Ali Abdullah Saleh was President for 34 years ( 1978 to 2012), before he was forced out of power by a coalition of his external country friends. external country enemies, and his enemies amoung his own countrymen. The unified country of Yemen was created in 1990 from the countries of North Yemen ( actually the Southwest and Northwest parts of Yemen ) and the country of South Yemen ( actually more the Eastern portion of Yemen ). Prior to the unification Saleh ruled North Yemen for 12 years and then the unified country of Yemen for an additional 22 years.
Ali Abdullah Saleh is a member of the Shiite ( Shia ) Zaydi sect ( also known as the Shia Fivers as opposed to the Shia Twelvers of Iran).
Ali Abdullah Saleh killed Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi in 2004. Both men are members of the Shiite Zaydi ( Fivers ) religion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Abdullah_Saleh
Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi lived in Iran during part of the period between 1997 and 2004.
Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi returned from Iran to Yemen sometime before 2004 and became a commander in an insurgency that wanted to transform Yemen into a fundamentalist Shia State like Iran. The long time president of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh killed the fundamentalist insurrection and it's leader A-Houthi, even though they shared the same Shiite religion, and the same sect of that religion.
After his, A-Houthi's, death in 2004, the pro-Iranian guerrilla army in Yemen took the name Houthi for their own. Iran continued to support them with money and weapons from 2004 until this day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein_Ba ... _al-Houthi
The Houthi's are a group of Shia religious extremists formed after 2004, with the intent of forming a minority, fundementalist government on the model of the Iranian fundementalist Shia dictatorship.
Ali Abdullah Saleh, the long time President of Yemen, ruled a coalition government of the conservative leaders of majority Sunni tribes and the minority Shia tribes in Yemen. He enjoyed extenal support from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the west in general. His government controled the strategic straights leading into the Suez Canal from the East and also controlled the strategic port of Aden.
In 2012, as part of the Arab Spring, all of Ali Abdullah Saleh's enemies within Yemen, including Al Qaeda ( Sunni's ), the Houthi ( Shia ), and leftists political groups within Yemen ( Sunni and Shia ) organized "Arab Spring" style demonstrations within Yemen.
The external friends of Saleh, the Obama administration, the UN, and Saudi Arabia arranged to replace the long time Shia President with a Sunni President lacking a major political power base within Yemen, creating a vacuum.
‘Abd Rabbuh Manṣūr Hādī became the acting President of Yemen as part of a Gulf Coopoeratin agreement for the transition of power from Ali Abdullah Saleh, the long term President of Yemen, to ‘Abd Rabbuh Manṣūr Hādī.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeas ... 74204.html
http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/peo ... nsour-hadi
The Iran supported Houthi are now threatening to take the strategic straight controlling the entrance to the Suez Canal and the strategic port of Aden.
The Shia are a minority of Yemen, but they are a majority in the Western half of Yemen they dominate which includes the straight and the port of Aden. The Houthi extremists are also likely a minority of the Shia in Yemen, however if they can turn this into a Sunni vs Shia fight they may be successful in implementing an Islamic religous Shia dictatorship on the Iranian model in the strategic Shia portion of the country.
Drillable map at this link http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... ed_map.png
key to above map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Yemen ... ed_map.png
alternative map of conflict cities: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Y ... tailed_map