Extremists in Taiz fire shots at art celebration and cause casualties

Extremists believed to be from Yemen's Muslim brotherhood opened fire at concert in the Centre of the city of Taiz, which is under the influence of the group, an arm of Saudi Arabia leading an Arab coalition to fight the Iran-backed Houthi movement.

Video recordings seen by a correspondent for Al-Youm Al-Thamen newspaper in the city of Taiz showed dozens of gunmen firing shots at a large crowd of women and children gathered at a football stadium in the city, resulting in casualties.

A Yemeni activist who was present at the ceremony said, "Extremists in military uniforms thwarted the concert that was expected to be performed by southern artist Mohammed Mohsen Atroush, who miraculously survived the heavy gunfire.

The activist stressed that the background of the refusal to hold artistic celebrations in the city of Taiz is not due to the "prohibition" of the sheikhs of the brotherhood religion for songs and celebrations attended by women, following the groups imposition of restrictions on Yemeni women studying at Taiz University.

Southern politician Ahmed Al-Rubaizi wrote: "Extremists attack the sixth Eid Taiz festival at the crowded Martyrs Stadium in Taiz, the moment of honoring the artist Mohammad Mohsen Atroush, which resulted in casualties."

Regional and local media said that extremist gunmen affiliated with the Islah party, the political arm of the Yemeni brotherhood, broke up an artistic concert in Taiz province, south of Sanaa, a number of people were injured, some seriously.

The office of culture in Taiz Governorate, with the support of deputy chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, Tariq Saleh, organized an artistic concert under the title "Our Sixth Eid of Taiz" to celebrate the great artist "Mohammad Mohsen Atroush" over a period of 3 days during Eid Al-Adha, at the Martyrs Stadium located in the center of the besieged city of Houthis.

News sites said the brotherhood pushed gunmen from the special task force to break up the artistic celebration with live bullets and disperse the crowd who came to participate in the ceremony, which began on the first day of Eid Al-Adha.

According to the sources, the crowd raised pictures of the deputy chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, Tariq Saleh, which prompted gunmen to the Islah party to intervene to confiscate them, but the masses continued to chant "Tariq…Tariq," prompting the militants to fire a barrage of live bullets.

The sources said that many of the wounded, including women and children, were shot and rushed to separate hospitals in the city of Taiz, including very serious cases.

Video footage broadcast by Yemeni activists on social networking sites "Facebook" showed the masses chanting "Tariq…Tariq" as the gunmen fired heavily, forcing the crowd to scramble on top of each other.

The activists considered the crime, which took place at the end of the Eid al-Adha celebration, "a terrorist and cowardly act", calling on the Presidential Council to intervene urgently to hold accountable and punish the perpetrators of the crime that left injured and caused fear and panic among women and children.

The storming of the Martyrs' Stadium by Brotherhood members and the dispersal of the artistic celebration would not have come without the public incitement campaign by Brotherhood militants accusing the Culture Office in Taiz of spreading "mixing" and "decay."

Abdul Khaleq Saif, director general of the Taiz Culture Office, said in a statement that the dispersal of the celebration, which was concluded with a river of blood, was due to "a campaign of incitement and dark mobilization, and it is crazy that some infiltrators from the task battalion fabricate this madness and extremism against us and the festival fans." The Yemeni official attributed the reason for the storming to "chants from the stands in the name of the vice president of the Presidential Council during the honoring of the people's artist Atroush by Brigadier General Tariq Saleh, and because of that, some of the masses were injured by" what he called "immoral unruly."

He added, "We expect the security services to take strict measures against those who did so, arrest them, arrest those behind them, and stop the wheel of incitement against some of our national and political symbols, cultural events and the masses of life in Taiz, and shed their blood because of this." "Incitement and malicious mobilization are the enemy," he said.

In this context, the head of the political bureau of the National Resistance, Brigadier General Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, a member of the Presidential Leadership Council, made a phone call with the governor of Taiz governorate, Nabil Shamsan, to check on the health of the wounded who were injured as a result of the Brotherhood's attack on the sixth Taiz Eid festival.

The member of the Presidential Leadership Council directed to quickly investigate the incident, prosecute the perpetrators and refer them to the competent authorities, and directed to pay attention to the wounded and treat them until they recover.

Tariq Saleh praised the interaction of the people of Taiz with the Eid festival, in which one of the most prominent veteran Yemeni artists, artist Mohammed Mohsen Atroush, was celebrated.

Saleh, the nephew of the late President Ali Abdullah Saleh, has succeeded in recent years in imposing himself as a difficult figure in the political equation in Yemen, especially in Taiz province, which angers the Brotherhood, who pushed unruly elements to storm the celebration.

Islah leaders do not hide their concern about Saleh's growing influence in Taiz, which for decades has been the center of gravity of the Brotherhood, as the Brotherhood has previously pushed gunmen to burn pictures of Tariq Saleh after hanging them on the streets in a move that sparked widespread condemnation.

Taiz is suffering under the weight of the pincers of Houthi terrorism, which has been unjustly besieging it for 9 years, and under the influence of the tampering of the emirs of the terrorist Brotherhood organization inside the city, based on their control over the military and security authorities.

Meanwhile, gunmen believed to be Brotherhood assassinated a young Yemeni man who was returning from Saudi Arabia after returning to the city of Taiz.

Sources told Al-Youm Al-Thamen newspaper that gunmen intercepted the young man "Aseel Al-Arabi" after his return from Saudi Arabia and shot him, killing him and looting all his money and gifts.