Yemeni crisis deepens as rebels lock up foes
BEIRUT — The rebels who control Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, have tightened their grip on the city and its people in recent weeks, shutting off access to the internet, blocking social media sites and sending gunmen to raid the homes of anyone they suspect of opposing them.
Hundreds of people have been detained, and prices for basic goods such as food and fuel are soaring, threatening to exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis.
The power consolidation by the rebels, who are aligned with Iran and known as the Houthis, is a grim new chapter in the war in Yemen and highlights the tremendous barriers facing international efforts to end it.
It also underlines the failure of the Houthis’ foes, who include other Yemeni
forces and Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, to turn the rebels’ political isolation into an advantage on the battlefield.
This month began with an event that could have altered the course of the war: the killing by Houthi forces of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former president of Yemen who had been the rebels’ most important ally in the war.
Saleh was a towering figure in Yemeni politics. In allying with the Houthis, an unsophisticated Islamic movement from northern Yemen, Saleh provided both political acumen and well-trained, wellequipped fighting forces.
The Houthi alliance with Saleh’s political party, the General People’s Congress, also gave the rebels a wider political base.
But in the end, Saleh denounced the Houthis and said he wanted to turn a “new page” with Saudi Arabia to end the war. On Dec. 4, the Houthis killed him for it.
Saudi Arabia and the Houthis’ other enemies had long sought to split Saleh and the rebels, believing the Houthis’ forces would fold easily if Saleh’s loyalists turned against them. Even Western nations such as the United States had hoped Saleh’s party could play a role in negotiations to end the conflict, which began in 2014 when the Houthis and forces loyal to Saleh seized Sanaa, later sending the internationally recognized government into exile.
A few months later, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia began a punishing bombing campaign that has failed to push the Houthis back while intensifying a humanitarian crisis.
But members of Saleh’s party interviewed recently said that instead of turning the party against the Houthis, Saleh’s death had shattered it.