[REUTERS] At least 15 people were killed in heavy fighting between Sunni Moslem rustics and Shi'ite Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the
Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is
God is Great, Death to Americaâ¢, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews...
rebels in central Yemen on Friday, increasing fears of outright sectarian warfare.
The Houthi rebels also entered Radaa city, in the central province of al-Bayda, a bastion of the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...
(AQAP), local officials and residents said.
The Houthis established themselves as Yemen's new powerbrokers last month, capturing the capital Sanaa on Sept. 21 to little resistance from residents or from the weak administration of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Their ascendance has angered al Qaeda, which views Shi'ites as heretics and Houthis as pawns of Iran. Last week, AQAP claimed a suicide kaboom on a Houthi gathering that killed at least 47 people.
In Friday's fighting, medical sources said 15 people from both sides were killed on the outskirts and inside the city of Ibb, 150 km (90 miles) south of Sanaa.
"We are hearing the sound of machine-guns and mortars everywhere," a resident told Rooters by telephone.
The city of Ibb borders al-Bayda province.
Al Qaeda said in a statement that its fighters had stormed the town of Odein, near Ibb on Wednesday, killing three soldiers and holding it for nine hours before withdrawing.
Houthi fighters have been making advances outside of Sanaa in recent days, taking over cities and towns with the apparent agreement of the authorities there. At least 10 people were killed on Thursday in fighting between Houthi rustics and al Qaeda-linked myrmidons.
In addition to the rise of AQAP and the Houthi takeover of Sanaa, Yemen, an impoverished country of 25 million people, faces a secessionist movement in the south. The widespread and growing instability has alarmed neighboring Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, the world's top oil exporter, and other Gulf Arab states.