1,200 prisoners 'walk out of Yemeni prison'

[unhappycamper]

http://www.dw.com/en/1200-prisoners-walk-out-of-yemeni-prison/a-18554836

Some 1,200 prisoners, including convicted murderers and al Qaeda members, walked out of a Yemeni jail when fighting led guards to abandon their posts. The jail break is the latest example of instability in Yemen.

1,200 prisoners 'walk out of Yemeni prison'
01.07.2015

Warring factions disputed who was responsible for the release of roughly 1,200 prisoners from a jail in Taiz, Yemen's third largest city.

State news agency Saba, controlled by the Houthis, said that al Qaeda fighters and militia members stormed the prison on Tuesday. But forces loyal to Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi said it was the Houthi rebels who threw open the prison's doors to cover their withdrawal from the city as the pro-government's Popular Resistance Committees advanced on the city.

The jail break marks the third time convicts have been freed from Yemeni prisons since as Saudi-led air campaign targeting Houthi fighters began in late March. Militants from al Qaeda's branch in Yemen, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released some 300 prisoners from their cells in the port city of Mukalla in April, and Houthis allegedly freed inmates in the southwestern city of Dhale.

Taiz was overtaken in March by the Shiite Houthi rebels, who are thought to be supported by Iran and are fighting to reinstate former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Al Qaeda and other Sunni extremists, including militants from "Islamic State" (IS), have vowed to kill Shiite Muslims, who IS considers heretics, not only in Yemen but across the Middle East.