Yemen's Slide Toward Civil War
The fragile country risks repeating a conflict from 50 years ago -- and could be running out of time
When tanks under the command of the Yemeni Free Officers arrived at his palace in September 1962, Imam al-Badr, the last monarch of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen, grabbed an assault rifle and fired at them in defiance. The tanks, under orders from a revolutionary military council inspired by Gamal abd' al-Nasser's Free Officers coup of a decade prior, were there to remove him from power. While his guards skirmished with the Free Officers, al-Badr slipped through a back gate in the palace garden and escaped, gathering friends and associates who made their way north to find haven under the protection of friendly tribes and Saudi money and influence. For the next eight years, al-Badr and his allies fought a civil war against the military regime of the nascent Yemen Arab Republic.
President Saleh is not Imam al-Badr, and 2011 is not 1962. The tanks outside Saleh's mansion are commanded by the Yemeni Republican Guard, loyalists led by Saleh's own son. The story of the dictator clinging to power and threatening to pull the country into a prolonged and bloody civil war, though, rings familiar in Yemen. As the country's military and tribal system fractures under the weight of popular protests, Yemen risks once again devolving into civil war.
When tanks under the command of the Yemeni Free Officers arrived at his palace in September 1962, Imam al-Badr, the last monarch of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen, grabbed an assault rifle and fired at them in defiance. The tanks, under orders from a revolutionary military council inspired by Gamal abd' al-Nasser's Free Officers coup of a decade prior, were there to remove him from power. While his guards skirmished with the Free Officers, al-Badr slipped through a back gate in the palace garden and escaped, gathering friends and associates who made their way north to find haven under the protection of friendly tribes and Saudi money and influence. For the next eight years, al-Badr and his allies fought a civil war against the military regime of the nascent Yemen Arab Republic.
President Saleh is not Imam al-Badr, and 2011 is not 1962. The tanks outside Saleh's mansion are commanded by the Yemeni Republican Guard, loyalists led by Saleh's own son. The story of the dictator clinging to power and threatening to pull the country into a prolonged and bloody civil war, though, rings familiar in Yemen. As the country's military and tribal system fractures under the weight of popular protests, Yemen risks once again devolving into civil war.
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