In Yemen, a Mostly Concealed Sectarian Fight Endures

A man, right, passes tribesmen in the town of Kohal, Yemen, his clothes stained by blood after a gunman opened fire in a mosque, killing at least eight people May 30. (By Amr Nabil -- Associated Press)

The government has denied foreign journalists access to the north since the war began and last month also barred local journalists. Authorities called in Yemeni correspondents for foreign news organizations, telling them there was no need for the world to know of Yemen's problems in the northern city of Saada, local journalists said.

Prosecutors brought sedition charges, with execution as possible punishment, against an editor who had published photographs of devastated northern villages.

"To even speak of going to Saada is to get a death sentence," said the editor, Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani. He awaits sentencing on Monday.

Major international rights groups largely bypass Yemen, leaving unexamined and unamplified allegations that government tanks, warplanes and artillery routinely bombard northern Shiite villages. Smuggled videos show that some villages around Saada have been gutted and largely emptied of all but Shiite fighters.

"If a cat dies in Lebanon, the world knows about it," said Muhatwari, who said his school and mosque in the capital have been shuttered by the government. "Here in Yemen, we are forgotten."

In 2004, a son of a leading Hashemite family launched what became the rebellion. Hussein Badr al-Deen al-Houthi, head of a Shiite religious movement known as the Believing Youth, adopted a slogan sure to attract support from Yemen's public and irritate Saleh's U.S.-backed government: "God is Great. Death to America. Death to Israel. Cursed be the Jews. Victory is Islam's."

Government officials sent troops and tribal fighters to crush the upstart.

Eighty-two days of fighting later, Houthi, badly wounded and burned, emerged from a cave where government-allied forces had cornered him with family and followers. Accounts of his subsequent death vary widely. His family and supporters say a government officer shot him dead after he came forward under a truce to negotiate.

In 2005, villager Yaya Ismail al-Muktafi watched a government helicopter circle a Shiite village near Saada, he recalled last week in Sanaa.

Muktafi, a lawyer, said he saw the helicopter sweep down and flames shoot out of its two rocket launchers. "I listened to the echo of the explosions off the mountains," Muktafi said. "And then it came to my village."

The next year, a mortar round leveled Muktafi's house, killing his mother and an 8-year-old niece. Muktafi now lives in the capital, with a 3-year-old daughter lamed by the mortar round.

Once a month or so, family members remaining in the north hike to one of the few spots that still has cellphone reception to call him. "It's just, 'We're OK! We're alive!' and that's it," Muktafi said, miming holding a phone to his turbaned head, a metal tooth gleaming.