JANE FERGUSON:

Right.

Not everyone supports the Houthis. Those who hope the exiled President Hadi will return are either too frightened to speak or have left the city. The Houthis are accused of arresting and jailing people opposed to them.

Hostility between the Houthis and the Saudis is not new. The Houthis are Zaidi, followers of a Shia sect of Islam. Saudi Arabia, a majority Sunni country, has accused the Houthis for years of being puppets of Shiite Iran on their doorstep.

But senior Houthi leader Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi denies any relationship with Iran.

"We don't have any links whatsoever with Iran and Iran doesn't have any influence on us," he says. "We are completely independent and separate."

While the rest of the world may view the conflict here in Yemen from the perspective of Shia vs. Sunni power, Saudi Arabia vs. Iran, most Yemenis don't really relate to those sectarian terms.

There isn't really a history of sectarianism in Yemen. And most people here say they are more loyal to their tribe than specific religious sects. The worry, however, is that sectarianism could be brought into Yemen as a result of the region-wide struggle.

You want to sit next to me here?

In Sanaa's Old City, we met Ahmed al-Dhaia, religious teacher at the Grand Mosque.

"Country leaders create these problems to stay in power," he says. "Those people who make these problems, they're not supporting Sunni or Shia. They just want power. They have a lot of money and they want to control all the country."

While the Houthis are strongly anti-American, they're even more anti-al-Qaida. Yemen is home to al-Qaida's most dangerous offshoot, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

And the U.S. has been conducting a drone strike campaign against them for years.

Yemeni journalist Nasser Arrabyee says many here are confused by the U.S.' foreign policy.