Sadrists do not back Houthis – MP

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A lawmaker from the Sadrist bloc, or parliamentarians loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, criticized statements by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in which he accused the Sadrists of backing the Houthi rebels. “The Yemeni president’s accusations against Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr are wrong, otherwise the Yemeni leader has to provide evidence sustaining his claims,” Zaynab al-Kenani told Iraqi News. “Angry reactions by the Sadrists will be expressed over these statements,” she said. Kenani denied reports that the Houthis have offices in the holy Shiite city of Najaf . “First the accusations were meant against Sayyid (Ali) Sistani and today the accusations are meant against the Sadrists. The Yemeni president should refrain from these statements,” she noted. Yemeni President Saleh had accused Sadr and Iranian organizations he did not name of having links with armed Houthi rebels who are fighting the Yemeni army in the province of Saada , northern Yemen . The H ou his , alternately Hu this , are a militant group of Zaydi Shia operating in Yemen. Their activities are focused in the northwestern Saada province. Various reports associate the H o uthis with the Yemeni Zaydi group Believing Youths, Shabab al-Mu’minoon in Arabic. The group takes its name from Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi , their former commander, who was killed by Yemeni army forces in September 2004. AmR (S)/SR 1