Battle lines drawn for a civil war in Yemen

Hundreds of Sunni tribesmen in the central Yemeni desert parade in pickup trucks toting heavy machine guns and singing martial songs to raise morale. Having almost miraculously avoided civil war for four years after being rocked by Arab Spring protests, the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country awash with weapons is now in a fight for land and power that has spread since the Houthi rebels overran the capital Sanaa in September, taking on a sectarian stripe that may embroil regional powers Iran and Saudi Arabia.

We’ll blow up the oil and gas wells if the Houthis use planes after the air force fell into their control, and we’ll cut off the road to the capital.

Sheikh Hamad Ben Wuhayt, who leads a group of tribal fighters on Marib’s western edge

After street protests ousted veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011, national dialogue talks on Yemen’s future foundered and the divided military could no longer hold off the aggrieved militants’ advance. Analysts and diplomats have long said the Houthis receive arms and training from Shi’ite Iran, which has praised the Houthi takeover as a revolution while Sunni gulf leaders condemn it as a coup.

[Houthis] mix a lack of experience in politics with, as their own leader has said, limitless ambitions. The fact that Iran is involved aggravates things and brings in a regional dimension that makes a conflict harder to avoid.

Nadwa Dawsari, an expert and researcher on Yemeni tribes

Middle East Yemen