Yemen’s Al Houthi rebels have dissolved parliament and declared a transitional government in the country. The move raises doubts over whether the US-led counter-terrorism campaign against Yemen’s branch of the Al Qaida terror network can continue without local support.

Q: WHO ARE AL HOUTHIS?

A: They are a tribal movement rooted in northern Yemen along the nation’s border with Saudi Arabia. Their name honours their first military commander, Hussain Al Houthi, who launched an anti-government rebellion with the aim of toppling Yemen’s pro-Western government following the US invasion of Iraq. He was killed by Yemen’s army in 2004. Al Houthis again took part in the 2011 Arab Spring rebellion against the government of then president Ali Abdullah Saleh, but rejected a compromise plan that passed on power to Saleh’s successor, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi. They since have consolidated their military hold over Yemen’s northern provinces and, in September 2014, moved south to seize control of the capital, Sana’a, and other major cities. They belong to the Zaidi branch of Shiite Islam.

Q: HOW DO Al HOUTHIS INTEND TO GOVERN THEIR FEUD-PRONE LAND?

A: Without support from the two-thirds of the population that is Sunni, the Al Houthis will find the task of governing difficult and dangerous, running the risk of provoking civil war.

This is why, when Al Houthi fighters surrounded Hadi’s home and presidential palace in January, they stopped short of demanding his ouster and instead hoped to force the moderate president to concede greater rights to their own community. Hadi refused and resigned along with his entire Cabinet.

On Friday, Al Houthis ended their waiting game with the ousted government’s leaders and empowered their Revolutionary Committee, led by a cousin of leader Abdul Malek Al Houthi, to form a transitional government and fill a new 551-member parliament to replace the dissolved one.

Questions remain whether Al Houthis will be able to attract significant participation from other factions, particularly Sunnis from the previous government, to give their power grab an air of legitimacy. Hadi remains under house arrest and incommunicado, but Al Houthis claimed on Saturday to have recruited two of his ministers into the evolving new government. Al Houthis have not said when they might sanction elections, if ever.

Q: WHO ARE THE WINNERS FROM AL HOUTHIS’ POWER GRAB?

A: Abdul Malek Al Houthi, the movement’s 33-year-old leader, has reached a new zenith of power. It remains to be seen which Middle East players ally themselves behind him. Iran, the Middle East’s predominant Shiite power, and Hezbollah in Lebanon appear the most likely candidates. Al Houthis insist they have no formal agreements with either.

Al Houthis’ grass-roots supporters send a different signal. At demonstrations and in battle they often shout a slogan that is shared with Shiite hard-liners in both Iran and Iraq as well as Lebanon’s Hezbollah: “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Jews and victory to Islam.”

Yemen’s ousted government viewed Iran as a longstanding ally of Al Houthis and its military has intercepted Iranian arms shipments allegedly bound for Al Houthis.

Q: DOES AN AL HOUTHI GOVERNMENT HARM THE US FIGHT AGAINST AL QAIDA?

A: Al Qaida’s Yemen branch, led by Osama Bin Laden’s top lieutenant Nasser Al Wahishi, has posed the greatest danger to the West in recent years. It has launched several failed attacks on US soil. Last month the group claimed responsibility for attacking the headquarters of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Al Houthis are not natural allies of the terror group. Their members belong to the Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam, while Al Qaida’s Yemeni affiliate is staunchly Sunni. The two factions have fought bloody turf wars in central Yemen in recent months.

But Al Houthis also are hostile to US military intervention in the Middle East, including its campaign of striking suspected Al Qaida sites in Yemen using drone aircraft. Al Houthis’ rise to power has badly eroded the operational effectiveness of the Yemeni military, which has received heavy US aid in hopes it could be built into an effective bulwark against Al Qaida in the Gulf. Continued Yemeni support for US airstrikes is now in jeopardy.