Escalation of power struggle raises risk of all-out war in Yemen

The Shiite Houthi group and President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Sunday deployed a large number of troops in Yemen's southern provinces where the situation is stalemated, raising fears that the country will witness an all-out war between the north and the south.

Thousands of Houthi fighters on Sunday seized the airport in Taiz city, the country's third largest city, and mobilized forces to the border with the neighbouring Lahj province where pro-Hadi troops have large presence.

"The Houthi gunmen backed by armored vehicles imposed their full control over the airport and a number of key security bases in the province of Taiz and preparing themselves to push forward into the port city of Aden," a local government official said on condition of anonymity.

However, thousands of people rallied in Taiz city to protest against the arrival of the Houthi fighters who then dispersed the protesters and injured dozens.

Hadi fled to Aden, the country's second biggest city on the south of Lahj province, in late February after weeks of house arrest by the Houthi group in the capital Sanaa, and stepped up confrontations with the Houthis who took over control of the capital in September last year.

Sources in Aden said the army sent armored vehicles and tanks from the southern Hadramout province to support Hadi's forces in Aden, where people are nervous and scared.

In his first public speech after he arrived in Aden, Hadi said on Saturday that the Houthi group should withdraw from Sanaa and other provinces.

He slashed on the air raid on his residence in the port city on Thursday, calling on the army and security forces to be committed to the presidency. The actions of the Houthi militia "prompted our armed forces to deal with it," he added.

In response, the leader of the Houthi group, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, made a televised speech in the group's stronghold of the northern Saada province, accusing Hadi and the Gulf countries of destabilizing the country.

"We now know the danger is at high level if the revolutionaries continue to tolerant them," he said.

"The deployments by the supreme security committee is the right decision to confront those challenges... as we cannot depend on those waiting for permission from Washington," he added.

Yemen has been gripped by widespread violence in the southern regions since early this month, raising fears that the impoverished country is slipping into civil war.

U.N. envoy Jamal Benomar who has been brokering negotiations in Yemen in the past three years left for the Gulf countries on Saturday.

The impoverished country mired in political gridlock in 2011 when mass protests forced former President Ali Abdullash Saleh to step down. The three-year reconciliation talks failed to resolve the crisis but create huge power vacuum that could benefit the powerful al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and other extremist groups.

The Islamic State that seized large territories in Iraq and Syria claimed responsibility for suicide bombings against the Houthi group in Yemen on Friday that killed at least 154 people and wounded 350 others, in Yemen's deadliest sectarian attacks.

Benomar warned of the possibility of turning the current political crisis to a social split that threatens Yemen's unity and stability.

He said the situation in Yemen will slide to civil war just like Libya and Syria if there is no a political solution to the current crisis. Endit