Yemen - Civil War

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Anti-Houthi fighters seize districts in central and southern Yemen

The rapid progress of the Popular Resistance and the national army pushed Houthi and Ali Abdallah Saleh’s militias to retreat in several provinces. (File photo: AP)

By Staff Writer | Al Arabiya News
Monday, 10 August 2015

Yemeni Popular Resistance forces on Sunday captured from Houthi rebels multiple cities in the country's central and southern provinces, including the capital of the Abyan province, the city of Zinjibar, which fell to the pro-government forces after days of fighting.

The fighters seized four districts in the central province of Ibb on Monday, residents and local officials said, bringing the armed resistance closer to the group's stronghold in the capital Sanaa.

Yemeni news sites reported that Central Bank governor, Mohamed Bin Hammam, managed to escape from Sanaa and moved to to Hadramout as battles are approaching the capital.

The rapid progress of the Popular Resistance and the national army pushed Houthi and former President Ali Abdallah Saleh’s militias to retreat in several provinces. Due to this, the Houthis declared a state of emergency in the capital city Sanaa, sources told Al Arabiya News.




The state of emergency took effect shortly after midnight as the group had braced for an offensive by the Popular Resistance.
Senior Yemeni military commander Abdullah Subaihi said last week he expected government forces to retake Sanaa within two weeks.

The pro-government commander said: "Popular Resistance forces and the national army, backed by tanks supplied by the Saudi-led Arab coalition, managed in the early hours of Sunday to seize control of the 15th military brigade and all government buildings" in Sanaa.

Pro-government troops first entered Zinjibar after overrunning a Houthi barracks and also seized the towns of al-Hazm and al-Odain, in southern Yemen's Ibb province.

Over the past two weeks, pro-government forces have gained control of the Lahej, Aden and Dalea provinces, all in Yemen's south.

Last Update: Monday, 10 August 2015 KSA 15:02 - GMT 12:02
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/08/10/Popular-resistance-continues-making-gains-in-southern-Yemen.html

 

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Yemeni president arrives in the UAE for talks

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, center right, receives Yemen’s exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, center left, at the Presidential Airport in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (AP)

AP, Dubai
Thursday, 13 August 2015

The Yemeni president has arrived for a visit in the United Arab Emirates, one of the key backers of a Saudi-led coalition attempting to roll back gains by Iranian-backed Houthi milita in the deeply impoverished country.

State news agency WAM says exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi arrived Wednesday for a two-day working visit. Officials had no further details.

Hadi has been living in neighboring Saudi Arabia after he and much of his government fled advances by the Shiite Houthi rebels earlier this year.

The Emirates has been participating in a Saudi-led, American-supported campaign targeting the rebels and their allies since March. It and Saudi Arabia have supplied pro-government forces with tanks and other fighting vehicles, and the Emirates has lost soldiers as part of the campaign.

Military and security officials in Yemen say a suspected U.S. drone strike has killed five suspected al-Qaeda militants traveling in a vehicle near the extremist-held coastal city of Mukalla.

The officials said the attack Wednesday happened east of the city. Al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch, considered by Washington to be the most dangerous offshoot of the terror network, has made gains in the sprawling eastern Hadramawt province, capturing its capital, Mukalla, in April.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Al-Qaeda has made advances amid the civil war now engulfing Yemen. Washington meanwhile has kept up its drone attacks there targeting al-Qaeda militants, including one that killed the group's top leader in Mukalla in June.

Last Update: Thursday, 13 August 2015 KSA 09:29 - GMT 06:29
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/08/13/Yemeni-president-arrives-in-the-UAE-for-talks.html

 

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Alleged U.S. drone strike in Yemen kills 5 al-Qaeda militants

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is the deadliest branch of the global militant organization and has taken advantage of a war pitting Houthi militiamen against forces loyal to exiled President Hadi. (Reuters)

By Noah Browning | Reuters
Thursday, 13 August 2015

A suspected U.S. drone strike has killed five al-Qaeda fighters in eastern Yemen on Wednesday, officials said, as extremist groups claimed a string of attacks in the war-torn country.

The officials said the bombs hit the men in their car while they were traveling on a coast road east of the Arabian Sea port of Mukalla, which was occupied by al-Qaeda fighters in April after security forces retreated.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is the deadliest branch of the global militant organization and has taken advantage of a war pitting Houthi militiamen against forces loyal to exiled President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi to grab territory and operate more openly.

The chaos has also given rise to a Yemeni branch of the hardline ISIS group, which on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a bomb planted near a police car in the capital Sanaa. No one was hurt in the blast.

Al-Qaeda on Tuesday said it carried out 12 separate gun and bomb attacks on Houthi fighters in the central province on al-Baida.

It was immediately possible to confirm the claims.

The Houthis are a Shiite Muslim sect and both al-Qaeda and ISIS consider the Iran-allied Houthis apostates.

Last Update: Thursday, 13 August 2015 KSA 08:39 - GMT 05:39
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/08/13/Suspected-U-S-drone-strike-kills-5-al-Qaeda-militants-in-Yemen.html

 

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Apaches deployed to Aden
Jeremy Binnie, London - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
11 August 2015

A UAE Army Apache AH-64D seen at Abu Dhabi's IDEX defence show in 2011. Source: IHS/Patrick Allen
The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Ansar Allah group has deployed AH-64D Apache attack helicopters to Aden, presumably to provide close air support for the Emirati and allied Yemeni forces operating in the south of the country.

The Apache deployment was revealed by videos and photographs published on social media on 11-12 August showing four Apaches at Aden International Airport, three of them fitted with Longbow radars. The markings identifying the operator of the helicopters were visible in the imagery.
Apaches deployed to Aden - IHS Jane's 360

 

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Yemen Houthis diminishing allies

Aften 10 months of Houthi rule, many of the group’s allies have abandoned the group, saying that the Houthis have not improved the situation in the country.

The Houthis took over the capital Sanaa in September 2014 with popular backing. Their backers dreamed that the lives of the impoverished would improve under a new era of economic prosperity. However, the only thing that the group has done – in the eyes of many of its former supporters – is instigate several conflicts across the country.

Abdulhameed al-Otimi, 28, a former Houthi supporter, told Middle East Eye: "When the Houthis took over Sanaa, I thought that [they] would eliminate corruption from governmental institutions, but they didn't do anything in this regard. Then I realised that all the Houthis can do is is fight and they don't have any plans for development."

Al-Otimi participated in several of pro-Houthi protests in Sanaa throughout 2014, but after a dispute with his boss, he lost his job for outward support of the Houthis.

In the past month, al-Otimi stopped supporting the Houthis, "The Houthis had time to build the country, but they did nothing but damage it, and now it [is] the proper time for them to leave Sanaa and return to their stronghold in Saada."

Throughout this year, many businesses have closed because of the economic crisis that followed Yemen’s ongoing war. Unemployment is at an historic high.



War over rebuilding

Ali Abulohoom, a journalist who fled Sanaa for Saudi Arabia in May, told MEE: "The Houthis lost their supporters because they do not feel [the] people's suffering."

The so-called revolution began on 18 August 2014 as Houthi militias capitalised on the widescale protests against a government-implemented removal of fuel subsidies.

Abulohoom said he supported the Houthis at the time because they wanted to eliminate the sheiks' ability to extort the government and private companies.

He added that he had lost confidence in the Houthis after they had waged wars in so many regions.

"Violence is the only way that the Houthis can understand [things]. They don't know what they are doing; they want to keep fighting and invade provinces until they take over the whole country."
Collusion between Houthis and ex-president Saleh

The relationship between Houthi militias and the ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh became clear when Saleh loyalists began fighting shoulder to shoulder with the militias.

Dr Nabil al-Sarjabi, a political science professor at Hodeida University and an expert on crisis management, told MEE that the Houthis don't know how to manage the country, and added that they are acting like a tool for Saleh.

"Saleh wanted to use the Houthis to eliminate his opponents that ousted him in 2011," al-Sharjabi said.

He went on to say that Saleh did not help the Houthis with managing the government because he does not want them to take over the country - he wants them to fight his opponents.

Hundreds of Houthis fighters have been killed in the war in Aden and Taiz provinces, but the Saudi-backed “Popular Resistance” movement has freed Aden from the Houthis, while clashes are still ongoing in Taiz.

Al-Sharjabi confirmed that what is happening today is the opposite of last year’s developments: "Last year, Houthis gradually took control of several provinces, but today they are losing their supporters and leaving the provinces gradually."

However, Houthi activist Hussien al-Boukhaiti denied that the Houthis had lost their supporters, saying that the mass protest on Tuesday against "the foreign occupation" was a clear indication that their forces remain strong.

"We can say that Ansarallah [Houthis] lost control of some areas in the south but we cannot say that the Houthis have lost their supporters," al-Boukhaiti said.

Even if al-Boukhaiti denied that the Houthis have lost their supporters, talk to anyone in Sanaa, and they will say that Houthi support used to be strong, but today it has dissipated greatly.

 

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Saudi-Jordan special forces

 

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The RSAF AWACS are repositioned to operate continuously inside the Yemeni airspace for better Surv, C&C of the AF

 

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Houthis retreat from southern Yemeni city

Fighters loyal to Yemen's exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi gather on a road in the country's southern province of Lahj. (File: Reuters)

By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News
Sunday, 16 August 2015

Houthi militias retreated from the southern city of Taez, the Yemeni Popular Resistance said on Saturday, following clashes with the Iran-backed militiamen.

Resistance fighters took over the municipality building and the residence of deposed leader Ali Abdulla Saleh following the retreat of militias loyal to the former president and Houthis, Al Arabiya reported.

The Iran-allied militias also retreated from the southern governorates of Aden, Shabwah, Abyan, Lahejj, and Dalea , all of which now under the control of Yemeni armed forces and resistance fighters.

Fighting between the Popular Resistance, allied with Yemeni President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi, and the Houthis moved to Al Baydaa and continues to rage in the country’s central governorates, according to Al Arabiya.

The Yemen conflict escalated in March when a Saudi-led, American-supported coalition began launching airstrikes against Houthi militias and their allies - troops loyal to deposed leader Ali Abdullah Saleh - who control the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen.

They are pitted against southern fighters, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants and loyalists of the exiled Hadi.

Last Update: Sunday, 16 August 2015 KSA 11:51 - GMT 08:51
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/08/16/Houthis-collapse-retreat-from-southern-Yemeni-city.html

 

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Arab coalition bombs Yemen’s Hodeidah port

Smoke billows from the site of a Saudi-led air strike in Yemen's western port city of Hodiedah. (Reuters

Reuters, Sanaa
Tuesday, 18 August 2015

Jets from a Saudi-led coalition struck Yemen's Red Sea port of Hodeida early on Tuesday, port officials said, destroying cranes and warehouses at a main import hub for aid supplies to the country's north.

Hodeidah, which lies almost due west of the capital Sanaa, is held by the Houthi militias and allied army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. They retain control of the northern highlands and the Red Sea coastal plain as far south as Ibb, which lies around 200 kilometers southeast of the port.

Aid groups have previously complained that the coalition naval blockade has stopped relief supplies entering Yemen, which is suffering a humanitarian crisis. The coalition has accused the Houthis of commandeering aid shipments for war use.

Fighting continued overnight in Yemen's third city, Taiz, Arab television stations reported early on Tuesday, as local groups opposed to the Houthis attempted to consolidate recent advances to take the city.

Taiz is around 50 kilometers south of Ibb

Last Update: Tuesday, 18 August 2015 KSA 10:00 - GMT 07:00
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/08/18/Arab-coalition-bombs-Yemen-s-Hodeidah-port.html

 

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Warplanes from Saudi-led Arab coalition destroyed air defense systems in Yemen air force base.

Warplanes from Saudi-led Arab coalition hit Yemen's military airport in the capital Sanaa and a naval base in the Red Sea port of al-Hodayda on Wednesday, military officials said. They said the raids destroyed air defense systems in warehouses at al-Dailamy Airport, the headquarters of the air force base north of Sanaa, and anti-ships missiles at the naval base in al-Hodayda.

Fighter of Royal Saudi Air Force

Both bases are under control of Shiite Houthi rebels who stormed the capital in last September and seized control of the al-Hodayda port city in October.

Residents reported three air strikes on al-Dailamy military airport early Wednesday morning, and said they saw flames and explosions at the airport's warehouses.

It was the first air attack on targets in the capital in a month, as the air strikes concentrated against the rebels in southern and central provinces.

On the Red Sea port of al-Hodayda, some 226 km east of Sanaa, the warplanes stroke several depots at the naval base, as well as its quay on Wednesday dawn, officials there said. The strikes set off a series of explosions that sent fire and smoke to the air for hours, according to witnesses.

The navy was targeted for the second straight day after Tuesday's air attacks destroyed large parts of its facilities amid reports of Saudi-led coalition's warships are approaching the area aiming to control the strategic port.

There were no reports of casualties in Sanaa and al-Hodayda.

The Arab coalition has been engaged in a war against the Houthis since late March to restore Hadi's legitimacy. The exiled government announced on July 17 that Saudi-backed fighters have taken full control of the southern port city of Aden after nearly five months of battles with Shiite Houthi rebels.
Warplanes from Saudi-led Arab coalition destroyed air defense systems in Yemen air force base 11908154 | August 2015 Global Defense Security news UK | Defense Security global news industry army 2015