Houthi insurgency
The Houthi insurgency,[43][44] also known as the Houthi rebellion, the Sa'dah War, or the Sa'dah conflict, was a military rebellion pitting Zaidi Shia Houthis (though the movement also includes Sunnis[45]) against the Yemeni military that began in Northern Yemen and has since escalated into a full-scale civil war. The conflict was sparked in 2004 by the government's attempt to arrest Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, a Zaidi religious leader of the Houthis and a former parliamentarian on whose head the government had placed a $55,000 bounty.[46]
Initially, most of the fighting took place in Sa'dah Governorate in northwestern Yemen, but some of the fighting spread to neighbouring governorates Hajjah, 'Amran, al-Jawf and the Saudi province of Jizan. After the Houthi takeover of the capital city Sanaa in late 2014, the insurgency became a full-blown civil war with a major Saudi-led intervention in Yemen beginning in March 2015.[47]
Background[edit]
In 1962, a revolution in North Yemen ended over 1,000 years of rule by Zaidi Imams, who claimed descent from the Hashemites.[48] Sa'dah, in the north, was their main stronghold and since their fall from power the region was largely ignored economically and remains underdeveloped. The Yemeni government has little authority in Sa'dah.[46]
During Yemen's 1994 civil war, the Wahhabis, an Islamic group adhering to a strict version of Sunni Islam found in neighboring Saudi Arabia, helped the government in its fight against the secessionist south.[49] Zaidis complain the government has subsequently allowed the Wahhabis too strong a voice in Yemen. Saudi Arabia, for its part, worries that strife instigated by the Zaidi sect so close to Yemen's border with Saudi Arabia could stir up groups in Saudi Arabia itself.[46][50]
The conflict was sparked in 2004 by the government's attempt to arrest Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, a Zaidi religious leader of the Houthis and a former parliamentarian on whose head the government had placed a $55,000 bounty.[46]
Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi movement accused Ali Abdullah Saleh of massive financial corruption and criticized him for being backed by Saudi Arabia and United States[51] at the expense of the Yemeni people[52] and Yemen's sovereignty.[53]
Motives and objectives[edit]
When armed conflict erupted between the Yemeni government and Houthis for the first time in 2004, the then Yemeni president accused Houthis and other Islamic opposition parties of trying to overthrow the government and the republican system. As such, the Yemeni government alleged that the Houthis were seeking to overthrow it and to implement Zaidi religious law.
Houthi leaders for their part rejected the accusation, stating that they had never rejected the president or the republican system but were only defending themselves against government attacks on their community.[54] The Houthis said that they were "defending their community against discrimination" and government aggression.[55] The Yemeni government has accused Iran of directing and financing the insurgency.[56]
According to a February 2015 Newsweek report, Houthis are fighting "for things that all Yemenis crave: government accountability, the end to corruption, regular utilities, fair fuel prices, job opportunities for ordinary Yemenis and the end of Western influence."[57]
In an interview with the Yemen Times, Hussein Al-Bukhari, a Houthi insider, said that the Houthis' preferred political system is a republic with a system of elections where women can also hold political positions and furthering that they do not seek to form a cleric-led government after the model of the Islamic Republic of Iran for "we cannot apply this system in Yemen because the followers of the Shafi doctrine are bigger in number than the Zaydis."[58]