Yemen - Civil War | Page 109 | World Defense

Yemen - Civil War

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Yemeni army arrests commander close to Houthi leader
Islam Seif, Al-Arabiya.net – Sanaa
Thursday, 21 December 2017

The Yemeni army said on Thursday that its forces arrested Hussein al-Houthi, a commander who is close to the movement’s leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi.


The Yemeni army detained Hussein and three of his companions at the Hamak Front between the Ibb and Dhale governorates, military sources told the army’s news website 26sepnews.


Hussein, who hails from Saada, and the three others were scouting the area in an ordinary vehicle and were dressed as civilians.

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/Ne...arrests-commander-close-to-Houthi-leader.html
 

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Houthi rebel documents show 'cracks in the ranks'
Papers obtained by military intelligence show rebels struggling to recover from loss of commanders
Ali Mahmood
December 25, 2017

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels are facing a severe depletion and discontent in their forces in areas under their control, according to confidential documents obtained by the Yemeni military.

The documents were obtained by military intelligence a week ago and showed "cracks in the ranks", said Ramzi Mokhtar, editor of the 26 September military news website, which published the documents on Sunday.

The military also posted the documents on its Facebook page.

The documents, dated August 22 this year, were prepared by Iranian military experts and the Iran-backed Hizbollah militia for the Al Jehad office, a Houthi military arm that advises Abdul Malik Al Houthi, the leader of the rebel movement.

They detailed a dwindling of rebel ranks through casualties in northern areas of Yemen under Houthi control and an “urgent need for newly trained fighters as soon as possible”.

Al Houthi ordered his militants to operate in residential areas and continue using civilians as “shield walls” to protect the militias against air strikes, orders that were were supported by the experts, the documents show.

Civilian casualties are claimed almost daily amid fighting between between the rebels and the internationally-recognised government of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi, which is supported by a Saudi-led military coalition.

The documents indicate a high level of infiltration by double agents passing on information to the coalition as the rebels faced a series of setbacks because of a lack of experienced commanders to replace those killed in fighting.

After more than two years of war, coalition-backed government forces have made rapid gains in recent weeks following the collapse of the Houthi alliance with forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who the rebels killed on December 4.

https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/houthi-rebel-documents-show-cracks-in-the-ranks-1.690562
 

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Arab coalition cuts Houthi supply line
Yemeni fighters, backed by UAE troops, raided Houthi strongholds between Al Khoukha and the town of Heys

The National
January 04, 2018
Updated: January 4, 2018 11:28 AM
WEB-YEMEN-CONFLICT-GOVERNMENT-FIGHTERS.jpg

Yemeni fighters, loyal to the legitimate government of Yemen, hold position during an offensive against Houthi rebels positions in the Nihem region, east of Sanaa, Yemen, on December 24, 2017. Soliman Alnowab / EPA


The Arab coalition fighting in Yemen on behalf of the internationally-recognised government killed dozens of Houthi fighters and cut one of their main supply routes on Wednesday, reported the UAE state news agency, Wam.

The offensive, northwest of the city of Taiz, is a major advance for the Saudi-led coalition — which includes the UAE — in the nearly three-year civil war.

It would consolidate gains made last month at Al Khoukha on the Red Sea, where forces loyal to the legitimate government of Yemeni president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi made their biggest advance in months.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels overthrew Mr Hadi’s government in 2015 and took control of the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, where most of the 25 million people live.

Yemeni fighters, backed by UAE troops, raided Houthi strongholds between Al Khoukha and the town of Heys, about 25 kilometres to the east, to try to secure Red Sea areas captured last month.

"Emirati armed forces members and Yemeni resistance fighters managed to cut supply lines for the Houthi coup militias between Hodeidah and Taiz south of Heys city," WAM quoted an Emirati army source as saying.

The reported added that dozens of Houthi fighters were killed.

The civil war in Yemen has displaced more than two million people, pushing the country to the brink of famine. At least 10,000 people have been killed.

https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/arab-coalition-cuts-houthi-supply-line-1.692637
 

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Superiority in Yemen still with Coalition: Al-Malki
05 Jan 2018
659959.jpg.pagespeed.ce.FpHVfF0E3G.jpg

Col. Turki Al-Malki, spokesman of the Arab Coalition forces, addressing a press conference in Riyadh -SPA

The Arab Coalition forces still has superiority in the battlefield within Yemen and on its border with Saudi Arabia, according to Col. Turki Al-Malki, spokesman of the coalition. Addressing the weekly press conference at the headquarters of King Salman Air Base in Riyadh, he said the legitimate government in Yemen enjoys superiority at the grass roots and political levels.

Al-Malki said that Houthi militias failed to launch a ballistic missile targeting Saudi Arabia last Friday. A total of 86 missiles have been launched at Saudi Arabia by the Houthis since the beginning of the Yemeni crisis. The spokesman said the Houthis continue to recruit children and putting them on the frontlines, which should be considered as a grave breach in human rights.

He also criticized the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen Jamie McGoldrick’s recent report saying that it lacks information, adding that McGoldrick “needs to focus on his work.”

Al-Malki made a video presentation in which he reviewed the efforts of the Coalition forces to support humanitarian and relief work in Yemen as well as the military operations carried out by the forces against targets of the Houthi militia. Al-Malki said that coalition raids continue to target militia checkpoints and weapon warehouses, adding that the raids succeeded in destroying locations where Houthi ballistic missiles are being kept in Sana’a.

He showed pictures of caves and hiding spots of Houthi weapons and missiles. “The militia is planting mines in commercial naval passages, but have failed to plant them on Saudi Arabian borders,” he added.

Al-Malki said that the permits granted to aid agencies and ships since the beginning of the military operations reached 17,293, including 2,749 permits through sea ports and 7,590 permits for humanitarian and relief assistance coming to Yemen through the airports.

The military barracks that were lost by the militia and now under the control of the legitimate government account for 444 sites and camps with weapons and military equipment

http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/...iority-in-Yemen-still-with-Coalition-Al-Malki
 

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Yemen's Houthis storm schools to recruit children as fighters, say residents
It comes after the president of the so-called Supreme Political Council — which rules Sanaa and other rebel-held territory — ordered the chairman of the Houthi movement's Revolutionary Committee, to begin recruiting male school and university students in areas under rebel control

Ali Mahmood
January 08, 2018

Wo05-Yemen.jpg

Houthi fighters are seen riding in the back of a truck in Sanaa on December 4, 2017. Yahya Arhab / EPA

Yemen's Houthi militants are storming public schools in rebel-held areas to recruit students as fighters, taking some away by force without telling their families, local residents have told The National.

It comes after Yemeni news sites on Sunday published a letter from the president of the so-called Supreme Political Council — which rules Sanaa and other rebel-held territory — to the chairman of the rebel movement's Revolutionary Committee, ordering him to begin recruiting male students for military training from all public universities and primary and secondary schools under Houthi control.

The letter did not stipulate the age of the students that should be "recruited" but pro-government forces have in the past arrested Houthi fighters as young as 10.

"They (the Houthis) started to come to the public schools, especially the secondary schools, to encourage students to stand with them against the enemy and the Saudi 'colonisation', as they say," Hamood, a resident of Ibb province, told The National.

"They give them religious handouts and encourage them to register military training." If the students do not sign up voluntarily "then they start to select the older ones and take them by force to begin a short period of military training before sending them to the battlefronts".

Hamood, who asked to be identified by his first name only, said the Houthis were doing this without informing the students' families of their whereabouts.

It comes as the rebels are losing ground to pro-government forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, on several fronts, including in the western province of Hodeidah and the northern province of Al Jouf.

Mugamal, another Yemeni who spoke to The National about the Houthis' recruitment of school students, said the son of his former neighbour in Sanaa disappeared around one month ago after going to school one day and never returning home.

"Osama's family searched for him everywhere but they couldn't find him," said Mugamal, who has lived in a government-controlled area of Marib province since May last year after fleeing his home in Sanaa.

"Last week, a Houthi military vehicle stopped in front of his family home and Houthi fighters called on his relatives to come out and take his corpse, congratulating them on Osama being a martyr".

"They told Osama's family that he was killed at the Nehem battlefront to the east of Sanaa."

It was not clear if Osama, who Mugamal said was aged around 13, had volunteered to fight for the Houthis or had been taken by force.

The Houthis have also targeted schools in other provinces under their control, including Dhamar, Amran and Saada, according to government media.


Ramzi Mokhtar, a journalist covering the fighting between pro-government forces and the Houthis in Al Jouf province told The National that 45 civilians — the majority children — from the Gabal Al Shariq area of Dhamar province, south of Sanaa, had been forced to fight in Al Jouf, north of Sanaa.

When Yemeni army forces arrested 50 Houthi fighters in Al Jouf's Al Khab and Al Sha'ab districts a week ago, 30 were among the children who had been taken by force from Gabal Al Shariq, Mokhtar said. Some of these children said they had been taken by the Houthis from school.

The Yemeni minister of information, Moammar Al Eryani, tweeted on Saturday last week: "Field reports confirm that Houthi Iran militias are giving citizens options of arrest or to send them to battlefronts for fighting. They abduct children from schools & the orphanage house in Sanaa."


"The legitimate government is the only institution that owns right for opening up door 4 military recruiting within the line of military forces as per constitution & law. We highly recommend to people not to follow the misleading instructions by militias which may harm them," he added.


https://www.thenational.ae/world/me...t-children-as-fighters-say-residents-1.693842
 

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Houthi commander says he will work with Saudi-led coalition in Yemen
Sheikh Hamir Ebrahim, who commanded the Hyais and Al Kokha fronts in Yemen, ordered his tribesmen to join the ranks of coalition forces

The National
January 08, 2018


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The move by Sheikh Ebrahim suggests the alliance of Houthi rebels in Yemen may be under pressure from the inside. EPA

A Houthi commander who turned himself in to UAE Armed Forces in Yemen says he is willing to work with the Saudi-led coalition fighting to restore the government of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi to power.

Sheikh Hamir Ebrahim, who commanded the Hyais and Al Kokha fronts in Hodeidah province, ordered his tribesmen to join the ranks of coalition forces "in order to liberate entire Yemeni territories", state news agency Wam said.

"Whoever dares to reject their orders [will be] targeted and expelled along with his family from their tribe and from the entire area," said Sheikh Ebrahim, who is better known by his nickname, Ebrahim Adabu.

He said he had received fair and decent treatment from the UAE Armed Forces since turning himself in, Wam said on Sunday.

Sheikh Ebrahim surrendered to the Yemeni army on Saturday, along with 50 of his men, according to pro-government journalist Aseel Al Sakladi. The Yemeni army and UAE Armed Forces are fighting together in Hodeidah.

Wam reported on Monday that Yemeni troops and coalition forces were continuing to advance towards the district of Hyais in Hodeidah. UAE forces have secured a road south of Hyais that served as the Houthis' supply line between Hodeidah and neighbouring Taez province.

The UAE is a leading member of the Saudi-led coalition which has been fighting in Yemen since March 2015.

Also on Sunday, the coalition said two Saudi pilots were rescued after their jet crashed in Yemen, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki Al Malki said the jet crashed at 3.40pm on Sunday after suffering technical trouble, but he did not say where the incident occurred.

"The Arab Coalition Forces Command implemented a private joint operation to evacuate two pilots," he said, adding that the pilots had suffered no injuries.

The Houthis, however, claimed the British-built Tornado was hit while flying over the northern Yemeni province of Saada, which borders Saudi Arabia and is the stronghold of the rebels. They said the jet had crashed on Saudi soil.

On Monday, the Yemeni army announced that its troops had achieved new gains in the Saada province district of Al Buku'a.

The media centre of the Yemeni armed forces posted on Facebook that troops had liberated the Om Al Adem mountain chain, which is close to the road linking Al Buku'a with Saada city, the provincial capital.

The commander of government forces in Saada, Major General Obeid Al Athlah, said this had cut the rebels' supply route to the Saudi border.

The Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran, seized the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 and later advanced south, prompting the Saudi-led coalition to launch its intervention.

Although the coalition has since helped Mr Hadi's government — based in the second city of Aden — to retake large swathes of the south from the Houthis, the rebels still control Sanaa and much of the north.

https://www.thenational.ae/world/me...rk-with-saudi-led-coalition-in-yemen-1.693566
 

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Leaders in the GPC party reject meeting held in Sanaa
The Arab coalition stopped the rebels from infiltrating the city of Al Khawkhah in Al Hodeida

by Ali Mahmood
January 7, 2018
Updated: January 08, 2018 07:15 AM

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Sadiq Amin Aburas attending a meeting in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in 2016. The General People's Congress elected Mr Sadiq by consensus at a meeting of its general committee, it said in a statement. Mohammed Huwais / AFP

Leaders of General People's Congress Party in Yemen's rebel-held capital on Sunday announced the election of a successor to Ali Abdullah Saleh, a move that was swiftly rejected by members who fled a rebel crackdown in Sanaa following Saleh's assassination.

The election of deputy leader Sadeq Amin Abou Rass at a meeting of the party general assembly in Sanaa was announced on Twitter by Al Sheikh Hussein Hazeb, a GPC member who served as minister in a ruling council with the Houthi rebels.

Nawra Al Garwi, a member of the GPC assembly who fled to government-controlled Marib province after the Houthis killed Saleh in December, said on Twitter that the meeting in Sanaa "doesn't make any sense" and no longer represented the party.

Kamel Al Khoudani, editor in chief of the Al Mithak newspaper affiliated with the GPC, tweeted that the move by party leaders in Sanaa was a "shame" and a betrayal of the blood of the former Yemeni president, many of whose relatives were arrested by the Houthis.

Mr Abou Rass was appointed GPC deputy leader by Saleh in 2014. The chairman of the Houthi political council, Saleh Al Samad, congratulated him on his election as party leader.

The Iran-backed Houthis, who seized Sanaa in 2014, killed Saleh after he broke his alliance with them and called for talks with the Saudi-led military coalition supporting Yemen's government.

The coalition said on Sunday that one of its jets had crashed due to a technical failure during operations in Yemen but both pilots were rescued unharmed.

Meanwhile, Yemeni security forces in Aden stopped lorry carrying 50 bags of urea nitrate, a fertiliser-based high explosive that can be used in improvised explosive devices, that was travelling to Sanaa on Saturday.

The Saudi-led coalition, which includes the UAE, had found such material in a number of sites in the northern provinces of the country, where the Houthi rebels would assemble explosives and landmines under the leadership of Iranian experts.

“Aden police stopped a big lorry at the Al Areesh checkpoint in the Khormaksar city of Aden [on Saturday] and discovered that its cargo was 50 bags of Urea nitrate, which was covered up with rice to conceal the content inside,” Lt Abdulrahman Al Nakeed told The National.

“The driver of the lorry admitted that he was heading with the substance to Sanaa, the capital, which is held by the Houthis.”

Meanwhile, the coalition killed in air strikes “a large number” of Houthi rebels trying to take over the city of Al Khawkhah in Al Hodeida governorate, reported the Saudi Press Agency on Sunday.

The Houthis seized Sanaa in September 2014 and later advanced south, forcing Mr Hadi's government to flee to the second city of Aden and prompting the Saudi-led coalition to intervene in the war the following March.

The conflict has displaced more than two million people, caused a cholera epidemic and pushed the country to the brink of famine. At least 10,000 people have been killed.

https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/leaders-in-the-gpc-party-reject-meeting-held-in-sanaa-1.693429
 

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UAE slams Houthi threat to block Red Sea traffic
January 09, 2018



Yemen's rebels threatened to block traffic across the Red Sea unless a blockade by Saudi Arabia and its allies is lifted.
UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash slammed the Houthis threats to impose a blockade on Red Sea traffic.

In a tweet, the UAE minister said that the rebels' "open threat to international navigation in the Red Sea is documentation of their terrorist nature".

Earlier in the day, Yemen's rebels threatened to block traffic across the Red Sea unless a blockade by Saudi Arabia and its allies is lifted.

Houthi political chief Saleh Al Samad warned that the rebels could "turn to strategic options... including cutting off the Red Sea and international navigation" unless the blockade was lifted. The coalition has tightened its blockade on ports after a Houthi missile was fired at Saudi Arabia.

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/news/general/uae-slams-houthi-threat-to-block-red-sea-traffic
 

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Houthi rebels kidnap and kill one of their officials
The Iran-backed group is killing some of its officers, indicating a rift within the militia

Ali Mahmood
January 14, 2018

The Houthi rebels in Yemen kidnapped and killed one of their security officials on Saturday, an indication of deepening rifts within the Iran-backed group fighting the internationally recognised government.

“The rebels stormed the small village of Al Ramah in the the Damt district in Al Dhale province in the southern part of the country and kidnapped security commander Abdulkareem Nashwan, who had been working with the rebels since they took over Damt district in 2015,” Ali Al Asmar, an Al Dhale-based journalist, told The National.

“They kidnapped him and five of his guards last week and executed him on Saturday after accusing him of being complicit with some of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s loyalists.”

The Houthi rebels killed Saleh on December 4 after he broke off his alliance with them and called for talks with the Arab coalition fighting on behalf of the legitimate government of Yemen’s president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi. The rebels then launched a crackdown on his supporters that has seen hundreds killed or detained.

Meanwhile, an unidentified group of armed men killed two high-ranking Houthi officers in the capital Sanaa, which is controlled by the rebels, said a Sanaa resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“One was killed in his house in the Asser area in the west of Sanaa last Wednesday and another was killed in the Sawan area to the east of Sanaa,” said the source.

Meanwhile, the Yemeni military and resistance fighters seized more areas of Al Bayda province south of Sanaa, including a strategically important mountain in Natea district.

Troops and resistance fighters, backed by air support from the Saudi-led coalition, captured Markoozah mountain after heavy clashes with the Houthis in which dozens of the rebels were killed and five arrested, the Al Bayda resistance's media centre said.

The mountain commands the entire Natea district including the Al Fadha base, the rebels' most important military site in Al Bayda.

A source said pro-government forces also liberated Jabal Al Sada and the areas of Mawr and Malih from the rebels, many of whom were killed or injured in the fighting.

Government troops also made gains on the Al Buka battlefront in northern province of Saada, the Houthis' stronghold, cutting off a rebel supply route to neighbouring Jawf province.

"The army secured Souk Al Buka and Al Buka intersection along with the international highway which links Saada city with Al Buka district and Muthalah Al Batga in Jawf," said Ismail Al Shalafi, a spokesmanfor the government forces in the area.

https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/houthi-rebels-kidnap-and-kill-one-of-their-officials-1.695190
 

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UAE Armed Forces destroy Houthi vehicles in airstrikes
The two vehicles were moving to strengthen the Iranian-backed Houthi militia forces, reported Wam

January 30, 2018
na31-airstrikes.JPG

A screengrab from a video showing a military vehicle belonging to Houthi militias being bombed in Yemen. Wam

The UAE Armed Forces bombed two military vehicles belonging to Houthi militia in the Yemeni district of Haiys in the Hudayah Governorate.


A 51-second video posted on Twitter by state news agency Wam on Tuesday shows satellite footage of a Houthi vehicle stopping at a shed where men emerge.


They re-enter the vehicle which is later seen travelling along a road before it is hit by an airstrike that destroys it.

According to Wam, the first airstrike resulted in the destruction of a large amount of the militia's weapons and ammunition, while the second eliminated dozens of Houthi personnel.


The two vehicles were moving to strengthen the Iranian-backed Houthi militia forces.


On Sunday, an Arab Coalition aircraft bombed a Houthi militia military vehicle used as a platform to launch rockets into the city of Haiys.


The UAE Armed Forces, part of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition forces to support legitimacy in Yemen, continue to carry out support operations for the legitimate forces as they move towards the Haiys district.

https://www.thenational.ae/uae/gove...estroy-houthi-vehicles-in-airstrikes-1.700276
 

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UAE Armed Forces destroy Houthi vehicles in airstrikes
The two vehicles were moving to strengthen the Iranian-backed Houthi militia forces, reported Wam

January 30, 2018
View attachment 5435
A screengrab from a video showing a military vehicle belonging to Houthi militias being bombed in Yemen. Wam

The UAE Armed Forces bombed two military vehicles belonging to Houthi militia in the Yemeni district of Haiys in the Hudayah Governorate.


A 51-second video posted on Twitter by state news agency Wam on Tuesday shows satellite footage of a Houthi vehicle stopping at a shed where men emerge.


They re-enter the vehicle which is later seen travelling along a road before it is hit by an airstrike that destroys it.

According to Wam, the first airstrike resulted in the destruction of a large amount of the militia's weapons and ammunition, while the second eliminated dozens of Houthi personnel.


The two vehicles were moving to strengthen the Iranian-backed Houthi militia forces.


On Sunday, an Arab Coalition aircraftbombed a Houthi militia military vehicle used as a platform to launch rockets into the city of Haiys.


The UAE Armed Forces, part of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition forces to support legitimacy in Yemen, continue to carry out support operations for the legitimate forces as they move towards the Haiys district.

https://www.thenational.ae/uae/gove...estroy-houthi-vehicles-in-airstrikes-1.700276

They have been smashed into pieces.<)0(>
 

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UAE-backed separatists seize control of military base in Aden
By Sara Shayanian
Jan. 30, 2018
UAE-backed-separatists-seize-control-of-military-base-in-Aden.jpg

Armed members of the separatist Southern Movement patrol a street Tuesday after a cease-fire agreement was reached in the southern port city of Aden, Yemen. Photo by EPA

Jan. 30 (UPI) -- UAE-backed southern separatists took control of a military base in Aden, Yemen, after an emirates fighter jet bombed the area.

Fighters from the Southern Resistance Forces -- a group seeking secession for southern Yemen -- captured the base on Tuesday, Al Jazeera reported.

This comes despite a cease-fire that was agreed upon by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates hours earlier.

"A plane from the Arab coalition, that said it had come to support legitimacy bombed the base of the Fourth Brigade. What a farce," Mukhtar al-Rahbi, an official in Yemen's government, said.

The seizure of the military base, which is located in Aden's northern Dar Saad district, is the largest gain for the separatist group since fighting began Sunday.

The separatist group reportedly fought its way to the gates of the Al-Mashaiq Palace where Yemen's government resides.

Prime Minister Ahmed bin Daghr and several ministers were still in the building.

Fighting began after the Southern Transitional Council, the main group of the Southern Resistance Forces, ordered Yemen's President, Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi, to fire his prime minister and his Cabinet.

The council accused Hadi's government of "rampant corruption" that resulted in a "deteriorating economic, security and social situation never before witnessed in the history of the south."

Fighting has killed 36 people and wounded 185.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-...of-military-base-in-Aden/3261517335037/?nll=1
 

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UAE shoots down Houthi missile over Mocha, Yemen

The UAE Armed Forces Patriot missile system intercepted the ballistic missile in Mocha

The National
February 18, 2018
Updated: February 18, 2018 10:41 PM


UAE air defences shot down a ballistic missile fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen's south-eastern port city of Mocha on Sunday.
A Houthi mobile ballistic missile launcher near Hodeidah airport, about 160 kilometres north of Mocha, was also destroyed, state news agency Wam reported.

The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen, of which the UAE is a key member, destroyed another launch site near the airport last week as the rebels were preparing to fire a missile at Mocha.
A coalition intervened in the Yemen conflict in 2015 to support the internationally recognised government against the Iran-backed rebels.

Sunday's attack on Mocha comes as the United States, France and Britain are pressing the United Nations Security Council to condemn Iran for failing to stop its ballistic missiles from falling into the hands of the Houthi rebels and commit to taking action over the sanctions violations.

The draft text of a resolution to renew UN sanctions on Yemen for another year would also allow the 15-member council to impose targeted sanctions for “any activity related to the use of ballistic missiles in Yemen”, according to a copy seen by Reuters.
Saudi foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir voiced support for the resolution on Sunday, saying it would help hold Iran accountable for what he described as its "exports of ballistic missiles" to the Houthis.

Iranian missiles were regularly used by Houthis "to target civilians in Yemen as well as inside Saudi Arabia", he told Reuters.

Britain drafted the resolution in consultation with the United States and France before giving it to the full council on Friday, diplomats told Reuters. The resolution, which needs to be adopted by February 26, is likely to face resistance from Russia. A resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, France or Britain to pass.

Mr Al Jubeir said he hoped Russia could be persuaded to support the measure.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has been lobbying for months for Iran to be held accountable at the United Nations, while at the same time threatening to quit a 2015 deal among world powers to curb Iran’s nuclear programme if “disastrous flaws” are not fixed.

“Since the signing of the nuclear agreement, the Iranian regime’s support of dangerous militias and terror groups has markedly increased. Its missiles and advanced weapons are turning up in war zones all across the Middle East,” the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, wrote in an essay published in the New York Times on Saturday.

Iran denies supplying the Houthis with weapons but independent UN experts monitoring the sanctions on Yemen reported to the Security Council in January that it had “identified missile remnants, related military equipment and military unmanned aerial vehicles that are of Iranian origin and were brought into Yemen after the imposition of the targeted arms embargo”.

While the experts said they had “no evidence as to the identity of the supplier, or any intermediary third party” of the missiles fired by the Yemeni rebels into neighbouring Saudi Arabia, they found Iran had violated sanctions by failing to prevent the supply, sale or transfer of the missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles to the Houthis.

The Security Council has banned the supply of weapons to Houthi leaders and “those acting on their behalf or at their direction”. It can also blacklist individuals and entities for threatening the peace and stability of Yemen or hindering aid access.

Ms Haley took her Security Council colleagues to Washington in January to view pieces of the weapons in a bid to boost the US case against Iran. Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said after the visit that he does not believe there is a case for United Nations action against Iran. Iran has described the arms displayed in Washington as “fabricated”.

“Some members of the United Nations don’t want to hear it because it is further proof that Iran is defying Security Council resolutions, and the pressure will be on the UN to do something about it,” Ms Haley wrote in the New York Times.

Meanwhile, eight soldiers and 19 suspected members of Al Qaeda were killed on Sunday, as the army continued an offensive against key outposts of the extremists in Yemen's oil-rich Hadramawt province.

General Faraj Al Bahsani, the provincial governor, told Agence France-Presse the army had taken control of Wadi Al Masini west of Mukallah city.

Mukallah was the most populated Yemeni city under direct Al Qaeda control from 2015 to 2016, when government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition seized control of the southern port city.

Special forces trained by the UAE launched the offensive, codenamed Al Faisal, against Al Qaeda cells in Hadramawt over the weekend.
Two soldiers were killed on Saturday in the offensive, which targets the Masini and Amed valleys — both in the vast province of
Hadramawt and home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The two valleys are critical to control over Yemen's south-eastern coastline.

More than 9,200 people have been killed in the Yemen war since 2015, when the Saudi-led coalition joined the government's fight against the Houthi rebels.

Radical groups, including AQAP and ISIL, have flourished in the chaos of the war, regularly launching attacks on government and military targets.

The United States, the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen, has ramped up a long-running campaign against AQAP since President Trump took office in 2017.

On Yemen's western coast, coalition forces continued to attack Houthi strongholds and conduct air raids on vital areas between Haiys and Al Garahi districts in the south of Hodeidah province in support of the Yemeni army and resistance fighters battling the rebels.

A source from the resistance told Wam that coalition air raids on Saturday night hit areas where the rebels were gathering in Al Hamely, Mawza District, and east of Khalid bin Al Walid camp, destroying their military equipment and weapons.

The source said coalition forces were still clearing pockets of rebel resistance in areas between Eastern Mocha and Haiys district.

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