Yemen - Civil War | Page 73 | World Defense

Yemen - Civil War

BLACKEAGLE

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Saudi strikes suspended in Yemen to allow aid
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Saudi soldier stands guard as servicemen on a Saudi military cargo plane prepare to unload aid at the international airport of Yemen's southern port city of Aden. (File: AP)

AFP, Sanaa
Monday, 27 July 2015

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed militiamen in Yemen suspended its air war Monday to allow desperately needed aid deliveries, but clashes persisted in several areas on the ground, witnesses said.

The Houthi militia, who control swathes of the country, including the capital Sanaa, said they had not been consulted about the unilateral coalition ceasefire that began at midnight (Sunday 2100 GMT).

The Houthis rejected the ceasefire on Monday, according to a message posted on Twitter Sunday.

The truce proposed by the “Saudi aggressor" is aimed at enabling pro-government fighters to regroup, rebel leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi was quoted as saying on a Twitter account believed to be managed by his group.

The Arab regional coalition, which has waged four months of air strikes in support of exiled President Abedrabbu Mansour Hadi, announced the five-day truce to allow emergency supplies to flow into the impoverished nation.

It reserved the right to respond to “military activity or movement” but there were no reports of new air raids by dawn despite several new attacks by the rebels.

The Houthis bombarded areas overnight in the southern provinces of Taez, Lahj and Dhaleh, according to witnesses and military sources.

Rebel tanks fired on residential areas in Jebel Sabr in Taez, witnesses said, sparking clashes with loyalist troops that caused an unknown number of deaths on both sides, witnesses said.

In Marib to the east of the capital Sanaa, fighting broke out before dawn when rebels launched an offensive against loyalist positions, residents said.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon earlier made a plea for all sides to “agree to and maintain the humanitarian pause for the sake of all the Yemeni people.”

But Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the self-described “president of the High Committee of the Revolution,” a body formed by Houthi militants, said in comments published by the rebel-controlled Saba news agency Sunday that his group had not been consulted by the U.N. about the ceasefire.

The group could therefore not give a “negative or positive” answer about the truce, he said.

The United Nations says the conflict has killed more than 3,640 people, around half of them civilians, since late March.

Relief supplies, however, have recently begun to trickle into Aden after loyalist fighters secured the southern port city, which had been Hadi’s last refuge before he fled to Saudi Arabia in March.

Several ships have docked in Aden since Tuesday carrying thousands of tons of aid supplies sent by the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) and Gulf nations but distributing the aid, particularly outside the city, presents a major challenge.

Last Update: Monday, 27 July 2015 KSA 11:42 - GMT 08:42
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/27/Saudi-strikes-suspended-in-Yemen-to-allow-aid-.html
 

BLACKEAGLE

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Houthis attack despite coalition truce
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Military vehicles of the Southern Resistance fighters move during clashes with Houthi fighters on a street in Yemen's southern port city of Aden. (File photo: Reuters)

Al Arabiya News, Reuters
Sunday, 26 July 2015

Yemen’s Houthi militias early Monday broke a humanitarian truce less than an hour after it began, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.

The Arab coalition on Saturday announced a ceasefire to take effect at 11.59 p.m. (2059 GMT) on Sunday evening for five days to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The militias launched an attack on the cities of Taiz, Marib and Lahej shortly after a pre-arranged ceasefire declared by the Saudi-led coalition, the sources added.

They also shelled residential areas in Jebel Sabr, sources told Al Arabiya.

Earlier, 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, residents said.

The al-Anad base, 50 km from the southern port city, has been held by the Iranian-allied Houthi movement for much of a fourth-month-old civil war and commands the approaches to Aden.

The head of the Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, said in comments carried by the Saba news agency that the group was not notified by the United Nations about the ceasefire and would not form a position towards it until then.

"There is no positive or negative stance until the United Nations formally addresses us concerning the matter," he said.

The Iranian-allied Houthi forces held up 16 trucks carrying humanitarian aid from the World Food Program through Yemen's Al Hudaydah province to support displaced persons in the city of Taiz.

Four months of air raids and war have killed more than 3,500 people in the Arabian Peninsula state. Aden has suffered especially, with severe shortages of fuel, food and medicine.

The 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.

Aden 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.

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

In the city itself, a bomb exploded underneath a passenger bus, killing three people and wounding five in the southern district of Dar Selm, police said. No further details were immediately available.

Ali Ahmedi, a spokesman for anti-Houthi forces in Aden, said they continued to fight Houthi forces at the al-Anad base and had damaged aircraft, tanks and equipment stationed there.

Residents said forces of the so-called Southern Resistance, a secessionist movement allied with the coalition, had taken Sabr, a northern district of Aden. The residents reported 25 Houthis and 10 Southern Resistance fighters had been killed.

The Saudi-led coalition began its campaign on March 26, striving to reverse months of advances by the Houthis after they moved from their northern stronghold last year, capturing the capital Sanaa and pushing south to Aden.

A senior Houthi commander, Abdul-Khaliq al-Houthi, was captured on Saturday by the Southern Resistance, the secessionist movement said on its official Twitter account.

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 militia's capture of Sanaa in September.

Last Update: Monday, 27 July 2015 KSA 00:59 - GMT 21:59
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/26/Battle-for-Yemen-s-biggest-air-base-heats-up-.html
 

Scorpion

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Saudi arabia wont be bound to the ceasefire. It will keep on bombing these rats.
 

BLACKEAGLE

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HSV-2 turns up off Aden
Jeremy Binnie, London - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
28 July 2015
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The vessel that was known as HSV-2 when it was chartered by the US Military Sealift Command is now operated by the UAE, which sent it to Aden as soon as it arrived from Australia earlier this month. Source: US Navy

The ex-US naval logistics ship Swift is now operating under the flag of United Arab Emirates (UAE), which may be using it to support an amphibious operation in Yemen.

Built by Australia's Incat shipyard in Tasmania, Swift was chartered as High-Speed Vessel 2 (HSV-2) by US Military Sealift Command from 2008 to 2013. IHS Maritime data shows it was back at the Incat yard in Tasmania from October 2014 until late June, when it set out for the UAE and arrived on 15 July.

The vessel is now operated by the UAE's National Marine Dredging Company, according to the Incat website.

Shortly after its arrival in the UAE it set out for Yemen, transiting through the Strait of Hormuz on 23 July and visiting the Omani port of Salalah on 26-27 July. Its last recorded AIS signal at the time of writing was from 0343 h GMT on 29 July as it headed into Aden harbour.


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A still from footage broadcast by Al-Jazeera on 28 July shows two BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles supporting pro-government forces during fighting in the southern Yemeni province of Lahij. (Al-Jazeera)
HSV-2 turns up off Aden - IHS Jane's 360
 

BLACKEAGLE

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Three Saudi soldiers killed in cross-border shelling with Yemen
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Saudi soldiers work at the border with Yemen in Jazan, Saudi Arabia. (File photo: AP)

Reuters, Riyadh
Friday, 31 July 2015

Three Saudi soldiers were killed and seven border guards were wounded by shelling from Yemen on Friday, Saudi state news agency SPA said.

The shelling took place in Dhahran Aljanoub, a governorate in the Saudi border region of Aseer, SPA said, citing the security spokesman at the interior ministry.

The statement did not say who carried out the shelling, but the Iran-backed Houthi militia group and forces loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh have carried out similar attacks in the past.

News agency Saba, run by Houthis, said earlier on Friday that they had launched rockets on several Saudi border areas, including Aseer.

SPA said ground forces had responded to the shelling and had destroyed missile launchers.

Saudi forces and the Houthis have been trading fire across the border since the Arab alliance began its operations.

Last Update: Friday, 31 July 2015 KSA 18:57 - GMT 15:57
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/31/Three-Saudi-soldiers-killed-in-cross-border-shelling-with-Yemen-.html
 

BLACKEAGLE

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‘Al-Qaeda’ suicide bombing kills nine in Yemen
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A suicide attack kills and wounds dozens near an area where Houthi supporters gathered in Sanaa. (File photo: AFP)

AFP
Friday, 31 July 2015

A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into a Yemeni army checkpoint Friday, killing nine soldiers, a military source said, blaming Al-Qaeda for the attack.

Elsewhere, Riyadh said four Saudi security personnel were killed in cross-border rocket fire and shelling, while Yemeni sources said nine rebels were killed in clashes with pro-government forces in Dhaleh province.

The suicide bombing took place near the city of Qoton in southeastern Yemen's vast desert province of Hadramawt, where Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operates.

The source said the dead soldiers were members of the army's First Division, loyal to exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

Hadi was forced out of the country earlier this year after Shiite Huthi rebels seized the capital and large chunks of Yemen.

Separately, the source said AQAP militants flogged eight people in the Hadramawt provincial capital of Mukalla, a port city of more than 200,000 people that they control.

Charged with offences including adultery and drug and alcohol use, the eight received between 80 and 100 lashes each in a punishment carried out in a public square before hundreds of witnesses.

In March, a Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign against the Huthis and allied forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in a bid to restore the authority of Hadi, who has taken refuge in Riyadh.

AQAP, which Washington views as the extremist network's most dangerous branch, has taken advantage of the chaos gripping Yemen to make territorial gains in the south, including the seizure of Mukalla in April.

The Saudi interior ministry, meanwhile, said cross-border rocket fire and shelling killed three soldiers and a member of a paramilitary force in the Asir and Jazan regions.

The bombardment came during a day of relative calm in Yemen itself.

Government-aligned forces have since last week been expanding their area of control after recapturing the southern port city of Aden.

Nine rebels were killed in a clash with pro-Hadi forces in Dhaleh province on Friday, military sources said.

The clash and the border barrage came on the final day of what was supposed to be a ceasefire to allow in aid for Yemen's stricken civilians.

The humanitarian pause, declared by the coalition, began Monday but collapsed the next day.

According to the United Nations, the war has killed 3,984 people inside Yemen, nearly half of them civilians.

On the Saudi side of the frontier, about 50 people have been killed in skirmishes and shelling. Most casualties were members of the armed forces, but civilians have also died.

Last Update: Friday, 31 July 2015 KSA 21:36 - GMT 18:36
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/31/-Qaeda-suicide-bombing-kills-nine-in-Yemen-.html
 

BLACKEAGLE

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Saudi humanitarian aid plane arrives in Aden
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Workers unload aid shipment from a Saudi military cargo plane at the international airport of Yemen's southern port city of Aden July 23, 2015. (Reuters)

By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News
Friday, 31 July 2015

A Saudi military plane loaded with humanitarian relief landed at Aden airport on Friday, Al Arabiya’s correspondent reported.

The plane was carrying 10 tons of aid, the correspondent reported.

Several aid planes arrived at city’s international airport this month after it reopened following four months of fighting between government loyalists and Houthi rebels.

Last Update: Friday, 31 July 2015 KSA 12:23 - GMT 09:23
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/31/Saudi-humanitarian-aid-plane-arrives-in-Aden.html
 

BLACKEAGLE

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Arab-led coalition: Restore Yemeni govt in Aden first, Sanaa later
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A Saudi soldier stands guard at the international airport of Yemen's southern port city of Aden July 24, 2015. (Reuters)

Reuters, Dubai
Thursday, 30 July 2015

The Saudi led-coalition fighting to reinstate Yemen’s exiled government aims first to set it up in the mostly recaptured port city of Aden and then return it to Sanaa if possible via peace talks with Houthi foes, a coalition spokesman said on Thursday.

But if the Iranian-allied Houthis did not eventually agree to quit Sanaa, the government would have the right to “get them out” by force, Brigadier General Ahmed Assiri said in an interview.

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

Yemeni forces backed up by Saudi-led air strikes have recaptured positions on Aden’s outskirts used by Houthis to fire rockets into the city, local officials said on Thursday.

Senior members of Yemen’s exiled administration flew into Aden on July 16 to make preparations for the government’s return to the major southern port, four months after it was pushed out by Houthi forces, the dominant armed faction in the conflict.

Assiri, whose side has been conducting air raids on Houthis since March 26, said the first task was to secure Aden so the government could operate from there for the moment.

First step
“Aden was the first step. Now the government will start rebuilding their military capability, their security capability, the stability in cities,” he said, and this would need time.

“We believe that going surely, step by step, if the Houthis get out of Sanaa through peace talks, then this is important.

“But if they keep controlling (Sanaa), I think the legitimate government has the right to get them out of Sanaa.”

Sanaa is in northern Yemen and has been frequently bombed by Saudi-led warplanes over the past four months.

Rights abuses
Assiri said the Houthis ought to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 2216, which calls for the Zaydi Shi’ite movement to withdraw from cities under their control, return seized arms and allow Hadi to return from his Riyadh exile.

The Houthis have rejected that resolution, arguing they are pursuing a revolution against a corrupt government and Sunni Islamist militants, and they deny having any military or economic links to Shi’ite Iran, the Saudis’ main regional foe.

Assiri said the coalition welcomed investigators to Yemen to look into rights abuses by any side in the four-month-old war.

“I assure you the coalition is very ready to cooperate with any investigation in Yemen,” he said, noting that it would be up to the Yemeni government to grant access to the country.

But he said a Human Rights Watch accusation that coalition warplanes bombed civilians on July 24 in a possible war crime was biased, and that HRW had not sought coalition comment.

An HRW researcher acknowledged to Reuters that no such response had been sought but he said a request for comment on a previous similar investigation had received no reply.

“There is no question that this was an air strike,” said the researcher, Ole Solvang.

Human Rights Watch has accused both sides of abuses, most recently the coalition over the July 24 raid in western Yemen and pro-Houthi forces of firing rockets indiscriminately into residential areas in Aden.

“We believe the report was designed to accuse the coalition without seeing what the others do and without hearing our view,” Assiri said, adding Houthi rocket fire was to blame. He noted HRW’s report had urged an investigation into the attack, while blaming the coalition. He described this as illogical.

Last Update: Friday, 31 July 2015 KSA 09:16 - GMT 06:16
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/07/30/Arab-led-bloc-First-aim-to-restore-Yemeni-govt-in-Aden-Sanaa-later.html
 

BLACKEAGLE

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Yemen’s vice president returns to Aden
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Khaled Bahah has now become the most senior official to travel to the city since local fighters drove an Iran-backed Houthi militia out

By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News
Saturday, 1 August 2015

Yemen’s Vice President Khaled Bahah on Saturday returned to the southern port city of Aden from his exile in Saudi Arabia, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.

Bahah has now become the most senior official to travel to the city since local fighters drove an Iran-backed Houthi militia out more than two weeks ago.

Bahah, who is also the prime minister of the exiled government in Riyadh, arrived aboard a Saudi plane. Several cabinet members were also traveling with Bahah, who arrived in Aden around noon local time (0900 GMT).

Bahah, who is also prime minister in the internationally recognized government, fled into exile with President Abedrabbu Mansour Hadi and the rest of his government when the rebels entered Aden -- their last refuge -- earlier this year.


Last Update: Saturday, 1 August 2015 KSA 12:37 - GMT 09:37
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/08/01/Yemen-s-vice-president-returns-to-Aden-.html
 
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