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 Most combatants deny they are motivated by religion in the
conflict. Iran-allied Shi'ite Houthi rebels say they are leading a
just revolution and Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia contends it has been
bombing the Houthis to protect the Yemeni state.
Militiamen from the south cite defence of their homeland.
But there are signs that the sectarian hatred that has engulfed the
Middle East since the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 is creeping into
Yemen's war, fueled by a rivalry between regional powers Saudi
Arabia and Iran.
Conflict and power struggles are not new to Yemen, one of the most
heavily armed societies in the world. But the sectarian trend was
captured on a video shared by Yemeni Facebook users.
A teenager sits blindfolded and cries, pleading to his captors that
he is only 13. He was detained by militiamen while fighting for the
Houthis in the southern city of Aden.
"Why did you come here?" a Sunni gunman shouts. "We're here to
defend our religion in jihad against the apostates and
Houthis...you're not people, you're animals!"
After nearly three weeks of airstrikes by Saudi Arabia and its Sunni
Gulf neighbours who see the Houthis as Iranian puppets, Yemen risks
being carved up along religious lines.
 "This scenario is likely if the war goes on. If young men continue
to die, towns are invaded and homes shelled, the appeal of extremist
religious groups will only grow," Mahmoud al-Salmi, a history
professor at Aden University said.
Houthis have been fighting what they call marginalisation by the
state for over a decade. But the militia is now also motivated by a
desire to eliminate the hardline Sunni al Qaeda from Yemen.
As the chaos spreads, there is a danger that all sides will exploit
their religious beliefs while settling old scores.
The formerly independent and socialist South has long felt aggrieved
by the North, not because it is home to the Zaydi sect of Shi'ite
Islam, but because Southerners felt shut out of politics and oil
resources that benefited northerners.
"There's a strong feeling of oppression and humiliation that
Northerners are invading. But since there's no leadership and no
army, the armed groups lack discipline and this anger on regional
lines could turn sectarian," al-Salmi said.
AL QAEDA TARGETS HOUTHIS
Deadly attacks have mounted for months after Houthi fighters pushed
beyond their traditional redoubts in the northern highlands last
year and expanded their control.
Al Qaeda, which specialised in carrying out bombings against
Shi'ites in Iraq designed to foment sectarian conflict, has set its
sights on Houthis.
Al Qaeda gunmen boarded a bus in east Yemen last August, shooting
and stabbing to death 14 off-duty troops for being "Houthi
apostates".
In the deadliest religious attack, Sunni suicide bombers claimed by
Islamic State blew themselves up at two Houthi mosques in the
capital Sanaa on March 20, killing 137 worshippers.
The Houthis began a lightning push toward the southern city of Aden
aimed, they said, not just at Saudi-backed president Abed-Rabbu
Mansour Hadi but at Sunni militants they believe are his allies.
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"The largest element in the (pro-Hadi militias) was Al Qaeda," Abdel
Malik al-Ijri, a member of the Houthi political bureau, told
Reuters.
The group denies receiving military support from Iran and says it
fights on behalf of all Yemenis in a war that is more a struggle for
the country's future than a feud between sects.
Al-Ijri describes Yemen's conflict as exclusively political. But he
acknowledges that some parties could exploit the sectarian element
to push their agenda.
"MORE DANGEROUS THAN YOU THINK"
Many southerners have long sought to secede from the north, and the
Houthi onslaught may be their chance.
Citizens have armed themselves to defend a tangled front stretching
across hundreds of miles of southern coastline, mountains and
deserts.
Rallying calls for the southern cause are starting to feature
religious overtones, as a statement from a group calling itself the
"Southern Resistance" showed last week.
"It's incumbent upon the sons of the south to unite their ranks...to
defeat this malignant apostate aggression," it said.
"Oh you Houthi apostates, things are more dangerous than you think
and more serious than you believe. Your occupation of the south has
opened a door that you can never close," it added.
Al Qaeda is operating in its element -- an unstable Arab country
with a weak state and growing sectarian sensitivities.
It took advantage of the fighting and splintering in Yemen's army to
briefly take over the Arabian Sea port of Mukalla last week, only to
be driven back by tribal fighters.
The group has for weeks fought alongside Sunni tribesmen against
their common Houthi enemies.
Firing up fellow Sunnis against the Shi'ite Houthis may get easier
by the day if the complex war drags on.
Decades-old disputes over land, power and resources are now blending
with the sectarian tensions to create a combustible mix.
"They are a sectarian, northern group aided by Iran that wants to
occupy our lands and that's why we're fighting them," said Jamal
al-Awlaqi, a tribal fighter in Shabwa province.
"We won't accept that any stranger rules over us."
(Editing by Michael Georgy and Angus MacSwan)
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