Houthi rebels meet deadly resistance

SANAA: Houthis rebels sweeping across Yemen met deadly resistance from both local tribesmen and Al-Qaeda Saturday as they pushed south into mainly Sunni areas with the security forces largely absent.
Yemen has been dogged by political instability ever since an Arab Spring-inspired uprising forced veteran strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh from power in 2012.
Rival armed groups, including both the Shiite rebels and Al-Qaeda, have sought to step into the power vacuum.
In Ibb province, the rebels lost 12 fighters to an ambush in a second straight day of clashes with Sunni tribesmen, medics and local officials said.
In mixed Sunni-Shiite Rada further east, they withdrew just hours after entering the town, following twin suicide bombings and rocket-propelled grenade fire by Al-Qaeda, tribal sources said.
The rebels took control of the capital Sanaa on September 21 after orchestrating weeks of protests that paralyzed the government. They then pushed south earlier this week, meeting little or no resistance from security forces.