Sana’a: Hundreds of people demonstrated on Sunday in Yemen’s capital, urging state security forces to return to the streets and demanding rebel militias leave Sana’a.

The demonstrations came a day after Yemeni political forces signed a security deal in which the rebels, known as Al Houthis, agreed to disarm their militia and withdraw from areas they recently seized.

The Al Houthis’ rivals — the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Islah political party and other parties — also signed the deal, part of a comprehensive agreement brokered by the United Nations.

“For a secure capital free of armed militias,” read a banner raised by demonstrators in Sana’a on Sunday, who also called for the return of weapons seized by the Al Houthis.

The agreement would grant the Al Houthis some executive power as it stipulates that the president name two advisers, one from the Al Houthis and one from Yemen’s southern separatist movement. It also calls for the formation of a new government within a month and the restoration of fuel subsidies, which the outgoing government ended in July, sparking the political confrontation now engulfing the country.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s local Al Qaida branch claimed responsibility for firing a rocket Saturday near the US Embassy in Sana’a.

Militant websites posted a statement from Yemen’s Al Qaida on Twitter claiming responsibility for firing the rocket. It said the attack was in response to a drone attack that targeted and injured children in Al Jawf province on Friday. It said the rocket assault wounded several embassy guards and destroyed an armoured vehicle.

Yemeni security officials said a man on a motorcycle fired the portable missile, causing no casualties. They said the rocket targeted a building some two blocks away from the US Embassy itself.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday that there was no indication that the embassy was the target and that none of its staff were wounded.

Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen’s local branch, is considered by Washington to be the most dangerous affiliate of the global terror network.