Yemen - Civil War

[Scorpion]

Iran calls former president death a conspiracy.

 

[Khafee]

Iran calls former president death a conspiracy.

Well I have to agree with them. It was a conspiracy, alright, one by the Iranians themselves. Once Saleh said goodbye to them, he became a liability.

THIS is the exact reason why Saad Hariri, announced his resignation in Riyadh and not in Beirut.

 

[Khafee]

Leader of Yemen forces loyal to Saleh dead, says GPC
by Ali Mahmood
December 5, 2017
Updated: December 5, 2017 -11:45 PM


Ali Abdullah Saleh's General People's Congress party said the former president's nephew and the leader of the elite Republican Guard had died in hospital after sustaining wounds in clashes between Saleh loyalists and the Houthi rebels

Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, who has been reported dead, is pictured here speaking on his walkie-talkie at the Republican Palace in Sanaa on January 10, 2011. Saleh, a nephew of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, led the elite Republican Guard loyal to his uncle. Khaled Abdullah / Reuters

The leader of Yemeni forces loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh was reported dead on Tuesday, as Houthi rebels led a charge against associates of the murdered former president.

Saleh's General People's Congress party said Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, the former president's nephew and the leader of the elite Republic Guard, a renegade unit of the Yemeni army, had died of wounds suffered in clashes this week in Sanaa.

Fierce clashes broke out in Sanaa last week between Saleh supporters and the Iran-backed Houthis as a fragile alliance between the two sides broke down. The two camps had together been fighting pro-government forces backed by a Saudi-led military coalition that includes the UAE.

Things came to a head on Monday when Saleh was killed in a roadside attack by members of the Shiite militant movement. The former president was seen to have switched sides after saying on Saturday that he was open to talks with the Saudi-led coalition.

On Tuesday, the GPC told Agence France-Presse that Saleh's nephew had died in hospital after sustaining a shrapnel wound to the liver.

The party did not elaborate.

The Houthis also stand accused by the GPC of killing the party's assistant secretary, Aref Al Zuka.

A leading party member told The National on Tuesday that Al Zuka was taken to a military hospital after being wounded in the same attack that killed Saleh, but was then killed by the Houthis himself at the hospital.

He said the fate of Abull Aziz Bin Habtoor, senior GPC member and prime minister of the Saleh-Houthi alliance's self-declared government, was unknown but that reports suggested the rebels had arrested him.

The party member said the Houthis had come to his home multiple times looking for him as they led a charge to arrest all GPC leaders — even those seen as low-level or lacking in power.

The rebels had also begun taking away children who had protested against them in recent days, the GPC member added.

Saleh's oldest son meanwhile pledged in a declaration sent to Reuters to fight the Houthis and liberate all territory held by the rebels.

"I am going to fight the enemies of the humanity and the enemies of our homeland who are trying hard to erase its identity and destroy its gains and humiliate the Yemenis," said Major General Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's ambassador to the UAE and the former commander of the Republican Guard.

There are expectations in Yemen that Maj Gen Saleh will now return to Yemen to lead a battle against the Houthis to take revenge for the killing of his father.

Also on Tuesday, thousands of Houthi supporters rallied in Sanaa as the rebels cemented their grip on the Yemeni capital.

The Houthis seized Sanaa in September 2014, forcing the government of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi to relocate to the southern city of Aden. They briefly lost control of much of the city in the recent fighting with Saleh supporters before making a dramatic comeback.

New checkpoints manned by rebels sprung up across Sanaa on Tuesday as their leaders hailed their control of the capital, rallying supporters and pledging that backers of Saleh were safe.

Houthi supporters massed in their thousands near the capital's international airport, shouting "Sanaa is free and the state still stands!" and "Yemenis are one!" as rebel chiefs struck a conciliatory tone, declaring they were "ensuring the safety" of members of the GPC — a statement that stood in sharp contrast with the GPC's claims of a Houthi charge against them.

https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/leader-of-yemen-forces-loyal-to-saleh-dead-says-gpc-1.681480

 

[Scorpion]

Well I have to agree with them. It was a conspiracy, alright, one by the Iranians themselves. Once Saleh said goodbye to them, he became a liability.

THIS is the exact reason why Saad Hariri, announced his resignation in Riyadh and not in Beirut.

I fotgot to add "an outsider conspiracy". So basically Iran is trying to say that Saudi Arabia killed him so go ahead Saleh supporters and attack Saudi Arabia, leave the Houthies alone.

 

[Khafee]

I fotgot to add "an outsider conspiracy". So basically Iran is trying to say that Saudi Arabia killed him so go ahead Saleh supporters and attack Saudi Arabia, leave the Houthies alone.

As usual, it is a self defeating statement. Saleh had already switched sides because of the humanitarian toll. This is why I posted the following OP as well.

Nonetheless, it would be appreciated, if you would post their version as well


"If President Ali Abdullah Saleh was killed five days ago, the Saudi-led coalition and the legitimate government would have been blamed. However he was killed by the Houthis after he announced the end of his alliance with them."

https://world-defense.com/threads/yemen-ex-president-saleh-killed-by-houthis.4531/post-31485

 

[Khafee]

Iranian politician: There’s no ISIS in Yemen, so why should we intervene?
Staff writer, Al Arabiya
05 December 2017
Last Update: Tuesday, 5 December 2017 KSA 20:17 - GMT 17:17

Mostafa Tajzadeh, a veteran Iranian politician, has attacked the Revolutionary Guard for its intervention in Yemen, saying that there was “nothing to make of Yemeni territory that have any strategic importance for Iran”.

“Yemen is not occupied by ISIS and it has no holy places, it is not a neighbor of Israel to be considered, by the Iranian regime leaders, with a strategic importance for the Islamic Republic,” Tajzadeh tweeted on Monday.

Tajzadeh refers to the efforts of the Iranian regime to intervene in the internal affairs of Arab countries, where Iran intervenes militarily in Syria and Iraq. Their presence in one is focused on fighting ISIS while in the second to defend Shiite shrines in both countries, where it calls its militias in Syria and Iraq “Defenders of al-Haram.”

Iran is also intervening in Lebanon’s affairs by supporting the terror group Hezbollah militias, arguing that this country is the first front
against Israel.

On Nov. 23, Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari announced what he called an “advisory support” council of his “forces to Yemen", which meant the Houthi militias were being supported politically, financially and militarily by Tehran.

Tajzadeh is an Iranian reformist politician who was deputy for the interior minister in political and security affairs under the former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.

During the 2009 protests in Iran after the controversial presidential elections, Tajzadeh was arrested and spent almost seven years in prison.

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/fe...SIS-in-Yemen-so-why-should-we-intervene-.html

 

[Khafee]

The GCC summit in Kuwait survived while Doha didn’t
06 December 2017

Despite the blurred smiles among delegations, the Emir of Qatar could not hide his awkward position when he sat for the first time since the dispute broke out facing the ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. It is more than a disagreement. It is outright hostility.

A day before the Kuwait summit, Qatar demonstrated animosity by supporting the Houthis in their war against Yemenis and Saudi Arabia. Yesterday, Qatar supported the killing of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh because he joined the alliance with Saudi Arabia. This is the most bizarre situation in the history of the GCC since its establishment in 1981.

However, as a mark of respect for the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, the three countries did not boycott the GCC summit in Kuwait even though Qatar violated the council’s charters and overturned its commitments to Riyadh, ironically witnessed by the Emir of Kuwait himself.

The symbolic presence yesterday was a clear message that the summit is the only joint political action between the boycotting countries and Qatar, and may not happen again. The summit survived despite the boycotting of all ties with Qatar and the GCC avoided a total collapse.

Qatar’s continued presence in the GCC, and the four-member summit meeting, in the shortest summit in its history, could send out wrong messages, such as that the dispute has shrunk, which is not true, and that the demands can be overcome, which is also not true.

No justification for reconciliation
The Doha government, which is promoting in its media that the holding of the summit and Qatar’s presence is a victory, strengthens the point of view of the boycotting countries, that Qatar has not changed. It will not change and there is no justification for reconciliation with it, and thus it is the right of these countries to continue their boycott.

Since the beginning of the dispute, the government in Doha has shown no decline in its hostile activities against the four countries: Egypt and the three Gulf states. It is active in Yemen, funding, recruiting, and doing propaganda for the Houthis responsible for bombing and killing of Saudis inside their country.

It is important to understand the picture as it stands. Qatar is a partner in the war and aggression in Yemen, which makes its continuation in the GCC contrary to the foundations on which it was based. Its behavior has grown more conspiratorial as it continues to support anti-Riyadh forces, as well as against the other three countries.

Qatar’s anti-coalition activity in Yemen will prolong the dispute and may even worsen it. If Doha’s leadership believes that it uses the tactics of the war in Yemen, supported by the enemies of Saudi Arabia, to put pressure on it, it is committing a more serious mistake. It is provoking its adversaries to respond more harshly than just the boycott, which is the only weapon they have used against it so far.

The killing of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is an escalation that will not dissuade the coalition countries from continuing the war, and Yemen’s cleansing of the Houthi militias, the agent of Iran and Qatar. These states consider the alliance with the Houthis similar to the alliance with banned terrorist organizations, such as al-Qaeda and ISIS, which justify prosecuting supporting governments.

Yesterday, the Kuwait summit ended quickly, and Sheikh Sabah succeeded in rescuing the GCC from collapsing. However, even the 50-minute summit almost did not convence because of Doha’s provocative propaganda that preceded the meeting a week ago.

This article was first published in Asharq Al-Awsat.

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/vi...it-GCC-summit-survived-while-Doha-didn-t.html

 

[Scorpion]

Saudi-backed fighters capture coastal area in Yemen from Houthis​

Reuters Staff
4 MIN READ​

​

DUBAI (Reuters) - A Western-backed Saudi-led coalition scored its first major gains in Yemen since former President Ali Abdullah Saleh was killed on Monday when local fighters captured an area on the Red Sea coast from Houthi rebels, residents said on Thursday.
Houthi fighters attend the funeral of their fellow who were killed during the recent clashes in Sanaa, Yemen December 7, 2017. REUTERS /Mohammed Al-Sayaghi
Saleh, who had made common cause with the Houthis after they captured the capital Sanaa in 2014, switched sides in an announcement last week that plunged the country deeper into turmoil.
Residents said southern Yemeni fighters and allied local forces captured al-Khoukha district located some 350 km (220 miles) south-west of Sanaa after heavy fighting over Wednesday night which also involved coalition forces.
Houthi forces control Sanaa and much of the rest of the impoverished country, where three years of war has killed more than 10,000 people and brought it to the verge of famine.
Saleh had helped the Houthis win control of Sanaa and much of the north and his decision to abandon them had major implications on the battlefield.
The Houthis crushed a pro-Saleh uprising in the capital and shot him dead in an attack on his convoy on December 4.
Saleh’s body remained at a military hospital in Sanaa while the Houthis - who control the capital - and members of his party sparred over burial plans, sources close to the family said.
The sources said the Houthis had demanded that Saleh’s body be buried in a family ceremony at his home village of Sanhan, south of Sanaa, while the family was insisting that the Houthis hand over the body without any conditions.
The Houthis said they had found stashes of gold and cash at Saleh’s residence, which they had over-run and seized before his death on Monday, and confiscated it for the benefit of the state treasury. The group gave no details on the amount and the report could not independently be verified.
U.N.-appointed investigators said in 2015 that Saleh was suspected of having corruptly amassed as much as $60 billion, equivalent to Yemen’s annual GDP, during his 33 years in office.
ESCALATING STRIKES

The U.S. and U.K.-backed Saudi-led coalition has stepped up air strikes on Yemen since Saleh’s death as Houthi forces have tightened their grip on the capital.
Residents said fighters known as the Southern Resistance, together with other local forces and backed by coalition advisers from the United Arab Emirates, launched attacks on al-Khoukha on Wednesday.
At least 25 people from both sides were killed before Yemeni fighters captured the town of al-Khoukha and a small fishing port.
A spokesman for the Houthi movement could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Houthi-run Saba news agency has reported heavy air strikes by the coalition on Sanaa and in the Saada province in northern Yemen, but made no mention of any ground offensive in al-Khoukha area.
Saba reported at least seven members of the same family killed in an air strike on their house in Nihem district outside Sanaa, including three children. It was not possible to independently verify the report.
A Saudi-led coalition air strike on al-Khoukha in March killed at least 22 civilians.
When Saleh switched sides he announced he was ready to end a nearly three-year-old war - widely seen as a proxy war between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran - if the Saudi-led coalition agreed to stop attacks on the country.​

 

[Khafee]

Saleh has lost the battle, but the Houthis may have lost the war
by Mohammed Alyahya
December 07, 2017

Recent events may mark the beginning of the end for the conflict in Yemen, writes Mohammed Alyahya

The execution of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh earlier this week happened after three days of intense clashes in Sanaa. Saleh-allied forces, consisting primarily of Yemen’s Republican Guards, contested with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. Saleh had been allied with the Houthis until just last week, when he abandoned their three-year partnership after strains in their relationship culminated in a fall-out that led to all-out conflict in Sanaa’s streets.

Clearly Saleh’s assassination was a message from the Houthis' patrons in Tehran. Its intended recipients are the Trump administration and its coalition allies. The message seems to be: Iran has the ability to overturn your best-laid plans. However, given Yemen’s history and sociology, it appears the Iranians may have overplayed their hand.

The alliance between Saleh and the Houthis was not an easy one. Throughout the past few years the Houthis have succeeded in infiltrating government agencies and intimidating officials and dissidents through brute force and tactics unprecedented even for Yemen in their barbarity. They held children hostage, executed youth activists and assassinated college professors. While they gained strength, Saleh’s faction slowly lost its power: the Iranians and their allies, notably Hizbollah, stepped in to upgrade support for the Houthis with arms, logistics and training.

In August, Saleh’s party, the General People’s Congress, went to the street to celebrate its anniversary. The Houthis tried to stop the rallies. This led to tension between Houthi leadership and the organisers of the rallies among Saleh’s top leadership. In late August, the Houthis put Saleh under house arrest. They assassinated Khaled Al Radhi, one of his top lieutenants and closest advisers, who was responsible for liaising with foreign media.

The Houthis had demonstrated to many Yemenis, but most importantly to themselves, that they had the power to strong-arm Saleh and his camp. The power equation changed permanently on that August day in Sanaa. Since then, the Houthis saw themselves as the senior partners and Saleh their junior in an already fraying alliance. More importantly, it became clear to the Yemenis that the buffer between them and the Houthis' tyranny, as weak as it was, had evaporated entirely.

The paradox is that the death of Saleh may mark a turn in the other direction, with the Houthis and Iran getting weaker. The only reason the Houthis were tolerated in Yemen was because of the political cover they were afforded by Saleh. While undeniably employing brute force, he had a reputation as a pragmatic political operator with decades of experience. Saleh had sticks but he also had a basket of carrots.

The Houthis, on the other hand, employed henceforth unseen levels of brutality against whomever they deemed was a threat to them. Despite his countless violations, Saleh also utilised politics and negotiation, whereas the Houthis understand only total domination and brute force. In his own words, ruling Yemen was like “dancing on the heads of snakes,” a reference to his ability to twist arms, grease palms and make deals with so many of Yemen’s wide range of political actors. Little did he know that with the Houthis, he was not dancing on the heads of snakes, but feeding a crocodile. Winston Churchill once said, “an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.”

By assassinating Saleh, the Houthis have pitted themselves against the GPC, the Republican Guards, Northern Tribes, Southern separatists and the Saudi-led Arab coalition. The Iranians have found themselves in a situation where it is only them and their proxy against an entire population and a slew of states. It’s not clear how long this state of affairs can be sustained: Yemen has no land borders with any of Iran’s other proxies.

Former GPC leader and vice president of Yemen Ali Mohsen al Ahmar has already ordered his troops to march on Sanaa. And the Saudi-led coalition has stated that it is ready to work with any parties in the country to eliminate the Iranian-backed Houthi militia’s domination. This may mark the beginning of the end of the Yemen war.

Mohammed Alyahya is a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council

https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/...ut-the-houthis-may-have-lost-the-war-1.682322

 

[I.R.A]

This may mark the beginning of the end of the Yemen war.

We can only hope that it ends at the earliest without further suffering of Yemenis.

 

[Khafee]

We can only hope that it ends at the earliest without further suffering of Yemenis.

Well the sooner non-arabs stop meddling inside Yemen, the sooner this conflict can end, and peoples suffering can end.

 

[Khafee]

UAE and Saudi Arabia hold talks with Yemen's Al Islah party
by Ali Mahmood
December 14, 2017

It comes as the dynamics of Yemen's war have become more complex with the collapse earlier this month of the alliance between Houthi rebels and supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have held talks in Riyadh with Yemen's Islamist Al Islah party.

It comes as the dynamics of Yemen's war have become more complex with the collapse earlier this month of the alliance between

Houthi rebels and supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh was killed on Monday last week by the Iran-backed rebels who have since gone after members of his General People's Congress party. The two sides had joined together to fight pro-government forces backed by a Saudi-led military coalition that includes the UAE.

During the meeting in Riyadh on Wednesday, Sheikh Mohammed and Prince Mohammed reviewed the latest developments in Yemen with Al Islah chairman Colonel Mohammed Abdullah Al Yidoumi and secretary-general Abdulwahab Ahmad Al Anisi. The four men also discussed efforts to achieve security and stability for the Yemeni people, according to state news agency Wam.

Al Islah fighters have been fighting alongside forces loyal to Yemeni president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi in Marib province, east of Sanaa, for three years.

The war in Yemen began in September 2014 when the Houthis captured Sanaa before later advancing south and forcing Mr Hadi's internationally recognised government to relocate to the southern city of Aden. The Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015 and has since helped pro-government forces to retake much of the south. The Houthis still hold Sanaa, however, along with large areas of the north.

Maged Al Da'arri, a political analyst and the editor of Yemen's Hadramout newspaper, said Sheikh Mohammed and Prince Salman met the Al Islah party leaders to provide them with the opportunity to prove their good intentions in terms of working with the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

"Mohammed Bin Salman had met Al Islah party leaders two months ago and he met them again yesterday with [Sheikh] Mohammed bin Zayed," Mr Al Da'arri told The National on Thursday.

"That means that the Gulf leaders are trying to combine the different sides in Yemen to work collaboratively in order to be able to liberate the provinces that are still held by the Houthis."

Al Islah has close links with the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been outlawed as a terror group by both the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

https://www.thenational.ae/world/me...ld-talks-with-yemen-s-al-islah-party-1.684549

 

[Scorpion]

More and more places are being liberated. Kudos to the real heroes. Today Baihan has fallen to the coalition.

 

[Khafee]

Yemeni forces storm last Al Houthi-held town in Shabwa
Government forces now in full control of the important oil and gas rich province of Shabwa
by Saeed Al Batati, Correspondent
December 15, 2017
Last updated 6 minutes ago - December 16, 2017


Al Mukalla: Yemen’s government forces have stormed Bayhan town, Al Houthi’s last urban bastion in the southern province of Shabwa, local government and military commanders said on Friday.

Backed by intensive air cover from the Saudi-led coalition, army troops and allied resistance fighters seized control of most of Bayhan after taking complete control of the neighbouring Ouselan district, for the first time since the beginning of the the war.
“Dozens of Al Houthis have been either killed or held by the national army and the resistance fighters,” a local government official who requested anonymity told Gulf News by telephone.

Several resistance fighters were also killed in the fighting on Friday.

Iran-backed Al Houthis have been in full control of Bayhan and Ouselan districts since the early days of their rapid expansion across Yemen in early 2015.

Government forces have tried many times to recapture Bayhan from Al Houthis.

The official said that government forces succeeded on Friday morning in pushing the militants from strategic mountains in Ouselan district and quickly pushed toward Bayhan.
“Al Houthi forces crumbled in the face of the offensive by government forces. Many militants surrendered as others fled to the province of Baydha,” the official said.

Videos and photos posted on social media showed a line of armed vehicles rolling into Bayhan as soldiers flashed the victory sign.
Local commanders said that their forces would comb farms and houses for Al Houthi militants as experts would defuse hundreds of landmines planted by the defeated militants.

If Bayhan falls, government forces would be in full control of the important oil and gas rich province of Shabwa.

Military experts believe that months of fierce strikes by coalition fighter jets and deadly clashes with government forces have greatly eroded Al Houthi forces and morale, which set the for Friday’s victory.

Elite Shabwani Forces—security units trained and armed by the UAE—have cleansed many areas in the province from Al Qaida and Daesh militants who exploited the current war on Al Houthis to gain a foothold in the province.

Meanwhile, on the Red Sea frontline, government forces pushed back an offensive by Al Houthis aimed at recapturing the region of Khokha and other areas in the province of Hodeida.

Local army commanders said that Al Houthis withdrew to their previous positions in Hays and Tehaita towns after many of their men
were killed.

Last week Al Houthis suffered a major setback in the province of Hodeida after government forces took control of key cities, a military camps and are now laying siege on Hays town.

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/yemeni-forces-storm-last-al-houthi-held-town-in-shabwa-1.2141472

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Yemeni army pushes Houthis from outpost in southern Yemen
December 15, 2017 / Updated 19 hours ago

ADEN (Reuters) - The Yemeni army and allied fighters on Friday drove Houthi militants from a town that was one of the last positions they held in the country’s south, military sources and local officials said.

The forces advanced into Bayhan, about 300 km (190 miles) southeast of the Houthi-held capital Sanaa, killing dozens of the militants in clashes, the sources said.

Bayhan is important in Yemen’s war because it is located on a major road linking Shabwa province with Houthi-held Maarib province to the north. The army’s advance means that the Houthis have been expelled from Shabwa, sources said.

Yemen’s more than two-year-old war pits the Iran-allied Houthis, who control Sanaa, against a Saudi-led military alliance that backs the government now based in the southern port of Aden. The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and triggered a humanitarian crisis.

The government-run Sabanew agency said the remaining Houthis had fled after battles for strategic positions in the Bayhan area which had left hundreds of them dead and wounded.

The agency said the army also seized other positions in the area, where the movement of heavy artillery had been difficult because of sand dunes.

This month the Saudi-led coalition, which is backed by U.S. and British weapons and intelligence, intensified air strikes after the Houthis killed former president Ali Abdullah Saleh when he switched sides in the civil war. There has been relatively little change in positions on the ground around the capital.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-from-outpost-in-southern-yemen-idUSKBN1E91YS

 

[Scorpion]