SANAA
Tribal mediators have negotiated a truce between the Shiite Houthi group and Sunni tribesmen following hours of violent confrontations in Yemen's eastern Maarib province, a tribal source said Thursday.
"Tribal leaders mediated a truce with the Houthis after clashes erupted in the Al-Watada district," the source, requesting anonymity, told The Anadolu Agency.
He added that the truce came after tribesmen had managed to thwart an attempt by Houthi militants to seize a military camp in Al-Watada earlier Thursday.
Six tribesmen were injured in armed clashes with Houthi militants near the camp, according to a tribal source.
Tribesmen say that Houthi militants attempted to storm the military camp, which they had been guarding.
Earlier this month, the Houthi leadership threatened to overrun Yemen's oil-rich Maarib province, citing what it described as a lack of government action against the alleged Al-Qaeda presence in the region.
Thursday's clashes came following a fresh settlement between President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthi leadership after the militant group on Tuesday seized the presidential palace in capital Sanaa.
The move on the palace prompted violent confrontations between presidential guard units and Houthi militants, which left nine dead.
Over the past two days, Sanaa has been rocked by clashes between Houthi militants and presidential guard units amid an apparent push by the former to consolidate control over the fractious country.
The powerful Shiite group seized Sanaa last September and has since moved to extend its influence to other parts of Yemen.
Some Arab capitals accuse Shiite Iran of backing the ongoing Houthi insurgency.
Yemen has remained in a state of relative lawlessness since a popular uprising that erupted in 2011 forced autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh to relinquish authority one year later.
