Saudi Prestige Suffers a Blow in Yemen Fight
Saudi Prestige Suffers a Blow in Yemen Fight
File Photo: Saudi Arabia's King Salman. (Associated Press Photo)
The Houthis owe their recent military successes to considerable battlefield experience and to their alliance with units of the military and security forces still loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's former autocratic leader who was forced from power by the uprisings during Arab Spring but remains a power broker in the country.
The Saudi intervention may bolster the Houthis by shielding them from criticism that they have become too domineering in Yemen, said April Longley Alley, a Yemen researcher at the International Crisis Group.
"There was domestic resistance forming that was going to be part of the solution," said Alley, adding that no one faction - including the Houthis - would have been able to govern Yemen on its own.
But the entrance of the Saudis layered additional regional dynamics, sectarian rhetoric and domestic Saudi considerations onto the conflict, "prolonging and complicating the struggle inside the country," she said.
As a result of the Saudi offensive, the Houthis had become more determined to advance militarily while solidifying their alliance with Saleh, Alley said. The Saudi role has also further divided northern and southern Yemen, as public opinion has hardened against Saudi intervention in the north while the south has favored more airstrikes.
Fighting in Aden over the past few weeks has provided a glimpse of a pitiless war ahead. The city has been ravaged by urban fighting between the Houthis and local militias, leaving dozens of civilians dead. Residents were bracing for intensifying strikes by the Saudis and their allies, after the Houthis seized control of more territory Thursday.
Seizing on the chaos, al-Qaida on Thursday mounted its first large-scale operation since the Saudi airstrikes got underway.
In a coordinated attack on al-Mukalla, the capital of oil-rich Hadhramaut province, the militants seized government buildings, including the central bank, and stormed the central prison, freeing Khalid Batarfi, a senior regional al-Qaida leader and other operatives of the group, according to witnesses and local news reports.
By nightfall, Qaida fighters had set up checkpoints at the entrances to al-Mukalla, with local military units powerless to stop them. Al-Qaida's strongest opponents - the Houthis and Yemen's U.S.-trained counterterrorism troops - have been busy fending off attacks from the Saudi military.
Al-Qaida and other Sunni extremists stood to "benefit from prolonged instability and conflict," Alley said. "What we see in al-Mukalla is a harbinger of more to come."
