World News | Red Cross: Warring parties in Yemen resume prisoner releases

SANAA, April 15 (AP) — Hundreds of people detained in connection with the conflict in Yemen were released Saturday as part of a massive prisoner exchange that began a day earlier, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

The deal, brokered by the United Nations last month, is the most significant prisoner swap in years. It comes amid diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to Yemen’s protracted war.

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It involved the release of more than 800 prisoners from all sides in the war that began in 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa, overthrowing the internationally recognized government. The government fled south and then into exile in Saudi Arabia.

The Houthi takeover prompted a Saudi-led coalition to intervene months later, and the conflict turned into a regional proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with the U.S. long on the periphery, providing intelligence assistance to the kingdom. However, international criticism of the Saudi airstrikes that killed civilians caused the United States to withdraw its support.

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The three-day prisoner exchange, which began on Friday, saw the release of 318 former detainees, including Major General Mahmoud Subaihi, who was defense minister when the war broke out, and Nasser Mansour Hadi ( Nasser Mansour Hadi). Former Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

All parties released a total of 357 war detainees on Saturday, the ICRC said. It said Houthi prisoners of war were transported from Saudi Arabia and other government-controlled cities in Yemen to the rebel-held capital Sanaa.

Among those freed were about two dozen Saudi and Sudanese soldiers from the Saudi-led coalition. The rebels also freed relatives of late Yemeni strongman leader Ali Abdullah Saleh under the deal.

Saleh, who had fought the Houthis early in the war, later switched sides, prompting rebels to kill him in December 2017. Tariq Saleh, the late president’s nephew, is now the leader of a powerful force on Yemen’s west coast.

The Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia concluded a round of tense talks in Sanaa on Friday to restore an expired ceasefire and begin talks to resolve the conflict, according to the Houthis, with the exchange of prisoners. The rebels said the two sides would meet again for further talks.

The Saudi-Houthi talks, brokered by Oman, gained momentum after Saudi Arabia and Iran reached an agreement last month to restore diplomatic ties after a seven-year rift. Iran is the main foreign backer of the Houthis.

The conflict in Yemen has killed more than 150,000 people, both fighters and civilians, and has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. (Associated Press)

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