The Houthi model of government

THE WAR in Yemen escalated last month when a missile hit a mosque at a military training camp near Marib, killing over 100 soldiers. The government blamed the Houthi rebels, who control much of the country (see map). Fierce fighting broke out in the days that followed, with the Saudi-led coalition that backs the government striking rebel-held territory from the air. The Houthis, in turn, fired rockets at targets inside Saudi Arabia.

Before the flare-up the conflict appeared to be winding down. The government and the rebels are mulling UN proposals to share power and allow the president, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, to return from exile. Saudi Arabia has carried out fewer air strikes since October. It now seems less concerned with restoring the government-in-exile to the capital, Sana’a, than with reaching an agreement that safeguards its borders from Houthi attacks.

The Houthis (who prefer to call themselves Ansar Allah, or the Partisans of God) are “behaving like...

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