A group of Shiite rebels wielding high-powered firearms attacks the house of Yemen's president and raided the presidential palace located nearby. The attack forced several people to flee the capital and the UN Security Council was forced to hold an emergency meeting in order to suppress the coup.
According to sources, the attackers were part of the Yemen branch of the Al-Qaeda terrorist cell, the same group that staged the attack on the Paris office of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Additional reports confirmed that President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was completely unharmed and is being held in an unnamed location.
The insurgency started on September 2014 after the Shiite rebels known as Houtis took control of Yemen's capital, Sanaa. The attack was in connection to the ongoing power struggle of the group against the Hadi government. After the success of the group's rebellion, they installed a de facto government which then took control over several cities near the capital.
The group claimed that they want to ongoing U.N. peace negotiation to be resolved in a much faster pace. Part of the peace deal was that the Houthis will be granted power to control the commission which was assigned to draft a new constitution and is also tasked to create a new federal system. However, many critics were skeptical about the Houthis' real intention about the proposition; some say that the peace deal is just a smoke screen for the Houthis' move to seize more power of the country.
The emergency meeting held by the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday condemned the actions taken by the Houthis and asked for a long-term cease fire. The council also declared that the Hadi government is the legitimate governing body of Yemen and dismissed the Houthis regime.
A report from Yemen's Health Ministry confirmed that more than nine people died during the attack and at least 67 more were wounded.
