The Associated Press reports: Yemen’s Shiite rebels proclaimed a formal takeover of the Arab nation Friday, dissolving parliament in a dramatic move that completes their power grab in the region’s poorest nation where an al-Qaida terrorist offshoot flourishes.

Angry demonstrators protested the rebels’ move in street rallies in several cities, raising fears of a full-blown sectarian conflict between Yemen’s new Shiite tribal rulers, known as Houthis, and the disenfranchised Sunni majority.

The unrest could strengthen Yemen’s al-Qaida branch, considered the world’s most dangerous wing of the terror movement, and complicate U.S. counter-terrorism operations in Saudi Arabia’s southern neighbor. While Houthi rebels are bitter enemies to al-Qaida, they also are hostile to the United States, and frosty to the predominantly Sunni Saudis. The region’s Shiite powerhouse, Iran, looms as a potential key backer. [Continue reading…]