Houthi fighters storm presidential palace
Houthi fighters walk at a presidential guards barrack on a mountain overlooking the presidential palace in Sanaa January 20, 2015.Reuters

An improvised bomb exploded outside the republican palace in the center of Yemeni capital Sanaa on Saturday and wounded three Shi'ite Muslim militiamen guarding it, eyewitnesses said.

The attack came a day after the Houthi Shi'ite militant group dissolved parliament and formally took power of the impoverished and strife-town Arabian state.

Once the home of the resigned Yemeni  prime minister, the republican palace now houses Mohammed Houthi, a top official in the movement's military wing whose gunmen now hold sway over much of Yemen.