Yemen Battles the Houthi Rebels to Survive (Yemen-Report: Insurgency‪)‬

Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, is becoming increasingly vulnerable as it faces additional security challenges with the renewal of fighting in the north between government forces and Houthi rebels who belong to the Zaidi sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. With secessionist sentiments on the rise in the south, and a growing threat from al-Qaeda, the new round of fierce clashes in the five-year conflict that broke out once again in the northern Saada province a few weeks ago could prove to be devastating for the country, which already has a weak state system. Arab press reports, published mainly in Beirut's conservative daily AN NAHAR and the Saudi-owned ASHARQ AL AWSAT, said on August 20 that President Ali Abdullah Saleh had vowed to crush the uprising, which he described as a rampant cancer. "We are determined to destroy this sedition and we will extract this cancer from its roots wherever it exists, in Saada or elsewhere, with an iron will," Saleh said in an address during a ceremony to fresh military school graduates.