Tuesday Papers: or Huthis v. Dammaj

On Tuesday evening fighting broke out between the Huthis and Salafi and tribal elements near the Salafi center in Dammaj. Al-Quds al-Arabi has this incredibly well-informed account. The immediate details of the fighting are a bit vague, which is understandable, but the report mentions that the Zaydis are Shi’a, who are doctrinally close to Sunnis. This is often glossed over even in the Arabic reporting.

And the report also mentions that Shaykh Muqbil al-Wadi’i traveled to the US in an attempt to reverse an ultimately fatal disease shortly before he died in 2001. Again another nugget that is not as widely reported as, say, the fact that Yemen is “Osama bin Laden’s ancestral homeland.”

Mareb Press also has a brief on the fighting, although its casualty figures are far less than al-Quds al-Arabi was reporting a UPI report.

Reuters weighs in this morning with a refresher course on Yemen’s various problems.

And finally yesterday, The Worldview program ran a segment on Yemen, about 20 minutes, that featured Sheila Carapico discussing the current situation in the country. Her opinion is one I always listen to on Yemen even if I don’t always concur.