MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti) – Several explosions rocked Yemen’s capital and military bases today in an alleged response from Al-Qaeda and their Sunni affiliates to the growing political influence of the Shi’a Houthi rebels, supported by Iran, and which ultimately may trigger a full-scale conflict between local Sunnis and Shi’ites akin to Syria.
The suicide bomber attacked a gathering of the Shi’a Houthi rebels in the capital of Yemen Thursday, causing at least 42 fatalities, Reuters reports. The explosion occurred several hours after the political conflict between the Houthis and President Abd-Rabu Mansour, an event resulting in the ousting of the nation’s new Prime Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak. Mubarak was appointed Tuesday, much to the Shi’ite rebels’ displeasure as they felt the new prime minister was imposed at US insistence.
Two more terrorist attacks happened in southern Yemen today, claiming 20 more lives, Al-Jazeera reports.
No organization has claimed responsibility for the blasts. However, the surge of terrorist activity in Yemen could be triggered by the sudden advance of the Houthi rebels on the capital Sanaa from their stronghold in Sa’ada Governorate in the northernmost part of the country. Houthis are allied with Iran and Hezbollah; these entities share similar religious viewpoint, as well as ideologies of anti-Americanism and radical Shi’a Islamism. “You can see Iran’s hands in the growth of the Houthis. It’s a threat to Yemen, it’s a threat to Saudi Arabia and it’s a threat to American interests”, said an anonymous Yemeni politician as quoted by the Christian Science Monitor.
The Yemeni Al-Qaeda branch, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), declared war on Houthis three years ago, the Yemen Post reports. The Sunni terrorist organization cited the religious differences and Iran’s involvement with Houthis as principal reasons for the decision.
Sectarian tensions have been one of the main factors for most of the ongoing hostilities in the Middle East, including the Syrian Civil War and Islamic State Wars in Iraq and Syria. In these conflicts Shi’ite regimes in Damascus and Baghdad, supported by Tehran, are battling Sunni rebel and insurgent groups, both moderate to radical. The recent events in Yemen suggest a new front of the war between Sunnis and Shi’ites may soon emerge in this impoverished nation. Yemen’s “circle of violence” could threaten regional and international security, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in September, as quoted by Bloomberg. The Saudis might get involved in Yemen by providing financial help to local Sunni government in order to counter the growing Iran’s influence in the region; however, a direct military intervention is unlikely.
Yemen has been in chaos since the popular unrest of 2011, when then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh was ousted from power. From that moment President Abdurabu Mansur Hadi has been trying to enforce reform in the 25-million nation along with US assistance. However, the ongoing conflict between the government forces, al-Qaeda, Houthis and southern separatists make it hard for Hadi to restore order.
