Young fighters have been recruited by the militias battling for control of Taiz, Yemen s third-largest city. Photos / Washington Post
Young fighters have been recruited by the militias battling for control of Taiz, Yemen s third-largest city. Photos / Washington Post
The Saudi-led coalition waging war in Yemen has armed and financed local militias, including some with alleged links to Islamic extremists, that are now turning on one another in a competition for territory, wealth and control over the country's future.
This internecine fight is aggravating a humanitarian crisis now considered the most dire in the world and clouding the prospects for peace in the crippled country.
The violent saga unfolding in Taiz, the country's third-largest city, reveals how the wartime decisions made by Saudi Arabia - and its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - are threatening to fuel turmoil in Yemen for years if not decades to come.
"We thought, 'Thank God they have gotten rid of the Houthis'," said Abdul Karim Qasim, 38, who lives on a street lined with hollowed-out buildings and bullet-pocked houses. "But unfortunately, they have started fighting each other."
After northern Yemeni rebels known as Houthis ousted the internationally recognised Government from the capital, Sanaa, in 2015, Saudi Arabia entered the conflict at the helm of a coalition of Sunni Muslim countries. They sought to restore the President to power and crush the Houthis - Shia Muslims who have become increasingly aligned with Iran.
The United States is helping the coalition with intelligence, logistical support and billions of dollars in weapons sales. Last month, amid mounting criticism of Saudi Arabia's conduct of the war, the Trump Administration ended its practice of refuelling coalition aircraft.
Over the course of the conflict, more than 16,000 civilians have been killed or injured, according to the United Nations human rights office, mostly by airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition.
The Senate is now considering putting a stop to all US military backing for the coalition. By an overwhelming vote, senators advanced a measure last week that was widely seen as a historic rebuke of the Saudi Government for its conduct of the war and its involvement in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October.
In Taiz, a centuries-old city known as the cultural capital of Yemen, a ragtag constellation of militias rose up three years ago to fight the Houthis, who had captured it in early 2015.
Collectively known as the Popular Resistance, they included fighters linked to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist network's Yemen branch, as well as Isis (Islamic State), according to security officials and militia commanders.
"They were not large in numbers, but they were fierce fighters," said Lieutenant Colonel Mansour Abdurab Al Akhali, Taiz's police chief, referring to the al-Qaeda forces. "They were on the frontlines."
Taiz has become one of the frontlines of the war in Yemen.
By the end of 2016, the militias, backed by the Saudis and the allied United Arab Emirates, had pushed the Houthis to the outer edges of the city. They have remained there ever since, with Taiz forming part of the war's frontlines.
A military stalemate has emerged between the coalition-backed forces and the Houthis, who enforce a partial blockade of the city of 600,000 people.
Inside the city, however, tensions have steadily grown as the rival militias, supported by two of the United States' closest Arab allies, have battled one another.
The people of Taiz are trapped in the crossfire of multiple conflicts. Snipers shoot at children. Land mines blow up villagers searching for food. Every armed group has positioned fighters and weaponry in residential areas, endangering civilians.
It is all part of a war that has now brought 14 million Yemenis, more than half the population, to the brink of famine, according to the UN's latest estimate. A cholera epidemic rages in the desperate conditions born of conflict. More than 3 million Yemenis have been driven from their homes.
Saudi Arabia and its main ally, the UAE, are united in their vehement opposition to the Houthis but back different pro-government militias based largely on ideological differences.
Political and security officials say most al-Qaeda and Isis fighters were either killed in clashes or driven out last year in security operations. Yet in an August report, UN investigators wrote that jihadist groups continued to operate in Taiz and that "many parties fighting in Taiz have been responsible for civilian casualties".
"Money and weapons come into the hands of these powers from all sides. This is the sickness that comes after the great sickness of war," said Akhali, the police chief.
As the militias have turned their guns on one another, many residents say, there's been less effort put into battling the Houthi rebels.
"These internal splits are one of the important reasons why there has been no progress against the Houthis," said Ahmed Al-Basha, a well-known social activist.
