A new ISIS video is making the rounds showing the execution of 15 people, identified in the video as Yemeni soldiers, by the Islamist faction’s fledgling Yemen faction.
The incident is said to have taken place in the Shabwa Province of Yemen, which has been awash in fighters from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and is apparently a focus for ISIS.
Yemen’s government never had more than tenuous control over the country beyond major cities, and the Saudi war on the Shi’ite Houthis, who are in de facto control of the capital, has provided an opportunity for AQAP and ISIS to gain ground.
The scariest part of all of this is that the Saudi war seems to be open-ended, with a naval blockade fueling a humanitarian crisis nationwide and airstrikes and weapons drops fueling fighting that is keeping the other factions from confronting the Islamists.
