Yemen's Leader Just Surrendered The Presidential Palace To Iran-Backed Rebels

(Reuters) - Houthi fighters entered Yemen's presidential palace after a brief clash with the compound's security guards, witnesses and security sources told Reuters, a day after some of the worst battles in the capital in years.

Guards at the presidential palace housing the main office of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi said they handed over the compound to Houthi fighters after a brief clash. Witnesses said there was a brief clash between a Houthi force and palace guards.

Witnesses also said they saw the Houthis seize armored vehicles that had been guarding the entrances to the palace.

The Houthis on Monday fought artillery battles with the army near the presidential palace, in some of the most intense fighting in Sanaa in years, and surrounded the prime minister's residence.

Nine people were killed and 90 wounded before a ceasefire came into force on Monday evening.

The Houthis are a community of Shi'ite Muslim tribes from Yemen's desert periphery. A Houthi insurgency has been ongoing for most of the last decade, and was sparked in the early 2000s by the largely Sunni central government's encroachment on traditional Houthi governance and traditional authority, along with the group's traditional marginalization within Yemen's politics.

But in the chaotic years after the resignation of long-serving president Ali Abullah Salih in early 2012 after a wave of Arab Spring-style street protetets, the Houthi uprising took on a national-level character, culminating in the rebels' march on Sanaa in September of 2014 and seizure of key government ministries. The Houthis have also received forms of assistance from Iran as well, turning Yemen into the latest battelground between Tehran and the Middle East's Sunni states.

(Reporting by Sami Aboudi; Editing by William Maclean, Ralph Boulton)