Graduate students take part in a parade in support of the Houthi movement with a truck carrying a representation of the Quran, Sanaa, Yemen, June 9, 2024. /CFP
Yemen's Houthi group said on Monday that they had arrested a group spying for the United States and Israel under the cover of international organizations in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa.
"The American-Israeli spy network has carried out espionage and sabotage roles in official and unofficial institutions for decades on behalf of the enemy," the Houthi security services said in a statement.
The spy network was linked to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), said the statement aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV, revealing that its members were "provided with specialized technologies, devices and equipment that enable them to carry out their activities secretly."
The spy network members "are employees with the U.S. embassy," according to the statement, adding that "after the U.S. embassy staff left Sanaa, elements of the spy network continued to implement their destructive agendas under the cover of international and UN organizations."
The network "attracted many Yemeni government officials and arranged visits for them to the United States to influence and recruit them," it said, noting that among those recruited were economists, government officials, and owners of oil and commercial companies.
According to the statement, the spy network played "destructive and subversive roles," and worked to implement "projects and programs targeting the agricultural and health sectors and contributing to the spread of diseases and epidemics in various Yemeni governorates."
The spy network also participated in implementing plans "targeting the Yemeni people's religious identity and values, and sought to spread vice and corruption and ran prostitutes," the statement added.
Houthi supporters burn an U.S. flag during a military march marking the anniversary of Yemeni unity in Sanaa, Yemen, May 22, 2024. /CFP
Before their arrest, the group had provided the United States and Israel with "extremely important, secret and dangerous military and security information," the Houthi statement added, without giving the names or the number of the people arrested.
Yemen's internationally-recognized government on Friday accused the Houthi group of arresting more than 50 employees from international and Yemeni organizations.
Ahmed Arman, the Yemeni government's minister of human rights and legal affairs, said the detained employees, including 18 UN staff members and four women, were currently being held in the Houthi-controlled "security and intelligence agency" in the Yemeni capital.
Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war since late 2014, when the Houthi group took control of multiple northern provinces and ousted the Yemeni government from Sanaa. The U.S. embassy in Sanaa suspended operations in 2015.