More problems in the North

While the attention of most continues to be occupied by the south (unintentional, I swear) the fighting over the past couple of days has picked up in the north. One of my favorite all time quotes about Yemen, and there are a number from which to select from is one from ‘Abd al-Karim al-Iryani who said in the aftermath of a failed government attempt to arrest Abu ‘Ali al-Harithi in December 2001: “What do you have as a shaykh? Some guns, some heavy weaponry, maybe a tank or two. But the government has planes.” (That at least is my paraphrase of his quote that appeared in The Washington Post around, if memory serves, mid-December 2001. I don’t know what it is about the Washington Post and great quotes on Yemen, but there you have it.)

Well it seems as though shaykhs in Marib aren’t the only one with tanks now that the Huthis have reportedly captured one – sure maybe it isn’t a working tank, but still.