Traveling within Yemen has gotten more dangerous due to its burgeoning civil war. Houthi rebels had previously ousted Yemeni president, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, from the capital of Sanaa, which drove him to a strategic stronghold in Aden. Now, the Houthi militia rebels have taken al-Anad, a critical air base in Yemen, and have marched within 25 miles of President Hadi, toward the de-facto capital in the city of Aden.
The rebels have military support from various militia groups and also from Iran, giving them weapons and equipment. Planes were used to fire missiles at Hadi’s compound in Aden, which received return fire from anti-aircraft batteries. Aden has since been in lockdown, with schoolchildren and government employees being sent home while fighters and military personnel loyal to Hadi roam the streets to defend against the Houthi.
The push to capture Hadi comes at an opportune time. An Arab summit is scheduled for the weekend, and diplomats to Yemen suspect that the Houthi movement is looking to capture Hadi so that one of Hadi’s supporters, Saudi Arabia, cannot attend the conference and attempt to rally surrounding countries to aid in fighting the rebels.
Though the Houthi are the spearhead for the rebellion, rumors in Aden suggest that the person who holds the spear is former Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been an outspoken critic of Hadi. On Saleh’s official website it noted that if foreign powers interfered with the rebellion, Yemen would fight back “with all its strength.”
The fire of the rebellion has been stoked by the contentions between Sunni and Shia muslims. The Houthi movement is Shia, which Sunni countries, such as Saudi Arabia, have condemned as an illegal takeover. Iran, currently a Shia country, has praised the Houthi rebellion as simply part of the “Islamic awakening” in the Arabian Peninsula.
This conflict has been exacerbated by an al-Qaeda satellite in Yemen, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), who oppose both Hadi and the Houthi rebellion. A satellite of the Sunni Islamic State in Yemen is looking to eclipse AQAP and gain control of regions within Yemen.
