Protests in Yemen over possible Syria strike

  • 11 years ago
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STORY: Thousands of Shi'ite Houthi Yemenis took to the streets on Friday to demonstrate their anger against the possibility of military action in Syria.

Protesters marched through the capital Sanaa carrying large Syrian flags. One banner read, "Syria will succeed and the conspirators and their traitor Gulf Arab leader allies will be defeated".

The Houthis are an important tribe belonging to the Shi'ite Zaidi sect, whose Hashemite line ruled for 1,000 years before the 1962 revolution, and which accounts for about 25 percent of Yemen's population of 25 million.

It controls the northern province of Saada and parts of the neighboring provinces of Omran, al-Jouf and Hajja bordering top oil exporter Saudi Arabia.

At least 100,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict that began in March 2011, and every day hundreds of people die or struggle with injuries, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

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