Splitting At the Seam

A two-man rivalry escalates into war, threatening the four-year-old union between the North and South

As the Yemeni capital of San'a slumbered early last Wednesday morning, a Scud missile slammed into a crowded neighborhood on the northern outskirts of the city. Notoriously inaccurate, the Scud missed its intended target -- the presidential palace -- and destroyed a block of mud-brick houses. Twenty-five residents were killed in their sleep, their bodies scattered amid crumbled masonry and shreds of wicker baskets. Later, as bulldozers pushed away the rubble, workers trained fire hoses on the angry crowd to disperse it. The casualties were the first known civilian deaths in a violent struggle for power between two rival political leaders...

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