Shiite Muslim tribesmen handed back an army camp to the Yemeni government on Saturday, a spokesman for the group said, to try to defuse tensions caused by the capture of a provincial capital north of Sanaa earlier in the week.
The fall of Omran, some 50 km (30 miles) north from the Yemeni capital, has drawn condemnation from the U.N. Security Council and a threat of military action by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who had ordered the army to raise its preparedness level to "carry out any tasks that may be assigned to it."
The spokesman, Mohammed Andul-Salam, said in a statement on the Houthi website that an army force dispatched from Sanaa "had arrived to take charge of the 310 division headquarters and oversee the security presence in Omran province."