Latest Articles about Yemen
Hot Issue: War in Yemen: Sectarian Strife or Family Feuds?
Executive Summary The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on March 24 began launching airstrikes against Yemen’s Zaydi Shi’a Houthi movement (who refer to themselves as Ansar Allah—the supporters of God) and its allies, who are led by the nominally Zaydi former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The... MORE
A Post-Mortem Profile of AQAP Shari’a Official Harith bin Ghazi al-Nadhari
On January 31, a U.S. drone strike in Shabwah, a province in south Yemen, killed Shaykh Harith bin Ghazi al-Nadhari, a high-ranking jihadist scholar and one of the most prominent members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) (Yemen Times, February 2; al-Sharq al-Awsat, February... MORE
AQAP’s Virtual Jihadist – Bakhsuruf al-Danquluh
Following the notorious Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris, online supporters of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State spent considerable time jostling with each other over which group could claim credit for the deadly attack. Before al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a lengthy statement,... MORE
From Obscurity to Dominance: The Continuing Rise of Yemen’s al-Houthi Movement
During the last three years, the Houthi movement has accomplished a remarkable transformation, evolving from an obscure family-led Zaydi Shi’a guerrilla movement in Sa’ada governorate, one of Yemen’s most remote and underdeveloped, to become the country’s dominant military and political force. During the last six... MORE
A Look at the Life of Iran’s Legendary IRGC Commander – Qasem Soleimani
In the eyes of his supports and foes alike, Qasem Soleimani is a man larger than life. In the West, Soleimani, the commander of the elite Quds forces of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, is viewed as the fearsome evil genius behind most Iranian intelligence and... MORE
Status of Chechens Rises in the Ranks of Middle East Jihadists
The Russian media, citing Agence France-Presse (AFP), recently reported that Yemeni authorities killed a militant named Abu Islam al-Shizani in the south of the country. His name was probably a distortion of Shishani, which usually means Chechen in Arabic. The slain militant had allegedly earlier... MORE
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Prepares for Confrontation with North Yemen’s Houthi Movement
The high profile operations that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has carried out in the last five months in Yemen have demonstrated that the group’s battle against Yemen’s central government and security forces is far from over. Attacks such as the coordinated suicide assault... MORE
Security Forces Sidelined as Salafists Battle Houthi Shiites in Yemen
With Yemen in the midst of a political reconstruction, there are signs that the Zaidi Shiite insurgent group known as the Houthis is taking advantage of the ongoing turmoil to consolidate their de facto rule of the northern province of Sa’ada while making inroads in... MORE
Yemen’s Military Reforms May Not Hold the Answer to Internal Stability Questions
Yemen’s president, Abd Rabbu Mansur Hadi, has hastened the pace of political change in Yemen with a series of decrees intended to restructure the national armed forces (Yemen Post, April 11). Not only have the April 10 decrees reshaped the Yemeni military system, but Hadi’s... MORE
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Sets Assassins Loose in Strategic Shift
The experiment in governance by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the allied Ansar al-Shari’a movement that attempted to establish seven Islamic Emirates in southern Yemen ended in July after less than a year. The end came with a massive June offensive against the... MORE