SANAA — Members of the Houthi militia that controls much of Yemen opened fire on hundreds of people protesting at their presence in the southerly city of al-Bayda on Thursday, killing one and wounding eight others, local officials and medical sources said.

The Houthis, who are led by a northern clan of the same name, have in recent months become the de facto rulers of northern Yemen, seizing the capital Sanaa in September and forcing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to announce their resignations.

The province of al-Bayda, which is mostly Sunni Muslim, is one of several that the Iranian-backed Houthis have effectively taken over since September by sending in gunmen and forcing local officials to cooperate.

A medical source said one person had died and eight more had been wounded in the shooting at the demonstration.

Hadi came to power in a Gulf-brokered transfer of power following a mass uprising in 2011 against his predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh, and has the backing of the West and Gulf Arab neighbors.

He escaped house arrest in Sanaa last month, and has sought to re-establish his presidency in the southern port city of Aden. U.N.-brokered talks to end the political standoff have had little success so far.