CNN: Yemen's President, Cabinet resign

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/05/03/265393/rebel-worry-how-to-control-islamists.html

Yemeni Fighters Trained in Persian Gulf Are Said to Join Saudi-Led Mission

 

Yemeni fighters who are believed to have received training and weapons in the Persian Gulf entered combat around the southern city of Aden on Sunday, joining with militiamen who are battling Houthi rebels, according to local militia fighters in Aden. 

 

The new troops arrived by sea in the last few days, they said. They all appeared to be Yemenis from the south who had trained in Saudi Arabia and possibly other Persian Gulf states, according to a senior local commander, a fighter and an allied resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss troop actions.

 

Their claims could not be independently verified. If confirmed, the influx would represent one of the first major deployments of ground troops trained by the Saudi-led coalition, and would shift the makeup of a military operation that has largely relied on airstrikes through its first weeks.

 

The reinforcements, who the commander said had been given equipment including anti-tank weapons, are entering a fight in Aden that has become a deadly stalemate. Hundreds of people have been killed and whole neighborhoods destroyed in fighting over the last few weeks between the local militias, on one side, and the Houthis and their allied security forces on the other.

 

The deployment also provided a glimpse of Saudi Arabia’s shifting tactics as it tries to right a military campaign that has yet to achieve almost any of its objectives.

 

The Saudi-led coalition of Arab states began a bombing campaign in late March with the stated goal of driving back the Houthis, a northern Shiite group that began seizing territory in September and has links to Saudi Arabia’s archenemy, Iran.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/12/us-yemen-security-idUSKBN0NX0K520150512?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

Saudi-led air strikes hit Yemen capital hours before ceasefire

 

Saudi-led air strikes pounded the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Tuesday, hours before a five-day truce was set to begin between the alliance of Gulf Arab nations and the Iran-allied Houthi militia which controls much of the country.

 

Residents said three air strikes hit a base for army units loyal to the Houthis in the north of the capital, sending up a column of smoke.

 

In the southern port of Aden, witnesses said the alliance bombed Houthi positions, and local armed groups were still fighting the rebels in the city and throughout Yemen's south. On Monday, they also exchanged heavy artillery fire on the border.

 

Backed by Washington, the Saudi-led coalition has been bombing Houthi rebels and allied army units since March 26 with the aim of restoring exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

 

The ceasefire was set to take effect at 11 p.m. to allow the shipment of food and medicine to the blockaded country, which aid groups warn faces a humanitarian catastrophe.

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http://www.thenational.ae/world/americas/us-and-saudi-arabia-discuss-permanent-solution-to-yemen-crisis

US and Saudi Arabia discuss permanent solution to Yemen crisis

 

The United States and Saudi Arabia will discuss how to forge a lasting ceasefire and political solution in Yemen, said president Barack Obama yesterday ahead of bilateral talks at the White House.

 

Mr Obama also praised Riyadh for being a crucial ally in the fight against ISIL extremists, and said the “longstanding relationship” with Saudi Arabia – particularly on counter-terrorism – has been “absolutely critical, not only to maintaining stability in the region but also protecting the American people”.

 

Mr Obama was speaking ahead of his meeting with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, and foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir, at the White House.

 

The meeting “gives us an opportunity to discuss some of the bilateral issues, including the crisis in Yemen and how we can build on the ceasefire that’s been established to restore a process for an inclusive, legitimate government inside of Yemen”, he said.

 

“I’m sure that we’ll have opportunities to discuss as well the progress that’s been made in the fight against ISIL in Iraq, as well as the continuing crisis in Syria, and the importance of us addressing not only the humanitarian crisis but the need to bring about a more inclusive and legitimate government there,” he said, adding that Riyadh is “a critical part” of the anti-ISIL coalition.

 

The bilateral talks will be followed by a White House dinner with delegations from all GCC countries and a day-long summit on Thursday at Camp David where Gulf leaders will seek security assurances over US-led nuclear talks with Iran.

 

Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, speaking through a translator, said Saudi Arabia gives “great importance to the strategic and historic relationship between our two countries”.

 

“We look forward, God willing, to working with you to overcome the challenges and bring about calm and stability to the region,” he added.

 

Earlier on Wednesday, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman pledged to double the kingdom’s aid to Yemen to US$540 million (Dh1,985m), as the five-day “humanitarian pause” in the Riyadh-led bombing campaign against Houthi forces and their allies began.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/20/us-yemen-security-idUSKBN0O50EF20150520?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

Saudi jets pound army bases, depots in Yemen capital

 

Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition carried out the most sustained bombardment of Yemen's capital Sanaa in nearly two months of air strikes on Tuesday night, residents of the city said, hitting army bases and weapons depots.

 

It was the first time air strikes continued from morning until after midnight since the campaign began on March 26, residents said, and led to terrifying blasts across the city.

 

Yemen's exiled government in Riyadh, backed by the coalition, said on Tuesday it would not agree to talks with rebels until they withdrew from cities and surrendered weapons, meaning peace talks to end the civil war seem unlikely soon.

 

The coalition restarted strikes late on Sunday after a five-day humanitarian pause, waving away pleas for an extension by the United Nations by pointing to what it said were repeated abuses of the ceasefire by rebels.

 

The rebels, an alliance of the Houthi militia and army forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, control most of the populated west of Yemen, and have been fighting local groups in the cities of Aden, Taiz, Marib and al-Dhala.

 

The Houthis and Saudi forces exchanged artillery and rocket fire across the border on Wednesday night and coalition warplanes bombed the group's stronghold of Saada, the rebels said.

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http://news.yahoo.com/emirati-aid-shipment-arrives-yemens-aden-133914875.html;_ylt=AwrC0wyJWmJViC8ANVbQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTByOHZyb21tBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--

Blow to Yemen peace efforts as UN talks postponed

 

A United Nations conference designed to help forge peace in war-ravaged Yemen has been postponed, a UN official said Sunday, just four days before it was due to begin.

 

There had been growing uncertainty over which of the warring Yemeni parties would attend the talks, slated to begin on Thursday in Geneva, and the postponement is a further blow to UN efforts to broker peace in a country where nearly 2,000 people have been killed since March.

 

"I can confirm that the meeting has been postponed," the UN official told AFP, without providing further immediate explanation.

 

Underlining the difficulty of trying to get the rivals around the negotiating table, exiled Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi laid out his government's demands to attend the talks in a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, insisting Shiite Huthi rebels must withdraw from territory they have seized.

 

Hadi fled to the Saudi capital Riyadh along with his government in late March when the Iran-backed rebels advanced on his southern stronghold, the port city of Aden.

 

He reiterated his position on Sunday during talks in Riyadh with the UN special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

The embattled leader demanded full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2216.

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Whoa!  Must have missed this.  But I haven't been paying much attention to the news lately.

 

 

http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/06/09/yemen-security-missiles-idINL5N0YV2GS20150609

With Scud launch, Yemen's Saleh shows his hand ahead of talks

 

By launching a scud missile at Saudi Arabia, Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh has sent a signal that he needs to be a factor at upcoming peace talks in Geneva aimed at ending two months of war.

 

Saleh, the strongman who resigned following the 2011 "Arab Spring" protests after more than three decades in power, has emerged as the main military ally of Houthi Shi'ite fighters, now the most powerful force in the country.

 

Saudi Arabia has been targeting the Houthis for two months from the air in support of the government led by Saleh's successor, Abd-Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi, who evacuated the country in the face of a Houthi advance.

 

The Saudi campaign, joined by other Sunni Muslim powers, is aimed in part at sending a message to the Houthis' main backers, Shi'ite Iran.

 

But Yemen watchers say the country's remaining Scuds are in the hands of Saleh and military units under his command, not the Houthi fighters that he has supported.

 

By firing one of the missiles on Saturday and stepping up heavy artillery attacks on border positions in battles that have killed at least six Saudi soldiers since Friday, the old master has sent a message ahead of the talks which start on Sunday, reminding Riyadh that the war won't end without him.

 

"The border attack was an attempt to demonstrate his strength as Yemen's top military force, maximize his influence at Geneva and give him the upper hand," said Farea al-Muslimi, a researcher at the Carnegie Middle East Center.

 

The Scud targeted the largest air base in southern Saudi Arabia, the first time in the conflict that Yemeni forces have used a missile capable of hitting targets so deep in the kingdom. It was shot out of the sky by Saudi patriot missiles.

 

"The Houthis themselves are not yet well-trained enough to fire a missile like that. The skill and expertise needed to operate the missile and target an air base are probably only present in the rump of Saleh's army," said Michael Elleman, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/10/us-yemen-security-idUSKBN0OP1K220150610?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Saudi-led air strikes kill 19 in Yemen

 

Saudi-led air strikes killed at least 19 people across Yemen on Tuesday, Yemeni sources said, a day after Saudi Arabia said shells fired from Yemen had killed two of its soldiers.

 

The fighting comes amid continued preparations to bring representatives of the Yemeni government, the Iranian-backed Houthi group and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to talks in Geneva next week.

 

Yemeni sources said nine Houthi fighters were killed in air strikes on their positions in oil-producing Marib province, east of the capital Sanaa, while four others died in the central Ibb province.

 

Houthi officials were not immediately available to comment on those reports.

 

But the state news agency, controlled by the Houthis, said three women had been killed by shelling in Haidan, in the northern Saada province. The agency also said three Yemenis had been killed and four injured in the Hamdan district of Sanaa.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/17/us-yemen-security-idUSKBN0OX0KQ20150617

Yemen mosques, Houthi HQ hit by car bombs, dozens killed and hurt

 

Car bombs hit three mosques and the political headquarters of Yemen's dominant Houthi group on Wednesday, killing and wounding around 50 people, security officials said.

 

No one immediately claimed responsibility but the attack was similar to a previous one claimed by Islamic State, the militant group that has become active in Yemen in recent months as the country has descended into a sectarian-tinged civil war.

 

"Four car bombs targeted the political bureau of Ansarullah, the Hashush mosque in the Jiraf district, the Kibsi mosque in the Zira district, and the Qubat al-Khadra mosque, causing the martyrdom and injury of dozens," a security source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

 

The Houthi-controlled state news agency quoted an official calling the attacks "terrorist explosions" and a Houthi official blamed Islamic State.

 

"Islamic Staters and those like them, those foreign tools, after they were defeated and fled from clashes now resort to their vile, despicable and cowardly booby traps and bombings," Yahya Ali al-Qahoom wrote on his Twitter account.

 

The apparent militant attack is the most serious in Yemen since suicide bombers killed at least 137 worshippers and wounded hundreds during Friday prayers at two mosques in Sanaa on March 20, attacks claimed by Islamic State.

 

 

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/al-qaedas-leader-in-yemen-killed-in-signature-strike-us-officials-say/2015/06/17/9fe6673c-151b-11e5-89f3-61410da94eb1_story.html?wpisrc=al_exclusive

Al-Qaeda’s leader in Yemen killed in ‘signature strike,’ U.S. officials say

 

The CIA did not know in advance that al-Qaeda’s leader in Yemen was among the suspected militants targeted in a lethal drone strike last week, according to U.S. officials who said that the operation went forward under counter­terrorism guidelines that were eased by the Obama administration after the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Yemen this year.

 

The officials said that Nasir al-Wuhayshi, who also served as al-Qaeda’s overall second-in-command, was killed in a “signature strike,” in which the CIA is permitted to fire based on patterns of suspected militant activity even if the agency does not know the identities of those who could be killed.

 

The disclosure indicates that the CIA continues to employ a controversial targeting method that the administration had previously signaled it intended to phase out, particularly in Yemen, which U.S. officials have said is subjected to more stringent rules on the use of lethal force than in Pakistan.

 

The reliance on signature strikes would help explain an increase in the pace of drone operations in Yemen over the past six months. U.S. officials said this week that the campaign has inflicted major damage on al-Qaeda’s franchise in that country even after joint U.S.-Yemen counter­terrorism operations on the ground were effectively suspended several months ago.

 

The CIA and the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command have carried out at least a dozen strikes in Yemen since January, a number approaching the total for 2014, according to data compiled by the New America Foundation.

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http://news.yahoo.com/yemen-pro-govt-forces-seize-aden-airport-rebels-090022464.html;_ylt=A0LEVxYwnqVV3eoAykBXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEybW5zZWNxBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjA1NzdfMQRzZWMDc2M-

Loyalists retake airport in Yemen's Aden

 

Forces loyal to Yemen's exiled president, backed by Saudi-led air and naval support, recaptured the airport in second city Aden Tuesday after a four-month battle with Iran-backed rebels, military sources said.

 

Fighting in the port city escalated as UN chief Ban Ki-Moon expressed disappointment that a UN-declared ceasefire failed to take hold over the weekend.

The retreat by the Shiite rebels came as Iran -- regarded as their main foreign supporter -- struck a historic deal with world powers to curb its nuclear programme.

 

Leading Sunni kingdom Saudi Arabia has been deeply concerned about Iranian influence in its impoverished southern neighbour and leads an Arab coalition which has since March bombed the rebels and their allies in the armed forces.

 

The coalition backing pro-government forces denied its warships pounded the rebels as they pulled back from positions in Aden they had held since forcing President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi into exile in Riyadh in March.

 

Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri also downplayed the loyalists' airport seizure.

 

"We don't want to claim victory because it is a step, not more than that," Assiri told AFP.

"They have a lot of work to do to secure positions that they control today."

 

Hadi was personally supervising "Operation Golden Arrow for the Liberation of Aden", said his chief of staff, Mohammed Marem.

Aden airport had been held by rebels since soldiers of the 39th Armoured Brigade defected on March 25.

 

The Huthis and their allies later seized the presidential palace and Aden's main commercial port.

 

Military sources in Aden said pro-Hadi fighters were benefiting from ground support by Yemeni forces trained in Saudi Arabia, in addition to sophisticated weapons delivered by the coalition.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/26/us-yemen-security-houthi-idUSKCN0Q004E20150726?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Yemen Houthi leader captured: Southern resistance

 

A senior commander of Yemen's Houthi militia has been captured by southern secessionist forces allied to a Saudi-led coalition, the so-called Southern Resistance movement said on its official Twitter account.

 

The message said without elaborating the militia captured Houthi military commander Abdul-Khaliq al-Houthi on Saturday. Houthi officials could not immediately be contacted for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the information.

 

Yemenis say Abdul-Khaliq al-Houthi, a brother of Houthi leader Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, played an important role in the Iranian-allied militia's capture of the capital Sanaa in September. He was one of several Yemenis blacklisted by the U.N. Security Council in November 2014 for allegedly threatening Yemen's peace and stability and obstructing political reform efforts.

 

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/26/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN0Q003C20150726?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

Houthis, Saudi-led coalition fight for Yemen air base

 

Yemeni forces allied with a Saudi-led coalition fought Houthi militia for control of the country's largest air base north of Aden on Sunday, local residents said, hours before a humanitarian truce declared by the coalition was meant to start.

 

The al-Anad base, 50 km (30 miles) from the major southern port city, has been held by the Iranian-allied Houthi movement for much of a fourth-month-old civil war, and is seen as a strategic location commanding the approaches to Aden.

 

A Saudi-led Arab coalition allied with southern secessionist fighters retook much of Aden last week in the first significant ground victory in their campaign to end Houthi control over much of Yemen and restore exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

 

Houthi fighters and army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh captured Aden at the outset of the war, prompting Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia, an ally along with the United States.

 

A ceasefire declared by the coalition is due to take effect at 11.59 p.m. (2059 GMT) on Sunday for five days to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid. Four months of air raids and war have killed more than 3,500 people. Aden has suffered especially, with severe shortages of fuel, food and medicine.

 

The port city and other southern provinces have been largely inaccessible to U.N. food aid, and about 13 million people -- over half the population -- are thought in dire need of food.

 

Coalition warplanes carried out raids near Sanaa late on Saturday and shortly after dawn on Sunday, residents reported, adding that the targets included a military base near the city.

 

Ali Ahmedi, a spokesman for anti-Houthi forces in Aden, said fighting was going on at the al-Anad base, where he said southern anti-Houthi fighters had damaged equipment, aircraft and tanks controlled by Houthis.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/04/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN0Q91NI20150804?utm_source=twitter

Anti-Houthi fighters score more gains in south Yemen

 

Fighters loyal to Yemen's deposed president seized about 10 southern villages from Houthi forces on Tuesday, pursuing their offensive a day after capturing the country's biggest air base, residents and loyalist sources said.

 

Clashes took place across the southern province of Lahj, most of which is now back in the hands of the Saudi-backed loyalist forces.

 

Militias siding with President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who fled Yemen for Saudi Arabia in March, and army units trained and equipped by Gulf Arab countries have made advances against the Iranian-allied Houthis in recent weeks.

 

Yemeni military sources said the United Arab Emirates had sent in dozens of tanks and heavy artillery pieces to the fighters in recent days, though a spokesman for the Arab coalition denied media reports that it had sent ground troops.

 

Boosted by Saudi-led air strikes, the fighters drove the Houthis from the port city of Aden last month then pushed northward and recaptured the Al-Anad air base from Houthi forces on Monday after besieging it for days.

 

"The next step for the popular resistance and army forces after liberating Aden is the clearing of the provinces of Abyan and Lahj," a commander in the anti-Houthi forces told Reuters.

 

Militia sources said a thousand Yemeni fighters trained in Saudi Arabia and the UAE arrived in Aden on Monday.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/world/middleeast/yemeni-government-faces-choice-between-a-truce-and-fighting-on.html?smid=tw-nytimesworld&smtyp=cur

Yemeni Government Faces Choice Between a Truce and Fighting On

 

After five months of war in which more than 4,000 people have been killed, Yemen’s government, exiled in Saudi Arabia, faces a fateful decision: leverage recent battlefield gains to negotiate a cease-fire with a weakened Houthi rebel movement, or try to rout the rebels once and for all.

 

Backed by air support and ground troops from Persian Gulf nations, fighters allied with the government have made significant progress in recent weeks, after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates poured men and matériel into the strategic southern port city of Aden. The Houthis were driven from the city in July and since then have suffered a string of defeats in southern and central Yemen.

 

Yemen’s ambassador to the United Nations struck a bullish note this week, predicting that the government and allied forces would be ready to take back Sana, the capital, within weeks.

 

“It seems they are on the run,” the ambassador, Khaled Alyemany, said of the rival Houthi militias after a meeting with members of the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday. “My feeling is it’s going to be weeks before we can liberate the entire country from the coup,” a reference to the government’s forced resignation at the hands of the rebels in February.

 

Diplomats and analysts of the region warn against such optimism. They point out that any military effort to rout battle-hardened Houthi fighters from their strongholds in the north would risk a protracted blood bath, aggravate the regional rivalry between Sunni states and Shiite-dominated Iran, and compound one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

 

Intense diplomatic efforts have been underway to persuade the Houthis to withdraw their fighters from cities and encourage the government and its Saudi backers to halt the airstrikes, according to people with knowledge of the talks.

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https://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/pro-govt-forces-retake-fifth-south-yemen-province-083012720.html

Pro-govt forces retake fifth south Yemen province: army

 

Saudi-supported forces loyal to Yemen's exiled government on Saturday retook a fifth province in the country's south, military officials said, as they continued their advance against Iran-backed rebels.

 

The rebels "withdrew" and "handed over" Shabwa to the pro-government forces after they were promised a safe route out of the province, a military official told AFP.

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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/08/yemen-anti-houthi-forces-advances-taaz-150815174507849.html

Yemen anti-Houthi forces take Taiz government buildings

 

Forces loyal to Yemen's exiled government have made advances in Taiz, the country's third city, taking over the security headquarters and the governorate building there, following heavy clashes with Shia Houthi fighters.

 

Fighters backing the exiled president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, were reported on Saturday to be inching closer to the presidential palace in the city, located southwest of the capital Sanaa, and military bases still under the control of Houthi rebels, army sources said.

 

A military source told Al Jazeera that at least 22 fighters were killed in the fighting in Taiz, which analysts regard as a gateway to Sanaa, the capital city which was overrun by the rebels earlier this year.

 

Al Jazeera's Hamdi al-Bakari, reporting from Yemen, said the Houthis were still in control of three important brigades in the city.

 

The advances by the forces backing Hadi have been aided by weapons and troops from Yemen's Gulf neighbours, as Saudi-led coalition warplanes continue to pound rebel positions.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/19/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN0QN0HX20150819?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Saudi-led warplanes hit Yemeni port, aid group sounds alarm

 

Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition hit Yemen's Red Sea port of Hodeida on Tuesday, and officials there said the raids destroyed cranes and warehouses in the main entry point for aid supplies to the north of the country.

 

Hodeida, controlled by Iranian-allied Houthi forces, has become a focal point of efforts to resupply the impoverished Arab state, battered by five months of war that has killed over 4,300 people.

 

"Fighting, critical fuel shortages and restrictions on importing relief supplies have already helped to create one of the world's worst humanitarian crises," said Edward Santiago of aid group Save the Children.

 

"The bombing of Hodeida port is the final straw ... The impact of these latest air strikes will be felt most strongly by innocent children and families," he added.

Officials said the raids destroyed the port's four cranes and also hit warehouses, bringing work to a halt. There was no information on what was in the warehouses.

 

Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said the strikes on Hodeida were directed not at the civilian port but at a base where the Houthis had deployed anti-ship weapons.

 

"There is a naval base inside the port. This is where we struck last night," he said.

 

He said the coalition had on Tuesday given permission to three aid vessels to travel to Hodeida's civilian port for humanitarian aid shipments.

 

Aid groups have previously complained that a coalition naval blockade has stopped relief supplies entering Yemen. The coalition, in which the United Arab Emirates also plays a big military role, has accused the Houthis of commandeering aid shipments for war use.

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https://twitter.com/abdoys36

My old college in Sanaa University, 4 Professors & 15 Students were kidnapped by Houthi Militia
10:29 AM

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/24/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN0QT0X620150824?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

Houthi rockets kill 14 civilians in Yemen's Taiz: residents

 

Rockets fired by Houthi militiamen killed 14 civilians, most of them children, as fighting intensified for control of Yemen's third largest city, Taiz, residents said on Monday.

 

The Saudi-led coalition opposing the Houthis also launched air raids on military bases and Houthi positions in the southwestern city during the fighting, residents said, but no casualties were reported.

 

Fighters loyal to Yemen's exiled government have been contesting control of Taiz - Yemen's cultural capital - with the Houthis since April. Hundreds of combatants and civilians have been killed.

 

"The situation is awful and the fighting is happening on many fronts. All the hospitals have closed except for one, so there's a shortage of medical care. Two rockets fell on the Deluxe neighborhood, killing 14 people, among them women and children," Taiz resident Abdul Aziz Mohammed said.

"Taiz is being devastated."

 

The Saudi-backed government declared Taiz a "disaster area" in a statement released late on Monday and urged the international community and the U.N. Security Council to intervene to stop the bloodshed, the news agency that leans toward the exiled government said.

 

"The government will present a letter to the Security Council in New York and the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva," Human Rights Minister Ezzeldin al-Asbahi, said in the statement.

 

The World Health Organization said on Monday it was coordinating a rapid response to provide emergency health access to the injured due to the growing humanitarian crisis in Taiz and Hodeida, saying there were more than 350 casualties reported in Taiz in the past week alone.

 

The northern-based Houthis, a Shi'ite Muslim group, took control of Yemen's capital Sanaa last September. Arab countries intervened in the conflict in March to halt a Houthi advance into the south which caused the Saudi-backed government to flee to Riyadh from its refuge in the southern port of Aden.

 

Months of air strikes and arms deliveries by the rich Gulf states to government loyalists began to pay off last month, when they seized back Aden and made surprise gains toward Yemen's north and Sanaa.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/05/world/middleeast/27-soldiers-in-saudi-led-force-reported-killed-in-yemen.html?_r=0

Houthi Rebels Kill 45 U.A.E. Soldiers in Yemen Fighting

 

The United Arab Emirates said on Friday that 45 of its soldiers were killed fighting Houthi insurgents in a province east of Yemen’s capital, in a major setback for the coalition of Arab forces that have been trying for months to vanquish the rebels.

 

The death toll was the largest in a single day for the military of the United Arab Emirates, the Persian Gulf nation that has assumed a central role in the Saudi-led coalition seeking to restore Yemen’s exiled government to power.

 

A statement carried by a Houthi-run news agency said that the deaths came after the rebels fired what it called a ballistic missile at a military base used by the coalition in Marib Province, striking an arms depot and destroying other equipment, including Apache helicopters.

 

Bahrain, another member of the Saudi coalition, said on Friday that five of its soldiers also had been killed.

 

The casualties undercut recent battlefield gains by the Saudi-backed forces as well as confident assertions by Yemeni government officials that the coalition was poised to rout the Houthis from their stronghold in the capital, Sana.

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https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/29449045/new-wave-of-air-strikes-shake-yemen-capital-witnesses/

New wave of air strikes shake Yemen capital: witnesses

 

Powerful explosions shook the Yemeni capital Sunday, witnesses said, after the Saudi-led coalition vowed to press its air war following a rebel missile strike that killed dozens of Gulf soldiers.

 

The witnesses said the coalition warplanes pounded positions of the Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels and bases of splinter troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

 

The raids hit military bases on the Nahdain and Fajj Attan hills and the neighbouring presidential complex, south of Sanaa, as well as the headquarters of the special forces.

 

Also targeted were Huthi positions in the northern neighbourhoods of Sufan and Al-Nahda, forcing scores of residents to flee to other areas for safety, the witnesses said.

[visionary]

http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/coalition-must-complete-its-mission-in-yemen

Coalition must complete its mission in Yemen

 

Six months into the Saudi-led campaign against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, coalition forces have experienced a deadly setback that is likely to further strengthen the Arab forces’s role in Yemen. On Friday, a rocket attack on a weapons store killed 45 Emirati soldiers in the eastern province of Maarib. On the same day, 10 Saudi soldiers and five Bahrainis also lost their lives.

 

Houthi officials declared responsibility for the attack and said it was “revenge” for the six-month air campaign carried out by the Saudi-led coalition. The attack follows a string of gains made by the coalition on the ground in Aden and adjacent southern provinces, and as coalition forces prepare to retake Marib province.

 

Thousands turned out at funerals across the UAE to pay their respects and express solidarity with the soldiers’ families. The high casualty rate is certainly an unprecedented loss for the nation and this terrible tragedy will not be forgotten. But authorities and citizens have made clear the attack will only increase their resolve and determination to continue the fight.

 

The development may also redefine the nature of the coalition’s role in the Yemen conflict. Many observers have previously misunderstood the purpose of the Arab forces’ participation in the campaign. Even though the offensive received popular support – since it was a rare bold move by Sunni countries against what they considered to be an Iranian proxy – the strategic benefit of the operation had remained largely misconstrued.

 

The long-term purpose of the campaign is grounded in the realisation that the diplomatic route initiated and backed by the Gulf states is now undeliverable.

 

The GCC plan for a transition in Yemen had been designed to save the country from the scenarios that led to the destruction of Libya and Syria. Also, unlike in the past when Saudi Arabia relied on the central government of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh to restrain or contain forces such as the Houthis and Al Qaeda, the Gulf no longer had such a partner.

 

https://twitter.com/yemen_updates

Qatari ground troops and forces entered Yemen to join coalition forces in Mareb.
http://almawqea.net/news.php?id=1900
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/10/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN0RA0M720150910?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Saudi-led coalition raids target Yemen bases, Houthi leaders' houses

 

War planes from a Saudi-led military alliance bombed targets throughout Yemen's capital Sanaa on Thursday, in what witnesses described as the fiercest series of attacks on the city in over five months of war.

 

The raids hit houses of political leaders in the Iran-allied Houthi movement and military bases, as explosions and wailing ambulance sirens forced a sleepless night on the city's nearly 2 million shell-shocked residents.

 

"The sick people fled the hospital in terror," an official at a private hospital said. "They were afraid the building would collapse from the non-stop bombing of the army bases nearby."

 

There were no immediate reports of casualties, a day after medics said the bombing killed six civilians in the city.

 

Saudi Arabia and other Arab states intervened in Yemen's civil war on March 26 to halt the nationwide spread of the Houthis, who seized Sanaa last year and forced the government into exile in Riyadh after the group advanced on its southern stronghold of Aden.

 

The Houthis, who hail from the Zaydi Shi'ite Muslim sect, view their rise as a revolution. But they are fiercely opposed by the Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states who believe the group is bent on spreading Iran's influence.

 

Since a Houthi missile attack killed at least 60 Gulf Arab troops east of Sanaa last Friday, the coalition has stepped up its air strikes on the capital and beefed up its deployment of troops, which Yemeni officials say number a few thousand, ahead of an eventual push towards Sanaa.

 

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/09/09/uk-yemen-security-idUKKCN0R91I720150909

Egypt sends up to 800 ground troops to Yemen's war - Egyptian security sources

 

As many as 800 Egyptian soldiers arrived in Yemen late on Tuesday, Egyptian security sources said, swelling the ranks of a Gulf Arab military contingent which aims to rout the Iran-allied Houthi group after a five-month civil war.

 

It was the first reported deployment of ground troops there by Egypt, which has one of the Arab world's strongest armies.

 

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia has scored major gains against the militia and its allies in Yemen's army, backing a push by Yemeni fighters to seize much of the country's south and now setting its sights on the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa.

 

Four Egyptian units of between 150 to 200 troops along with tanks and transport vehicles arrived in Yemen late on Tuesday, two Egyptian security sources said.

 

"We have sent these forces as part of Egypt's prominent role in this alliance ... the alliance fights for the sake of our brotherly Arab states, and the death of any Egyptian soldier would be an honour and considered martyrdom for the sake of innocent people," a senior Egyptian military source said.

 

Yemeni officials put the number of foreign troops from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar at least around 2,000, while Qatari-owned Al Jazeera TV said at least 10,000 foreign soldiers had arrived, including 1,000 from the emirate.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/19/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN0RJ03O20150919?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Saudi-led warplanes pound Yemen's interior ministry in Sanaa

 

Aircraft from a Saudi-led coalition attacked Yemen's interior ministry in the capital, Sanaa, late on Friday and launched several other raids on sites in the heart of the city, residents and other sources there said.

 

The air raids by the coalition have intensified in recent weeks as a Gulf Arab ground force and fighters loyal to exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi prepare a campaign to recapture Sanaa, seized by Houthi fighters in September 2014.

 

Residents said about 10 air strikes were launched on the ministry building in the north of the capital, a police camp close to it and a military building.

 

The raids also targeted the presidential complex and a party building of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh which had already been destroyed in 2011, they said.

In Saada province, about 30 people were killed in various strikes in various strikes on Friday, a news agency controlled by the Houthis said.

 

The coalition began air strikes against the Houthis and their allies - forces loyal to Saleh - in late March after they pushed from their northern stronghold towards the southern port of Aden.

 

It is pushing ahead with an offensive in Marib, about 120 km (75 miles) east of Sanaa, trying to drive the Houthis out of the province in preparation for a push against the capital.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/20/us-yemen-security-usa-idUSKCN0RK0M520150920?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

Two U.S. citizens released from Yemen, White House confirms

 

Two U.S. citizens held in Yemen have been freed and have arrived in Oman, the White House said on Sunday, following reports Yemen's Houthi group had released three Westerners it held for months, including two from the United States and one from Britain.

 

Their release was arranged with the help of Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said, a spokesman for the National Security Council said in a statement, which also urged immediate resumption of peace talks aimed at ending fighting in Yemen.

 

The two freed U.S. citizens are Scott Darden, 45, an employee of a Louisiana-based logistics company, and Sam Farran, 54, a security consultant from Michigan, according to the Washington Post. It also reported that a third American, a 35-year-old convert to Islam, was still being held for reasons that were unclear.

 

The three freed men were flown to Muscat, Oman's capital.

 

Darden had been helping oversee the transport of humanitarian supplies in Yemen for New Orleans-based Transoceanic Development, which confirmed his release.

 

Darden's wife Diana Loesch posted on Facebook: “It's official my husband has finally been freed and Yemen and he's on his way to Muscat!!!”

 

Darden's mother, Pat Darden of Atlanta, referred questions to a family spokesman, but said: "“We have grateful hearts,” she said, adding that today is her birthday.

 

“It was a great birthday gift,” she said.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/01/world/middleeast/western-nations-drop-push-for-un-inquiry-into-yemen-conflict.html?ref=todayspaper

Saudi Objections Halt U.N. Inquiry of Yemen War

 

In a U-turn at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Western governments dropped plans Wednesday for an international inquiry into human rights violations by all parties in the war in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians in the last six months.

 

The change of direction came as the Netherlands withdrew the draft of a resolution it had prepared with support from a group of mainly Western countries that instructed the United Nations high commissioner for human rights to send experts to Yemen to investigate the conduct of the war.

 

That proposal was a follow-up to recommendations by the commissioner, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, who detailed in a report this month the heavy civilian loss of life inflicted not only by the relentless airstrikes of the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia but also by the indiscriminate shelling carried out by Houthi rebels.

 

The Dutch resolution also called for the warring parties to allow access to humanitarian groups seeking to deliver aid and to the commercial import of goods like fuel that are needed to keep hospitals running. Deliveries of aid and other goods have been slowed by the coalition’s naval blockade of Yemeni ports.

 

But in the face of stiff resistance from Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners, and to the dismay of human rights groups, Western governments have accepted a resolution based on a Saudi text that lacks any reference to an independent, international inquiry.

 

Instead, the new resolution supports a decree, issued by the exiled Yemeni government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, appointing a national commission of inquiry. It asks the United Nations human rights office only “to provide technical assistance and to work with the government of Yemen, as required, in the field of capacity building.”