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)

"There's no confidence now," said Abdul Rahim Kassim al-Humrad, Houthi's brother-in-law. "They don't leave us any options anymore. As long as we're going to be killed, we might as well be killed in the mountains."

Hussein's brother Abdul Malik al-Houthi succeeded him as rebel commander. He allows only old photographs of himself to be circulated and limits television interviews to audio.

A video seen by The Washington Post, and confirmed by officials, shows the rebel commander sitting cross-legged on the dirt in talks with Yemeni officials, a few miles from the Saudi border. Teenage bodyguards in green uniforms stand behind him.

Abdul Houthi's dark hair is combed flat to the side, and he wears a dark suit with a dark open-neck shirt and no tie, in the fashion adopted by many Iranian men. The bulge in his cheek, from khat, the leaves that Yemenis chew as a mild stimulant, is the only sign that Houthi is Yemeni instead of Iranian.

"From the beginning, they started to look for support from Iran," said Yasser Ahmed bin Salim al-Awadi, vice chairman of the governing party's bloc in parliament. "The least they are trying for is to become like Hezbollah."

Saudi Arabia is pushing hard on Yemen to crack down on the rebels, for fear rebellion will cross the border into the Shiite communities of the southern Saudi oil fields, Awadi said.

"I think Saudi Arabia cares more about this war than Yemen does," Awadi said.

Al-Qaeda members in Yemen's mosques advocate fighting the Shiite rebels, Awadi said. Sunni veterans of Afghanistan are among the volunteers joining the fight, he added.

Saudi Arabia's cabinet urged Yemen last month to end the rebellion quickly and peacefully. But Saudi and Iranian officials deny interference in Yemen's Shiite rebellion. A Western diplomat in Sanaa said he suspects any support from Iran and Saudi Arabia comes mainly as cash.

On May 2, a bombing killed 15 people at a Saada mosque where a Yemeni military commander allegedly had recruited Sunni extremists for the fight against the Shiites. It ended a cease-fire brokered by Qatar.

"I believe they mean to wipe us all out," Amat-Allah Asharii, a Hashemite woman in her 70s, said in the capital. Asharii had lost three homes and countless relatives and neighbors in the fighting, she said. Coming to the capital last month, she passed what she said were hundreds of tanks, trucks and rocket batteries heading north for the current offensive.

Hashemite men picketed parliament last weekend to urge a return to peace talks. A Yemeni military officer in green camouflage shouted in their faces. "This is the end of the end!" he screamed.

Reports from the north this week showed fighting continuing. For now, Awadi said, peace talks will wait. "In reality, it is war now."