Ansarullah Fighters Yemen’s New Masters

SANAA (AP) — The capital of Yemen, Arab world’s ancient city, has new masters. Anti-American Shia fighters man checkpoints and roam the streets in pickups mounted with anti-aircraft guns. The fighters control almost all state buildings, from the airport and the central bank to the Defense Ministry.

Only a few police officers and soldiers are left on the streets. Fighters have plastered the city with fliers proclaiming their slogan — “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Zionists and victory to Islam” — a variation of a popular Iranian slogan often chanted by Shia militants in Iraq and Lebanon.

While the world has been focused on the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, Yemen — located at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula — has seen its own sudden, seismic upheaval when Shia rebels known as the Houthis and now organized in party named Ansarullah overran Sanaa two weeks ago.

Now the fighters, who many believe are backed by Iran, are poised to become Yemen’s version of the Hezbollah in Lebanon — top powerbrokers dominating the government and running a virtual state-within-a-state.

Their takeover of the capital also threatens to bring a violent backlash from Saudi backed Salafi groups, creating a sectarian battle that would boost al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen. The rallying cry of fighting against Shia power could turn Yemen into a magnet for jihadis from around the region, like Syria and Iraq.

Last week, an al-Qaida suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a hospital used by the Shia fighters in Maarib province, killing one person. The group, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, vowed to fight the Ansarullah and called on other Sunnis to support it.

“You will see your bodies scattered and your heads flying,” al-Qaida said in a statement, addressing theAnsarullah.

The U.S.-backed president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, is largely helpless, struggling to form a new government to meet the Shia demands. Neighboring Saudi Arabia is worried over a potential pro-Iranian outpost on its border.

Ansarullah, currently led by 33-year-old Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, fought a series of wars since the mid-2000s from their stronghold of Saada north of Sanaa. In 2011, they took complete control of Saada province.

But their advances this year have been startling. They swept south, defeating pro government tribesmen loyal to the conservative Islah party, and in July captured Amran province, which borders the capital. They then overran the capital itself on Sept. 21 as the military largely collapsed.

The Shia present themselves as seeking to achieve the goals of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that led to the overthrow of longtime autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh. They reject a Gulf-brokered deal that led to Saleh stepping down and Hadi taking his place because it largely splits power between Saleh’s supporters and the Islah party.

Instead, they say, they want a broader government that includes their movement and southern Yemenis, who have long sought independence. And they want implementation of a plan reached by political parties in January to give greater autonomy to Yemen’s regions.

“We are not a group isolated from the rest of the country. We are part of the social fabric,” Abu Ali al-Hakam, the commander who led the assault on Sanaa, told the AP. He spoke as he visited the captured headquarters of the army’s 1st Armored Division, an elite outfit with close links to the Islah party. It had spearheaded army campaigns against the Shia.

“It is not just his fighters who are controlling Sanaa now, its Yemenis from everywhere,” said the diminutive al-Hakam after receiving a hero’s welcome by his fighters.

And they are locking in their forces’ position in the capital — emulating the model of Iranian-backed Hezbollah, which in Lebanon is the de facto government in the country.

In Sanaa, the Ansarullah has tightened its grip on the city’s northern districts where Shias are dominant, as well as the nearby international airport. Tanks and armored vehicles looted from army bases have now been deployed in those areas.

After the fall of Sanaa, Ansarullah staged a massive victory rally in the city, flying Hezbollah flags and portraits of Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

“It is very clear that Hezbollah is their model. They will never give up control of the airport or the northern districts,” Mohammed Qahtan, a senior Islah leader, told the AP in a hotel apartment where he has lived since his Sanaa home was stormed by the rebels.

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