Cairo: Yemen’s Al Houthi movement and its armed allies seized a military base north of Sana’a yesterday, dealing a setback to a shaky ceasefire and peace talks in Kuwait aimed at ending a year-long war.

Yemen’s government suspended yesterday its participation in “direct” talks with the Iran-backed militants in protest at their takeover of a military base in the war-torn country despite a ceasefire, officials said.

But government representatives will remain in Kuwait where they will continue to take part in indirect talks through UN mediator Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad, delegates said.

“We have decided to suspend direct talks with the rebels to protest continuing violations of the ceasefire” that came into effect on April 11, a senior government official said.

“We call on the United Nations to act seriously to end these violations which threaten to undermine the peace talks,” said the government official who declined to be named.

He said a session that had been scheduled for yesterday afternoon would not take place, adding however that “contacts will continue with the UN mediator and sponsors” of the peace talks.

On Saturday, Yemen’s warring parties held their first face-to-face talks since the negotiations opened in Kuwait on April 21.

The UN envoy said these direct talks were “productive” and had touched on key issues.

‘Suitable response’

But later Saturday, Al Houthis and their allies overran Al Amaliqa base in northern Yemen after hours of clashes, tribal and military sources said, adding that the fighting caused casualties.

The sources said that the commanders of the 600-strong brigade, located in the Al Houthi stronghold province of Amran since 2014, had “chosen to remain neutral” as pro-government forces, backed a Saudi-led coalition, clashed with the militants across Yemen.

“The attack against Al Amaliqa brigade torpedoes the peace consultations in Kuwait,” Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdul Malek Al Mekhlafi, who heads his government’s delegation in Kuwait, said on Twitter.

Al Mekhlafi said his delegation will take “a suitable position” towards the rebels’ “crime” against Al Amaliqa base without elaborating.

Government forces said they have recorded “3,694 ceasefire violations by Al Houthis and their allies” — troops fighting with ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The coalition in March 2015 launched a military campaign against Al Houthi militants, who have seized the capital Sana’a among other parts of the country.

More than 6,400 people have been killed since then and around 2.8 million displaced.

Al Houthi spokesman Mohammad Abdul Salam wrote on Facebook on Saturday that Saudi Arabia freed 40 Yemeni rebel prisoners, as part of a deal reached with the kingdom in March to calm the situation along the border.

Bid on Aden police chief

Meanwhile on the ground,  four Yemeni guards were killed in a bombing that targeted the convoy of Aden’s police chief, officials said, the second such attack on him in the southern city last week.

A bomb-laden car in Aden’s Mansoura district exploded as General Shallal Shayae’s convoy passed, damaging military vehicles and prompting clashes between his guards and Al Qaida suspects in the area, the officials added.

Shayae himself escaped unharmed, according to his aides, but medical sources said that four of his guards were killed and eight others were wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but Shayae has survived attacks by terrorists more than once, the last of which was just days ago.