Yemeni Rebels Reported to Have Taken Saudi Territory

Published November 05, 2009 @ 10:39AM PT

Conflicts which once languished in highland nether regions around the world are spilling over borders. The latest case is Yemen. It almost sounds like it's made up. According to Reuters, Yemeni Shiite rebels have fought Saudi border guards amid Saudi bombing raids, then crossed into the country and taken Mount Dukhan, a speck on the Saudi-Yemen border.

To clarify, a Shiite Arab sect in Yemen has long protested their lack of clerical representation, on their terms, in the largely Sunni Arab Yemeni government. Both sides claim to have acted defensively as fighting broke out again this year. About a hundred thousand people were displaced by fighting in the north as government forces pounded the Shiite rebels. The Saudis may have joined the fight in an alliance with the Yemeni government only to keep the fighting from spilling over the border, but alas it has done so. Follow the news here.

By the way, try not to confuse this issue to much with the Al Qaeda threat. Al Qaeda is strictly Salafist Sunni Muslim, with very few ties to the Shiite rebels. The only thing they have in common is opposition to the Yemeni government. If Al Qaeda plans to increase its influence in Yemen, the group would likely treat this fight as a cover distraction, not likely a rally point. Then again, one never knows these days.

[Photo: Al Mawhit, Yemen, Franco Pecchio]

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Author

Daniel J Gerstle is a creative long form crisis journalist, human rights researcher, and humanitarian aid consultant who's covered Bosnia, Croatia, Karabakh, Chechnya, Ingushetia, the Ossetias, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia very deeply, spiced with highlights of Sudan, Palestine, Jordan, Tajikistan, and Georgia. Prior to all this, he served as a US Marine reservist stateside.