Militants abduct 13 Yemenis in Amran

"The 13 people were abducted in western Amran on Friday and taken to an undisclosed location," a local official said on Saturday.

He said Houthi militants stormed several houses in the province on claims of looking for weapons and threatened residents with death.

Houthi leaders could not be reached for comment.

Houthi militants seized control of Amran province on Tuesday after clashes with Yemeni army forces.

The Shia group first appeared in 1992, taking Yemen's northern Saada province as its main base of operations.

Yemen has been dogged by turmoil since the ouster of autocratic president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2012 after 33 years in power.