimacy and territory.

The internationally recognised government of Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni fled to the east when a faction called Libya Dawn seized Tripoli in August, reinstating the old parliament and setting up a rival administration.

Hariga in Tobruk, an eastern city near the Egyptian border, used to export around 120,000 bpd.

Only Brega Port is still open but it is used to supply the 120,000 bpd-Zawiya refinery with crude. All other ports and most oilfields have shut down due to fighting nearby or pipeline blockages by rival factions.

The guards at Hariga complained their salaries had not been paid, preventing Greek-registered Minerva Zoe from loading 725,000 barrels of oil, the official said. The port closed on Saturday morning.

The fall of oil exports to a trickle has caused a budget crisis, delaying salary payments and halting development projects and hampering the supply of drugs to hospitals.

In another sign of failing state services, several districts in the capital Tripoli saw outages for 10 hours on Sunday, residents said. Power had already gone off for six hours on Saturday.

A spokesman for the state power firm declined to comment but officials have previously blamed gas shortages.

The Tripoli government has also blamed air strikes by the official government on the western town of Zuwara, forcing the nearby the Mellitah gas and oil complex to lower output for security reasons.

Cairo — An Egyptian court will this week retry Al Jazeera journalists, including a Canadian awaiting deportation, a judicial official said on Sunday, after his Australian colleague was deported.

Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed, journalists with the Qatari-owned channel, were originally sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for allegedly aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood, along with Australia's Peter Greste.

But an appeals court overturned that verdict in January and ordered a retrial, which the judicial official said is to begin on Thursday.

Greste was deported on February 1 under a presidential decree that allows the authorities to expel foreigners charged in Egypt and see them instead face trial in their home countries.

As a result, lawyers said the court was likely to drop proceedings against Greste after the opening session.

In a bid to secure his own deportation, Fahmy has renounced his Egyptian nationality and is awaiting a return to Canada, where he also has citizenship.

However, the third journalist, producer Mohamed, remains in jail as he only has Egyptian nationality.

The three employees of Al Jazeera English were arrested in December 2013 and tried on allegations of supporting the Brotherhood.

In June last year, Greste and Fahmy were jailed for seven years, while Mohamed was sentenced to 10 years in prison before the retrial was ordered.

The journalists' initial trial came against the backdrop of strained relations between Egypt and Qatar, which supported the Islamist movement of president Mohamed Morsi, whom then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi deposed in July 2013.

Canada had said on Monday that the release of Fahmy was "imminent", amid reports that it had a team of diplomats in Cairo pressing for his freedom, but he remains in Egyptian custody.

Fahmy's counsel, the prominent lawyer Amal Clooney, on Saturday sent a letter to Sisi demanding a meeting to press for his release.

His family said in a statement on Sunday that a retrial would be "our worst nightmare, to have to go through another circus of a retrial".

They said they were disappointed with what they called the Canadian government's "conservative approach" in lobbying for his release and called on Prime Minister Stephan Harper to intervene.

Greste, Fahmy and Mohamed work for Al Jazeera's English channel, which operated separately from the Egyptian and pro-Muslim Brotherhood channel Al Jazeera Mubashir Masr.

But the prosecution made no distinction between the channels during the trial.

Their arrest had sparked a global outcry and calls for their release led by Washington and the United Nations.

In November, Sisi enacted a decree that appeared tailored for Greste and Fahmy, but not Mohamed: Foreigners on trial, or convicted in Egypt, could be deported to their home countries to stand trial or serve out their sentences.

Both Australia and Canada have made clear they will not place Greste and Fahmy on trial.

But the decree's wording was aimed more at avoiding the impression in Egypt that the two had been released under international pressure.

BEIRUT — The United States delivered more than $25 million worth of military aid including heavy artillery to the Lebanese army on Sunday to help it fight jihadist groups which have repeatedly battled with security forces near the Syrian border.

The US ambassador to Beirut, David Hale, said in a statement the weapons would be used to "defeat the terrorist and extremist threat from Syria".

"We are fighting the same enemy, so our support for you has been swift and continuous," Hale said at an event marking the delivery of the weapons in Beirut.

The Lebanese army has fought regular battles with armed groups including militants linked to Islamic State and Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Nusra Front in areas near the Syrian border, most recently late last month when six soldiers were killed.

Hale said Lebanon was the fifth biggest recipient of US military aid. It received more than $100 million last year. Lebanese officials have warned of plans by radical Islamist groups fighting in the Syria war to seize territory in Lebanon.

While the US-backed Lebanese army has been battling hardline Islamists on the Lebanese side of the frontier, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite group Hizbollah has been fighting the same groups on the Syrian side of the border — part of its role fighting alongside Damascus in the Syrian war.

The Lebanese army, rebuilt after the country's 1975-90 civil war, is one of the strongest institutions in the country, but it has been hamstrung by outdated weapons.

France and Lebanon signed a $3 billion Saudi-funded deal in early November to provide French weapons and military equipment, including helicopters, to the Lebanese army.

A Lebanese government statement said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam on the sidelines of a Munich security conference they would get the first batch of weapons under the deal in April.

The United States has accelerated the delivery of military aid to Lebanon since last August, when Islamist militants staged a major attack in the border town of Arsal, said Nabil Haitham, a columnist in the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir.

"Despite the importance of these weapons, they cannot make up for the big shortfall from which the army is suffering," he told Reuters, adding that helicopters were vital.

DUBAI/MUNICH — Iran's supreme leader said on Sunday he could accept a compromise in nuclear talks and gave his strongest defence yet of President Hassan Rouhani's decision to negotiate with the West, a policy opposed by powerful hardliners at home.

As his foreign minister met counterparties in the talks at a conference in Munich, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he "firmly" backed a fair nuclear deal.

"I would go along with any agreement that could be made. Of course, if it is not a bad deal. No agreement is better than an agreement which runs contrary to our nation's interests," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranian air force personnel, according to official news agencies.

In a speech that still underlined his suspicions about Western nations that he characterised as "bullies", Khamenei backed Rouhani's negotiations with them and said any workable deal would mean both sides easing their demands.

"As the president said, negotiations mean reaching a common point. Therefore, the other party... should not expect its illogical expectations to be materialised. This means that one side would not end up getting all it wants."

"I am for reaching a good settlement and the Iranian nation too will certainly not oppose any deal to uphold its dignity and integrity," Khamenei said, an apparent warning to hardliners that they might have to accept a deal with powers including the United States, commonly known in Iran as "the Great Satan".

Negotiators have set a June 30 final deadline for a nuclear deal, and Western officials have said they aim to agree on the substance of such an accord by March.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will address the US Congress on Iran on March 3 — to the annoyance of the Obama administration — said he would strive to thwart would be a "bad and dangerous agreement".

"World powers and Iran are charging ahead to an agreement that would allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weaponry, something that would imperil the existence of the State of Israel," Netanyahu told his weekly Cabinet meeting.

The nuclear talks with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and France are aimed at clinching a deal that would ease Western concerns that Tehran could pursue a convert nuclear weapons programme, in return for the lifting of sanctions that have ravaged the Iranian economy.

Major sticking points are the pace at which sanctions would be removed, the size of Iran's nuclear fuel-producing capacity — a key consideration in preventing any output of bomb material — and the length of any agreement.

"Our [nuclear] negotiators are trying to take the weapon of sanctions away from the enemy. If they can, so much the better. If they fail, everyone should know there are many ways at our disposal to dull this weapon," Khamenei said.

Any deal "must be concluded in one stage and consist of clear and detailed specifications, and not subject to [various] interpretations," he said.

"Given our past experience in dealing with the [West], a final draft must not leave any room for the other side to repeatedly extract concessions."

Separately, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denied on Sunday a Reuters report quoting unidentified senior Iranian officials saying he had told the United States during the talks that Rouhani's political clout would be heavily damaged if negotiations failed.

"I believe the entire Iranian population understands that this government, that Dr Rouhani, his administration and the government in its entirety supported our efforts in the negotiations," Zarif told a security conference in Munich where he met counterparties in the negotiations, in what he called a "very serious discussion".

"Everybody has taken every necessary measure to make sure we succeed. All Iranians know this. If we fail, and I hope we won't, they [Iranians] will not consider us responsible for that failure. They will consider attempts [to ask] too much from Iran as a reason for failure."

US Senator John McCain, a hawkish Republican, warned in Munich that while Iran was negotiating now, its underlying goal was "to drive Western influence out of the Middle East".

Baghdad — Iraqis roared through central Baghdad in dozens of cars flying flags, honking horns and filling the street with smoke from their screeching tyres to celebrate the end of a years-old nightly curfew.

"Long live Iraq!", one young man shouted while hanging out the window of a passing car early on Sunday morning.

It was the first night in years that Baghdad residents could stay out as late as they wished, after Iraqi Premier Haider Al Abadi ordered an end to the long-running curfew that had most recently lasted from midnight to 5:00am (1800 to 0200 GMT).

And while most residents stayed at home, some chose to mark the occasion in a more lively fashion.

Young men made up the majority of the revellers, many of them driving American muscle cars with big engines and loud exhausts, but some families also turned out to celebrate by driving when they previously could not.

Security force members who once stopped drivers out past curfew instead stood by and watched the show, though one young man fell afoul of the authorities for performing a burnout outside a hotel in his Dodge Challenger, the tyres shrieking and spilling smoke as they spun around.

After being chastised, he sped away, turned around and proceeded to repeat the manoeuvre on the other side of the street.

Dozens of drivers parked in a long line on one side of Jadriyah bridge, with some young men dancing to music blaring from speakers in their cars.

The gathering was organised over Facebook to celebrate the end of the curfew, said Ali Majid Mohsen, a student driving a silver Dodge Charger with an Iraqi flag flying from one side.

On Karrada Dakhil, a main shopping street in central Baghdad, a group of men sat smoking water pipes in front of a café after midnight.

Like being in prison 

"Before, we felt like we were in prison," said Faez Adbulillah Ahmed, the owner of the cafe. "We were restricted."

"We would have to leave by 11:30pm ... to reach the house by 12," he said. Now, "we will be free to stay."

Down the street, a group of young men stood smoking cigarettes in front of a clothing store.

"We were waiting for this decision for years," shopowner Marwan Hashem said of ending the curfew.

Before, "when it was midnight, we would never stay out in the street," he said.

Doing away with the curfew ends a longstanding policy aimed at curbing violence in the capital by limiting movement at night.

The hours it was in force varied over the years and it has previously been cancelled but later reinstated.

The curfew did little to prevent the deadly bombings that plague Baghdad, which militants carry out during the day or in the early evening to maximise casualties.

Bombings killed at least 32 people and wounded more than 70 in the capital on Saturday, just hours before the lifting of the curfew.

But now, Iraqis are at least able to move more freely.

Walid Al Tayyib walked down Karrada Dakhil after midnight with his young nephew, which he could not have done just a night before.

"What do we feel today? We feel all the difference," he said.

"Now, thank God, we are going out with the kids enjoying ourselves."

SANAA — The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has accused Shiite Houthi rebels of staging a coup in Yemen after they announced they were dissolving parliament and forming a new government, Kuwait's official news agency said on Saturday.

The opposition of the GCC, a six-nation bloc comprising energy-rich Gulf states, may signal growing isolation for the impoverished Yemen and reflects the hostility of its majority Sunni Muslim neighbours towards the Iranian-backed Houthis.

"This Houthi coup is a dangerous escalation which we reject and is unacceptable. It totally contradicts the spirit of pluralism and coexistence which Yemen has known," the GCC was quoted as saying by KUNA news agency.

The GCC called the takeover a "threat...to the security and stability of the region and the interests of its people."

Yemen has been in political limbo since the president and prime minister resigned last month after the Houthis seized the presidential palace. On Friday, the movement dissolved parliament and said it would set up a new interim government.

Abdel Malik Al Houthi, the group's leader, said on Saturday he was open to all parties playing a role in Yemen's future.

"Our hand is extended to every political force in this country... the space is open for partnership, cooperation and brotherhood and now everybody bears their responsibility for building, not destruction," he said in a televised speech.

But he warned: “Any move which targets this people, its economy, security or stability is unacceptable, and the great Yemeni people will confront any such conspiracies.”

Parties from across Yemen’s political spectrum declined to support the Houthis’ moves.

Islah, Sunni Islamists and major tribal leaders making up the country’s main opposition party, said the measures amounted to a unilateral “coup” and called for them to be cancelled.

The former ruling party of Yemen’s ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh expressed its “regret” in an official statement, saying it violated an international plan for a move to democracy after Saleh’s exit amid Arab Spring protests in 2011.

Several governors from Yemen’s restive southern provinces said they rejected the takeover, they said in a joint statement.

Yemen’s instability has drawn international concern as it shares a long border with top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia, and the country is also fighting one of the most formidable branches of Al Qaeda with the help of US drone strikes.

Bomb, protests, clashes

Tensions ran high in the capital on Saturday, with armed Houthis manning checkpoints near main government buildings.

A rudimentary bomb exploded outside the central Sanaa residence of the former prime minister, now home to Mohammed Al Houthi, a top official in the Houthi military wing. Three Shiite Muslim militiamen were wounded, eyewitnesses said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Sunni Muslim militants in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have repeatedly clashed with the increasingly powerful Houthis, raising fears of an all-out sectarian war.

Separately, thousands of demonstrators gathered in three cities in central Yemen to protest against the Houthis seizing power. Houthi gunmen dispersed dozens of activists near the capital’s main university by firing into the air.

The Houthis entered Sanaa in September and began to fan out into more cities in Yemen’s south and west. Their spread has destabilised the country’s fragile security forces and stoked anger among tribal fighters allied to AQAP.

Four Houthi fighters were killed in a suspected AQAP attack in the southern Al Bayda province on Friday, while army forces clashed with tribesmen and AQAP fighters in a neighbouring district on Saturday.