Taiz activists accuse Islah Party of using civilians as human shields

TAIZ, Oct. 20 (YPA) – Political figures and activists in Taiz accused Islah Party militants on Tuesday of taking up positions in densely populated residential neighborhoods in the city center and using civilians as human shields.

Sources said the moves were intended to draw the region into another round of fighting and distract from the party’s successive battlefield losses on rural fronts, as its forces retreated in the face of advances by Sanaa forces on the city’s western, southern and eastern outskirts.

The party has also been accused of profiting from civilians’ suffering. Political figures alleged that aid was being systematically looted and basic commodities withheld to drive up prices on the black market.

Adel al-Hassani, a former leader of the Southern Resistance, said Islah militants had seized several tankers carrying household gas that Sanaa authorities had allowed into Taiz to ease shortages.

He said the gas was then diverted for sale at exorbitant prices on the black market controlled by party leaders.

Meanwhile, Ali Salem, an activist and human rights advocate in Taiz, accused local authorities affiliated with the party of deliberately allowing garbage to accumulate on the city’s main and side streets.

He said the practice was intended to pressure international organizations into providing donor funding by portraying the city as facing a “catastrophic humanitarian situation.”

Political figures also accused the party of exploiting the “blockade” to secure foreign funding while imposing heavy levies on local residents under the pretext of supporting the resistance.

They also questioned what had happened to the party’s extensive military arsenal, the financial support it had received, and the money collected through levies over more than a decade.

@E.Y.M