The Houthi takeover of much of Yemen has turned into a regional power struggle, as a Saudi-led military coalition has started attacking Houthi targets in Yemen. The intervention could now have far wider implications outside of Yemen, including at the nuclear negotiating table.
American photojournalist Luke Somers has two days to live, if al-Qaeda in Yemen makes good on its threat to kill him. One of Somers’ friends believes that’s partially thanks to a failed rescue mission last month by US Navy SEALs that may have provoked his captors instead.
A protest in Sana’a led by a northern Yemeni tribe, the Houthis, became a military assault on the capital over the weekend. Now a UN-brokered peace deal will allow the Houthis into power and end the fighting, but the situation remains complex with sectarian and tribal disputes still simmering.
The Houthi insurgency may be low on the radar of American worries in Yemen, the but the Shiite group is now in the streets of the capital and fighting government forces. And that battle could hand an opportunity to the group Western nations are focused on: al-Qaeda.
On December 12, 2013, a drone strike killed a group of twelve men in Yemen. But beyond the number of the dead — and the compensation paid to the victims’ families — almost everything else about the attack remains murky.On December 12, 2013, a drone strike killed a group of twelve men in Yemen. But beyond the number of the dead — and the compensation paid to the victims’ families — almost everything else about the attack remains murky.
The US has been fighting al-Qaeda ever since the September 11 attacks more than a dozen years ago. US President Obama said al-Qaeda is a now a shadow of itself. Yet the organization seems to keep growing and changing, in spite of continuing US strikes against it.