The fighting in Sanaa has claimed about 130 lives in 10 days and added to concerns about a breakdown in authority in the impoverished, fragile country. And it has little to do with the democratic aspirations of the youths who first took to the streets in January, inspired by the uprising in Tunisia.  There were worrying signs Thursday that the conflict was spreading and intensifying. Huge blasts shook the city late in the evening, and fighting forced the closure of Yemen’s main international airport, just outside Sanaa. The Defense Ministry said that special forces, which are commanded by Saleh’s son Ahmed, were attempting to retake government buildings in the capital, including ministries seized by tribal fighters.  The heightened violence has marginalized U.S. and regional efforts to arrange Saleh’s removal from power and orchestrate a peaceful transition to elections. Instead, after the Ahmars galvanized committed fighters over the past week or so, observers said the country was locked in a fight in which neither side has a decisive military edge.  Prolonged fighting would divert government forces from counterterrorism operations, create a vacuum that could be exploited by terrorists, and potentially affect the ability of the United States, which has deployed significant military and intelligence assets in Yemen, to strike at al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Militants allied with the group have reportedly seized buildings in Zinjibar, the capital of the southern province of Abyan.  John O. Brennan, President Obama’s top counterterrorism official, was in Saudi Arabia on Thursday to discuss what the White House called “the deteriorating situation” in Yemen and was scheduled to continue those talks in the United Arab Emirates.  The other major armed player in Yemen, Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who is not directly related to the Ahmar brothers, has sat out the fighting. Mohsen, who commands Yemen’s 1st Armored Division, and his troops have protected protesters since several of them were killed by government snipers. But he has otherwise not deployed his forces against Saleh, who has ruled for 32 years.  Until relatively recently, the political and economic interests of the Saleh and Ahmar families seemed closely intertwined. But the demonstrations against Saleh’s autocratic rule have brought into the open long-simmering tensions about sharing the spoils of office, and, since May 23, forces loyal to Saleh have been engaged in fierce street battles with tribesmen loyal to the Ahmar family.
Ongoing violence in Yemen’s capital has little to do with peaceful protest movement inspired by Tunisia and much to do with an old-fashioned power struggle.