Yemen's Shiite rebels have proclaimed a formal takeover of the Arab nation, 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 US 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.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said the United States was "deeply concerned with this unilateral step," but insisted the Houthis' declaration as the true government of Yemen following a four-month insurrection would not affect US counterterrorism efforts there.
Houthi supporters filled the central square in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, to celebrate the culmination of their coup yesterday.
They exploded firecrackers and waved banners bearing their slogan "Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Jews and victory to Islam." The menacing message is similar to those chanted by Shiite militants in Iraq and Lebanon's dominant Shiite militia, Hezbollah.
Houthi leaders declared that their Revolutionary Committee, a panel of top security and intelligence officials, was Yemen's new supreme governing authority.
The declaration, read on the rebels' Al-Masseria TV network, envisaged "a new era that will take Yemen to safe shores."
But the Houthis, traditionally based in Yemen's north bordering Saudi Arabia, do not control the entire country.
Secessionist forces and powerful tribes in the largely Sunni south are likely to confront with violence any effort by the Houthis to exert control there.
The most prominent secessionist figure, Saleh Yahia Said, declared that his aim was to secure an independent state of South Yemen. The leaders of several southern cities said they would never take orders from Sanaa in the country's center.
The Houthis' rebellion began in September, when they advanced on the capital and seized control of much of Yemen.
In January they raided the presidential palace and besieged the residence of then-President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Within days he and his Cabinet resigned. They remain under Houthi house arrest today.
