- As their attacks have intensified, the group’s slogan (or sarkha, meaning “scream”) has also gained notoriety.
- Banners bearing the sarkha dot the streets in areas of Yemen under Houthi control and are brandished by supporters at their rallies.
- Read more:
Why US strikes will only embolden the Houthis, not stop their attacks on ships in the Red Sea
Terror groups as a tool of the state
- Some experts argue this may create more “terrorists” than it kills.
- However, there are other layers to these slogans that are less intuitively understood by a Western audience.
- For many in the region, groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State function, in part, as “tools” that Western-backed authoritarian leaders use to maintain their power.
releasedal-Qaeda prisoners so they could regroup
facilitated al-Qaeda attacks against local and foreign targets
misdirected US strikes to kill political opponents rather than al-Qaeda leaders.
- As a result, many Yemenis wouldn’t view al-Qaeda or Islamic State as being completely separate from those in charge of the country.
- In the West, these groups are framed as rebels seeking to overturn the state.
- But across the region, many believe these relationships defy simple categories like “state versus insurgent” or “friend versus enemy” because terror groups can be both at once.
Why the West’s policies are backfiring
- When I asked residents about the this, they appeared to see the statement as a banal declaration of fact.
- (Like the banners bearing the sarkha, the murals used a red barbed-wire font for the word “America”.)
- Of course, the violence the Houthis use to sustain their own power is an irony that should not be lost.
- Even so, their messaging taps into widespread views about the drivers of regional violence that some Western observers have long dismissed.
Sarah G. Phillips receives funding from the Australian Research Council (FT200100539). She is a Non-Resident Fellow with the Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies (Yemen).