UN staff held in Yemen suspected of spying for Israel

UN staff arrested by Yemen's Houthi rebels earlier this week are suspected of spying for Israel and the United States, a Houthi official told AFP yesterday on condition of anonymity.

At least 11 United Nations workers were detained on Sunday after an Israeli air strike killed the Houthis' prime minister and about half of his cabinet last week.

"Those who were arrested from among the United Nations employees are accused of spying for the American and Israeli aggression," the official said. "Whoever has the accusations against them confirmed will be referred to trial."

The detainees included workers from the World Food Programme and Unicef, which provides aid and support for children. Dozens of other people were arrested on Saturday "on suspicion of collaborating with Israel", a Yemeni security source told AFP at the time.

The arrests came after Houthi prime minister Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser al-Rahawi, nine ministers and two cabinet officials were killed in the Israeli air strike last Thursday, reports AFP. It marked the highest profile assassination in a series of Israeli reprisal attacks against the Iran-backed Houthis during the Gaza war.

Meanwhile, a projectile has fallen into the Red Sea near a vessel off Yemen, where the Houthis have been launching attacks on shipping since the start of Israel's war in Gaza, a British maritime agency said yesterday.

The vessel and crew were safe and proceeding to their next port of call, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency, which received a report of the incident 178 nautical miles northwest of the port of Hodeidah. It did not specify when the attack occurred.