Yemen’s factions battling Iran-backed Houthis share a common enemy but not common goals

CAIRO -- CAIRO (AP) — Yemeni factions fighting the Iran-backed Houthis are united mainly in one thing — their opposition to the rebels who control the country’s north and have recently advanced along its Red Sea coastline.But beyond that, the groups fighting under the banner of Yemen's internationally recognized government are divided by geography, foreign patronage and competing visions for what their country should look like if the Houthis are pushed back.In a month of intense fighting that saw the Houthis' biggest land grab in years, factions of the anti-Houthi coalition lost their hold of Mokha, a strategic city on the Red Sea, and islands in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait further south. The advance ended a truce that had been in place since 2022 and had calmed a devastating civil war.Neighboring Saudi Arabia is trying to weld the factions — amounting to thousands of fighters — into a more unified force, but their divisions have raised questions about their ability to halt the Houthi offensive that now has the rebels perched on one of the world’s busiest waterways.The Houthis' unified command and goals have helped their swift expansion, rather than any single military advantage, said...