CONFLICT WORSENS IN YEMEN
Saudis launch strikes at Houthis
THE LATEST
Hadi fled his palace in Aden for an undisclosed location Wednesday as Houthi rebels offered about $ 100,000 US for his capture, and arrested Defence Minister Maj.Gen. Mahmoud al- Subaihi.
Presidential officials said Hadi was overseeing his forces’ response to the rebel push on Aden, which Hadi had declared a temporary capital. Just hours earlier, the Houthis seized an airbase near Aden where U. S. and European troops advised the regime in its fight against al- Qaida.
Hadi still enjoys international legitimacy, and the UN Security Council has sanctioned two top leaders of the Houthis and their ally, Hadi’s predecessor and former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Hadi enjoys widespread support in the south, which could help him to repel the Houthis, but also raises the spectre of a repeat of the 1994 north- south civil war.
Also on Wednesday, Saudi Arabia began airstrikes against Houthi rebel positions in Yemen, vowing that the Sunni kingdom will do “anything necessary” to restore a deposed government that has been routed by the Houthis. Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U. S. announced the rare military operation by his country in Washington just after the bombing began.
The Houthis said in a statement that Saudi jets are hitting the military base, known as al- Duleimi, in Sanaa. They said they fired antiaircraft missiles in response.
WHO ARE THE HOUTHIS?
The Houthis are followers of the Shiite Zaydi sect, the faith of around a third of Yemen’s population. They waged a six- year insurgency against Saleh from their strongholds in the north along the Saudi border that ended in 2010, but now they have joined forces with Saleh, the country ’s former longtime autocrat.
Their opponents view them as a proxy of Shiite Iran, charges they deny. The group is hostile to the United States, but has also vowed to eradicate al- Qaida. The Houthis now control nine of Yemen’s 21 provinces, but it’s unlikely they will be able to seize control of the whole country, much less govern it.
SALEH’S HIDDEN HAND
Saleh, who dominated the country for three decades, agreed to step down in 2012, and handed over power to Hadi. But Hadi says his predecessor has undermined him through loyalists in the government and the security forces. The UN Security Council has also charged Saleh with hindering the country ’s democratic transition.
Saleh, a Zaydi, has vowed to chase Hadi out of the country, and his supporters failed to take over the airport in Aden last week and dropped bombs near the city ’s presidential palace.
AL-QAIDA EXPLOITS CHAOS
Hadi was a U. S. ally in the campaign against al- Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed the January attack on the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and has been linked to some of the attempted attacks on the U. S. homeland since 9/ 11.
Yemen’s turmoil has helped the group to rally Sunni tribes against the Houthis. Yemen’s splintered army, which had received considerable U. S. aid and assistance, is now embroiled in the Houthi conflict and torn between competing commanders rather than focused on counterterrorism.
U. S. drones have continued to target the top al- Qaida leaders, but the campaign has suffered from Hadi’s absence and the closure of the U. S. Embassy.
ISIL SUPPORTERS SOW SECTARIANISM
Although Yemen’s conflict pits Shiite rebels against a Sunni- led government, it has until now had more to do with power politics than sectarianism, with Sunnis and Shiites fighting alongside one another on some fronts.
That could change with the emergence of a new group inspired by ISIL, which views Shiites as apostates and has vowed to carry out more mass killings of civilians.
It’s not clear how closely linked the Yemeni militants are to the ISIL group’s central leadership. But attacks targeting Zaydis risk igniting a full- blown sectarian conflict like the one underway in Syria and Iraq.