Tensions rise within Yemen's rebel alliance

A long-simmering power struggle between Yemen's Shiite rebels and a former president has burst into the open, threatening to undermine their alliance against the internationally-recognized government and its Saudi-led backers.

Armed men suspected of links to the rebels on Sunday tore up poster portraits of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and his son and one-time heir Ahmed in Sanaa, Yemen's capital.

The vandalism took place in a part of the city where Saleh's Popular Conference party is due to hold celebrations on Thursday marking the 35th anniversary of its founding.

Saleh has complained that the rebels, known as Houthis, have sidelined him and his loyalists, leaving them out of military and political decisions, and negotiations to end Yemen's civil war.