Yemen rebels carry out raids day after UN peace deal

Houthi rebels in Yemen have raided the houses of a powerful military commander and his allies in the capital city of Sanaa, just a day after the Shia rebels signed a U.N.-brokered peace deal with the government of the Sunni-majority country.

Monday’s raids on the homes of Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, an adviser on defense and security affairs for the president, and of Hamid al-Ahmar, the leader of the Yemeni Alliance for Reform party, threaten to undermine the success of that deal, which is aimed at ending two weeks of clashes and protests that have crippled the capital.

"The deal calls for immediate cease-fire. It means that all hostilities must cease. It also means that all the armed groups that are now in the city taking over government buildings must leave," said Jamal Benomar, the United Nations’ envoy to Yemen who brokered the deal.

Sources told Al Jazeera that the gunmen entered Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar’s house in the Hadda neighborhood overnight and looted it after exchanging fire with the guards. Several security personnel were injured in the incident.

Meanwhile, the rebels continued to hold their positions in Sanaa around key government offices and army bases, which they had captured without resistance just hours before the peace agreement was signed.

The interior ministry had called on the security forces on Sunday not to confront the rebels, but many are now worried the Houthis have little intention of honoring their part of the deal.

The U.N. deal calls for the formation of a new government within a month, and for President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi to appoint advisers from the Houthis and southern separatists within three days.

It would also see the current transitional government dissolved and replaced with what Houthi leader Abdelmalek al-Houthi sees as a more representative body, in which the Houthis are given a number of cabinet positions – possibly as many as its biggest rival, al-Islah party, Yemen's main Islamist party.

The Houthis hail from the Zaidi Shia community, which makes up 30 percent of Sunni-majority Yemen but is the majority in the northern highlands, including the capital region.

They have battled the government on and off for a decade from their stronghold of Saada in the far north.

More than 100 people have been killed since the latest violence broke out.