Yemen

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Yemen

Post by blindpig » Sat Dec 16, 2017 2:52 pm

Another thread I should have started long ago.

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SPOKESMAN OF ANSARULLAH: THE WAR ON YEMEN IS BASICALLY AMERICAN WAR
By amin - December 16, 20172 views

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Mohammed Abdul Salam

The official spokesman of Ansarullah Mohammed Abd Al-Salam ridiculed the American parade and its noise about Yemeni defensive missiles, confirming that the American parade proves again that the war on Yemen is basically American war and reveals Washington’s disappointment about the failure of its agents and allies in its aggressive war against Yemen for nearly a thousand days.

Mohammed Abd Al-Salam said in his twitter that in case of escaping from repercussions of Trump’s decision about Jerusalem to fabricate lies are the methods that used by the Americans, pointing out that the Americans and their criminal alliance should realize that the Yemeni blood is not worthless and the enemy must pay the price.

The US delegate in the International Organization, “Nicky Hayley,” claimed during a journalistic conference in Washington on Thursday evening that the two missiles that were previously launched on Saudi Arabia from Yemen are made by Iran.

From his part, the deputy spokesman of the Secretary-General for the United Nations, Farhan Haq, in a journalistic conference that was held at headquarters of the United Nations in New York on Thursday, refuted the Americans allegations, confirming that the analysis that presented by the Secretary-General (Antonio Guterich) to UN Security Council that there is no definitive evidence to determine the source of the rockets that were launched from Yemen to Saudi Arabia.

The rocket force for the Yemeni army and the popular committees responded to the massacres that committed by Saudi Arabia against Yemeni people since March 2015 by launching several missiles on targets inside Saudi Arabia, which the missiles were launched on last 22 July and 4 November, while Riyadh and Washington claimed as usual that “the missiles are made in Iran.”

http://www.yemenpress.org/slider/spokes ... n-war.html
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Re: Yemen

Post by blindpig » Thu Jan 04, 2018 9:28 pm

bourgeois 'journalism is shameless beyond belief...

The drug that is starving Yemen

Famine in Yemen could be avoided if the men chewed less qat

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Jan 4th 2018 | MARIB
YEMEN is on the brink of famine, say aid agencies, which often blame the civil war, Saudi Arabia’s blockade of northern seaports and its bombing of vital infrastructure. The government’s refusal to pay salaries to employees in rebel-held areas and the depreciation of Yemen’s riyal mean many cannot afford the food that is available. But one of the biggest causes of hunger often goes unmentioned: a leafy plant called qat.

The weed is Yemen’s most popular drug: 90% of men and over a third of women habitually chew its leaves, storing the masticated greenery in their cheek until the narcotic seeps into their bloodstream. In the past Yemenis might indulge once a week and the practice was largely confined to the north-west mountains, where qat grows. But following unification in 1990 it spread south. Now qat markets bustle all over the country.

Men spend far more feeding their addiction than their families: sometimes $800 a month. Rather than searching for weapons and other contraband, soldiers extort bribes at checkpoints to pay for their habit, jacking up transport costs. And while the country runs out of basics, such as wheat, its best farmland is devoted to producing the crop, which is more lucrative. Cultivation of qat is said to be increasing by 12% a year.

Officials refer to it as Yemen’s Viagra and encourage its use. Taher Ali al-Auqaili, the army’s chief of staff, says it is “our whisky” and claims it gives his men strength to fight (see article). Both sides feed it to their child soldiers.

When local governors in Hadramawt, the largest province, tried to revive an old ban on consumption in their offices, they were summoned to Riyadh to join Yemen’s president, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, for a communal chew. Only al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has had any success in banning it.

Northern Yemen is the region most under threat of famine, but the Houthi rebels who control it value their monopoly on qat as much as Mr Hadi does his hold on the country’s oil- and gasfields. It keeps roads open across enemy lines. Dozens of trucks full of the harvest cross into Marib each day. Taxes on qat also earn both sides in the war big revenues. Recent data are scarce, but back in 2000 the World Bank estimated that qat accounted for 30% of Yemen’s economy. Even the hungry cite an advantage: the drug suppresses their appetite. But the absurdity is not lost on all. In the words of a southern official, “We’re fighting Houthis with our arms and funding them with our mouths.”

This article appeared in the Middle East and Africa section of the print edition under the headline "Qat wrenching"

https://www.economist.com/news/middle-e ... s-qat-drug

Not the blockade which the USA participates in, not the bombs and bullets the USA sends the Saudis, not the Brits running the Air Ops Room. Qat.
There's a special gulag for these shitheads
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Re: Yemen

Post by blindpig » Fri May 11, 2018 1:57 pm

News from Syria the most distorted, news from Yemen the most ignored

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RED SEA PORTS FOUNDATION: US-SAUDI AGGRESSION DETAINED SEVERAL FOOD SHIPS
May 10, 2018

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The Yemeni Red Sea Ports Organization confirmed that the coalition countries of the aggression against Yemen are holding many food ships and forcing ships to go to other ports belonging to these countries causing the starvation of the Yemeni people.

The Vice President of the Foundation, Yahya Sharaf al-Din, denied in a press conference today at the port of Al-Hodeydah allegations of the aggression to hold the port of Hodeydah for oil tankers. Stressing that the allegations promoted by the media of aggression is unfounded and comes in the context of the media war carried out by the coalition of aggression and its media.

He also stressed the keenness of the Foundation not to delay the entry of any ships, whether commercial or humanitarian to the docks of the port and there are no complaints from the shipping companies in this aspect.

Sharaf al-Din pointed out that the aggression bombed the Ras Issa oil port in the middle of 2017, which was receiving large oil tankers, which resulted in the accumulation of tankers due to limited oil berths and the capacity of Hodeydah port.

He said the oil tankers were held by the forces of aggression for several weeks, and then granted entry permits at once with knowledge of the limited and possible berths in the Al-Hodeydah port of defined by two berths and a submarine and a load of not more than five thousand tons.

He confirmed that the Al-Hodeidah port is keen to receive all aid and relief aid as the only lifeline on which the Yemeni people depend.

https://www.yemenpress.org/yemen/red-se ... ood-ships/
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Re: Yemen

Post by kidoftheblackhole » Fri May 11, 2018 2:08 pm

Not the blockade which the USA participates in, not the bombs and bullets the USA sends the Saudis, not the Brits running the Air Ops Room. Qat.
There's a special gulag for these shitheads
Even if there's not, we'll make one.

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Re: Yemen

Post by blindpig » Tue Jun 12, 2018 1:54 pm

Yemen - U.S. Grants Approval For Genocide
The genocide in Yemen is going to start tomorrow. Eight million are already on the brink of starvation. Eighteen out of twenty-six million Yemenis live in the mountainous heartlands (green) which are under control of the Houthi and their allies. They are surrounded by Saudi and U.A.E. forces and their mercenaries. There is little agriculture. The only supply line from the outside world will soon be cut off. The people will starve.

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Even before the war Yemen imported 90% of its staple food. Three years of Saudi/UAE bombing have destroyed local infrastructure and production. The ongoing war has already caused mass starvation and the outbreak of a large cholera epidemic. The Yemeni coast is under blockade by Saudi and U.S. naval forces. The only supplies coming in are UN and commercial deliveries through the Red Sea Hodeidah port (Al Hudaydah on the map).

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The United Arab Emirates is leading local mercenaries and Islamist gangs against the Houthi and their allies. During the last months these forces moved from the south along the coast up to Hodeidah. The fighting is fierce:

Heavy fighting in Yemen between pro-government forces and Shiite rebels has killed more than 600 people on both sides in recent days, security officials said Monday.
Tomorrow, when the media will be busy with the Kim-Trump photo-op summit, the UAE forces will launch their attack on the city.

The UN, which oversees the aid distribution through Hodeidah, tried to negotiate between the parties:

The U.N. special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, traveled to the U.A.E. capital over the weekend in an effort to forestall an attack. Mr. Griffiths had secured an agreement with Houthi rebels who control Hodeidah to allow the U.N. to operate the port jointly, the people said. But people briefed on the discussions said they doubted the U.A.E. would accept the offer or delay the planned assault.
The briefed people were right. The UN is now evacuating its staff:

The United Nations was withdrawing its staff on Monday from the besieged Yemeni port city of Al Hudaydah, after member countries were told that an attack by forces led by the United Arab Emirates was imminent, according to two diplomats briefed on the matter.
...
The International Committee for the Red Cross removed its staff from the city over the weekend.
...
Diplomats in the region say they believe that only more pressure from Washington will stop the planned assault.
The U.S., through its Secretary of State Pompeo, just gave a green light to the UAE to launch its attack:

The United States is closely following developments in Hudaydah, Yemen. I have spoken with Emirati leaders and made clear our desire to address their security concerns while preserving the free flow of humanitarian aid and life-saving commercial imports. We expect all parties to honor their commitments to work with the UN Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary General for Yemen on this issue, support a political process to resolve this conflict, ensure humanitarian access to the Yemeni people, and map a stable political future for Yemen.
Neither the Emirates nor the Saudis have any interest in letting humanitarian aid flow. They are absolutely ruthless. Earlier today they bombed a Cholera treatment center run by Doctors Without Borders:

MSF Yemen @msf_yemen - 10:29 UTC - 11 Jun 2018
"This morning´s attack on an @MSF cholera treatment centre in Abs by the Saudi and Emirati-led coalition shows complete disrespect for medical facilities and patients. Whether intentional or a result of negligence, it is totally unacceptable."
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Last week the Saudis intentionally bombed facilities of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Sanaa:

NRC has provided all relevant parties to the conflict, including the Saudi-led Coalition, with details and coordinates on our operations in order to ensure the safety of our staff.
Hodeidah, with 600,000 regular inhabitants and hundred thousands of refugees, will be difficult to conquer. No supplies will flow through the port while the fight is ongoing. Should the UAE forces be able to take the port they are unlikely to allow aid to pass towards the Houthi controlled areas. There will be a huge famine, hundred thousands if not millions will die.

It would be easy for the Trump administration to stop the UAE attack. U.S. special forces are on the ground in Yemen working closely with UAE forces. U.S. planes are refueling the Saudi and UAE bombers. U.S. intelligence is used in the targeting process. The U.S. supplies the bombs. Without U.S. air-to-air refueling there would be no air-support for the UAE fighters on the ground. They would be unable to launch their attack.

From its very beginning the Trump administration has been extremely close (long read) with the Israeli, Emirati and Saudi rulers. Their common aim is to counter Iran. But Iran is hardly involved in Yemen:

Claims of Iran’s influence over the Houthis have been overblown. While the Houthis do receive some support from Iran, it is mostly political, with minimal financial and military assistance. However, since the Houthis took control of Sanaa, the group has increasingly been portrayed as “Iran-backed” or “Shia,” often suggesting a sectarian relationship with the Islamic Republic. Yet until after the 2011 upheavals, the term “Shia” was not used in the Yemeni public to refer to any Yemeni groups or individuals. The Houthis do not follow the Twelver Shia tradition predominant in Iran, but adhere to the Zaidiya, which in practice is closer to Sunni Islam, and had expressed no solidarity with other Shia communities.
The Saudis see the Zaidiya as an impediment of their influence in Yemen. They want to control the Yemeni government. The Emirates want to control the port of Aden and Yemen's the oil and gas loading facilities. The Obama administration supported the Saudi onslaught on Yemen to buy Saudi acquiescence with the nuclear deal with Iran. The Trump administration supports the Saudi/UAE war out of lack of knowledge. It has fallen for the Iran myth. It also wants to sell more weapons.

Millions of kids and grown ups will have to pay for this with their lives.

Posted by b on June 11, 2018 at 02:19 PM | Permalink

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/06/us ... yemen.html
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Re: Yemen

Post by blindpig » Thu Jun 14, 2018 5:24 pm

Yemen - The Starvation Siege Has Begun
Last night the Saudi coalition launched its attack on the city of Hodeidah in Yemen. Hodeidah is the only Yemeni harbor on the Red Sea coast that can take large vessels. It is ruled by the Houthi who in 2014 took over the capital Sanaa and disposed of the Saudi installed Hadi government. 90% of the food for the 18 million people living in Houthi controlled areas comes through Hodeidah.

Saudi-owned satellite news channels and later state media announced the battle had begun, citing military sources. They also reported coalition airstrikes and shelling by naval ships.
The initial battle plan appeared to involve a pincer movement. Some 2,000 troops who crossed the Red Sea from an Emirati naval base in the African nation of Eritrea landed west of the city with plans to seize Hodeida’s port, Yemeni security officials said.

Emirati forces with Yemeni troops moved in from the south near Hodeida’s airport, while others sought to cut off Houthi supply lines to the east, the officials said.

The port is now classified as a zone of active military conflict. Prolonged fighting may well destroy the port infrastructurer. Even if the Saudi coalition forces take and reopen it they will continue to block food supplies for the central highlands of Yemen. They want to starve the Houthis into submission.

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The attack from the south includes 3,000 to 5,000 troops under the command of Tariq Sale, a cousin of the recently killed former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. They have been equipped with trucks and new weapons by the UAE. More forces are on their way from Aden and Taiz. They are supported by Emirati artillery, tanks and Saudi aerial bombing. The Saudi coalition forces are commanded by former officers from Australia, the U.S. and UK who have been hired by the UAE.

The New York Times editors do not want to understand the real problem with this attack:

A coalition led by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia is poised to attack the Red Sea port of Al Hudaydah, the home to 600,000 Yemenis and the lifeline for humanitarian aid that sustains most of the country’s people.
...
Experts have predicted that 250,000 people could be killed or displaced in the offensive.
The NYT is in principle supporting the Saudi attack. It wants the Houthis removed. It follows the line of the Zionist lobby:

However, inaction at Hodeida carries steep costs.[...] If liberated, the port's capacity could quickly be expanded, especially if the liberation is achieved quickly and carefully. People in government-controlled areas are better off than people in Houthi-controlled areas precisely because they are reconnected to functioning ports and, partially, to the government payroll system. Thus, the people in Hodeida would benefit from being liberated.
The problem is not that 250,000 people could be displaced or even killed due to the fighting. The problem is not that the people of Hodeidah lacked food. Until today they received it through the harbor.

The problem is that the Saudis plan a starvation siege on all territory held by the Houthis and their aligned forces.

There are some eighteen million people living in those territories. Eight million of them are already on the border of starvation. The Saudis want to take Hodeidah to block food access for the people in Sanaa. If they succeed, or if the harbor infrastructure gets damaged by fighting, the eight million will probably die and another ten million will also be in imminent danger.

The Saudi media are not even shy about the intent. Liberating Hodeidah is a must for cutting the Houthi lifeline headlined the Arab News. Asharq Al-Awsat opined that the operations is necessary to "tighten the siege" until the Houthi "surrender to all conditions and resolutions", "hand over their arms" and "leave Sanaa".

The Yemeni lawyer Haykal Bafana points out that the Saudis used the same strategy in 1934 during a border conflict with the Imamate of Yemen. Back then the Saudis occupied Hodeidah and starved the population of Sanaa, the seat of the Imamate, until Yemen gave up. This is what they want to repeat:

The strategy is to land-lock the Houthis in the already air-blockaded capital Sanaa. In 1934, food scarcity in Sanaa ended the war. Same plan today: Starve the Houthi-controlled areas into military surrender. Ergo: Hodeidah will end the Yemen war.
Whether the starvation of Yemen & Yemenis proceeds depends entirely on what the Houthis decide – fight & starve, or surrender & eat. Houthi threat to shut down ALL Red Sea shipping? Only 1 result: ALL world powers will wage war on them & Yemen, and many, many Yemenis will die.
No one – not Saudi Arabia, UAE, US or the UK, and not even the United Nations – has announced alternative plans to deal with this Hodeidah port closure. But it is Yemen that is lawless, some say.
No matter how much you all hate the Houthis, to starve #Yemen's civilians is a war crime. Starvation of Yemenis as a war strategy is illegal.
This obvious Saudi strategy is the reason why the United Nations warned of the possible starving of up to 18 million people who depend on food transfers through Hodeidah. The International Committee of the Red Cross warns that a push for Hodeida will exacerbate catastrophic humanitarian situation. The Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) is a U.S. government organization. It warns:

In a worst-case scenario, significant declines in commercial imports below requirement levels and conflict that cuts populations off from trade and humanitarian assistance for an extended period could drive food security outcomes in line with Famine.
In the fighting today the UAE supported forces claimed to have reached the southern outskirts of the airport of Hodeidah. They will probably try to hook east around the city to isolate and besiege it. The area is mostly flat and difficult to defend against a force with air support and heavy artillery. There is little hope that the Houthi can hold on to it.

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But the Houthis will continue to fight. If they give up on Hodeidah they will have lost the war. Today they claimed to have fired another ballistic missile into Saudi Arabia. They also said that they successfully attacked a UAE navy ship with a landing force. The Saudis said that they intercepted the missile. There is no confirmation for the ship attack.

The Saudis and Emirates have the active support of Britain and the United States. The attack on Hodeidah, the siege on all Houthi controlled territory and the coming famine can still stopped. Britain and the U.S., the Saudis and the Emirates are on the verge of committing a war crime that will exceed the war on Iraq by any measure.

The attack must stop and the blockade must be lifted. It is either now or it will be too late to prevent the siege of Yemen and a very large famine.

Posted by b on June 13, 2018 at 02:12 PM | Permalink

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/06/th ... begun.html
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Re: Yemen

Post by blindpig » Sun Jun 17, 2018 7:45 pm

Houthis say Saudi-led forces bogged down outside Hudaydah
Sun Jun 17, 2018 08:14AM

{see video at link)
Saudi-backed Yemeni forces, loyal to ex-president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, man a barricade in the area of al-Fazah in Yemen's Hudaydah Province on June 16, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

Saudi-backed Yemeni forces, loyal to ex-president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, man a barricade in the area of al-Fazah in Yemen's Hudaydah Province on June 16, 2018. (Photo by AFP)
Yemen's Houthi fighters have dismissed reports that Saudi-led forces have seized the airport in the port city of Hudaydah, saying the aggressors are on the retreat on all front lines.

Militants and foreign mercenaries armed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are attempting to capture the well-defended city and push the Houthis out of their sole Red Sea port in the biggest battle of the war.

"A battle of attrition awaits the Saudi alliance which it cannot withstand. The Saudi coalition will not win the battle in Hudaydah," Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam told Lebanon-based al-Mayadeen TV.

Saudi Arabia on Sunday conducted airstrikes on the airport, to support forces attempting to seize it. The official SABA news agency said warplanes carried out five strikes on Hudaydah - a lifeline to millions of Yemenis.

Ground troops including Emiratis, Sudanese and Yemenis have surrounded the main airport compound.

Mohammed al-Sharif, deputy head of Yemen's civil aviation, said images circulated online about the airport had been taken in October 2016.

A fence shown as proof of the airport's capture is actually situated near the al-Durayhimi district, on a piece of land belonging to a Yemeni lawmaker, the official Saba news agency quoted him as saying.

Ahmed Taresh, the head of Hudaydah airport, also denied news of the airport's capture, but said that it has been completely destroyed in airstrikes conducted by the Saudi-led coalition.

Abdulsalam warned that the Saudi-UAE offensive against the port city would undermine chances for a peaceful settlement of the Yemen crisis.

The rebuttals came after the media office of the Saudi-backed Yemeni forces loyal to ex-president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi said on Twitter that they had "freed Hudaydah international airport from the grip of" the Houthis.

Reports on Sunday said Saudi-backed forces had been surrounded in the al-Durayhimi Bayt al-Faqih district and at least 40 Saudi mercenaries killed by Yemeni sniper fire over the past two days.

Al-Mayadeen, meanwhile, cited informed sources as saying that the invading forces had retreated from all fronts in Hudaydah's west.

A Yemeni military source said clashes had left 50 Saudi-backed forces dead and destroyed 13 of their armored vehicles in southern Hudaydah.

Yemeni forces have also managed to confiscate a French or American ship off Hudaydah's coast, president of the Houthi Revolutionary Committee Mohammed Ali al-Houthi tweeted.

The UAE, a key member of the Saudi-led coalition waging the war on Yemen, launched the Hudaydah assault on Wednesday despite warnings that it would compound the impoverished nation's humanitarian crisis.

Le Figaro newspaper on Saturday reported that French special forces were present on the ground in Yemen supporting the operation.

According to the Houthis, British and French warships were also on standby on Yemen's western coast to launch missile and aerial attacks on Hudaydah.

Fighting on Saturday closed off the city's northern exit, blocking a key route east to Sana'a and making it harder to transport goods from Yemen's biggest port to mountainous regions.



PressTV-'French, US, UK forces aid push to seize Hudaydah'
French special forces are present on the ground in Yemen supporting the ongoing Saudi-led military operation on Hudaydah, Le Figaro newspaper has reported.
The UN World Food Program and the World Health Organization have both expressed concern over the situation.

More than 70 percent of Yemeni imports pass through Hudaydah's docks and the fighting has raised fears of a humanitarian catastrophe in a country already teetering on the brink of famine.

On Saturday, the UN envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths arrived in Sana'a to hold emergency talks on Hudaydah. He was believed to be pushing a deal for the Houthi fighters to cede control of the Red Sea port to a UN-supervised committee.

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/06/1 ... daydah-UAE

It seems the Saudis are to tactical warfare what the Democratic Party is to US politics. Which doesn't stop the US sponsored genocide.
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Re: Yemen

Post by blindpig » Mon Jul 02, 2018 7:03 pm

Image
American commander reportedly captured by Yemeni forces
بندر حدیده یمن
TEHRAN, July 02 (MNA) – Yemeni Army and Popular Committees forces have captured one of the commanders of the American private military company Blackwater, according to Yemeni media.

The arrest of the American agent who reportedly fought for the UAE in Yemen and was close to the UAE's crown prince Mohammad Bin Zayed, can bring about strategic changes in favor of the Yemenis.

The Yemeni media, quoting sources familiar with the matter, added that the captive was an American field commander.

A whistleblower Twitter account probably belonging to one of the UAE security officers has confirmed the news, saying that the Yemeni army and the Ansarullah group had been able to capture one of the commanders of the American private security company Blackwater, which fight for the UAE in Yemen.

According to the Twitter account, “the Houthis, who have captured one of the Blackwater commanders working with us, will shortly release its related footage."

Some Yemeni media also reported that “the Yemeni army has captured ‘a big fish’ on the western coastal region, and we will see strategic changes to the war in favor of the Yemeni army.”

Meanwhile, UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash announced on his Twitter account on Sunday that military operations in Hudaida port city had temporarily been stopped, while claiming that the halt to the operations was an attempt to facilitate the mission of the United Nations Special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths to secure an unconditional surrender of Hudaida.

https://en.mehrnews.com/news/135305/Ame ... eni-forces

American "backed" Saudis my ass, only chauvinists and morons think the tail wags the dog.
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Re: Yemen

Post by blindpig » Sat Jul 21, 2018 2:22 pm

Yemen asks Putin for help against US plans in the Red SeaYemen asks Putin for help against US plans in the Red Sea

Yemen called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the US conspiracies. who try to control world trade in the Red Sea.

"The battle that heads the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on the west coast to control the Yemeni port of Al-Hudaydah is only part of the plot against Yemen, the purpose of this aggression is to dominate the islands and sea ​​vital and turn the Red Sea into an American lake, from which Washington could control the trade and the transit routes of energy in the world, "reads a letter sent a few days ago to the Russian President Valdimir Putin by the Prime Minister Supreme Politician of Yemen, Mahdi al-Mashat ,.

He added that both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates follow the agenda of the Israeli and US regime. to plunge Yemen into a sectarian war and then divide it into small states to plunder its natural resources.

Al-Mashat recalled Saudi Arabia and their allies launched a war against Yemen "no legal basis" and in total contradiction with the articles of the UN Charter, which constitutes a flagrant violation of Yemen's sovereignty and a threat for regional peace and security.

The Yemeni representative also invited Putin to exert pressure on Saudi Arabia and its allies to end their aggression and the maritime, land and air blockade against the Yemeni people.

The situation in Al-Hudaydah deteriorated considerably after Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a military campaign in June against the strategic port on the Red Sea.

According to the UN , the offensive cost the elimination of 250,000 Yemenis, and endangers the lives of 11 million children.

Since its inception in March 2015, the Saudi aggression against Yemen has resulted in recent estimates more than 14,000 dead and nearly 38,000 injured, as well as increasing, in the poorest country in the Arab world, hunger and epidemics, like that of cholera.


Source: Al Masirah

https://www.lantidiplomatico.it/dettnew ... /82_24783/

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Re: Yemen

Post by blindpig » Sat Aug 04, 2018 1:23 pm

Saudi Coalition Renews Attack On North Yemen's Lifeline
The war on Yemen, which has been ongoing for three years, gets way too little mention in "western" media:

The reason for inattention is obvious: The United States bears real responsibility for the crisis. A quote from a Yemeni doctor found in PBS reporter Jane Ferguson’s piece sums it up:
“The missiles that kill us, American-made. The planes that kill us, American-made. The tanks … American-made. You are saying to me, where is America? America is the whole thing.”

The war is also complicate and difficult to explain. The alliances are opaque and make little sense. Individual events conceal the big picture.

The Saudis started the war after a Zaidi Shia movement from Yemen's northern highlands, the Houthi, pushed the Saudi proxy-government under the former president Hadi out of the capital Sanaa. The exiled Hadi government is still internationally recognized but under complete Saudi control.

The Saudis want to control all of Yemen. While Yemen is geographically smaller and dirt poor it has an equal number of citizens and some valuable resources. The Saudis have for decades financed Wahhabi preachers to proselyte in Yemen. But Yemen has its own milder style of Islam and the Wahhabis were generally not welcome. There are also plans for a Saudi pipeline to Yemeni ports which would allow Saudi exports to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. For their war on Yemen the Saudis allied with the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE have their own plans for Yemen. They wants to control south Yemen and the port of Aden as a gemstone in their expansionary Dubai Port World conglomerate.

Both have hired Yemeni tribal proxies and foreign mercenaries to help in their campaigns. The Saudis have allied with the Yemeni Islah party which is part of the international Muslim Brotherhood. The UAE allied with some southern Yemeni tribes who strive for independence from the north.

The U.S. supports its Gulf "allies" and sells them lots of weapon. It is also interested in keeping al-Qaeda in Yemen down.

All these aims are conflicting with each other.

Ahmed Muthana, a former Yemeni diplomat based in Washington DC, explains why, for example, al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP) can not be eliminated from Yemen:

The reason why it’s impossible to defeat al-Qaeda in Yemen today is the deep coordination on the ground between AQAP and Al-Islah, the Muslim Brotherhood’s party in the country. Al-Islah is a crucial part of the Yemeni government.
The links between Al-Islah and Al-Qaeda go far back, and senior Al-Islah leader Abdul Majeed al-Zindani played a vital role in the bridge between the two parties. In 2004, the U.S. government labeled him as “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” for his ties with al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. When the Yemeni army was about to start an offensive against al-Qaeda in Abyan in southern Yemen in 2012, Al-Zindani called for a halt. The Al-Islah leader is a close ally of President Hadi.

According to Mareb Press, a news outlet loyal to the government, Hadi met with Al-Zindani in 2018 and described him as “the heir of the Prophet.” During the meeting, Hadi insisted for Al-Zindani to play a more prominent preaching role in Yemen, which would generate more violent thinking in the region.

One of Hadi's military leaders, General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, is also an al-Qaeda ally:

In 2005, the U.S. embassy in Yemen raised a red flag about Al-Ahmar’s trips to Afghanistan and meetings with Bin Laden in the 1980s. In the U.S., Al-Ahmar is believed to have played a key role in the relocation of large groups of al-Qaeda fighters from Afghanistan to Yemen. Al-Ahmar resettled many terrorists that were banned from going back to their countries in Yemen.
That an individual with a long history of friendship with AQAP is leading the country’s army, makes it is no surprise that terrorist group is not defeated in the north yet.

The Saudis are (again) using al-Qaeda for their purpose while the U.S. is (again) trying to keep it down. But both also want the former president Hadi to regain his position in Sanaa.

The troops of the United Arab Emirates in Yemen, officially allied with the Saudis, have become one of al-Qaeda's main target:

Elisabeth Kendall - @Dr_E_Kendall - 13:47 utc - 3 Aug 2018
1st formal claim from #AQAP #Yemen in 2 weeks: Jihadists ambushed #UAE-backed Rapid Reaction Forces 11am today in al-Mahfad, Abyan. 4 soldiers killed, commander seriously hurt, 2 vehicles destroyed. Follows reported gun battles last night between AQAP & military in al-Mahfad city
Yemen has no air force and no air defenses. The Saudi coalition has been bombing the Houthi held parts of the country for three years and destroyed much of its infrastructure. It is killing indiscriminately. The UN and the media have downplayed the number of casualties by citing an estimate of 10,000 killed that has not been updated since mid 2016.

Last year a Moon of Alabama piece found that the real casualty number is likely much higher:

Up to July 2017 the U.S.-Saudi coalition had flown more than 90,000 air-sorties over Yemen. Most of those will have involved weapon releases.
...
100,000 dead civilians caused by the war so far is a more likely number than the never changing 10,000.
The U.S. media is slowly waking up to this:

For almost two years, a figure — 10,000 people — has been frequently cited by journalists and relief agencies to describe the number of civilian deaths in the conflict.
...
But in public discussion of the conflict, the number has never been revised, even as the war has retained its ruthless intensity.
But despite that insight the Washington Post piece is still using a low balled number:

Data collected by ACLED, a group that studies conflicts, puts the death toll at nearly 50,000 people in the period between January 2016 and late July 2018.
That number includes combatants but excludes people not directly killed during the fighting — thousands of civilians who have died of malnutrition or cholera, for instance. Last year, Save the Children estimated that 130 children were dying every day because of “extreme hunger and disease.”

The Saudi coalition blockades the Houthi held parts of the country. 70% of the available food comes through the port of Hodeidah which the Houthi still hold. If the Saudi coalition manages to catch the harbor it could put the Yemeni highlands under a complete starvation siege. The Houthi would have to give up.

In June a UAE led ground and sea operation attempted to take Hodeidah from the Houthi. The attack along the southwestern coast had reached the border of the airport south of the city when Houthi forces managed to cut its supply line.

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The UAE led attack has since stalled. The UN envoy to Yemen is negotiating with both sides over control of the port. Losing, or respectively winning the port would likely decide the war.

Hodeidah has been under Saudi air attacks despite a local ceasefire. Following recent air strikes the UN warned of a human catastrophe:

On 26, 27 and 28 July, airstrikes occurred near a reproductive health centre and public laboratory in Hodeidah and hit and damaged a sanitation facility in Zabid and a water station, which supplies the majority of the water to Hodeidah City.
...
“Cholera is already present in neighborhoods across the city and governorate. Damage to sanitation, water and health facilities jeopardizes everything we are trying to do,” said Ms. Grand, [the Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen]. “We could be one airstrike away from an unstoppable epidemic.”
The targeting of civilian installations is not a mistake, but the Saudi coalition tactic to put pressure on Yemen's population. Yesterday a double tap strike hit the fishing docks of Hodeidah port where hundreds of fishermen, peddlers and buyers were haggling over the daily haul. An hour after the first strike the Saudi coalition hit the entrance of the nearby al-Thawra hospital. More than 70 were killed and more than 150 were wounded. For lack of food, medical and financial resources many of the wounded are likely to die in the next days. Local sources say that all of the casualties were civilians.

Authorities in Hodeidah said these air attacks "were largely unexpected because both the Houthi fighters and the Saudi-UAE alliance had announced that they were going to cease hostilities in and around the port of Hodeidah to give UN peace efforts a chance".
The only report of the deadly strike on the New York Times website is a Reuters piece which blames the Houthi.

Pictures and video from the ground show that at least one of the strikes was not by air but by British made mortars which came in from a southern direction. The targeted area, marked red, is within mortar firing range of the UAE forces south of the airport.

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The UAE recently send fresh material and soldiers to the area. It is building up the force to renew its attack.

These coalition forces have little respect for the life of Yemeni civilians.

Iona Craig, one of the few "western" on the ground reporters in Yemen, recently got her hand on some intelligence report which describes a Saudi night bombing of some tents in the desert:

Unbeknown to the Maswadahs, Royal Saudi Air Force drones had been hovering for 45 minutes over their dwellings at the edge of the wide plain walled by mountains. Saudi duty officers more than 550 miles away watched the family’s tents on their screens, along with two “hot spots” likely created by the body heat of people and animals inside.
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[They] observed “no personnel or vehicles visible, nor any other intelligence information about the location,” according to the report.
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At 9:25 p.m., the absent general issued the order [by phone] to strike the tents.
The family inside the tent, which included nine children, was lucky. The bomb hit the backside of the small hill their tent stood next to. But the strike was clearly indiscriminate.

The UK government admitted that British officers supervise the Saudi targeting process. U.S. officers are likewise in the Saudi operations centers and at least observe the Saudi targeting. They obviously don't intervene against the indiscriminate strikes:

As the intelligence report shows, the U.S. maintains a significant presence in the Saudi operations center. It also sells munitions and aircraft to the coalition and provides maintenance, training, targeting assistance, and mid-air refueling for fighter jets carrying out bombing runs.
Last week a large Saudi crude oil carrier was allegedly hit by a rocket while sailing through the Red Sea’s Bab al-Mandeb strait. The Saudis allege that Houthi forces did it and try to sell it as a reason to hit Hodeidah. The Houthi have no navy. Hodeidah is some 300 kilometer north of the straits and the coast next to it is under UAE control.

Nevertheless the Saudis stopped their tankers from passing through the Red Sea. Not because of the potential danger, but to increase pressure on the United States, Britain and others to help to invade Hodeidah:

Analysts say Saudi Arabia is trying to encourage its Western allies to take more seriously the danger posed by the Houthis and step up support for its war in Yemen, where thousands of air strikes and a limited ground operation have produced only modest results while deepening the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
...
The suspension of Saudi shipments - with the implied threat of higher oil prices - may also be aimed at pressuring European allies, who have continued to support the nuclear deal with Iran following the U.S. withdrawal in May, to take a stronger stance against Tehran’s ballistic missiles program and support for armed groups across the region.
There was no official confirmation that the move was coordinated with Washington but one analyst said it would be astonishing if it were not, given the strategic alliance between the two countries.

After the Saudi ship was hit the British government sent 20 British Special Forces to an unnamed "Red Sea Port" and dispatched a frigate to the area.

The Saudi claims, that Iran is involved in the war and is smuggling ballistic missiles through Hodeidah to the Houthi, is false. All larger ships going to Hodeidah get searched and inspected. The Houthi may receive some material support smuggled from Oman through the Saudi coalition lines but that is clearly not big stuff or in a decisive amount. The biggest source of weapons and ammunition they use comes from raids on the Saudi coalitions' supplies or are bought from Saudi proxy forces.

Hodeidah is not relevant for smuggling but it is the lifeline for Yemen's besieged northern highlands. More than 10 million lives depend on the food that comes through the port. If the Houthi lose control over the port, to the UN or the Saudi coalition, their people will starve and they will lose the war.

The plan behind the current Saudi tactic of bombing Hodeidah's water supplies and markets is to push the population out of city to make it easier to attack and occupy it. It city is the Houthi's jugular and the Saudis want to go for it.

The U.S. and other "western" military and governments know this. If they allow the Saudi coalition to take the port they will be complicit in the genocidal famine that will follow

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/08/sa ... eline.html

Mostly informative though the contention that the US is fighting Al Queda is clearly incorrect, the US's relationships with it's proxies and mercenaries are undoubtedly complicated and opaque but nope, ain't nothing changed there. Likewise the suggestion that devious Levantines(of whatever flavor) wag the dog is clearly absurd. I dunno what b's game is, he also gives inordinate credit to both Trump & Putin, the former for things said clearly not meant or thought out, the latter for adroit politics past due date A libertarian I'd guess, clearly no materialist.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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