The armed conflict in Yemen pitting armed Houthi groups against al-Qaeda-supported Salafists reached the outskirts of Sanaa during the last two weeks. This ominous development can be traced back to the 2011 power transition initiative promoted by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and supported by the international community, and the sense of injustice it created among some Yemenis. The recent naming by the US Treasury Department of the Salafist Rashad Party Secretary-General Abdulwahab Humayqani as a specially designated global terrorist has only exacerbated the situation.

On Nov. 25, 2011, when Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and representatives of the opposition signed the Gulf Initiative for transfer of power in Yemen, opposition activist Abdel-Moneim Abu Ghanem and dozens of his comrades packed up their tents at Sanaa's Change Square, which for months had been the site of a sit-in demanding regime change. The young men did not go home and celebrate Saleh's departure; rather, they traveled to Abyan province to join Ansar al-Sharia, a branch of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Abu Ghanem told Al-Monitor that he joined al-Qaeda to seek justice for fallen comrades, unarmed activists who had been shot by Salah’s forces — justice that was precluded by the immunity from prosecution granted Saleh by the Initiative.

Abu Ghanem said that while he debated with some of his colleagues who supported the Gulf Initiative, Yemeni security forces arrested him and imprisoned him for a few months, before his tribe, the powerful Arhab, intervened to secure his release. He said that at the time, Ansar al-Sharia was the only entity he and his colleagues could turn to for justice. Moreover, according to him, the organization was more impartial and transparent than the Yemeni government.

Other developments soon boosted the appeal of terrorist groups.