SANAA
Clashes this week between presidential guard units and Shiite Houthi militants outside the presidential palace in Sanaa have left 18 dead and 96 injured so far, an official report said Thursday.
The report, which was prepared by a government-commissioned committee, added that most of these casualties had fallen on Monday and Tuesday.
Shiite Houthi militants and presidential guards clashed outside the presidential palace in Sanaa on both Monday and Tuesday.
The reasons for the clashes remain unknown, but the Houthis say the fighting erupted after presidential guards had shelled residential areas near the palace.
The Houthis have been in control of Sanaa since last September and have recently tried to extend their control to other provinces.
On Tuesday, the Houthis took over the presidential palace where Prime Minister Khaled Bahah was held for almost three days before being released and allowed to move to another location.
The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council on Wednesday denounced the Houthi's seizure of the presidential palace and called it a "coup."
Later the same day, the Yemeni presidency said the Houthis had vowed to leave the presidential palace, dismantle checkpoints in Sanaa, and free a presidential aide they had detained earlier.
The Houthis' growing power in Yemen has become a headache for the states of the Gulf, which fear the emergence of a Shiite power in the Arab Peninsula.
