YEMEN’S descent into anarchy so soon after Barack Obama touted it as a US success in the fight against Islamic terrorism presents challenges that must be urgently confronted if it is to be prevented from becoming an even more potent launching pad for global jihadist attacks.

Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, has been responsible for some of the most audacious terrorist plots against Western targets, including the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris and the attempt by a militant to blow up a passenger plane using explosives sewn into his underwear. AQAP continues to control vast swaths of Yemen.

Now rival Islamic State has reared its head, declaring a “Sanaa province” (after the Yemeni capital) as part of its so-called Sunni caliphate and claimed responsibility for the massive suicide bomb blasts that killed 140 people and injured hundreds in attacks on two of the city’s Zaydi Shiite mosques. Houthi rebels who last month seized control of Yemen’s capital are Zaydi Shiites. Like Hezbollah, they are backed by Iran and proclaim the slogan “God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam.” They have ousted the pro-US president from Sanaa. The Islamic State attacks on the Shiite mosques deepen the Sunni-Shiite clash across the Middle East and underscore the point made by Ayaan Hirsi Ali in our pages. She recalls the words of Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilisations when he wrote that “Islam’s borders are bloody and so are its innards.” Ms Hirsi believes he now “looks more right than ever”.

Yemen has attracted foreign fighters including two Australians who were killed in a US drone attack on AQAP in 2013. Yet just last September the US President said the strategy “of taking out terrorists who threaten us ... is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia.” Now, Islamic terrorism is so intense in Yemen that US advisers have fled. The attack on tourists in Tunisia — thought to have emerged well from the Arab Spring — showed the extent of Islamic State’s advance. For Yemen to become a global magnet for jihadists — like northern Iraq and Sryia — would be a disaster.

The Australian