Humanitarian situation at Lahj and Taiz – War and child marriage – Trumps Yemen raid: Tribal leader killed, more details – USA: Military alliance with Gulf States, Israel? – Saudi air raid at womens’ funeral party – and more
Schwerpunkte / Key aspects
Klassifizierung / Classification
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
cp2 Allgemein / General
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche/ UN and peace talks
cp9 USA
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
cp13b Wirtschaft / Economy
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp15 Propaganda
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
cp17a Kriegsereignisse: Mokha / Theater of War: Mokha
cp17b Kriegsereignisse: Sonstige / Theater of War: Other
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
Klassifizierung / Classification
***
**
*
(Kein Stern / No star)
A = Aktuell / Current news
B = Hintergrund / Background
C = Chronik / Chronicle
D = Details
E = Wirtschaft / Economy
H = Humanitäre Fragen / Humanitarian questions
K = Krieg / War
P = Politik / Politics
PH = Pro-Houthi
PS = Pro-Saudi
T = Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
16.2.2017 – Save the Children (** A H)
Vulnerability And Needs Assessments For Lahj and Taiz
Executive Summary
This vulnerability and needs assessment was carried out in Lahj and Taiz Governorates in South Yemen during November-December 2016. The overall objective was to assess the vulnerability and needs of the populations in Lahj and Taiz Governorates to determine appropriate interventions for the most vulnerable households.
Key Findings
Humanitarian priorities: The survey found that several aid agencies had helped households in three months prior to the assessment. Despite that assistance, 92% of households reported needed additional support. In both Lahj and Taiz, household priorities were the same: food, health care and cash. Drinking water was also highly prioritized in Lahj. Likewise, households in both locations prioritized the same items for their children: food/milk, health care and education. Household priorities were the same for male- and female-headed households.
Health: Half (52.4%) the surveyed households reporting that they have members who require regular visits to health centre and/or regular medical treatment. The average cost of health care for those families was 14,410 YER (US$58) per month. This is a large proportion of household income especially now that livelihood opportunities have reduced. The most common illnesses reported among household members in the last two weeks were cough (42.5%), diarrhoea (42.5%), and fever/malaria (43.3%). In both Lahj and Taiz, most households with ill members sought help from a formal medical centre.
Overall, 89.3% of households in Taiz reported using safe, “improved water sources” compared to 51.3% in Lahj. This is consistent with households in Lahj requesting drinking water as a humanitarian need above. A quarter of households in Lahj reported using “improved sanitation” compared to 18.6% of households in Taiz.
Food security: On an average, the surveyed households had a Food Consumption Score of 42.1, which is at the lowest end of the “acceptable range” bordering on “borderline”. Households in Taiz had lower scores (FCS=38) with many more households classified as “borderline” or “poor”. The Coping Strategies Index shows that households in Taiz are worse off (less food secure) than households in Lahj. While most households in both Lahj and Taiz reported still consuming three meals per day, in Taiz, more households reported limiting portions at meal times, and restricting adult consumption so that children can eat. This means the meals are smaller, or at least smaller for adults. Overall, the findings indicate that households in Taiz are less food secure than households in Lahj although most households in both governorates are experiencing food access stress and would benefit from external support.
Livelihoods: Households showed quite different livelihood based on their location. Households in Lahj obtain income from government salary (25%), sale of livestock and livestock products (19%), non-agricultural labour (17.4%) and pensions (15%). More than half the surveyed households in Lahj have more than one source of income, with the main secondary income source being the sale of livestock and livestock products. The average monthly income reported by households in Lahj was 25,569 YER (US$102).
The last two years of conflict has resulted in several changes to the household’s livelihood status. This includes having to sell assets (33.7% of households), lost work opportunities (30.2%), particularly in Taiz, and taking on additional debt (25.3%). Almost 10% of households (8.2%) reporting sending their children to look for work. Only 2.9% of household reporting leaving their home, which is consistent with the low numbers of IDP households surveyed.
Child nutrition: Approximately 10% of households in both governorates reported having children currently in nutrition programmes. The survey did not assess the reasons for admission into the programmes but it may be due to health problems, poor infant feeding practices, or food insecurity. Overall the data shows poor infant feeding practices. While a high proportion of children were ever breastfed (87.3%), and 76.5% of children were still receiving breastmilk at 2 years of age, only 18.8% of children under 6-months of age are exclusively breastfed. This is mainly due to the child receiving additional liquids – water (93% of breastfed children), milk (40.4%) or tea/coffee (39.7%).
Children should start receiving solid and semi-solid food from 4-6 months of age, and the survey found that 62.5% of children aged 6-8 months received these foods. However, only 20.2% of children aged 6-23 months received more 4 or more food groups on the day before the survey, and only 4 children (2%) received the minimum acceptable diet – 4+ food groups, consumed 4+ times per day.
Vulnerability: Vulnerability proved difficult to establish, as different traditionally vulnerable groups such as female-headed households, child-headed households, new IDPs had different low scores (CSI, FCS, average income). However, most of these households had borderline food consumption scores. In general, households in Taiz governorate were more food insecure, earned less income and employed more severe coping strategies than households in Lahj.
Markets: The cost of the FSAC minimum food basket is more expensive in Taiz Governorate than in Lahj. To purchase food commodities to the equivalent of 75% of their basic requirements, an average household (7 members) from Lahj would need 17,429 YER. In Taiz it costs an average of 20,243 YER. All the basket items were available in the surveyed markets.
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/vulnerability-and-needs-assessments-lahj-and-taiz and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/vulnerability_needs_assessment_lahj_and_taiz_sc_yemen%20%281%29.pdf and original site: http://fscluster.org/yemen/document/save-children-vulnerability-and-needs
15.2.2017 – IRIN (** B H)
Shattered war economy encourages child marriage in Yemen
It’s impossible to get hard numbers, but child marriage appears to be on the rise in Yemen: a consequence of the extreme poverty caused by nearly two years of devastating war in what was already one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world.
Parents are becoming increasingly unable to provide for their families, and interviews conducted by IRIN suggest some are opting to marry their daughters off younger than planned, reversing previous progress towards ending the practice.
Forty-nine-year-old Abdullah worked selling water from a truck in Taiz city before the war broke out in May 2015. He sold his rig so his family of seven could flee the violence. Once in the school camp in al-Shimayateen, about 70 kilometres from his besieged hometown, Abdullah had to rely on handouts, but they weren’t enough for regular meals.
“I decided to marry my daughter so she could have a better life and I would have less of a [financial] responsibility,” he explains. Two months after they arrived at al-Shimayateen, Safa’a was wed.
Back in Taiz, Abdullah had promised to enroll Safa’a in English classes. That is now impossible. He swears his two younger daughters will not follow Safa’a’s path. “I am willing to beg, but not to marry my [other] daughters before they finish their studies.”
Non-existent data
There are few accurate figures in Yemen at the moment – hospitals have trouble counting the dead in a decimated health system, and the economy is in such a state of collapse that there are no comprehensive numbers on unemployment.
Statistics on child marriage, a subject so sensitive many victims and parents refused to speak to (and even threatened) IRIN, are even scarcer.
UNFPA warned as early as September 2015 that child marriage seemed to be on the rise again – its interviews with victims found the average age for child marriage among girls was now 15.
Jamal al-Shaami, president of the Democracy School in Sana’a, an NGO that focuses on children’s issues, confirmed that he has witnessed the same pattern, then and since.
“The economic crisis that has hit Yemen in the past two years forced many people to marry their young daughters,” he told IRIN. [The families] cannot earn a livelihood and they do not have enough education about the dangers of child marriage.”
UNFPA’s statement said massive war-related displacement and the related economic pressure has meant more families are marrying off their young daughters as a coping mechanism, even to ensure the girls are cared for – by Nasser Al-Sakkaf
http://www.irinnews.org/2017/02/15/shattered-war-economy-encourages-child-marriage-yemen
16.2.2017 – AP (*** A P T)
PRO-GOVERNMENT TRIBAL LEADER AMONG DEAD IN US RAID IN YEMEN
The main figure killed in last month's U.S. raid in Yemen targeting al-Qaida was a tribal leader who was allied to the country's U.S.- and Saudi-backed president and had been enlisted to fight Yemen's Shiite rebels, according to military officials, tribal figures and relatives.
The government connections of tribal chief Sheikh Abdel-Raouf al-Dhahab raise further questions over the planning of a raid that turned into a heavy firefight with casualties on both sides.
The raid illustrated the murkiness in distinguishing al-Qaida in Yemen, where the terror group has built up ties of one degree or another with the country's many tribes - and has often used anger over civilians killed in American airstrikes to gain recruits.
Al-Qaida has also emerged as a de facto ally of the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his backers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against the Shiite rebels in a grueling civil war
In Yakla, there was some al-Qaida presence. At least six of those killed in the raid were al-Qaida fighters, according to a list put out by the group's leader, though some witnesses said they arrived on the scene after the battle started. Also, a female Saudi al-Qaida militant who fled her homeland in 2013 was being sheltered in the home of a tribesman whose son was also a member, according to tribal leaders and officials.
But all appeared to be low-level operatives. Also among the dead was an elderly sheikh trying to win the release of a fellow tribesman abducted by the terror network.
But Yemenis in the village called the raid an intelligence failure. "If you want to hunt al-Qaida, you can find them in the surrounding mountains not in this small village ... The Americans' information was wrong," said Aziz Mabkhout, the village chief.
Parts of the al-Dhahab clan have long been connected to al-Qaida. But in a public ceremony aired on Yemeni TV in 2013, Abdel-Raouf, Sultan and another brother announced an accord with the governor of Bayda province to force al-Qaida out of the area.
Just before the raid, Abdel-Raouf was in the neighboring province of Marib, meeting with the military chief of staff in Hadi's government. The meeting was confirmed by al-Dhahab's top aide, Fahd al-Qasi, who accompanied him, and two military officials who witnessed or helped arrange the meeting. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the meeting.
During five days of talks with the military, al-Dhahab - who commands a force of some 800 tribal fighters - was given around 15 million Yemeni riyals ($60,000) to pay his men in the fight against the rebels, al-Qasi and the two officials said. He returned home to Yakla and the evening before the raid, al-Qasi distributed the money to the fighters.
Maj. Gen. Mohsen Khasrouf -head of the military's Morale Guidance unit, the equivalent of a spokesman's office - told Al-Arabiya TV that al-Dhahab was working with Hadi's government to retake the nearby city of Radaa from the rebels.
The al-Dhahab clan is a powerful force in Bayda province.
Complicating matters further, al-Qaida militants have been fighting the Shiite rebels since 2015 informally alongside pro-Hadi forces. They often operate closely with ultraconservative Islamist militias funded by Hadi's allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. That has enabled them to move back into areas they were previously driven out of, including Bayda province.
The AP spoke to eight witnesses and survivors of the raid, along with several prominent local tribal figures.
According to their accounts, it began around 1:30 a.m. when U.S. special forces descended on Yakla, in a sparsely populated area of Bayda province. Fighters in the village opened fire, and a battle erupted, with aerial bombardment and firing from attack helicopters. Fighting lasted several hours and at least three houses were destroyed.
"Nothing survived, even the cows and the sheep were shot dead," said Sheikh Ahmed al-Salami, who lived not far from al-Dhahab and was among the villagers who got out their personal weapons to fight back against the attackers.
The center of the raid appeared to be six houses belonging to al-Dhahab family and Abdullah Mabkhout al-Ameri, head of another prominent local family. One of al-Ameri's sons, Mohammed, an al-Qaida member, was home at the time of the raid, according to several villagers. Also staying in an annex to the house were the fugitive Saudi female jihadi, Arwa al-Baghdadi, her brother - also an al-Qaida militant - and his pregnant wife and their niece. The tribal leaders and officials said they believed Mohammed had housed them.
All but the niece were killed.
Caught in the al-Dhahabi house was a delegation of 15 men from another family who had come seeking al-Dhahab's mediation for the release of a relative snatched by al-Qaida. The family's leader, Sheikh Seif al-Joufi, in his 80s, stepped out of the house and was shot dead, according to several witnesses.
"There was random shooting at anything that moved, the entire place was on fire," said Abdullah al-Joufi, a member of the delegation. "If you have a head, you better keep it down. This is what we did." – by Ahmed Al-Haj
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_YEMEN_US_RAID?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT = http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/yemen-raid-ap-investigation-1.3985352 and a similar article by Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/02/16/trumps-botched-yemen-raid-was-even-more-disastrous-than-first-t/?utm_hp_ref=au-world and (shorter) by Middle East Eye: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/target-botched-yemen-raid-backed-us-led-government-report-764262717
My comment: This article clearly shows a) how difficult the situation in Yemen actually is. Persons not just are black and white, Al Qaida or not Al Qaida; in such tribal societies there are lots of relationships, dependences, alliances, kinships which make people all from 0 to 10 to 20 etc to 100 % “Al Qaida” or not. – b) how close the relationship between all sort of Al Qaida affiliates, the Hadi government and the Saudis really is: a fact they always had denied. – c) that across the corner the US also is affiliated to Al Qaida, as it is in Syria.
2.2017 – Wikipedia (** A P T)
Yakla raid
On January 29, 2017, a United States-led Special Operations Forces operation was carried out in Yakla Village, Qifah District,[4][5] in the Al Bayda province in central Yemen, during its Civil War. Authorized by President Donald Trump,[6] its goal was to gather intelligence on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and also, as claimed by unnamed sources, targeted the group's leader Qasim al-Raymi.[3] The operation was the first commando raid authorized by President Trump,[7] Planning for the operation began in early 2016 and was first presented to the U.S. National Security Council under the administration of Barack Obama.[8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakla_raid
My comment: A long survey of the raid, citing many sources.
15.2.2017 – Wall Street Journal (** A K P)
U.S., Middle East Allies Explore Arab Military Coalition
Potential alliance would share intelligence with Israel, with the goal of countering Iran’s influence
The Trump administration is in talks with Arab allies about having them form a military alliance that would share intelligence with Israel to help counter their mutual foe, Iran, according to several Middle Eastern officials.
The alliance would include countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that are avowed enemies of Israel as well as Egypt and Jordan, which have longstanding peace treaties with Israel, according to five officials from Arab countries involved in the discussions. Other Arab countries could also join the alliance.
For the Arab countries involved, the alliance would have a NATO-style mutual-defense component under which an attack on one member would be treated as an attack on all, though details are still being worked out, the officials said.
The U.S. would offer military and intelligence support to the alliance, beyond the kind of limited backing it has been providing to a Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, the officials said. But neither the U.S. nor Israel would be part of the mutual-defense pact.
“They’ve been asking diplomatic missions in Washington if we’d be willing to join this force that has an Israeli component,” said one Arab diplomat. “Israel’s role would likely be intelligence sharing, not training or boots on the ground. They’d provide intelligence and targets. That’s what the Israelis are good at.”
Trump administration officials have said they want to revitalize American alliances in the area and take new steps to constrain the regional influence wielded by Iran, though they didn’t respond to requests for comment on the plan. A spokesman for Israel’s prime minister didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. are putting forth their own demands in exchange for cooperating with Israel, officials said. Those two countries want the U.S. to overturn legislation that could see their governments sued in American courts by families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, they said.
Trump administration officials have told Gulf allies they would lobby Congress to amend the legislation, though it passed last year with overwhelming support that could make changes difficult.
According to the Middle Eastern officials, Arab diplomats in Washington have been holding talks about the plan with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Mike Flynn, who was President Trump’s national security adviser until resigning on Monday. – By MARIA ABI-HABIB
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-middle-east-allies-explore-arab-military-coalition-1487154600
and
15.2.2017 – The American Conservative (** A K P)
The U.S. Should Have Nothing to Do with an Arab Anti-Iran Coalition
It seems that the Trump administration is not just preparing to increase its support for the indefensible war on Yemen, but wants to create a formal organization so that regional clients can do the same sort of thing elsewhere in the name of “countering” Iran. If Yemen is the model for what this coalition is going to be doing, it will be a menace to its neighbors and will likely produce more instability.
The chief problem with the idea of this coalition is that it relies on exaggerating the threat from Iran to make it seem necessary. There is no need for a coalition to counter Iran in this way, because Iran is not as powerful as they are often made out to be. A mutual defense pact among these Arab states would at best be superfluous, and at worst the coalition would enhance its members’ ability to interfere in their neighbors’ affairs when it suits them. It is likely that this coalition would become a vehicle for launching attacks on neighbors in the name of “opposing” Iranian influence where it is already negligible (as in Yemen) or non-existent. The U.S. should never have supported the Saudi-led war on Yemen, and it shouldn’t have anything to do with this proposed coalition – by Daniel Larison
Comment by Moy Enne: "The new alliance 1st test would b #Yemen. U.S. would step up military aid 2 the Yemen campaign & Secure the RedSea"
https://twitter.com/Moyenne1/status/831853192501665792
My comment: Yemen would become the first battlefield of joint US-Saudi anti-Iranian paranoia (or, be honest: it is already). – What an alliance this should be? The NATO had been declared an alliance of defense (against the Soviet Union); whether in reality it is something quite different nowadays, that’s another point. What such an anti-Iranian alliance should be? An alliance to attack Iran? Even when mostly exaggerating Iranian aggressivity, the US hardly can claim that there will be any danger that Iran will attack the US. Thus, as Daniel Larison rightly states: such an alliance will make the Near East (and beyond) more insecure.
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Luftangriffe / Most important: Air raids
16.2.2017 – DPA (** A K)
Kinder und Frauen durch Luftangriff getötet
Bei einem Luftangriff der saudisch geführten Militärkoalition auf eine Trauerfeier im Jemen sind Augenzeugen zufolge neun Menschen getötet worden. Bei dem Bombardement nördlich der von den Huthi-Rebellen kontrollierten Hauptstadt Sanaa seien demnach ausschließlich Kinder und Frauen getötet worden.
Anwohner berichteten, bei dem am Mittwoch attackierten Ziel habe es sich um eine Halle für Trauerfeiern gehandelt, zu der nur Frauen Zutritt gehabt hätten.
und
16.2.2017 – Der Standard (** A K)
Acht Frauen und ein Kind bei Luftangriff im Jemen getötet
Bei einem nächtlichen Luftangriff nahe der jemenitischen Hauptstadt Sanaa sind acht Frauen und ein Kind getötet worden. Wie Ärzte am Donnerstag mitteilten, wurde ein Haus im Bezirk Arhab rund 40 Kilometer nördlich der Hauptstadt attackiert, wo gerade eine Trauerfeier stattfand. Die schiitischen Houthi-Rebellen, die Sanaa sowie einen Großteil des Nordjemen kontrollieren, machten die von Saudi-Arabien angeführte Militärkoalition für den Angriff verantwortlich.
Die Allianz selbst konnte für eine Stellungnahme zunächst nicht erreicht werden. Nach Angaben von Ärzten wurden bei dem Luftangriff auch mindestens zehn Frauen verletzt, die in Krankenhäuser nahe Sanaa gebracht wurden. Bei dem angegriffenen Ort handelte es sich demnach um ein Privathaus im Dorf Shiraa, wo sich die an der Trauerfeier teilnehmenden Frauen versammelt hatten.
http://derstandard.at/2000052703147/Acht-Frauen-und-ein-Kind-bei-Luftangriff-im-Jemen-getoetet
Bemerkung: Fotos, Filme s. weiter unten. Hier ein deutschsprachiger Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_58KR5txSM = https://www.msn.com/de-at/video/nachrichten/jemen-frauen-und-kinder-durch-luftangriff-get%C3%B6tet/vi-AAn1iVT
16.2.2017 – Legal Center (** A K PH)
#Arhab_Massacre #Sheraa_Village
The team of Legal Center for Rights and Development visited the place of the Massacre and the hospitals where the victims women are there and documented the cases.
On Wednesday, afternoon >>> 15/2/2017
The war planes launched 1 airstrike on gathering of consolation woman in the house of (Mohammad Hadi Al-Nak’e) and destroyed the house, which led to kill 6 women including the pregnant woman and a child, injured 12 women including 5 children
#Killed_Names:
1- Hakemah Ali Rajeh Houmad (45) years old
2- Khaznah Mohammad Hadi Al-Nak'e (27) years old
3- Raysa Yahya Saled Al-Nak'e (70) years old
4- Bushra Hamis Dawas (15) years old
5- Fatima Morshed Asdan (67) years old
6- Noryah Hezam Masoud (45) years old
#Injured_Names:
1- Najdah Mohammad Hadi Al-Nak'e (27) years old
2- Aml Mojahid Al-Jandabi (1 year and a half)
3- Dawlah Ali Abdullah Al-Dhamari (60) years old
4- Thahba Ali Abdullah AlDhamari (50) years old
5- Sharyah Ali Al-Garamani (55) years old
6- Lubnan Dawas Al-Nak'e (35) years old
7- Zinab Jobran Ali Al-Shabi (2 years old)
8- Fathya Ali Morshed Asdan (38) years old
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=775535099263524&id=551288185021551
16.2.2017 – Al Bab (* A K P)
Yemen funeral attack raises spectre of Saudi war crimes – again
The attack, on a house in Arhab, 25 miles north-east of Sanaa, raises further questions about Saudi compliance with international humanitarian law and about British and American arms supplies. The British government, for example, has a legal obligation not to provide weapons "if there is a clear risk that there might be a violation of international humanitarian law".
A recurrence has now happened, indicating that whatever new measures were put in place to safeguard civilians haven't worked and – perhaps worse – that the Saudis have little interest in making them work.
http://al-bab.com/blog/2017/02/yemen-funeral-attack-raises-spectre-saudi-war-crimes-again
My comment: The Saudi “investigation team and its statements never could be taken serious – from the very first day on.
16.2.2017 – Reuters (** A K)
Plane strike hits Yemen mourners, killing 9 women, 1 child: residents
Warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition struck a house north of Yemen's capital where a crowd of mourners was gathered, residents said on Thursday, killing nine women and a child and injuring dozens.
The Saudi-led coalition said it was investigating reports of civilian casualties in the area.
The air strike hit the house of a local tribal leader in Ashira, a village north of Sanaa, on Wednesday night, a resident told Reuters. Mourners had gathered there to offer condolences after a woman died.
"People heard the sound of planes and started running from the house but then the bombs hit the house directly. The roof collapsed. Blood was everywhere," a second resident of Ashira, who gave his name as Hamid Ali, told a Reuters cameraman.
Pictures published by local media showed tribesmen searching through the rubble of a destroyed house said to belong to Mohammed al-Nakaya, a tribal leader allied with Yemen's Houthi movement.
One showed a man kneeling in the dust cradling the body of an elderly woman.
It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the pictures.
"We are aware of media reports that Houthi rebels are claiming that Yemeni civilians were killed in an air raid overnight near Sanaa," the coalition said in statement.
"There has been fighting between Yemeni armed forces and rebels in this area in recent days. We are investigating the reports."
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-idUSKBN15V0Q8
16.2.2017 – Asharq Al-Awsat (* A K P)
Arab Coalition Probing Reports on Yemen Air Raid
The Saudi-led Arab coalition said on Thursday that it was investigating media reports about an air raid near the Yemeni capital Sana’a.
“We are aware of media reports that Houthi rebels are claiming that Yemeni civilians were killed in an air raid overnight near Sana’a,” the Coalition Supporting Legitimacy in Yemen said in a statement.
“There has been fighting between Yemeni armed forces and rebels in this area in recent days,” it said.
“We are investigating the reports and will release further information when we have it,” the statement added.
http://english.aawsat.com/2017/02/article55367564/arab-coalition-probing-reports-yemen-air-raid
16.2.2017 – Arab News (* A K P)
Al-Assiri tells Arab News: Arab coalition investigating an incident in Sanaa
The Arab coalition supporting the legitimate government in Yemen has said it’s looking into an alleged incident which took place in Sanaa on Thursday.
Brig. Gen. Ahmad Al-Assiri, spokesman for the coalition, told Arab News that a statement has been issued by the coalition announcing the launch of an investigation into the incident in the Yemeni capital today.
"We have been made aware of news reports by several media outlets quoting Houthi militia allegations claiming that a coalition airstrike hit a residential unit near the Yemeni Capital Sanaa. We would like to point out that there is a military operation undergoing during the past few days between the Yemeni Army and the Houthi militias in that area. The coalition will investigate into credibility of those allegations and will provide the media with any updates.” a statement by the coalition said on Thursday. http://www.arabnews.com/node/1055191/middle-east
My comment: The first coalition statement is a lie: In the northwest of Sanaa there has been no fighting at all. And Emirati News Agency even makes a headline of it: http://wam.ae/en/details/1395302598194 . Fighting is north east of Sanaa in Nehm region. Does Saudi propaganda really think the audience does not know the cardinal points??
16.2.2017 – Middle East Eye (** A K)
Nine women, child killed in raid on Yemen funeral
Nine women and a child were killed in an overnight air raid on a funeral reception near the Yemeni capital Sanaa, medics said on Thursday.
At least 10 more women were reported wounded in the raid, which hit the women's reception area at a funeral in Arhab district, 40 kilometres north of Sanaa.
Some local news sites put the number of dead and wounded far higher, although the higher tolls have yet to be confirmed by the Houthi-run health ministry.
"People heard the sound of planes and started running from the house but then the bombs hit the house directly. The roof collapsed. Blood was everywhere," a resident of the village, Ashira, told a Reuters cameraman on Thursday.
Pictures published in local media showed tribesmen searching through the rubble of a destroyed house said to belong to Mohammed al-Nakaya, a tribal chief allied with Yemen's Houthi movement.
Another picture showed a man kneeling in the dust with the corpse of an elderly woman in his arms.
It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the pictures.
Supporters of the Houthis, including a spokesperson for the group, alleged that the raid was a so-called "double tap strike," meaning that a second bomb exploded shortly after the first, killing and wounding those who went to aid people hit initially.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/eight-women-child-killed-raid-yemen-funeral-1789789168
16.2.2017 – Democracy Now (* A K)
Yemen: U.S.-Backed, Saudi-Led Coalition Strikes Kill 10 Civilians
Hameed Aly: "The people are still looking under the rubble, like you see. Each one is looking for their child or their sister. And this all happened from the bombing. There are nine victims, and they’re still searching for more. And there are dozens of injured in the hospital."
16.2.2017 – AFP (** A K)
8 women, 1 child killed in air raid near Yemen capital: medics
Eight women and a child were killed in an overnight air raid on a funeral reception near the Yemeni capital Sanaa, medics said Thursday.
At least 10 more women were reported wounded in the raid, which hit the women's reception area at a funeral in Arhab district, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Sanaa.
Medics dispatched to the incident identified the bombing site as the residence of Mohammed Al Nakii in the village of Shiraa.
Huthi rebels, who control the capital, accused a Saudi-backed coalition of carrying out the strike.
A coalition spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
A post on the Huthi-run saba.ye news website late Wednesday gave an initial toll of six women killed and 10 wounded.
Casualties were transported to hospitals in Sanaa.
http://www.france24.com/en/20170216-8-women-1-child-killed-air-raid-near-yemen-capital-medics
16.2.2017 – Saba Net (** A K PH)
Death toll from Saudi aggression air strike on Arhab funeral house rises to 8 women
Death toll from Saudi aggression air strikes on a funeral house in Arhab district of Sana'a province on Wednesday afternoon increased to eight women, including children, an official and medics told Saba.
The air strike hit the funeral house in Shira area in Arhab district afternoon, also injuring ten other women.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news456353.htm
15.2.2017 – The Guardian (** A K)
At least five killed and dozens wounded in Saudi-led airstrike on Yemen funeral
Five women were killed and dozens of people were wounded in a Saudi-led airstrike on a funeral near Yemen’s rebel-held capital, according to Houthi insurgents and medical officials.
A second airstrike hit first aid workers who had responded to the strike on Arhab, some 40 km (25 miles) from Sanaa, according to the head of the Houthis’ media office, Abdel-Rahman al-Ahnomi.
Medical officials said five bodies were recovered from the scene, mostly women, and that the toll was likely to rise. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
Abdullah Sherif, a volunteer first responder, said he helped pull the bodies of four women from the rubble and that rescuers were still looking for survivors. He said there was only one airstrike, not two. Conflicting accounts are common in the aftermath of attacks.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/15/yemen-funeral-saudi-led-airstrike-houthi-insurgents
15.2.2017 – AP (** A K)
YEMENI OFFICIALS SAY SAUDI-LED AIRSTRIKE KILLS 5
At least one Saudi-led airstrike near Yemen's rebel-held capital killed at least five people on Wednesday, the country's Houthi rebels and medical officials said.
The head of the Houthis' media office, Abdel-Rahman al-Ahnomi, told The Associated Press an airstrike hit a group of women attending a funeral and a second airstrike hit first responders in Arhab, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Sanaa. He said the strikes killed and wounded dozens of people.
Medical officials said five bodies were recovered from the scene, mostly women, and that the toll was likely to rise. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
Abdullah Sherif, a volunteer first responder, said he helped pull the bodies of four women from the rubble and that rescuers were still looking for survivors. He said there was only one airstrike, not two. Conflicting accounts are common in the aftermath of attacks – by Ahmed Al-Haj
15.2.2017 – Al Araby (* A K)
Scores killed as fresh 'double-tap' airstrike targets Yemen funeral
At least five people were reported killed and dozens wounded in a purported Saudi-led coalition 'double-tap' airstrike on a funeral in Sana'a, Yemen.
Yemen's Houthi rebels and other officials said the first airstrike hit a group of women attending a funeral in the Arhab neighbourhood of Sana'a and the second strike hit a group of emergency responders minutes later.
The coalition may have broken international humanitarian law [IHL] for the second time in six months, after a UN panel of experts found a similar double-tap attack on a funeral in October "violated its obligations".
Medical responders, speaking anonymously, said five bodies were initially recovered from the home of Sheikh Mohammad Hadi al-Najaii, but this number was expected to rise.
A 'double-tap' strike is when an airstrike is quickly followed by a second air-strike in the same area, with the effect of killing and injuring medical first responders – by Robert Cusack
15.2.2017 – Yamanyoon (A K PH)
A New Saudi American Massacre: Killed and Injured Women in a Funeral
A number of civilians have been killed and others injured in a new massacre committed by the US-backed Saudi aggression against a funeral procession in Arhab district, Sana’a governorate.
The hostile warplanes waged a raid on several women with their children attending a funeral in Shra’a village, Arhab district, resulting in several deaths and injuries, security source reported.
US-backed Saudi fighter jets continued the intense hovering over the heinous crime scene in Al Alnakii region, Arhab.
Initial death toll indicates the martyrdom of six women and the injury of another 10.
http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=64626&lang=en
and more:
So tragic I called a friend in Amran to ask him about Arhab funeral massacre. He said :ppl couldn't rescue rescuers coz jets still hovering
https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/831896147669180416
8 women out of 11 wounded in #Arhab Massacre are in a bad condition
https://twitter.com/I4Yemen/status/831928377703546881
and photos (graphic):
https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1639979259631395
https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1639694159659905
https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1639709846325003
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=775535099263524&id=551288185021551
https://twitter.com/YemenPostNews/status/832136714172915712
https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/832001903999455234
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/832099026820546560
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/832088722942353408
https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/831966077810798592
https://twitter.com/Beltrew/status/832263960489517060
http://www.sahafah24.net/show820035.html
and films by Almasirah TV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG9OJXdDHVA = https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/videos/1279286015457759/ and (part)
https://twitter.com/venus_azall_rmr/status/831959864960286722
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRGOdLyAiLU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPr_7-GM16k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY7pbdboNmU (the day after)
and by Yemen Today TV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya56BkI5Ims
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b11TIEiKu4
and by Ruptly (in HD):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27JgafT7o64
and by BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38994317
https://twitter.com/Sophiemcneill/status/832160682841866240 (longer)
15.2.2017 – Hamed Ghaleb / Nasser Arrabyee (A K PH)
He searched 4 hours 2 get his mother who was buried under the rubber after a #Saudi double tap airstrikes targeted a funeral in arhab
https://twitter.com/HamedGhaleb/status/831997759452545025
This is not a portrait! It's a real picture of saddened Yemeni holding his dying mother
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/832122005306634240
15.2.2017 – Soraya T (A K)
Saudi press totally blacked out #Yemen women #Funeral bombing .. not even 1 word about it...it has been more than 3 hours though
https://twitter.com/2flamesburning1/status/831939152883175425
16.2.2017 – Hisham Al-Omeisy (A K)
Toddlers survived yesterday's airstrike need medical attention that locals can't provide. @msf_yemen, @ICRC_ye, anyone.. please help. #Yemen
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/832221000167223296
16.2.2017 – Hussain Albukhaiti (A K PH)
Can you identify bombs shrapnels used by #Saudi #UAE CO double strike on funeral n Arahab #Sanaa #Yemen (photos)
https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/832330069540478976
16.2.2017 – Nasser Arrabyee (A K PH)
Yemeni plastic artist Saba Abdul Rahman already inspired by US-backed Saudi war crime against funeral (Son holding dead mother,Wed N Sanaa) (photos)
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/832297425851314176
and it seems this is what pro-Hadi / pro-Saudi propaganda made of this raid:
16.2.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)
Eyewitnesses: Coalition warplanes bomb Houthis weapon depots northern the capital Sana'a
Eyewitnesses said that the fighter jets of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition launched on Tuesday night several air raids on weapons depots in Jader area northern the capital Sana'a.
The witnesses told Almasdaronline that violent explosions lasted for about an hour were heard after the aerial bombardment on the road that links between the capital Sana'a and Amran city.
Heavy smoke was seen rising from the targeted sites. The witnesses added.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/88899
16.2.2017 – Human Rights Watch (** A K)
Yemen: Saudi-Led Coalition Airstrike Near School
2 Students, Administrator Killed; 3 Children Wounded
A Saudi-led coalition airstrike near a school in northern Yemen on January 10, 2017, killed two students and a school administrator and wounded three children, Human Rights Watch said today. The unlawful attack reinforces the urgent need for an international investigation into alleged laws-of-war violations in Yemen, an end to arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and the return of the coalition to the United Nations secretary-general’s “list of shame” for abuses against children in armed conflict.
“The bombing death of an 11-year-old girl on her way to school shows how little the Saudi-led coalition took to heart its brief inclusion on the UN secretary-general’s ‘list of shame,’” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “How many more schoolchildren need to die and be maimed before the UN responds?”
On January 10 at about 8 a.m., a coalition airstrike hit an informal gas station in the village of Bani Mea’asar, in the Nihm district, Sanaa governorate, killing three civilians and wounding five others. The attack shattered a number of the nearby school’s windows and damaged its electrical wires and speakers, witnesses said. Al-Falah school, 150 to 200 meters from the gas station, provides primary and secondary education to about 900 boys and girls. In the winter the school usually starts about 8 or 8:30 a.m. Students were either on their way or getting ready to head to the school when the strike took place.
Muhammad Mea’asar, who has served as Al-Falah school’s director for more than 20 years, told Human Rights Watch he was at home with his family preparing to head to the school’s morning assembly when the munition hit. “It landed north of the school wall… next to some shops and an informal gas station,” he said. “If it landed at that time on the school building it would have been a disaster.”
Ali Mudafeer, the school’s deputy director, was killed in the strike. Muhammad Mea’asar said that Mudafeer had been standing outside the school to “reassure the students who were still coming that [an earlier] strike [in the area] was far away and the school was okay.” The munition also killed Ishraq al-Moa’fa, 11, who was on her way to school, and Shamkh Sa’soua’, a 19-year-old who had enrolled at Al-Falah after his previous school closed due to nearby fighting. The strike also wounded two girls, ages 8 and 12, and a 16-year-old boy.
Muhammad al-Radi, a mathematics teacher at the school, was about to leave his house, which is in the school compound, with his 9-year-old son when the munition detonated. He said:
Suddenly… I realized because of all the smoke, dust, and glass that came over us that the airstrike occurred in front of us, in front of the school. … My wife ran out with my two kids, out of the school, because we were worried that they will attack again. We were terrified.
Al-Radi said that he and at least 10 other people immediately ran to help the wounded:
We saw body parts scattered on the ground, and we saw Ishraq, and her severed foot. From the traces of the blood, it seems that she crawled… to the other side [of the road], and she was holding her bag, but we arrived and she was dead.
Mwatana, a leading Yemeni human rights organization, sent a team to the village to examine the attack site on January 16. Mwatana photographed remnants of munitions. Human Rights Watch examined these photos and concluded from the thickness of the fragments that the remnants were from the guidance unit and fin assembly system from an air-dropped bomb, but the images were insufficient to make a positive identification.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/02/16/yemen-saudi-led-coalition-airstrike-near-school
My comment: The HRWs demand is actually weak: “Both the Saudi-led coalition and Yemeni forces on both sides need to better protect children from the fighting.” A stop to all bomb attacks and all fighting! The headline of the RT report “Put Saudi-led coalition back on UN list of child rights abusers, HRW says”, is not confirmed by the HRW text, https://www.rt.com/news/377571-saudi-coalition-yemen-children-abuse/
16.2.2017 – Basha Ammar (** B K)
Film: Yemen: The Great Crime
The Saudi coalition air raid at the funeral at Sanaa, Oct. 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRhYkssz50M
cp2 Allgemein / General
16.2.2017 – Faisal Edroos (A K)
Saudi playbook in Yemen: 1. Bomb civilian area. 2. Deny involvement. 3. Launch investigation. 4. Repeat.
https://twitter.com/faisaledroos/status/832326223904792576
16.2.2017 – Southfront (A K)
Map: MILITARY SITUATION IN YEMEN ON FEBRUARY 16, 2017 (MAP UPDATE)
This map shows the military situation in Yemen on February 16, 2017. Recently, pro-Saudi forces had retaken the historic Red Sea port of Mocha from the Houthi-Saleh alliance.
https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-yemen-on-february-16-2017-map-update/
16.2.2017 – Democracy Now (* A K P)
Amy Goodman interviews Glen Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald: Trump Seems to Be Committed to Escalating Violence in Yemen
GLENN GREENWALD: I mean, what’s happened in Yemen is an absolute atrocity. It’s the poorest country in the region. The U.S. has constantly droned it. The Saudis, with U.S. and U.K. support, have bombed its civilians constantly. People are starving, including children. And the Trump administration seems to be committed to escalating the violence even worse. It’s a true tragedy, and we never talk about it in the United States.
AMY GOODMAN: And the issue that Spicer raised, that anyone who criticizes the Yemen raid owes an apology to the Navy SEAL’s family who was killed? Ten seconds.
GLENN GREENWALD: It’s a resurrection of standard U.S. rhetoric that we heard in the Bush era, that if you criticize the war, then it means you’re disrespecting the troops. And it’s extra ironic, since Trump ran on a platform of opposing the wars in Iraq and Libya, and yet he doesn’t seem to apply that same standard to himself that it means he’s disrespecting the troops (with film)
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/2/16/glenn_greenwald_trump_seems_to_be
16.2.2017 – Irish Times (* B K P)
How Yemen slid from territorial disputes to religious war
The political vacuum caused by the conflict in Yemen has facilitated the rise of Isis
The Saudi war on Yemen launched in March 2015 is not the first and is unlikely to be the last conflict between these tribal states.
Conflict in the post-first World War era began in 1932
Simmering Yemeni anger over the three provinces, Saudi efforts to convert Sunni Yemenis to puritan, intolerant Wahhabism, and marginalisation of the Zaydis, fuelled a Houthi rebellion, which escalated after the movement’s leader Hussein al-Houthi was killed in 2004.
Five years later Riyadh was humiliated when Saudi troops were defeated by the Houthis, whose Saada province borders Najran. The rebels took part in the 2011 Arab Spring protests, which brought down Saleh and led to the 2012 elevation to the presidency of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in an uncontested “election”.
Demanding fair representation in government and an end to corruption, the Houthis, backed by army units loyal to Saleh, took control of Sana’a, drove Hadi into exile in Saudi Arabia, and seized territory thoughout the country.
Riyadh, alleging the Houthis are supported by Tehran, pressed into service Sunni Gulf allies and launched a war on Yemen supported by the US and Britain which are arming the Saudis. This campaign has transformed the longstanding Saudi-Yemeni territorial dispute and the short-lived Yemen civil conflict into a Sunni-Shia war fuelled by the Saudi-Iran competition for regional influence.
The political vacuum caused by the conflict has led to the rise of al-Qaeda and Islamic State, also known as Isis, in Yemen and resurgence of south Yemeni separatism.
The Saudi war aim remains hegemony; the Houthi objective, representation for Zaydis, a moderate Shia sect constituting one-third of the population – by Michael Jansen
Remark: A short, serious survey of the Yemen war’s background.
16.2.2017 – Voice of America (* A K P)
Saudi-led Coalition Battles Yemen’s Houthis for Control of Red Sea Ports
Saudi-led coalition forces and their Yemeni allies fighting under the banner of President Mansour Hadi have captured several strategic ports on the Red Sea in recent weeks, and are vowing to try and pursue the largest prize, control over the Yemeni port of Hodeida.
The fight involves both an internal tug-of-war and a proxy battle between Iran and Saudi Arabia for influence over strategic waterways.
Saudi-backed Yemeni media recently broadcast video of Saudi-backed Yemeni militia fighters cheering after they seized part of the key Red Sea port of al-Mukha. The advance comes at the expense of Yemen’s Houthi militiamen, who control the capital, Sana'a, as well as the more important Red Sea port of Hodeida, 226 kilometers to the west.
Pro-Houthi media showed Yemenis fighting under the Houthi banner shouting that they would fight to defend the port of Hodeida until the death. One young man, dressed in a soccer shirt, claimed enthusiastically that he would gladly die to defend his country.
The pro-Houthi deputy governor of Hodeida province harangued a small crowd with patriotic rhetoric to assert that everyone supports the Houthis and will fight to keep control of Hodeida. Several officers from Yemen’s traditional military, loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, appear on camera as well but sound less enthusiastic.
A pro-Saudi Yemeni official noted that forces loyal to Hadi were advancing on ports near Hodeida, but that the Houthis were laying mines to try and stop them.
The Houthis’ loose coalition of mostly Shi’ite allies, including Iran and its proxy Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, have been waging both a media war and a shadowy campaign to help the Houthis against their Saudi nemesis, whom they are confronting by proxy elsewhere, in both Syria and Iraq.
http://www.voanews.com/a/saudi-yemen-red-sea-ports/3727542.html
My comment: Some interesting information, but the author stresses the well-known propaganda narrative of “Iran-backed” Houthis (which also are labeled as “Shiite” – they are not, but it fits so well to this sort of propaganda). – Appalling: Almost never in US reports stressing the Houthis as “Iran backed” you will find the obvious when Saudis or the Hadi-government are mentioned: “US-backed”.
16.2.2017 – Al Sahwa (A K P)
Houthis indirectly admit that 1000 fighters from Ibb killed
Militias of the Houthis and Saleh have indirectly admitted that about 1000 fighters of their militias who are originally from Ibb governorate were killed in a number of fight fronts.
The militias have recently organized an exhibition for pictures of their killed fighters. It displayed about 1000 pictures of their killed fighters who were originally from Ibb governorate.
Sources of the Houthi Movement have revealed that more than this number were killed, but the movement does not disclose the actual figures of its killed fighters.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-4079
My comment: By Islah Party media. There has been another article of the kind, referring to Dhamar. It seems the goal is to propagate how high Houthi losses actually are and that the foe will be slain.
16.2.2017 – Russia Insider (* A K P)
The US Is Now Arming Militias That Have Aligned With al-Qaeda in Yemen
But remember: It's Iran that's the #1 state sponsor of terrorism
Predictable news coming out of Yemen: Saudi-backed “Southern Resistance” forces and Hadi loyalists, alongside al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), launched a new offensive against the Houthis in western Yemen on Wednesday.
This is not the first time Saudi-backed (and by extension, Washington-backed) forces have teamed up with al-Qaeda in Yemen.
As Al Masdar News reports: […]
Yemen is quickly becoming the "spark that lights the powder keg". The conflict has already killed, maimed and displaced countless thousands (thanks to the stellar lack of reporting from trustworthy western news sources, we can only estimate the scale of Saudi/U.S. crimes in Yemen), but now it seems that elements of the Trump administration are keen on escalation, likely in hopes of giving Washington an excuse to carpet bomb Tehran.
Aside from the USS Cole (major false flag alert), Washington has now sent two additional destroyers to the Red Sea. And earlier this week it was revealed that the Trump administration aborted a Yemen operation that could have easily provoked a direct conflict with Iran.
So now we have Saudi-backed militias teaming up with al-Qaeda, as the U.S. Navy cruises off the coast of Yemen looking for any excuse to start launching cruise missiles.
What could possibly go wrong? And isn't it nice that our trustworthy western media is condemning this insane, illegal war of Saudi/U.S. aggression? – by Paul Kaiser
http://russia-insider.com/en/saudi-backed-forces-team-al-qaeda-new-yemen-offensive/ri18949
15.2.2017 – Sleuth Journal (* B K P)
Saudi Terror-Bombing in Yemen Now Trump’s War
The same goes for all Bush/Cheney/Obama wars in multiple theaters, still raging. Trump inherited them.
Failure to halt them makes him responsible for high crimes of war and against humanity. It breaches his promise to be noninterventionist.
On Wednesday, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Washington “will continue to work with” Yemen’s Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi – a US puppet, a despot, complicit with Al Qaeda.
Not according to Toner, saying the Trump administration supports him “in order to ultimately eradicate ISIS from Yemen” – failing to explain Washington created and supports the terrorist group, along with virtually all other regional ones.
Relentless Saudi terror-bombing continues, targeting civilians and Houthi opposition forces alike.
Most of the country faces famine conditions.
US/Saudi blockade prevents vitally needed humanitarian aid from entering the country in sufficient amounts. Conditions for millions are catastrophic.
A devastating holocaust gets little media attention. Conflict continues raging two years after Obama launched it.
Millions of lives are endangered. Instead of helping desperate people by halting the war, Trump apparently encourages it.
Washington and Britain supply Saudi Arabia with billions of dollars in weapons and munitions, including banned cluster bombs. They’re used for one purpose – mass slaughter and destruction, civilians harmed most of all.
Following Saudi terror-bombing a Houthi funeral ceremony last October, killing and wounding hundreds, UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson urged continued arms sales to its regime.
He lied saying Riyadh “appear(s) committed both to improving processes and to taking action to address failures…”
Two years of terror-bombing aren’t enough. America and Britain support more. Last November, Theresa May’s government rejected calls by two parliamentary committees and human rights groups to halt arms and munitions sales to the Saudis.
Their use violates international humanitarian law. War on Yemen is naked aggression, including regular drone strikes on Trump’s watch – in Yemen and elsewhere, mostly killing defenseless civilians.
America and Britain are complicit with Riyadh in waging war without mercy on millions of desperate Yemenis to reinstall despotic rule to the war-torn country.
http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/saudi-terror-bombing-yemen-trumps-war/ = http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2017/02/saudi-terror-bombing-in-yemen-now-trumps-war-3478189.html
15.2.2017 – Al Araby (* A K)
US drone carrying 'top-secret tech' shot down in Yemen
A likely US drone carrying a top-secret geolocation system has been shot down over the rebel-held central Yemeni province of Marib, local media has reported.
The unmanned drone was shot down late on Tuesday by Houthi rebels in the Sirwah district, the Houthi-run SABA News Agencyalleged.
"The air force and popular committees managed to down a drone belonging to the Saudi-US aggressors," an unnamed military source told the pro-rebel outlet.
Local media released alleged images of the downed drone in flames, including pictures of the GILGAMESH geolocation system used by the US military's Joint Special Operations Command in its long-running drone war in Yemen.
"CLASSIFIED SECRET WHEN KEYED," read a warning on an alleged piece of wreckage. On another piece, the word "GILGAMESH" is clearly inscribed.
According to 2014 report in The Intercept, the US has used a complex system of electronic surveillance codenamed GILGAMESH as the primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
"Under the [GILGAMESH] program, a specially constructed device is attached to the drone. As the drone circles, the device locates the SIM card or handset that the military believes is used by the target," the report said.
An unnamed military source told Turkish state media that the downed plane was "a large unmanned Phantom" carrying missiles. The source did not confirm whether the war plane belonged to the US air force.
Remark: Earlier reporting, images: YPR 267, cp17b.
15.2.2017 – Ben Norton (* A K)
US Air Force has given coalition warplanes bombing impoverished Yemen 54 million pounds of fuel in 7,564 refueling events in 1,778 sorties
https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/831914662635720712
In other words, for the millionth time, this isn't a "Saudi war"; without US support it would've never been possible
https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/831914923777212416
15.2.2017 – MbKS15 (A K P)
Royal #Saudi Air Force hosts the 2017 Air Chiefs Conference in #Riyadh with the Commanders of #GCC AFs, RJAF & #US AFCENT (photo)
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/831861046218465280
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
Siehe / Look at cp1
16.2.2017 – Fatik Al-Rodaini (A H)
Despite all difficalties we faced 2day during our humanitarian work n Khamis Bani Saad of Mahweet. @monarelief's team makes it again. #Yemen
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/832261649654509568
@monarelief has just completed anthr successful distribution of dignity bags funded by @iom_yemen &food baskets n Muhweet governorate #Yemen
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/832181020384432128
15.2.2017 – Doctors without borders (* A H)
Yemen: "We worked through the night"
Hella Hultin is a surgeon from Sweden. She is currently on assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Khameer, Yemen. Here she blogs about her first night in the hospital, and working at full speed from the start.
We were about do an appendectomy on a girl, but my Yemeni colleague thought I might be tired after the long journey, and did not think I needed to attend. So I sat in the operating room and watched.
Suddenly both of our phones rang. The voice on the other end was stressed, asking me to come straight to the emergency room
When I arrived the emergency room was full of people, both patients and relatives. Many patients were being rolled in on stretchers from the ambulance entrance.
I was told that there had been an air strike just a few hours ago and that more injured people would arrive.
They were all covered with dust and dirt, and almost all had wounds from shrapnel. Several had fractures of the arms or legs, and some had burns on the face and hands.
A desperate husband ran around the room and screamed - when I finally got the interpreter to translate what he was saying, it appeared that he was missing two of his two children who were there when it happened.
It is not hard to imagine his anxiety.
We worked all night, and all of the patients were admitted to hospital. Two of the most seriously injured we transferred on to a bigger hospital because they needed help we could not provide.
When I at last lay down in my bed, I felt like I had been here for several weeks – by Hella Hultin
http://blogs.msf.org/en/staff/blogs/msf-in-yemen/yemen-we-worked-through-the-night
2.2017 – UNICEF (* A H)
SCHULE IST DOOF? FÜR FAHD (10) AUS DEM JEMEN IST SIE ALLES
Durch den anhaltenden Konflikt im Jemen können aktuell 350.000 Kinder nicht mehr zur Schule gehen – der zehnjährige Fahd ist eines von ihnen. Doch Schule ist etwas, das für eine normale Kindheit steht. Hier können Mädchen und Jungen lernen, spielen und Freunde treffen. UNICEF baut derzeit viele Schulen wieder auf und errichtet Notschulen, damit die Kinder wieder lernen können.
Fahd will wieder zum Unterricht und ein normales Leben führen. Vor Ausbruch des Krieges lebte er friedlich in Sa’ada. Jeden Morgen stand er auf, ging in die Schule, spielte mit seinen Freunden und kam zum Abendessen wieder nach Hause. „Ich habe mich immer auf Zuhause gefreut, Mama hat lecker gekocht, die ganze Familie war zusammen. Wir hatten drei Schlafzimmer und eine schöne große Küche“, erinnert sich der Junge. Im März 2015 dann änderte sich alles für die Familie. Fahd wurde mitten in der Nacht von Bomben geweckt, der Vater wies alle an, schnell die Koffer zu packen. Dann floh die Familie mitten in der Nacht. „Es war so chaotisch, alle Menschen rannten um ihr Leben, die Straßen waren überfüllt. Wir mussten aus dem Auto steigen und laufen. Nach einigen Stunden waren meine Füße geschwollen. Ich wollte zurück. Doch mein Vater sagte mir, wir könnten getötet werden, also lief ich weiter. Bis wir nach zwei Tagen ein Dorf erreichten.
In der Notunterkunft im Dorf gab es nicht genug Platz für die Familie. Fahd und sein Vater musste draußen schlafen, seine Mutter und Schwester bekamen ein Zelt. Nach ein paar Wochen in dem Dorf machte sich Fahds Vater alleine auf nach Sa’ada, um ein paar Sachen aus dem Haus für seine Familie zu holen. „Ich bat ihn, vor allem meine Schulsachen mitzubringen. Er kam nach ein paar Tagen weinend zurück, unser Haus wurde durch die Bomben zerstört, wir hatten alles verloren. Ich hoffe, dass der Krieg bald vorbei ist und wir wieder nach Hause kommen. Warum gibt es Krieg – schlaue Menschen müssen doch verstehen, dass Krieg böse ist?“
Wie Fahd kämpfen viele Mädchen und Jungen im Jemen ums Überleben. Die anhaltende Gewalt führt zu Armut, Hunger und Krankheiten in den betroffenen Gebieten, Millionen Menschen haben ihr Zuhause verloren. Damit Kinder mit dem Nötigsten versorgt werden, liefert UNICEF Medikamente, Nahrung und Wasser. Mit der „Back to School“-Kampagne sollen Schülerinnen und Schüler wieder lernen können. Dafür renoviert UNICEF derzeit 700 zerstörte Schulen und baut Notschulen mit Schulmaterial in Zelten auf. Speziell ausgebildete Lehrer geben dort einfühlsamen und gut verständlichen Unterricht, der den Kindern hilft, mit der schwierigen Lebenssituation besser fertig zu werden. Machen Sie mit und werden Sie Teil der UNICEF-Arbeit - als Spender, Ehrenamtlicher oder einfach nur mit Ihren Likes und Shares auf Facebook, Twitter und Instagram – von Vera Mäusbacher
Dank UNICEF und seinen Unterstützern können Kinder im Jemen wieder lernen
https://www.unicef.de/informieren/aktuelles/blog/2017/fuer-fahd-ist-schule-alles/135264
15.2.2017 – British Red Cross (* A H)
Food, water, health care: five things you didn’t know about Yemen
After nearly two years of conflict, 18.8 million people in Yemen need humanitarian aid.
That’s more than in any other country, even Syria.
Over 14 million people don’t have enough food or water. Seven million of them are classed by the UN as ‘severely food insecure’.
This means that that they don’t know where their next meal is coming from and risk starvation.
A full-scale famine is possible in Yemen this year.
But how did things get so bad?
And what are the Red Cross and others doing about it?
1. Yemen was poor even before the conflict.
2. Children are disproportionately affected.
3. Families have lost their livelihoods.
4. Over half of Yemen’s health care facilities have closed.
5. Water shortages predicted before the conflict have become acute.
Before the current fighting began, it was predicted that Yemen could run out of water within ten years.
Around 50 per cent of people didn’t have access to piped water before the crisis.
Now, 14.4 million Yemenis need help to get safe drinking water and sanitation. Imagine nearly twice the population of London in this situation.
Dirty water can cause disease, such as diarrhoea, that leads to death. This is particularly serious for children.
The Red Cross and our partners the Red Crescent have helped bring clean water to people in seven cities and repair sewage systems.
This includes installing water pumps, providing electricity so they can work and training technicians to operate them.
The Red Cross has worked in Yemen since 1962 and will stay as long as we are needed.
Please donate to the Yemen Crisis Appeal to help keep this vital work going – By Diana Shaw
Support the Yemen Crisis Appeal
Find out more about how we’re helping in Yemen
Yemen photography competition: a window on the world
http://blogs.redcross.org.uk/emergencies/2017/02/five-things-yemen/
15.2.2017 – AFP (* A H K)
MSF urges aid access in Yemen
Doctors Without Borders on Wednesday urged all warring parties in Yemen to allow aid deliveries, saying it had treated more than 55,000 people wounded during a Saudi-led intervention in the country.
"Since the violence escalated in March 2015, MSF has treated... more than 55,000 war-wounded patients across the country," said Djoen Besselink, using the French acronym of the medical charity that he heads in Yemen.
"The warring parties must support aid organisations to reach the people most in need," he told a news conference in Amman.
"We call on the international aid organisations and donor governments to -- together with MSF -- ensure that aid is delivered to all in need and increase the humanitarian response where needed," said Besselink.
He also called for ports and airports to be reopened.
The Saudi-led coalition has imposed a marine and air blockade against rebel-held areas.
http://www.france24.com/en/20170215-msf-urges-aid-access-yemen
15.2.2017 – AP (* A H K)
Doctors Without Borders is warning of a worsening situation in the Yemeni city of Taiz, where hospitals have been repeatedly attacked and where some 200,000 people are facing shortages of food, water and medicine.
Djoen Besselink, the head of the aid group's Yemen mission, told reporters in Jordan on Monday that attacks on hospitals, ambulances and medical staff had severely limited the group's activities in the city, which has been partially besieged by Houthi rebels since April 2015.
Besselink, who visited Taiz last month, said he's "never seen such destruction" at the four hospitals his group supports. He says "there's not a single room without bullet holes, the windows are gone, there's no more equipment. It's total failure."
He says the four hospitals treated over 10,000 people in 2016
Comment by Judith Brown: Taiz is a terrible place but at least MSF are still operating there - they have had to leave the northwest since their hospitals have been so savagely attacked by Saudis aerial bombardment on repeated occasions. Although they have also attacked the Taiz centre on one occasion, and Amnesty has announced that extremist anti-Houthi militias have attacked hospitals in Taiz, as well as the Houthi-Saleh alliance attacking a hospital early in the conflict. This is a war crime and all parties seem to act with impunity
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155219033678641
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
16.2.2017 – Saba Net (A K P)
President visits Arhab, offers condolences to families of funeral house
President of the Supreme Political Council Saleh al-Sammad visited on Thursday Arhab district in Sana'a governorate, offering condolences to victims of the massacre committed by the US-Saudi criminal aggression warplanes on a the house in the district.
The US-Saudi aggression warplanes pounded on Wednesday afternoon a funeral house in Arhab district of Sana'a province, killing eight women, including children.
The air raid hit the funeral house in Shira area, Bait al-Nakaee, in Arhab. The raid also injured ten other women.
The president condemned the heinous crimes and massacres committed by the US-Saudi American aggression, criticizing the complicity of the international community with the aggression against Yemen for two years.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news456447.htm = http://newnewss.net/?p=2835 and photos: https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/832294069279846400 and https://twitter.com/KvNcIwoZLc7wsnI/status/832270609853857793
15.2.2017 – Saba Net (A)
Security services seize 151 kilos of Hashish in Sa'ada
The security services and popular committees seized on Wednesday 151 kilos of Hashish in al-Safra district of Sa'ada province.
A security official told Saba that a Toyota-Hilux car was seized onboard 151 kilos of Hashish at al-Razamat security checkpoint in al-Manshor area in al-Safra.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news456294.htm
15.2.2017 – Saba Net (A P)
FM meets UN Acting Office for Political Affairs
Foreign Minister Hisham Sharaf met on Wednesday with the Acting of the United Nations Office for Political Affairs in Sana'a.
The meeting discussed the developments of the political situation and ways of supporting peace talks aimed at achieving a political settlement in order to preserve the rights of Yemeni People.
He emphasized the support the UN's functions Office for Political Affairs in Sana'a and provide all facilities to ensure the success of its performance with the guidance of the National Salvation Government to strengthen all efforts for a just and comprehensive in the country and stop the aggression and lift the siege against Yemen.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news456320.htm
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
15.2.2017 – Almasdar Online (A)
Taiz: Military campaign to keep peace
The pro-government forces in Taiz have widely deployed to keep peace in the city’s streets and neighborhoods, following clashes between outlaw militants and the pro-government forces.
The pro-government statement stressed that the military campaign will deter any outlaw armed manifestations that stir chaos and anarchy in the city, especially after the recent security disturbances the city witnessed.
It is worth to mention that recent clashes between outlaw armed gangs and pro-government forces had resulted in the death of two civilians and the injury of others within the past two days.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/88891
Remark: For clashes between various anti-Houthi fighters’ factions YPR 267, cp6.
15.2.2017 – Lindro (* B K P)
Yemen, le mani su Socotra
[Italian media on the foreign hands on 'Socotra Island']
I quartieri residenziali degli Emirati e le soffiate sulle basi militari
Gli Emirati Arabi Uniti stanno costruendo un quartiere residenziale nell’isola yemenita di Socotra. Una notizia apparentemente insignificante, riportata agli inizi di gennaio sui quotidiani locali, peraltro senza fare troppo rumore e soprattutto senza accenni alla guerra in Yemen. Ufficialmente Zayed Residential City 1 dovrebbe ospitare le famiglie rimaste senza casa nel 2015 dopo il passaggio del ciclone tropicale Megh. E la missione umanitaria della Mezzaluna Rossa non farebbe una piega se poche miglia nautiche più in là non infuriasse una guerra civile che ha già fatto 10.000 morti e in questi giorni infiamma rotte e porti del Golfo di Aden e del Mar Rosso.
Socotra è al centro di tutte le rotte che partono dall’Oceano Indiano. Nel 2012 il sito israeliano di intelligence ‘Debkafile‘ e l’inglese ‘Economist‘ avevano parlato di una presenza statunitense nell’isola: gli americani stavano costruendo una base aerea e un punto di attracco per sottomarini. All’epoca il presidente dello Yemen era Ali Abdallah Saleh, oggi alla guida della rivolta degli Houthi.
La notizia della presenza americana a Socotra è affiorata più volte sui media iraniani – di Monica Mistretta
http://www.lindro.it/yemen-le-mani-su-socotra/
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
16.2.2017 – UN (A P)
Yemen: Senior UN aid official ‘appalled’ by airstrikes that kill women and children
The top United Nations humanitarian official in Yemen today said he was extremely saddened and appalled by the airstrikes that killed six women and a girl gathering for a funeral in a private residence in the Arhab District of Sana’a Governorate yesterday.
“The manner in which the parties to the conflict are waging this war is taking an unacceptable toll on the civilian population in Yemen and as illustrated by this most recent tragedy, women and children are paying with their lives,” said UN Humanitarian Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick in a statement.
“I am alarmed to see this tragic loss of life further escalate the fighting, with reports of a retaliatory ballistic missile strike into Saudi Arabia’s Asir region,” he said.
In a separate statement on the incident, UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, stressed that every day, across Yemen, civilians are killed by indiscriminate attacks by all parties to the conflict on residential areas in complete disregard of the rules of international humanitarian law.
“Attacks on civilians are unjustifiable, regardless of the circumstances. Women and children in particular have been subjected to unspeakable suffering in this brutal conflict. This should stop immediately,” he said, calling an all parties to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law and respect the sanctity of civilian life.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=56188#.WKaJgfnhCUk
16.2.2017 – UN (A P)
Statement by the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, on the recent events in Sana'a
Six women and a girl were killed and dozens of people were wounded as a result of an alleged airstrike, which hit a funeral in the Arhab district of Sana’a Governorate yesterday afternoon.
Every day, across Yemen, civilians are killed by indiscriminate attacks by all parties to the conflict on residential areas in complete disregard of the rules of international humanitarian law. Attacks on civilians are unjustifiable, regardless of the circumstances. Women and children in particular have been subjected to unspeakable suffering in this brutal conflict. This should stop immediately.
I call on all parties to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law and respect the sanctity of civilian life.
The ongoing military clashes on the Red Sea coast is also aggravating an already catastrophic humanitarian situation. Tens of thousands of civilians have been caught in the war zone without access to humanitarian assistance and unable to flee to safety. The military activities in the region threaten to disrupt the import of commercial and humanitarian supplies which could have a terrible impact on the food security for large parts of the population. I urge all parties to ensure the unhindered movement of commercial and humanitarian supplies, without which millions of Yemenis are at risk of death and famine.
This deterioration of the humanitarian situation again underscores the need to end the violence and to achieve a sustainable cessation of hostilities and enduring solution to the Yemeni conflict through an inclusive political process.
My comment: Appalling: Whether speaking of bombing or blockade – never the UN mentions who does it, who is responsible (in case the Saudis and the UN’s “legitimate” government are the ones). And the airstrike is only called alleged” – what else do you think of? Earthquake? Meteorite? Vulcano? And at the site, they found the rests of the bombs. This man is just disgusting.
16.2.2017 – Reuters (A P)
Saudi foreign minister optimistic about overcoming Mideast challenges
audi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said on Thursday he was optimistic about overcoming "the many challenges" in the Middle East and looked forward to working with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Asked if he was concerned that the Trump administration was backing away from a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Jubeir said: "We look forward to working with the Trump administration on all issues in the region."
"We are very, very optimistic about our ability to overcome the many challenges we face in the region," he added.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN15V0VT?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content
My comment: Odd propaganda, Saudi Arabia one of the main sources for all that mess.
Comment: Saudi Foreign Minister is optimistic. The Middle East is not when it comes to Saudis' mingling
https://twitter.com/Living_Yemen/status/832264028688900096
15.2.2017 – UN (A P)
Press remarks by the Secretary-General following his meeting with Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Oman
This is my first visit to the region and the objective is to be able to consult the Government of Oman to see how I can be useful, recognizing that it’s Member States and the people that have the leadership in bringing peace to the region. How I can be useful in supporting all those like Oman, who has always been in the first line of mediation trying to bring together the parties to the conflict and trying to make sure that peace is possible.
Close to Oman, there’s a very dramatic situation in Yemen. I have known the Yemeni people for a long time. They are a generous people who are suffering so much. So I really want to be able to serve and support the efforts of all those who want peace to be re-established in Yemen for people to be able to overcome the present tragedy.
Comment by Hisham Al-Omeisy: Interesting. @antonioguterres is in Muscat for discussions focusing on #Yemen peace efforts. New UNSG appears to be more hands on. #Welcomed
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/831846033554567169
cp9 USA
Siehe / Look at cp1, cp2
17.2.2017 – Science (* A P)
The America I believe in
This past week, I was supposed to visit Boston and New York City to meet with a pharmaceutical company about a potential partnership, participate in a meeting for an international consortium of which I am an integral part, and attend the annual meeting of a charitable foundation that supports some of my research. Instead, as a Muslim and a U.S. citizen from Yemen now living in Switzerland, I chose to cancel my trip because of President Donald Trump's executive order banning people of certain nationalities from entering the United States. I still participated in these events to the extent I could, aided by technology, but I would have had a richer experience if I had been there in person. Nonetheless, I felt it would not be right for me to make the trip.
I chose to stay away for three reasons
Third, I wanted to retain my view of the United States as an inclusive, tolerant, and supportive country.
That had been my experience since I arrived in New York City from Yemen with my brother when I was 15 years old – by Hilal A. Lashuel
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6326/766
My comment: Be aware of this: The politics and interventions of the America you believe in has caused the death of several millions of people since the end of the Soviet Union alone.
16.2.2017 – The American Conservative (* A K P)
The Ongoing Disgrace of U.S. Support for the War on Yemen
Once again the Saudi-led coalition has bombed a civilian target, and then conducted a despicable “double-tap” strike to attack the people coming to help the wounded. This is part of a consistent pattern of attacking targets that the coalition must know aren’t legitimate military targets. The funeral hall massacre last fall was the most egregious example of this behavior, but it has been a regular part of the bombing campaign ever since it began in March 2015. The U.S. continues to aid and abet the coalition as it carries out war crimes such as these, and based on what we’ve been hearing from the new administration that support is only going to increase. Our government is providing the weapons and fuel that allow coalition planes to blow up women and children at funerals, and it is doing this just so we can “reassure” a few despotic governments. U.S. support for the indefensible war on Yemen is an ongoing disgrace and an enduring blot on our country’s reputation – by Daniel Larison
16.2.2017 – Reuters (A P)
U.S.' Tillerson backs U.N.-led Yemen process, wants unfettered aid
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday his country backed United Nations-led efforts to resolve the crisis in Yemen and called for unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid across the Gulf state.
"The Secretary underscored the United States’ continued support for the UN-led process ...and noted the urgent need for the unfettered delivery of humanitarian assistance throughout Yemen," Acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.
Tillerson earlier held his first meeting on Yemen with counterparts from Britain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman – by Andrea Shalal
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-yemen-tillerson-idUSKBN15V1OT and by State dep.: https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2017/02/267661.htm
My comment: Thus, four warring and one neutral party (Oman), what should this be?
Comment by Adam Baron: Tillerson sounding pretty identical to Kerry on Yemen here
https://twitter.com/adammbaron/status/832236097736417280
Comment by Sophie McNeill: US Sec of State Tillerson calls for unhindered delivery of aid to #Yemen - he better talk to his #Saudi partners
https://twitter.com/Sophiemcneill/status/832240655208480768
15.2.2017 – Reuters (A H P)
Refugees in the United States fearing a worsening climate of xenophobia in the wake of a divisive U.S. presidential campaign are flocking to Canada in growing numbers.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-refugees-idUSKBN15L26O
and
This Yemeni man was shaking so badly that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer asked if he was cold and he replied "I am scared". The man had his arms up as he crossed the U.S.-Canada border into Hemmingford, Quebec. The RCMP officer said he didn't have to do that here, he could put his arms down. (photo)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQi-MtTjlXX/
15.2.2017 – Democracy Now (* A P T)
Rep. Lieu: The White House Lying & Stifling Dissent on Yemen Raid is Step Toward Authoritarianism
Having served on active duty, I am deeply offended by the comments coming from the White House by a president that has never served in the military and is now attacking people simply because people are raising issues about a military raid. What makes the American military so great is we learn from our mistakes. And what we want to do is learn what happened, not stifle dissent. And that’s why I’ve concluded Donald Trump is a danger to the republic. He is stifling dissent. He is attacking institutions of democracy, such as the free press, such as the judiciary. This is what leads us down to road to authoritarianism.
And specifically in Yemen, his White House press secretary said that it was a success by all standards. That is simply a lie. We lost a $75 million plane. We lost an American hero. Nine children were killed. That is not a success by all standards. We need to find out more about what happened with this raid. And we do know that the Reuters news agency reported that Donald Trump ordered the raid without adequate intelligence and without adequate ground support or adequate backup preparations. We need to find out what happened, not have dissent stifled.
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/2/15/rep_lieu_the_white_house_lying
15.2.2017 – Washington Post (A H P)
‘We don’t know what we are going to do’: Yemeni students, unable to return home, face uncertain status in America
They left their families in Yemen nearly three years ago through an exchange program that aimed to introduce Muslim high school students from overseas to America. But when civil war broke out at home, they couldn’t return, and what was supposed to be a 10-month visit turned into an indefinite stay.
Now the State Department — which sponsored the program and has supported these two dozen students since they arrived in 2014 — has notified them that they’ll be on their own in a few months.
For these Yemeni students, most of them thousands of miles away from their nearest relatives, that means no more housing or living stipends, and no more community college tuition aid. Perhaps most important, it also means no more student visas. That will leave many of them facing the prospect of losing their legal status as visitors at a time when President Trump has pledged heightened immigration enforcement.
“I don’t only have to look for a place to stay and a way to pay for myself and a way to pay for my education, but now I also have to worry about racism and legal status,” said Taima Aliriani, 17, who graduated from high school in Indiana and is now at Northern Virginia Community College. “I applied for asylum, but right now I feel like I’m probably not going to get it.”
Aliriani is one of six Yemeni exchange students who were trapped here by their country’s civil war and are now at NOVA. Six others are at community colleges in Wisconsin, and a dozen are studying in Washington state – by Emma Brown
Comment by Judith Brown: Oh dear more unfairness in USA. Yemeni people need the world just now and at their time of need the world turns their back on them.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155218805548641
14.2.2017 – Middle East Eye (* A P)
Ignore the tough talk - Trump’s Iran policy will be much like Obama’s
For all its grandstanding, Trump's administration is just following an American tradition of coercing Iran and its 'malign influence'
despite the rather crude warnings to Tehran by now ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn and by Trump himself, the Iran policy that has begun to take shape in the administration’s first weeks looks quite similar to Obama's.
The reason is that the Obama administration’s policy on Iran reflected the views of a national security team that adhered to an equally hardline stance as those of the Trump administration.
Flynn declared on 1 February that the Obama administration had “failed to respond adequately to Tehran’s malign actions” and suggested that things would be different under Trump. But that rhetoric was misleading, both with regard to the Obama administration’s policy toward Iran and on the options available to Trump going beyond that policy.
The 'malign influence'
The idea that Obama had somehow become chummy with Iran doesn’t reflect the reality of the former administration's doctrine on Iran.
The Obama nuclear deal with Iran angered right-wing extremists, but his nuclear diplomacy was based on trying to coerce Iran to give up as much of its nuclear programme as possible through various forms of pressure, including cyber attacks, economic sanctions and the threat of a possible Israeli attack.
On the larger issues of Iran’s influence in the Middle East, Obama’s policy largely reflected the views of the permanent national security state, which has regarded Iran as an implacable enemy for decades, ever since the CIA and the US military were at war with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Shia militias in the Strait of Hormuz and Beirut in the 1980s.
The antagonism that the Trump team has expressed toward Iran’s regional role is no different from what had been said by the Obama administration for years.
Beginning with President Bill Clinton, every administration has accused Iran of being the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism, not on the basis of any evidence but as a settled principle of US policy. Starting with the World Trade Center bombing of 1993, the Clinton administration blamed Iran for every terrorist attack in the world even before any investigation had begun.
As I discovered from extended investigations into both the Buenos Aires terror bombing of 1994 and the Khobar Towers bombing of 1996, the supposed evidence of Iranian involvement was either nonexistent or clearly tainted. But neither inhibited the continued narrative of Iran as a terrorist state.
The Trump team has indicated its intention to give strong support to Saudi Arabia’s regional anti-Iran policy. But it is now apparent that Trump is not inclined to do anything more militarily against the Assad regime than Obama was. And on Yemen, the new administration is not planning to do anything that Obama did not already do.
When asked whether the administration was “reassessing” the Saudi war in Yemen, a senior official gave a one-word answer: “No”. That indicates that Trump will continue the Obama administration policy of underwriting the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen - providing aerial refuelling, bombs and political-diplomatic support - which is necessary for Riyadh's war.
Both Obama and Trump administrations thus appear to share responsibility for the massive and deliberately indiscriminate bombing of Houthi-controlled cities as well as for the existing and incipient starvation of 2.2 million Yemeni children.
It is true that the possibility of a much more aggressive military policy from the Trump administration cannot be completely ruled out, but any policy proposal involving the threat or use of force would have to be approved by the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and that is very unlikely to happen
In the end, the main contours of US policy toward Iran have always reflected the views and the interests of the permanent national security state far more than the ideas of the president. That fact has ensured unending US hostility toward Iran, but it also very likely means continuity rather than radical shifts in policy under Trump – by Gareth Porter
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/why-trump-s-iran-policy-will-be-very-similar-obama-s-1365469148 = https://consortiumnews.com/2017/02/14/more-bluster-and-bluff-on-iran/
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
14.2.2017 – Amnesty International (* A P)
Why does the UK continue to supply weapons to Saudi Arabia - a country accused of such unlawful and devastating airstrikes in Yemen?
In response, Ministers continue to roll out the line that the UK has one of the most robust sales processes in the world. If only this were true…
One might ask, how many Yemenis need to die before we stop selling arms?
We and the Yemeni people deserve answers. Here are 5 questions the UK government must answer on arms sales to Saudi Arabia
What will it take for the UK to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia?
When asked by a Lord’s Select Committee about suspending arms exports to Saudi Arabia pending a UN inquiry, Boris Johnson the Foreign Secretary replied, to the astonishment of one of the Lords present:
'We have received sufficient assurances from the Saudis about the incidents that have taken place so far to think that we are on the right side – narrowly on the right side – of that threshold.' Boris Johnson
The UK’s assessment of being narrowly on the “right side” flies in the face of multiple reports from Amnesty International, NGO reports from the ground, a report by a UN Panel of Experts on the Yemen conflict, a Legal Opinion by leading human rights legal experts, and calls from three Select Committees to address the issue of arms transfers to Saudi Arabia.
What exactly are those UK personnel doing in the Saudi Arabian command and control centre?
The Saudi Arabian foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, enlightened us that:
'We have British officials…in our command and control centre. They know what the target list is and they have a sense of what it is that we are doing and what we are not doing'.
The International Development Select Committee are also keen to know the answer to this question, asking the UK government to provide more detail on the role of UK personnel in Saudi Arabia, in particular:
How many UK personnel are assisting the Saudi Arabian armed forces and in what roles, including BAE Systems employees?
How are UK personnel advising the Saudi Arabian armed forces on IHL and what level of understanding do they have of the coalition’s regard for IHL in its operations in Yemen?
Why is the UK involved in the supply of cluster munitions?
Why won’t the UK push for an independent international investigation?
Apparently, ministers are not opposed to an international investigation but continue to believe the Saudis should be allowed to conduct their own inquiries first.
I would invite the Minister to assess our analysis of the investigations to date. They have concluded that the Saudi Arabia-led coalition’s investigations into violations appear to have failed to meet international standards.
The Ministry of Defence is tracking 252 alleged violations of humanitarian law by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition. How many of them are civilian deaths?
Have any of them been the subject of the coalition’s Joint Incidents Assessment Team?
And, furthermore, when will the UK support calls to establish an independent international investigation into violations of international law in Yemen by all parties to the conflict, with a view to ensuring that perpetrators are held accountable?
So many questions.
Did the UK breach the ministerial code? – by Lucy Wake - Government and Political Relations Manager, Amnesty UK
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
17.2.2017 – Pilot Web (A K)
B0019/17 (Issued for EDWW EDGG EDMM) - SECURITY - SAUDI ARABIA ... POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS SITUATION -
FIR JEDDAH (OEJD)
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY ADVISES GERMAN OPERATORS NOT TO PLAN AND
CONDUCT FLIGHTS WITHIN SOUTH WEST SECTOR OF FIR JEDDAH (OEJD)
INCLUDING TAKE OFF AND LANDINGS AT OEAB.
POTENTIAL RISK TO AVIATION FROM DEDICATED GROUND TO GROUND WEAPONRY
AND ONGOING MILITARY OPERATIONS.
AFFECTED AREA:
ALONG FIR SANAA AND FIR JEDDAH BORDER WAYPOINTS
NISMI-NABAN-NOBSU-NETAS-DCT NEJRAN-DCT TASMU- DCT
ELIVI-DCT IRBAB-DCT EMEKO-DCT 1912.0N 04110.8E DCT
SOLUT-DCT IMRAM-DCT BOXIL-DCT NISMI. 10 JAN 14:29 2017 UNTIL 28 FEB 23:59 2017
Remark: German Aviation Authority advises national airlines not to send flights to airports in southern Saudi Arabia
16.2.2017 – Moy Enne (A P)
Meantime. While awaiting comments on deadly strike #Arhab UN envoy to #Yemen attending #G20 #Germany [Al-Jubeir/#Tillerson #Osesgy] (photos)
https://twitter.com/Moyenne1/status/832210948358361088
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
16.2.2017 – Human Rights Watch (* A P)
UAE: Academic Facing Speech Charges
Nasser bin Ghaith Has Spent 18 month in Pre-Trial Detention
An Emirati academic facing charges that include his peaceful criticism of the Egyptian and Emirati authorities will have spent more than 18 months in detention by the time the next session of his trial takes place on February 22, 2017, Human Rights Watch said today. Nasser bin Ghaith spent nine months in incommunicado detention after his arrest in August 2015, and authorities have kept him in solitary confinement since his transfer to the maximum security block in Al-Sadr jail on May 18, 2016.
Three of the five charges against him clearly violate his right to freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said. Security officers in civilian clothes arrested bin Ghaith in Abu Dhabi on August 18, 2015, four days after he posted a series of tweets that criticized Egyptian authorities. Other charges stem from material he posted online with “sarcastic intent” or to “damage the reputation” of the state or its leaders. Local sources have told Human Rights Watch that prison authorities have denied him access to the medical care he needs for various health conditions.
“For nine months, bin Ghaith’s family had to deal with not knowing where he was, and since then they’ve had to cope with the knowledge he is suffering in solitary confinement,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
Authorities also accuse bin Ghaith of collaborating with Al-Islah and the Ummah party, groups the authorities classified as terrorist in 2014.
One of the speech charges bin Ghaith faces is that he posted information “intended to damage the UAE” by “claiming that he was tortured and unjustly accused during a previous trial.” In 2011, bin Ghaith was one of five men convicted of “publicly insulting” UAE officials in relation to their criticism of the UAE’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. At the time of his arrest in 2011, he was a lecturer at Sorbonne Abu Dhabi University. Bin Ghaith received a two-year sentence in November 2011 but a court commuted his sentence the following day and he was released, having spent seven months in pretrial detention.
Another speech charge is in connection with a tweet that he posted on August 17, 2015, in which, local media reports said, he made “remarks ridiculing the UAE’s decision to allot land to build a Hindu temple.”
“It’s very easy to become a terrorist in the UAE, all you need to do is say the wrong thing or know the wrong person,” Stork said.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/02/16/uae-academic-facing-speech-charges
15.2.2017 – Solothurner Zeitung (* B P)
Omans Herrscher ist krank: Im stabilsten Land Arabiens wächst die Angst vor der Zukunft
15.2.2017 – Middle East Monitor (A P)
Cuba announces support for Yemen’s President Hadi
Cuba today announced its support for the ‘legitimate’ government headed by President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, stating that it is willing to work with him and all of the relevant parties to achieve a political settlement to the conflict in the country. The announcement was made by Deputy Foreign Minister Rohiluo Sierra Dias during a meeting with the Yemeni ambassador to Cuba, Mohammed Saleh, reported the Saba News Agency.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170215-cuba-announces-support-for-yemens-president-hadi/
Comment by Judith Brown: Well look at the small numbers holding up Hadi's picture. There are very few supporting Hadi in Yemen. Compare this with the huge, huge, huge demonstrations in Yemen against Hadi and the Saudi bombardment. Cuba is wrong in supporting this terrible warmongering man who can have little care for his own people to let this blood bath continue.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155219023663641
12.2.2017 – AP (* A K P)
Somaliland agrees to UAE military base in northern port
Somalia's breakaway northern territory of Somaliland has said the United Arab Emirates can establish a military base in its territory.
The Emirati government in January submitted a formal application seeking permission from the Somaliland government to open a military base in the port town of Berbera.
The parliament of Somaliland on Sunday approved the UAE plan. The plan is controversial and the neighboring countries of Ethiopia and Djibouti are opposed to it, according to local reports.
The UAE government is planning to establish a naval base with warships that would be used to attack Shia Houthi fighters fighting the government in Yemen, according to a Somaliland official who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.
Speaking at the parliament session, Somaliland's president said that the military base would benefit Somaliland most and help create jobs – BY ABDI GULED
https://www.yahoo.com/news/somaliland-agrees-uae-military-northern-port-134632304.html = http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/02/12/somaliland-agrees-to-uae-military-base-in-northern-port.html
Remark: More on this subject YPR 267, cp2.
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
16.2.2017 – Shephard Media (* A E K P)
IDEX 2017: Yemen conflict impacting regional defence needs (video)
The conflict in Yemen is having an impact on the defence requirements of GCC members and others in the region as battle wear, supplies and material support all become factors.
Michael Stephens, head of RUSI Qatar, spoke with Shephard about the conflict and its effect on security in the region, particularly at sea. Meanwhile efforts to integrate defence planning, strategy and procurement in the GCC continue, such as in missile defence, although more still needs to be done – by Richard Thomas (film)
https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/imps-news/idex-2017-yemen-conflict-impacting-regional-defenc/ and film also at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jy0IBQMFeA
My comment: More profits for the arms industry “thanks” to the Yemen war. That’s insane. IDEX as a great arms show at Abu Dhabi (look at YPR 267, cp13a).
16.2.2017 – MbKS15 (A K P)
[Image]: The first fighter Rafale single seat Air Force princely # Qatar (EQ01) whitewashes distinct from the French version
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/832072099569229824
cp13b Wirtschaft / Economy
31.1.2017 – World Food Programme (* A E H)
Yemen Market Watch Report, Issue No. 9, January 2017
Highlights
Availability of food and fuel commodities further deteriorated in January 2017 due to reportedly reduced imports and hoarding of essential commodities by opportunistic traders in anticipation of increased prices.
In-country stocks of wheat and sugar expected to run out by end of April 2017 while rice and vegetable oil merely cover one month national requirement.
- Prices of food and fuel commodities increased in January 2017, and continued to be significantly higher than the precrisis levels.
The cost of the minimum food basket rose in January by nearly 4% compared to December, and 26% higher than in the pre-crisis period.
According to Alert for Price Spikes (ALPS) methodology, in January 2017, normal situation prevailed for vegetable oil, while wheat flour was on stress level and red beans on alert status and sugar continued to be at crisis level. The ALPS indicator for the cost of the minimum food basket still remain at normal condition.
Macroeconomic Situation
Yemen’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined by 32.9% between 2014 and 2015, and according to MoPIC’s projection the GDP might have shrunk further by about 12.8% in 2016. The ongoing conflict which adversely affected Yemen’s infrastructure, public and private enterprises, including Islamic and commercial banks, disrupted economic activities, such as oil and gas production and exportation, and caused a suspension in donor development support programs and all forced the government to shut down its public service programs, leaving many Yeminis without welfare assistance as well as disruption of salaries that led to rising needs for humanitarian assistance.
An estimated 18.8 million people require some kind of assistance or protection in order to meet their basic needs, including 10.3 million who acutely need aid to save or sustain their lives. This represents an increase of almost 20 per cent since late 2014 and is driven by growing needs in all sectors after nearly two years of conflict.
Imports of essential commodities continue to suffer from lack of foreign currencies and the continued depreciation of Yemen Riyal (YER) against US Dollar (USD) – with the average exchange rate in January 2017 reaching as high as YER330/USD in parallel markets compared to the current official rate of YER250/USD.
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-market-watch-report-issue-no-9-january-2017 and in full: http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ena/wfp290444.pdf = http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/wfp290444.pdf
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
15.2.2017 – Terror Monitor (A T)
Photos released by IS: Supporters in Qifa area, Baydah province
https://twitter.com/TerrorMonitorAR/status/831862211110899712
https://twitter.com/TerrorMonitorAR/status/831859752401588225
cp15 Propaganda
16.2.2017 – Asharq Al-Awsat ( AP)
Washington Wants Yemen Solution that Guarantees Safety of Gulf States
Yemen’s Ambassador to Washington Dr. Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak told Asharq Al-Awsat that the new U.S. administration has informed his country of its keenness to find a political solution in Yemen that would not turn into a reward for Iran and would guarantee security in the region in general and in Gulf States in precise.
He said that Washington is seeking to further coordinate militarily with Yemenis and cooperate with the Arab Coalition to restore legitimacy in Yemen.
The Ambassador said that the new administration’s speech reflected the major change as it stressed the U.S. willingness to provide international navigation.
For his part, U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Matthew Tueller told Asharq Al-Awsat that the new administration seeks a political solution for the conflict in Yemen which boosts the U.S. regional security goals.
This common point of view between the two countries was there from the beginning when the U.S. launched consecutive campaigns to fight terrorism around the world.
My comment: What a bullshit this should be? “that would not turn into a reward for Iran”: Iran is not involved in Yemen. – “guarantee security in the region in general and in Gulf States in precise”: the insecurity for the Gulf states, as far as Yemen is concerned, mainly is due to their interference in Yemeni affairs.
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
Siehe / Look at cp1a
16.2.2017 – Legal Center (* A K PH)
The violations and crimes that are committed by Saudi Arabia and its alliance in Yemen 15/2/2017 (full list)
https://www.facebook.com/551288185021551/photos/a.551858951631141.1073741828.551288185021551/775469049270129/?type=3 and http://lcrdye.org/lcrd/Eng/PageDetails?id=643 (http://lcrdye.org/userfiles/files/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B2%D9%8A/Reports%20center/Daily%20reports/2017/Feb/15%20Feb,%202017.pdf )
16.2.2017 – Yamanyoon (A K PH)
Saudi American Aggression Targets Civilian Farms in Taiz
Fighter jets of the Saudi American aggression waged three raids on Barah region in Taiz governorate, aiming at the farms of Yemeni citizens.
http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=64738&lang=en
16.2.2017 – Al Masirah TV (B K PH)
Film: The size of the devastation caused by the Saudi American aggression in the market Malaheet Saada
The story of one of the regions of Saada market does not exceed an area of 2 square kilometers launch airline Saudi American aggression more than 500 Malaheet raid on a market in Saada province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5GecAfU0b0
16.2.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
US-Saudi aggression hits Sa’ada with Internationally banned cluster bombs
The US-Saudi aggression warplanes pounded on Thursday citizens’ houses in Sa’ada province, using internationally banned cluster bombs.
A security official told Saba that the aggression warplanes waged four airstrikes on several parts in Sa’ada city with banned cluster bombs.
The raids caused inflicted huge damage to citizens’ houses and their properties.
The official said that the city of Sa’ada and its districts were hit with internally banned cluster bombs in shameful international silence.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news456399.htm = http://newnewss.net/?p=2832 and films https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYp3r8WTsHQ (Yemen Today) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIal3s54fzM (Al Masirah)
16.2.2017 – Hussain Albukhaiti / Ahmad Alghobary / Mary Wareham (A K PH)
3 cluster bombs dropped yesterday by #Saudi #UAE CO on neighborhood n #Saada city N #Yemen Can someone identify the type&manufacturer (photos)
https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/832210678568144896
https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/832255959749840896
https://twitter.com/marywareham/status/832243291664039937
16.2.2017 – Nasser Arrabyee (A K PH)
US-backed Saudi war criminals Dropped hundreds of cluster bombs Wednesday on Saada residential areas in hysterical way (photos)
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/832233337007833088
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/832233156510150658
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/832233051929329666
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/832232547035836417
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/832232365254701061
16.2.2017 – Yamanyoon (A K PH)
Roundup: 309 Airstrikes Hit Yemen in Five Days
At least twenty-one civilians have been killed, including three children, and dozens wounded in 309 airstrikes launched by the warplanes of the US-backed Saudi aggression on several Yemeni governorates over the past five days, officials and residents told Yamanyoon.
http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=64635&lang=en
15.2.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
US-Saudi aggression warplanes wage seven raids on Serwah
The US-Saudi aggression warplanes waged on Wednesday seven air raids on different parts of Serwah in Mareb province.
A local official said that the aggression warplanes targeted al-Makhdra with four air raids, using cluster bombs.
The aggression warplanes launched three air airstrikes on different areas in the district, the official said.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news456295.htm = http://newnewss.net/?p=2792
cp17a Kriegsereignisse: Mokha / Theater of War: Mokha
16.2.2017 – Al Masirah TV (A K PH)
Film: Legendary steadfastness and firmness in the battle of the Yemeni coast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP8pxMKKhYc
16.2.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)
Intense airstrikes on Houthis-Saleh forces in Yemen’s western coastal strip by coalition warplanes
The warplanes of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition launched on Wednesday 16 air raids on the sites of the forces loyal to the Houthi group and former president Saleh in the al Mocha, Mawza districts western Taiz, southwestern Yemen, and in al Khokha district southern Hodeida, western Yemen.
Local sources told Almasdaronline that the coalition warplanes stroke the rebels’ sites in Yekhtel area, with six air raids, and Khalid camp, in Mawza district, with four raids.
“The coalition warplanes also launched six raids on Abu Musa al Ashari camp and another sites in al Khokha district”.
The coalition air forces are intensifying the airstrikes after the Houthis and allied forces have been launching intense artillery shelling from northern al Mocha city on the pro-government forces in al Mocha city.
The intense airstrikes come in coincidence with ongoing clashes flaring between the pro-government forces and the Houthis and allied forces in the outskirts of Yakhtel area.
It is noteworthy that the coalition air defense systems have intercepted 8 short-range missiles fired by the Houthis and allied forces from their camps in Mawza and al Khokha on the pro-government forces in al Mocha.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/88892
16.2.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Dozens of Suadi-paid mercenaries killed in Taiz
Dozens of US-Saudi-paid aggression mercenaries were killed and others injured in Dhubab in Taiz province in attacks by the national army and popular forces, a military official told Saba on Thursday.
Katyusha rockets were used in the operation, in which several of the mercenaries' military vehicles were destroyed.
Meanwhile, the national army killed six mercenaries when they attempted to infiltrate toward locations opposite to Kindi street.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news456379.htm = http://newnewss.net/?p=2839 and http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=64721&lang=en
15.2.2017 – New News (A K PH)
Film: Taiz Views for the beginning of the hypocrites' attacking ,and an explosion of a military tank by a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ2v0U1CJE8
15.2.2017 – Robert Mardini (A H K)
#Yemen: @ICRC_ye team entered #Mokha. Fighting still raging & immense humanitarian needs. We ask parties to show restraint & spare civilians (photo)
https://twitter.com/RMardiniICRC/status/831915850806464519
cp17b Kriegsereignisse: Sonstige / Theater of War: Other
17.2.2017 – Emirati News Agency (A K PS)
Two UAE soldiers martyred in Yemen
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/nation/abu-dhabi/two-uae-soldiers-martyred-in-yemen and by Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-yemen-security-idUSKBN15W0RV
17.2.2017 – Emirati News Agency (A K PS)
Yemeni army, resistance forces liberate areas west of Taiz
http://wam.ae/en/details/1395302598230
My comment: “Yemeni army” = Saudi-backed pro-Hadi fighters.
16.2.2017 – 2flames burning Moy Enne (A K)
Film: #Abha #SaudiArabia had been hit after all
https://twitter.com/2flamesburning1/status/832286261394231303
Remarkable![If reliable clip]Video tw'd by residents KhMu/Ab shows (patriot?)damage done,Missile intercepted by SA
https://twitter.com/Moyenne1/status/832316966874525701
Remark: On the Yemeni missile at Abha airport, YPR 267, cp17b.
17.2.2017 – New News (A K PH)
Dozens of enemy Saudi soldiers killed in Najran
16.2.2017 – New News (A K PH)
Films: Houthi / Saleh successes
Nehm, Alshabaka Defeating an attack for the hypocrites on Alqurn mountain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4jhCBUJ8-8&feature=youtu.be&a
Nehm Defeated the hypocrites' attacking ,and targeted a vehicle military by a missile at Altibab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdYiH7KeLLw&feature=youtu.be&a
Nehm Defeated the hypocrites' attacking on Alrubah hill at the down of Alqatab mountain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIokrVuYBno&feature=youtu.be&a
Najran Targeting an Abramz tank by a missile at the east of Alqieda'a area, Alshurfa military base
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RmZkaOa4_Y&feature=youtu.be&a
Mareb The hypocrites were targeted by the artillery bombs and the mortars at the airport hill, serwa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHEtUAneTLg&feature=youtu.be&a
Jizan Targeting the Saudi soldiers' fortifications at the west of Aldood military base
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43MiJvbbN_g&feature=youtu.be&a
16.2.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Army continues targeting Saudi, mercenaries sites in several fronts
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news456408.htm
16.2.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)
Otoma resistance leader: around 60 Houthi militants killed in the clashes
More than 60 Houthis militants were killed in the clashes that have been flaring between the Houthi militias and the popular resistance in Otoma district of Dhamar governorate, central Yemen, according to Abdul Wahab Mawadhah, the leader of the popular resistance in the area.
It is noteworthy that fierce clashes between the popular resistance and the forces loyal to the Houthi group and former president Saleh have renewed in Otoma after a suspension for more than a year.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/88893
16.2.2017 – Al Sahwa (A K PS)
Houthis indiscriminately bomb houses of civilians in Otomah
Militias of the Houthis and ousted President Saleh indiscriminately bombed houses of civilians in the district of Otomah, Dhamar governorate, local sources affirmed.
The sources told Alsahwa Net that the militias used mortars, tanks and other heavy weapons against civilians.
They also emphasized that houses and farmers were targeted, pointing out that an elderly man was killed.
They said that a number of Houthi fighters were also killed in the confrontations which erupted two days ago.
The Arab Coalition targeted on Tuesday reinforcements while they were delivering to the Houthi rebels from the city of Dhamar.
The Popular Resistance of Dhamar governorate held a meeting on Tuesday in which it vowed to strongly respond to the Houthi aggression.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-4080
My comment: Heavy clashes with just one side shelling?
15.2.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)
Taiz: 5 deaths in clashes between pro-government forces and Houthis
3 militants of the forces loyal to the Houthi group and former president Saleh in addition to 2 pro-government security soldiers were killed on Tuesday evening in clashes between the two sides in Maqbanah district western Taiz city, southwestern Yemen, according to a press release.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/88891
and from the other side:
16.2.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
three mercenaries were killed in Salah quarter in eastern city of Taiz
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news456379.htm
15–16.2.2017 – Saba Net / New News (A K PJ)
Army fires Ballistic missile on Saudi Airport to revenge Saudi war crime on Yemen funeral
The national army and popular forces said in a statement to on Wednesday night that the Rocketry Force fired a long-range ballistic missile at enemy Saudi airport of Abha in Saudi region of Asir.
The statement said the missile hit the target accurately as balls of fires were seen at the scene.
The army said the missile attack came to revenge the Saudi aggression air strike on the funeral house in Arhab district on Wednesday afternoon that killed eight women and children and injured ten other women.
The Arhab funeral house air attack was the Saudi latest war crimes against the Yemeni civilians.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news456356.htm = http://newnewss.net/?p=2819 and http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=64638&lang=en
16.2.2017 – Hussam Al-Sanabani (A K PH)
Film: Video from Abha city for the new #Yemeni ballistic missile hit Abha airport in Saudi.
https://twitter.com/HussamSanabani/status/831945373333729280
My comment: I am not convinced. That looks like the light of a landing airplane. No impact to be seen on this film.
16.2.2017 – Emirati News Agency (A K PS)
Saudi Air Defence intercepts missile fired from Yemeni territories
The Command of the Alliance to Support Legitimacy in Yemen has announced that the Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces intercepted a missile fired by Houthi militias from Yemeni territories towards the city of Khamis Mushayt yesterday evening.
The Saudi Press Agency, SPA, quoted a statement issued last night as saying that the missile was intercepted and destroyed without any damage.
"The Alliance's air forces immediately targeted the launch site," the statement said.
http://wam.ae/en/details/1395302598071
15.2.2017 – MbKS15 (A K PS)
#RSADF Patriot destroyed 3 ballistic missiles over Khamis Mushait city
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/831938439914352641
15.2.2017 – New News (A K PH)
Films: Houthi / Saleh successes
Views of defeating the continues attacking of the hypocrites and their loses in Albuq entrance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEaFecwvE2E&feature=youtu.be&a
Views for the booties and dead bodies for the Saudi soldiers after defeating an attack on Aldood mi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQv2zYiFqPI&feature=youtu.be&a
Views for the booties that the army and public committees have while defeating an attack on Najran f
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UMs_Ka9p6o&feature=youtu.be&a
Najran Views for the dead bodies of the Saudi soldiers after defeating their infiltrate attempting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9Eu_daj36Q&feature=youtu.be&a
Shabwa Hypocrites were forfeited big loses ,and a major leader was killed during fierce battles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmDkGEdmD3Q&feature=youtu.be&a
Mareb Unique Views for the hypocrites' loses in Serwah district
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4rbGsm6AKc&feature=youtu.be&a
A military exercise in graduating a batch The Martyring Lovers to support the battle fronts against
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUIwk54bGRw&feature=youtu.be&a
Shabwa Hypocrites were forfeited big loses ,and a major leader was killed during fierce battles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmDkGEdmD3Q&feature=youtu.be&a
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
17.2.2017 – Aljazeera (* B H P)
Yemen: Art, love, bombs and bans
Yemen's most prolific street artist copes with Donald Trump's immigration ban.
They call him the Banksy of Yemen. But Murad Subay, a 29-year-old street artist based in the capital Sanaa, shrugs off such comparisons.
Subay has transformed the streets of an active war zone into his own vibrant gallery. His canvases are often the ruins of war - crumbling, abandoned houses with gaping holes caused by mortar explosions.
"It is three letters only: W-A-R," said Subay of his work, which continually shines a light on Yemen's horrific humanitarian situation.
"It's just to show the ugliness of war - this is what happens by war. This is my way to to protest against the injustice of this war and for peace."
Subay's work also focuses on Yemen's dire economic situation, political corruption, disappeared persons, and US drone strikes.
Yemen's revolution, which unfolded on streets across the country on the heels of the Arab Spring just over six years ago, largely inspired his brand of artistic activism. Subay was there with the people, protesting in the streets of Sanaa. Those blissful but fleeting moments were short-lived, as the revolution would soon turn into a full-blown civil war.
"Yemenis were united in every part of Yemen," said Subay. "It was a great moment. We loved it. When the revolution came, it never stops and it will continue."
Unlike many street artists, who often work in the shadows, Subay's work is a collaborative effort. Subay's artistic campaigns invite everyday Yemenis to pick up a paintbrush or a can of spray paint and participate in his art. It's an artistic approach he says is for the people, by the people.
"It's a voice of [the people]," he described. "I'm a Yemeni. When I discuss something, I first [ask] what people should care about, what they are afraid of, and what [are] the issues that concern them? People are longing to end this war."
"The first time [I heard about the ban], I thought it was a joke actually," said Subay. "[The US] is the country of opportunities, the country of democracy and in the 21st century, you ban people according to their race, their religion for their nationality? This is stupidity. This law is racist. It's unbelievable. [It's] like putting honest, innocent people in a prison."
Though the odds are stacked against them, Subay refuses to believe that his wife must give up on her dreams.
"She's been following this chance to have a scholarship for two years. I know, I was there every step," he said.
"Our country is what they call the third world. Our chances [are] not a lot. It sometimes comes once. So such a chance, to prove yourself in such a respectable university, it is really important and [precious] so she must and she will stay there to continue her studies. She is very brilliant." – by Dorian Geiger
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/02/yemen-art-love-bombs-bans-170213090154650.html
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-267-yemen-war-mosaic-267
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-267 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-267:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose oder / or
http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm
Der saudische Luftkrieg im Bild / Saudi aerial war images:
(18 +, Nichts für Sensible!) / (18 +; Graphic!)
http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm und / and http://yemenwarcrimes.blogspot.de/
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