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...creation popular fronts that are not political revolutionary but merely mercenary. These are far cries from the bipolar world of the Cold War. Today's complexities involve Islamist militants that appear in unlikely places, such as the West African diamond markets or quietly acquiring technology in East Asia.
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On May 22, 1990, North Yemen reunified with communist South Yemen. But the unification was shaky, and the Marxists had spent several years collecting weapons and organizing to effectively control Yemen. The communists also engaged in raging battles with Islamist militants over the direction a unified Yemen would take. Add to this complexity returning Yemenis who are veterans of the Soviet-Afghan War, and a proliferation of small arms and assault weapons that leaves three weapons for every man, woman, and child in Yemen. Another aspect that makes Yemen an attractive base of operations for Islamist militants is a thriving drug trade in the stimulant plant called "Qat."
It is vital that U.S. military planners look into Arabic and scarce English texts on the conflicts that Yemen has experienced in its modern history. This essay will demonstrate the integral role Islamist radicals have played in Yemen's conflicts. Yemen remains a useful model in studying how regimes on the Arabian Peninsula handle their internal conflicts using Islamist militants.
The most definitive book on the 1994 Yemen Civil War in the Arabic language is a difficult to obtain two-volume set by Yemeni Colonel Abd-al-Wali Al-Shumairy titled Harb Alf Sa'ah Milhamah Al-Wihdah Al-Yamaniyah (The 1,000-Hour War: Reflections on Yemeni Unification). Al-Usr Library published an updated second edition in 1995 in the Yemeni capital Sana'a. This book will be used as the primary Arabic source for this study along with English books and articles. It will highlight the perspectives of a Yemeni intellectual on the recent Civil War of the 1990s.
The United States takes interest in Yemen because of the strategic maritime choke point of the Bab-el-Mandab Strait, because Yemen is the ancestral home of Usama Bin Laden, and because of the Hadramaut Mountains which still contain extremist Islamist militant cells that threaten U.S. interests in the region. Al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen have also been innovative in their methods of attack, such as maritime attacks on the USS Cole (DDG-67) and French tanker Limburg. Yemen is also where American John Walker Lindh was radicalized and joined the Taliban cause. Furthermore, Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh, who attempted to enter the United States and become one of the September 11th hijackers, hailed from Yemen as do many Al-Qaeda leaders and detainees. It is estimated that Yemenis make up the third largest national representation in Al-Qaeda after Egyptians and Algerians, according to Jonathan Schanzer in his article "Yemen's War on Terror," which appeared in the Summer 2004 issue of the Foreign Policy Research Institute's journal Orbis. Understanding Yemen's history is vital to American military policymakers who are crafting means in which to counter Islamist militant groups.
1799-1934: Aden Becomes Vital to the Great Powers
A critical year in the Islamic world is 1798; this is when Napoleon's expeditionary force invaded Egypt and easily defeated what was the crown jewel of the Ottoman Empire. The French also threatened Britain's access to its possessions and interests in India. In 1802, the British East India Company took over two islands in the southern Red Sea that straddled the strategic Bab el-Mandab Strait. Over the course of six years it became apparent these islands could not support a garrison force, and in 1808 the British negotiated with the Sultan of Lahj to gain access to the sleepy port town of Aden that was at the time one of the best natural ports in the Middle East. In 1838, two powers began vying for control of Aden; the Ottoman Sultan had tasked his khedive (Egyptian viceroy) to assert control over Yemen. London also began debating sea-lanes of communication and determined that Aden was of significant strategic importance comparing it with the Gibraltar Strait as vital to British mercantile and seafaring interests. This led to a confrontation as a vacillating Sultan of Lahj faced Egyptian troops landing in Yemen and British forces bombarded port towns that threatened their port facilities in Aden. The Sultan of Lahj accepted a more permanent status of his province under British dominion.
The Sultan of Lahj did not rest on his laurels; through British payments he used the capital to co-opt tribes extending into the Asir province. In 1910, the British stimulated a revolt against the Ottomans in Asir under the leadership of Mohammed Ali Al-Idrissi. This would foreshadow the infamous Arab Revolt of the Hashemites by five years, a revolt which made Lawrence of Arabia famous. In the vacuum of power left by the Ottomans and Egyptians in Arabia arose the Sherief of Mecca (The Hashemites in the Hijaz), Imam Yahya Bin Hamiduddin (Northern Yemen), the Idrissis (Northeast Yemen), Bin Saud (Central Arabia) and Bin Rashids (Northern Arabia) and the Sultan of Lahj (Aden and Southern Yemen) who dominated the Arabian Peninsula. The sheikhdoms and emirs of the Persian Gulf coast are intentionally left out of this study, as they would not play any significant part in the struggle over Yemen until after 1990. The British used this competition between tribal confederations to assert dominance on the peninsula, concluding 3I treaties with Arabian emirs and sultans in southern and eastern Arabia.
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The Idrissi revolt affected the port of Hodeidah and on the eve of the revolt which took place during World War I, an accepted patronage from England and Italy saw a diminishing Ottoman power from its ascendance in East Africa. The Ottomans had issued a jihad against foreigners and their allies in Arabia and although it was not successful in Mecca, Medina and in central Arabia, it found resonance in Yemen. All Said Pasha was so successful in radicalizing the tribes for the Ottoman cause that he was able to push British forces into the enclave of Aden. The tactic that defeated Ali Said Pasha was the use of Imam Yahya who argued that Yemen was not for the British or Ottomans but the Arabs. Arab nationalism eroded All Said Pasha's (an Ottoman) influence and saw England supporting a treaty with Imam Yahya as monarch of Yemen, which concluded in 1920. Factors that drove Imam Yahya to accept Aden as a British protectorate were:
* The encroachment of Ibn Saud, whose fanatical Wahabi Ikhwan shock troops defeated the Hashmites of Mecca and attacked Yemen.
* Bin Saud had taken Asir province. (The root of the struggle between Bin Saud and Imam Yahya is at its core a religious one. The Saudis are Wahabi Sunni Muslims; the Imam of Yemen was a Shiite Zeidi.) Today's borders in the Arabian Peninsula be it Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq or Yemen were imposed by British guns from its fleet and planes threatening the forces of Bin Saud.
* British biplanes bombed and strafed Yemeni tribes threatening the Zeidi Shiite tribal minority in Yemen and also used airpower to evict Imam Yahya's forces from Aden leading the Imam to agree to a protectorate over his realm in 1934.
1954-1967: Nassersists and Marxists Explode in Yemen
Yemen was not immune to self-determination movements that cropped up after World War II in Africa and Asia. Britain came away from its triumph over Hitler with staggering debt and could no longer maintain protectorates like Aden....
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
have been removed from this article.
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