SANAA: From Saudi Arabia, Yemen’s exiled president Wednesday ordered that militias battling Shiite rebels in Yemen be merged with his national army, in an apparent attempt to unify ground forces.

It was not immediately known how the order would translate on the ground in Yemen, where fierce, monthslong fighting has pitted Shiite rebels known as Houthis and troops loyal to the country’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamist militants and loyalists of President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi.

Also, since March, a Saudi-led coalition has been waging an air campaign against the Houthis, who control the capital, Sanaa, parts of northern Yemen and who are pushing to expand their power grab to the south of this impoverished Arabian Peninsula country.

According to Hadi’s adviser, Maj. Gen. Jafaar Mohammed Saad, authorities are “working on implementing the decision in the fastest time possible” to integrate the militias, known as “Popular Resistance” units – a vague term used for a wide specter of groups opposed to the Houthis.

However, security and military officials said they fear the order could provide a path for extremists such as Al-Qaeda to infiltrate military ranks. 

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to journalists.

Some also questioned Hadi’s motives for the order.

“The decision is an attempt by Hadi to win the favor of the Yemeni street, especially in the south,” Yemen-based political analyst Ahmed Dobhi said.

Yemen’s national army is fractured. Many powerful military units loyal to the former president, Saleh, are fighting alongside the Houthis.

In the southern port city of Aden, militia members are also being recruited by local police stations that are short of manpower, security officials said, also speaking on condition of anonymity under regulations.

Anti-Houthi fighters in Aden said last week that they seized full control of the city, after pushing the rebels from their last holdout.

Also Wednesday, a car bomb exploded in Sanaa, next to a mosque belonging to the minority Al-Bohra community, a Shiite sect, killing three people and wounding six, Yemen’s rebel-held Interior Ministry said in a statement. The explosion could be heard across the capital.

A local affiliate of ISIS claimed responsibility for the car bomb, according to a statement shared on Twitter accounts of ISIS supporters .

The ISIS affiliate in Yemen has claimed responsibility for a series of suicide bombings in the capital Sanaa targeting Shiites. 

American officials initially expressed skepticism that the affiliate existed, as Yemen is also home to the world’s most dangerous Al-Qaeda offshoot. 

Saudi-led warplanes bombed targets in Yemen’s northerly Saada province, a Houthi bastion, local officials said Wednesday, and in New York, United Nations aid chief Stephen O’Brien said none of the warring parties in Yemen had observed a humanitarian pause in fighting intended to allow in emergency aid amid severe shortages of fuel, food and medicine.