Sana’a: Al Houthi rebels who have overtaken the Yemeni capital are under fire from insiders over serial cases of raids by group’s fighters on rivals’ properties in Sana’a in recent months.

Following their capture of the city on September 21, the north Yemen rebels quickly commandeered the houses and companies owned by their rivals including Ali Mohsen Al Ahmer, a once powerful army general, Hamed Al Ahmer, an oil and telecom tycoon whose money was a lifeline for protesters against the former president in 2011.

Within days, the armed Al Houthi militiamen appropriated Hamed Al Ahmer’s Saba Islamic Bank and Sabafon mobile operator, as well as both men’s mansions and oil companies.

Al Houthis ostensible reason was that the two men were involved in corruption and built their businesses from “stealing public money”. The two Al Ahmers, who fled the country, flatly deny accusations.

Hassan Zaid, a prominent politician widely seen as being pro-Al Houthis, fired the salvo of criticism in November, in which he accused Al Houthis of being proxies for the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, using them to settle scores with figures who opposed his regime in 2011.

Zaid, who is of the same Shiite sect as Al Houthis, argued that the Al Houthis refrain from attacking Saleh’s interests in the capital demonstrates that Saleh drove the Al Houthis into attacking the Al Ahmers.

“Ansar Allah were penetrated by the former president’s men who made them as a tool in their hands to seek revenge from those people who opposed Saleh’s regime,” he said, using anther name for the Al Houthis.

Zaid reiterated his criticism last week in an interview with the government-run 26Septebmer weekly newspaper. “Al Houthis do not have the right to assault private properties whatever their justifications since they do not have a legitimate authority, allowing them to confiscate private money.”

The arguments within the group about assaults intensified in December when a group of armed Al Houthi men from so-called Popular Committees tried to storm a house owned by Hamed Al Ahmer. His ex-wife sent an appeal to protect her and her children from the Al Houthis who were moving to confiscate the house.

Ali Al Bukhiti, a spokesperson for the group who regularly appears on local and international media defending the movement, moved to the houses when he failed to stop the armed men from moving into the house. Al Bukhiti and other activists barricaded themselves in the houses and vowed to stay put until the men vacate the house.

Following the thwarted raid, Al Bukhiti wrote a series of articles, lashing out the group for deploying their armed men to rampage properties of their rivals. Al Bukhiti said that the movement is copying retaliatory actions of those people who ruled Yemen in the past.

“In my opinion, there is no difference between those who stormed and confiscated the houses of Al Houthis and their allies and displaced women and children and those who stormed and confiscated the houses of the Al Ahmers and displaced their women and children.” he said in a post on his Facebook on December 25.

Al Houthis fought with the former president in six sporadic wars from 2004 to 2010. The wars claimed the lives of thousands of people from both sides.

Saleh’s opponents have consistently accused him of using his remaining influence on the elite Republican Guard forces and tribes to facilitate Al Houthis capture of the capital and other cities.

Analysts there think that the growing criticism from insiders would not bring about considerable changes since those critics are not from the military wing of the movement.

Nabil No’man, the deputy managing editor of the government-run Al Thawra daily, told Gulf News that reform would occur within the movement when military figures speak out.

“During the National Dialogue Conference, the voices of those political figures were dominant. Now, the military voices are leading the movement and the political figures were given the back seat.”