article_snippet: The great religious fissure between Sunni and Shia Muslims that dominates the Middle East has erupted into open conflict  in Yemen, Yemen poorest country, threatening to engulf the entire area in a wider war.
article_snippet: As Yemen veered towards political disintegration, conflict exploded into a region-wide crisis that could have far-reaching and unpredictable international consequences.
article_snippet: This followed a decision by the U .S. to evacuate their remaining military personnel as Yemen teetered on the brink of civil war between the internationally recognised government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebels.
article_snippet: The Yemeni president, who is backed by the U.N., was forced to flee The Yemeni president, who is backed by the U.N. palace in the former British colonial port of Aden on the southern coast and there were reports last night that The Yemeni president, who is backed by the U.N. had left by boat for the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
article_snippet: Yemen sits on the extreme end of the Arabian peninsula, with Saudi Arabia to the north — where the 150,000 Saudi troops are now amassing on Yemen border.
article_snippet: A fierce, tribal society, Yemen has long been torn apart by tribal conflicts.
article_snippet: Governing Yemen has been compared with dancing on the heads of snakes.
article_snippet: The Houthis — who belong to a relatively obscure branch of Shia Islam — were largely confined to the north of Yemen and were contained by Yemen longtime president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, a wily Arab strongman, until the country’s longtime president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, a wily Arab strongman was overthrown in the course of the Arab Spring in 2011.
article_snippet: President Hadi, the country’s longtime president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, a wily Arab strongman weaker successor, never managed to reassert central control, and in September the Houthis took control of the capital Sana’a.
article_snippet: But the recent Houthi advances have proved too much for Saudi, whose primary aim is to re-establish order in Yemen.
highlights_snippet: Religious fissure between Sunni and Shia Muslims erupted into conflict .
  