A presidential mediation team has arrived in Yemen's eastern Maarib province to "look into means of defusing tension" between Shiite Houthi militants and armed tribesmen. The team, headed by Defense Minister Mahmoud al-Sobeihi, will hold separate talks with representatives from both sides with a view to ending weeks of clashes that have left scores dead, an Anadolu Agency correspondent reported. For the last several months, the Shiite Houthi group – which boasts thousands of diehard supporters countrywide – has tried to step up its armed presence across fractious Yemen. The rise of the Houthi movement, however, has brought it into conflict with Sunni tribes and Al-Qaeda, the latter of which is said be active in Yemen. President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi on Sunday ordered the formation of the mediation team, which he tasked with "addressing the issues of the Maarib and Al-Jawf provinces." Yemen has remained in a state of turmoil since the ouster of long-serving President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2012. World Bulletin