Yemen Shia rebel leader killed?

Reuters:

The leader of Yemen's Shi'ite rebels may have died after being severely wounded by government forces in the north of the country, a Yemeni government website and media said on Sunday.

In a separate development, al Qaeda's wing in Yemen said in an Internet statement that it would take revenge over raids targeting the group this month, which it said were carried out by U.S. jets and killed about 50 men, women and children.

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Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television also said the rebel leader was dead, citing unnamed Yemeni sources as saying he was killed in an airstrike. Yemeni news websites carried the same report.

The rebels could not be contacted and their website did not comment on the reports. Past reports about Houthi's death were never confirmed but the latest reports appeared to be stronger.

The conflict drew in neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, after the Houthis seized Saudi territory last month, prompting Riyadh to launch strikes against them.

The United States and Saudi Arabia fear al Qaeda will exploit instability in Yemen to stage attacks in the kingdom and beyond.

The rebels said in a statement on their website on Sunday that Saudi Arabia launched 31 air raids on the Jaberi area -- a Saudi territory with a large rebel concentration -- in addition to 15 air strikes on areas in Yemen on Saturday night.

"Air strikes and missiles continued all of last night...," the statement said. "This morning, the Saudi army began to advance inland into Jaberi."

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"We will not let Muslim women and children's blood be spilled without taking revenge," Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said in its statement dated December 20.

The statement appeared on Islamist websites as U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Washington was investigating whether al Qaeda was involved in a Christmas Day attempt to blow up a passenger jet.

But there was no evidence so far that the Nigerian suspect in the case was part of a larger plot, she said.

After renewed attacks on al Qaeda on December 24, Yemen said it may have killed the top two leaders of the regional wing of the group as well as an American Muslim preacher linked to the man who shot dead 13 people at a U.S. army base.

Apart from the Houthis and al Qaeda, Yemen faces separatist sentiment in the south. On Sunday, the opposition called a strike that shut many shops and offices, witnesses said.

The Houthis rejected accusations by the Yemeni government and some of its regional allies that they have links with al Qaeda militants or Iranian groups.

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The Houthis made a strategic error in attacking Saudi Arabia. The Saudis can get pretty exercised when someone tries to attack their turf. I think the Saudis are also helping the US and Yemen deal with the al Qaeda forces in Yemen which they rightly see as a threat. I suspect that Saudi intelligence, which is pretty formidable in the region, has also provided leads on the location of al Qaeda meetings.

Napolitano is in error to say there is not evidence of the underwear bomber being tied to a larger plot. There is some evidence that he went to Yemen and was fitted with his underwear bomb there and did some training prior to the attack.

There was also an al Qaeda video suggesting that they were sending a bomb to the US to retaliate for the attacks on their forces in Yemen. The video first appear around December 21, just a few days before the guy with the exploding shorts singed his privates in the Detroit landing pattern.