SANAA: Shiite Huthi protesters cut off the road between the capital and Yemen’s main airport while warplanes bombed Huthi rebel positions in the north on Sunday in a sharp escalation of weeks of tensions with the government.

Tens of thousands of Huthis, a religious insurgent group from northwest Yemen, have spent weeks camping around Sanaa in protest at the government against whom they fought a decade-long on-off war.

On Sunday, they set up tents blocking the main road to Sanaa’s airport and the Interior Ministry, while planes pounded positions of armed Huthi rebels in Al-Jawf province, killing 13 of them, according to government sources.

Intermittent fighting has been going on for months between the Huthis, who carry the name of their leaders’ clan, and Sanaa-backed tribes in Yemen’s north, but the government had paused airstrikes to give truce talks a chance.

The Huthis, who say they want to topple the government, have centered their current protest on a call for recent fuel price rises to be reversed, though they rejected a broad compromise proposal on fuel subsidies by President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi last week.

Iran denied a suggestion by Hadi that it was helping incite the turmoil, saying it “backs peaceful attempts to realize legislative aspirations...(and) participation of all groups in the political process,” its Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

“Some do not wish security, stability and an exit to the crisis for Sanaa, but want to light a fire like in Damascus, Baghdad and Libya,” Hadi told tribal leaders on Saturday.

Hadi called upon Iran to “exercise reason and logic in dealing with the Yemeni people, and they must deal with the people and not just one class, group or sect,” according to the state news agency Saba.