Rebel alliance unraveling as violence rocks Yemen’s streets
SANAA, Yemen — Snipers took over rooftops in residential areas, tanks deployed and militiamen set up checkpoints Sunday across the Yemeni capital, where fighting forced families to hide indoors in anticipation of more violence.
The heavy fighting came as the United Arab Emirates on Sunday denied a claim by Yemen’s Shiite rebels that they fired a missile toward an Emirati nuclear plant under construction. The Houthis accuse Yemen’s strongman and former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, of striking deals with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, a coalition member. Since the recent clashes erupted in Sanaa, the Saudi coalition has been targeting the Houthis and backing Mr. Saleh’s camp.
Five days of bombings and heavy gunfire have underscored the unraveling of the already fragile alliance between Mr. Saleh and the Shiite rebels known as Houthis. The two sides joined ranks three years ago and swept across the capital, Sanaa, forcing the country’s internationally recognized president to flee the country and seek military intervention led by Saudi Arabia.
Relations between the Houthis and Mr. Saleh’s forces deteriorated over the past weeks amid accusations from the rebels that Mr. Saleh was opening a back channel with the coalition through the UAE to turn against the Houthis.
After months of political and military stalemate, the street battles between Mr. Saleh’s forces and the Houthi militiamen have marked a turning point in the conflict. The two sides had been enemies before the six- year- war that began in 2004 when Mr. Saleh was a president. Their alliance, in the eyes of many Yemenis, was doomed to fail given their stark differences.
The Iran- backed rebels perceive themselves as a religious awakening movement, while Mr. Saleh is a pragmatic politician, shifting political alliances, buying tribal loyalties and exploiting Yemen’s power fault lines throughout his three decades in power before he was ousted after the country’s Arab Spring uprising in 2011.
Over the past 48 hours, in a series of surprise announcements, all of Yemen’s political players spoke about turning a new page and unifying against the Houthis — a new alliance that appeared to have been in the making for some time as the Shiite rebels have accused Mr. Saleh of working against them.
The Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital in 2014 with the help of Mr. Saleh’s forces, are becoming isolated in the face of popular anger.