Yet another place where radical Islam is advancing: Yemen, where young John Walker Lindh went a few years ago to learn Arabic. From IPS, with thanks to Alex Bobilev:
SANA’A, Jul 8 (IPS) – More than 200 people have been killed in clashes between Islamic rebels and government forces using warplanes and tanks; this is not Iraq, but the picture of new developments in Yemen.
Thousands of families are at risk as the clashes continue in the Marran mountains of Saddah area. Saddah is about 150km north of capital Sana’a, and close to the border with Saudi Arabia. It is the main centre of the Zaidi Shia sect founded about 1,000 years ago.
The rebels have been chanting slogans against the United States and Israel, according to local reports. Air attacks and tank assaults have not been successful so far in getting rebel leader Hussein Badr al-Deen al-Hothy.
Al-Hothy, former member of Parliament for the al-Haq (Truth) party is now leading an organization called ‘Believing Youth’.
The government accuses al-Hothi of setting up a group modeled on the Lebanese Hizbollah to re-establish monarchy in Yemen by force. He is also accused of preventing people paying the Islamic tax Zakat to the government and of trying to set himself up as Imam. Yemen has not had an imam since Zaidi Imam Hamid al-Din was overthrown as ruler in 1962.
Al-Hothi has denied the accusations. He says ‘Believing Youth’ is being targeted because of its faith in Islam and its opposition to the United States and Israel.