US Withdrawing from Yemen

Due to increased conflict between the government and northern Shia rebels known as Houthis, the United States is withdrawing its special operations forces from the al-Anad airbase in Yemen. The conflict is seen by observers as a proxy war between Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia. The southern city of al-Houta was stormed by al-Qaeda fighters on Friday but beaten back by government troops. The day before al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists bombed a mosque in Sanaa killing 137 people. The US had been training Yemenis to fight al-Qaeda in the Arabian Pennisula, but given the "significant deterioration" in security the mission could no longer be carried out in relative safety. The American embassy in the capital of Sanaa was closed in February after Houthi rebel forces took the city in four days. This setback is the latest string to unravel in the misguided American attempt to militarily dominate the region, and reveals the increasingly sectarian nature of the essential conflict that is spillng over secular boundaries in the region.