Now that the armed forces have moved into Dammaj, a city located in the northern province of Sa’ada to monitor a truce in between the Houthis, Shia group under the leadership of Abdel-Malek al-Houthi and the Salafis, Sunni radicals, Salafis have warned they feel betrayed by Sana’a central government.
A Salafi’ spokesman was quoted on Sunday by Gulf News as saying that President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi has willingly chosen to sacrifice all Salafi militants for the sake of getting closer to the Houthis, a group which for decades has been in opposition of the central government, both politically and religiously.
“President sacrificed 15,000 people to get closer to the Houthis,” said the spokesman.
After more than 10 weeks of intense fighting in Dammaj but also across the neighbouring provinces of al-Jawf and Amran, where the Houthis sent fighters to open up new fronts and tire out Salafi militants and supporters, the Sunni group has been forced to abandon its position in Dammaj.
Dammaj became the epicentre of a bitter battle for control when the Houthis accused Salafi to be harbouring Jihadists and wannabe Jihadist in Dar al-Hadith, their Dammaj religious centre. Although the Salafis have always strongly rejected such accusations, they were nevertheless told to leave the premises and depart from the city altogether. The centre can house at any given time over 15,000 students.
Local sources have confirmed that Yehia al-Hujowri, Dar al-Hadith Director felt very much betrayed by Sana’a. He allegedly wrote a letter to President Hadi, urging him to intervene. Little did he expect said those close to the matter that President Hadi would choose to diffuse the situation by asking Salafis to evacuate.
Surur al-Wadi’i, a Salafis spokesman told Gulf News by telephone, “When we authorised him [Hadi] to find a settlement for the crisis, we did not expect him to ask us to leave Dammaj and handed it to the Houthis.”