... Gefährlicher Wahabismus – US-Medien und Jemenkrieg – Die USA und Jemen – und mehr
August 22, 2018: Humanitarian crisis and Saudi war crimes – Legitimacy in Yemen – Houthi land mines – Saudis want to establish themselves in Mahra province – Dangerous Wahabism – US media and the Yemen war – The US and Yemen – and more
Schwerpunkte / Key aspects
Klassifizierung / Classification
Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
cp1b Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle
cp2 Allgemein / General
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
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
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
cp9 USA
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms Trade
cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner
cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp15 Propaganda
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
Klassifizierung / Classification
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**
*
(Kein Stern / No star)
? = Keine Einschatzung / No rating
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
Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject
Einführende Artikel u. Überblicke für alle, die mit den Ereignissen im Jemen noch nicht vertraut sind, hier:
Yemen War: Introductory articles, overviews, for those who are still unfamiliar with the Yemen war here:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-einfuehrende-artikel-u-ueberblicke
Neue Artikel / New articles
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5 reasons the nightmarish war in Yemen should never be forgotten (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
With the death toll in the tens of thousands, millions displaced and on the brink of famine, one would think the war in Yemen should be on every front page. It’s not, and here are just some of the reasons why that’s wrong.
The ongoing conflict, nominally a civil war started by Houthi rebels who ousted the government, saw the Saudi-led, Western-backed coalition of Arab nations intervene in the very first days. With massive civilian casualties and a humanitarian blockade, the war has now become a catastrophe with millions of victims.
Still, the day-by-day nightmare of Yemen often goes overlooked in Western media in favor of stories about the supposed ‘war crimes’ of the Syrian government or Russia’s alleged ‘Novichok attack’ in Salisbury. Here are five reasons why the Yemen war really matters.
Enormous death toll
Between the dangers of the conflict and the poor accessibility, it’s impossible to get an exact tally of fatalities in Yemen. The official count has been frozen at 10,000 for two years, but cautious estimates by independent groups put the number at up to 50,000 – and that’s counting only those killed in the fighting.
into a horrendous humanitarian catastrophe by the war, as well the Saudis’ land, sea and air blockade of the country.
Hunger and cholera has been ravaging the population, with the number of victims even harder to estimate than those killed in the fighting. A staggering 8 million people, or a third of the population, are on the brink of famine. That’s equivalent to nearly the entire population of London.
Despite all this, the coalition refuses to admit responsibility. Time and again, after a fresh report comes in about a wedding, funeral or school bus getting torn to pieces by a Saudi bomb, Riyadh says it has conducted an internal investigation – and found nothing wrong.
Western complicity
The US has lent its full support to the actions of its ally Saudi Arabia, backing the naval blockade of Yemen with its own warships and excusing, or staying mum, about the attacks on civilians.
https://www.rt.com/news/436509-yemen-war-really-matters/
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Tell your representatives to stop the war in Yemen
A cholera epidemic has affected over a million people. Education has been interrupted at all levels due to the insecurity and bombing of schools.
Despite initial gains by the coalition in the south and along parts of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, the Huthi alliance controls the bulk of the population. Hadi is only recognized as legitimate by foreign powers and not by the Yemeni public. The war right now is a stalemate and unlikely to ever be resolved militarily.
The on-the-ground reality is a jumble of makeshift alliances.
Until the murder of former president Salih in December, 2017, the Huthis had made a Faustian bargain with the man who ordered the killing of their founder. The Huthis oppose both al-Qaeda, a Sunni offshoot with roots to the Wahhabi doctrine of the Saudis, and the Islamic State (ISIS). They are also against the Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, a political party known as Islah.
As enemies of the Huthis, al-Qaeda has been largely spared attacks by the Saudi coalition and Emirati troops. There are also regional tribal militias who provide a semblance of stability in their local areas. A southern secessionist movement in the south, supported by the UAE, took control of Aden from Hadi’s shadow government last May. From the outside this may look like chaos, but in fact the battle lines have been fairly stable over the past year. Warfare is not everywhere, and many communities have established their own local government structures, guaranteed security and provided welfare, drawing on traditional principles of community cooperation and mediation of disputes.
It is impossible to find anything positive in the current aggression of a Saudi-led coalition against an internal coup in its southern neighbor Yemen. The war in Yemen is one of those in which all sides are to blame. Each side claims the other commits atrocities without admitting their own. There are enough war crimes from the air and on the ground to keep the International Court of Justice busy for many years.
In addition to the death and destruction by the Saudi-led bombing campaign, the battle on the ground has been ugly.
So why does the UN think Yemen has become the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, as it declared earlier this year? It is not the overall death toll, which is less than Iraq or Syria, but much higher than the report of 10,000 made over a year and a half ago. Rather it is the level of devastation in a place where there is little opportunity to escape. Unlike Syria, neighboring countries are not taking in Yemeni refugees.
Famine is threatened, since Yemen depends heavily on imports for even basic food supplies. The population has reached an unmanageable 28 million with limited resources to support them. And to top it all off, Yemen is running out of water due to over-exploitation of its groundwater – by Daniel Varisco
https://popula.com/2018/08/20/tell-your-representatives-to-stop-the-war-in-yemen/
Comment: You may not agree on every single line of the article, but this is a MUST read.
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1888489704537384
My comment: Very good overview with a lot of background information.
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
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Why this World Humanitarian Day could be the grimmest of all
Even the most hard-core aid workers would have struggled to watch the initial imagesout of Yemen from a horrific airstrike on a school bus after a missile struck a crowded marketplace in broad daylight.
Among the dozens of slain and injured children -- reportedly aged 6 to 11 years old -- was a young boy, screaming in pain, as medical workers struggled to remove the blood-soaked UNICEF backpack he was wearing.
It appears the boy did not want to part with his backpack. Probably because, around the world where I and many other UNICEF aid workers have distributed these coveted back-to-school items, children take them as a symbol of protection.
We shouldn't blame them for thinking so: according to International Humanitarian Law, warring parties are prohibited from targeting places of learning and play. And yet, on August 9, the day of the attack, this law on armed conflict was ignored with impunity by the US-backed, Saudi-led coalition that is pummeling Yemen with daily strikes.
Normally, such horrific acts of violence would spark widespread outrage, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and calls for both sides to lay down their arms, commence negotiations and end a conflict that has killed at least 10,000 people.
But in this particular incident, aside from harsh words from the UN and aid agencies and the US calling for an investigation, most of the world's capitals have had a muted response. Notable among them were the United Kingdom, Canada and France -- all influential humanitarian actors -- but also with billions of dollars of arms sales to Saudi Arabia on the books. With an eye on one of the two rotating seats on the UN Security Council, my home country of Canada had added reason to stay silent: upsetting certain influential UN member states countries may cost it votes in the 2020 vote. It's also still licking its wounds from an ongoing diplomatic dispute with Saudi Arabia.
Even the chief of UNICEF, Henrietta Fore, who leads a UN agency which calls itself the world's most influential child rights organization, managed to avoid mentioning either party by name in her statement condemning the attack "Our silence on this is deadly for Yemeni civilians," said Mark Kaye of Save the Children UK. "It basically suggests to the Saudi and Emirati-led coalition that they can continue to do whatever they want with total impunity. So far, from the UK Government, all we've had is a solitary tweet from a Minister of State saying, 'We express concern about the deaths of 29 children.' And that's a disgrace. We should be out there condemning this."
Given its enormous role in the conflict, some have suggested that if Riyadh can't stop the bombing, at least it should bring relief to civilians caught in the world's worst humanitarian conflict.
"Saudi Arabia should fund 100% (of the needs) of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen," said David Beasley, the American executive director of the World Food Programme. "Either stop the war or fund the crisis. Option three is, do both of them." – by Michael Bociurkiw is a global affairs analyst and a former spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and UNICE
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A multidimensional approach to restoring state legitimacy in Yemen
Abstract
The pursuit of legitimate governance in post-conflict state-building is fraught due to its subjectivity, normativity and complexity. Despite this, legitimacy is widely recognised as foundational to the establishment of peaceful and stable political orders. The roots of Yemen’s civil war can be traced in part to a crisis of legitimacy, making the realisation of a legitimate governance all the more pertinent to its peace process. Focusing on the essential role of legitimacy in paving the path beyond Yemen’s fragility, this Fragility Commission report argues for a new, multidimensional approach to legitimacy that embraces complexity. This approach has its origins in the people of Yemen, as opposed to the international community. The realisation of a legitimate political order requires not only the technical realisation of legitimacy, but perceived legitimacy, most importantly internally but also internationally.
In the context of Yemen’s “chaos state”, realistic policy objectives and timelines must be set to reinforce the state-building process. In this effort, the role of all key players, including the international community, must be recognised and optimised appropriately. It must also be acknowledged that stable systems of governance have traversed the journey from fragility to legitimacy by forging internal consensus, at the very least, that there is not a more attractive alternative to the current status quo. This journey cannot be externally imposed, instead requiring local initiative and time to come to fruition.
Introduction
No single term is more loaded in debate and discussion regarding Yemen’s civil war than that of “legitimacy”. Yemen has a “legitimate government”, largely based outside of the country. It is also the focus of the activities of the selfproclaimed “Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen”, which is accused of war crimes against Yemen’s civilian population. Some Coalition members stand accused of “acting like occupiers” by the same “legitimate” government they purport to be restoring. Meanwhile, a group that is not recognized as legitimate by any international entity acts as de facto authority in the country’s main population centres.
Yemen’s crisis of legitimacy Framed through this lens, Yemen’s civil war can be seen as a long-gestating crisis in and struggle for political legitimacy. The conflict erupted into plain sight in 2011, after years of erosion of popular support for the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh. The then-president was ousted by the end of that year, freezing an incipient conflict that metastasised during a subsequent two-and-a-half year transitional period. The crisis has become more complex as the country has fragmented into different geographical zones of military control and political authority.
Some kind of political order widely viewed as “legitimate” will be essential to a meaningful peace process. But with no single institution viewed as legitimate by a plurality of the population, the crisis in and contest for legitimacy is unlikely to be resolved by a peace deal or a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution.
President Hadi’s legitimacy
Another complicating factor is the international view of Hadi’s “legitimacy”, which diplomats quietly concede is a double-edged sword. As Yemen’s elected President, he is a symbol of both international norms of sovereignty and of the transitional process. To all intents and purposes, Hadi is the symbol of the Yemeni state from the perspective of many external actors. Yet it is also widely acknowledged that he was a weak, ineffective and divisive leader before the war.
Throughout 2014, Hadi was under pressure from foreign officials to appoint a more competent vice president, who he could be replaced with. He has proven unwilling to govern in a meaningful sense since the war began. Hadi is also seen as a key barrier to a peace deal. In private, diplomats and coalition officials agree that to be successful, any peace process will need to side-line or entirely remove Hadi – yet this received wisdom also provides Hadi with a clear disincentive for agreeing to the terms of a deal. The Hadi government, meanwhile, has consistently resisted attempts to include a broader range of voices in diplomatic efforts, arguing that working directly with forces on the ground - from the Houthis to secessionists and tribal groups - undermines the legitimacy of the state and confers legitimacy on nonstate actors. – by Peter Salisbury
https://www.theigc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Legitimacy-in-Yemen-2018.pdf
or if link does not work: https://twitter.com/peterjsalisbury/status/1031585676771385344
My comment: Just this: Hadi „As Yemen’s elected President“? he is not. He was an interim president elected for a two years term in 2012, prolonged for an other year. His term and his legitimacy definitely ended on Feb. 27, 2015.
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Yemen's hidden menace, the decades-long struggle ahead to clear the country of landmines
As many as a million 'explosive remnants of war' have been left scattered across Yemen's battlefields, and Bel Trew finds civilians are bearing the brunt
The threat of mines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and explosive remnants of war, known as ERWs, left behind in the fighting is the untold threat facing civilians in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia said this week that the Houthis had laid about a million landmines and IEDs across Yemen since the war broke out in 2015. On the other side of the country Yemeni government officials said they have uncovered half-a-million ERWs, mostly left by al-Qaeda.
There is no way of independently verifying these figures, as international monitoring teams lack access. There is also an issue surrounding the definition of a mine: mine clearance crews in Yemen will regularly call everything from an IED to a mortar shell a mine.
But officials within the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which is supporting local projects on the ground, said problems caused by the explosive ordinances littering Yemen could take “decades” to fix.
According to the UNDP, in the first six months of this year Yemen’s top de-mining agency, the Yemen Executive Mine Action Centre, cleared nearly 140,000 explosive remnants of war across 5 million square metres – a process that cost $2.4 million. Between 2016 and 2017 the UNDP said the action centre had cleared more than 510,000 ERWs across at least nine governorates.
"The mine action centre has been completely overwhelmed by the current situation. There is no way they have enough resources to deal with it,” said one UNDP official who asked not to be named.
“The current levels of contamination will take years to sort and there will be residual risks for a considerable time after that. We need to get survey teams on the ground – even if they can just release ground to say it’s safe,” he added.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its latest report that since 2015, mines and explosive devices appeared to have killed and maimed “hundreds of civilians”. The rights group has repeatedly urged the Houthis and their allies to cease using the indiscriminate and banned weapons, and to observe the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which Yemen ratified in 1998.
HRW officials now warn that the knock-on effects of the mines will impact a far larger population.
"You have people who, two years on from the end of fighting in their area, cannot return home, because they’ve been told it’s mined. Their livelihoods are therefore destroyed,” Kristine Beckerle, HRW’s Yemen and UAE researcher, told The Independent.
“Humanitarian aid workers also can’t access areas where there are believed to be mines or IEDs, so it impedes humanitarian response,” she added.
Farmlands are often mined or laced with explosives as well, meaning people cannot make a living -by Bel Trew
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Mal wieder geht es um Öl: Saudi-Arabien plant Bau von Öl-Exporthafen im Kriegsgebiet von Jemen
Saudi-Arabien plant den Bau eines Ölhafens im jemenitischen Gouvernement Al-Mahra im Südosten des Landes, wo saudische Truppen und jene der Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate stationiert sind. Über diesen Hafen könnte Riad künftig eigenes Öl ins Ausland exportieren.
Ein von Al Jazeera am Montag zitiertes Dokument weist auf die Absicht Saudi-Arabiens hin, den Hafen deutlich auszubauen. Von dort aus möchte die Golfmonarchie künftig ihr eigenes Erdöl weiter exportieren.
In dem Brief an den saudischen Botschafter im Jemen, der Al Jazeeravorliege, dankte demnach Huta Marine, ein in Saudi-Arabien ansässiges Schiffbauunternehmen, dem Diplomaten für das Vertrauen in die Fähigkeiten des Unternehmens und bat ihn, einen technischen und finanziellen Vorschlag für die Planung und Umsetzung des Hafens vorzulegen.
Hafen sollte Blockade in Straße von Hormus entgegenwirken
Huta Marine fügte hinzu, dass sie die Baustelle selbst besuchen und die notwendigen Feldarbeiten durchführen könne, um einen eigenen Vorschlag und einen Bauplan zu entwickeln.
Berichte, die zuvor in jemenitischen Medien veröffentlicht worden waren, bestätigten die Absichten Saudi-Arabiens, Entwicklungsprojekte in Al-Mahra ausweiten zu wollen, das an den Oman grenzt. Demnach wollen die Saudis nicht nur einen Ölverladehafen bauen, sondern auch eine Pipeline, die sich bis nach Saudi-Arabien selbst erstrecken würde. Diese solle in weiterer Folge dazu dienen, saudisches Öl zu transportieren.
Geostrategisch wäre ein solches Projekt für Riad außerordentlich nützlich: Auf diese Weise könnte Saudi-Arabien erfolgreich versuchen, seine Abhängigkeit vom Persischen Golf hinsichtlich des Exports seiner Energieressourcen zu reduzieren. Zuletzt hatte der Iran gedroht, die Straße von Hormus zu blockieren, sollten die USA daran festhalten, Teherans Energieexporte zu ersticken. Diese Meerenge müssen so gut wie alle Energieexporte Saudi-Arabiens durchqueren.
Bevölkerung von Al-Mahra protestiert
Unter der Bevölkerung regt sich unterdessen Widerstand. Einige Einwohner von Al-Mahra protestierten bereits im April und forderten die saudischen und emiratischen Truppen auf, ihre militärische Präsenz zu reduzieren.
https://deutsch.rt.com/der-nahe-osten/74792-um-iran-zu-umgehen-saudi/
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Saudi Arabia 'to build oil port' in Yemen's al-Mahra: sources
Letter addressed to a Saudi official suggests the kingdom plans to establish an oil port in Yemen's al-Mahra province.
Saudi Arabia is seemingly planning to build an oil port in Yemen's al-Mahra governorate in the country's southeast, where Saudi and United Arab Emirates' troops are present, sources told Al Jazeera.
A document obtained by Al Jazeera on Monday points to Saudi Arabia's intention to develop the port, which would extract and export petroleum, the sources said.
In a letter addressed to the kingdom's ambassador to Yemen, a Saudi-based marine construction company, Huta Marine, thanked the official for trusting the company's capabilities by asking it to present a technical and financial proposal for the design and implementation of the port.
The company added it would arrange to visit the site and carry out necessary fieldwork needed to develop a proposal and construction plan.
Reports that previously emerged in Yemen's media revealed Saudi Arabia's alleged intentions to kick-start development projects in al-Mahra, which borders Oman, including the construction of a pipeline that would extend to Saudi to transport its oil. Residents of al-Mahra were protesting in April, calling on the coalition to scale back its military presence. Troops arrived to the area in December 2017
Comment: This is an interesting but of news. Saudi Arabia has wanted to build this pipeline for years so that oil can be exported without going through the Gulf or the Red Sea if things get tough there. The South Yemen coast is the only place that this can happen but was resisted by Saleh when he was president. Now that Yemen has been totally impoverished they have to accept anything. Note this is next to Oman border as far away from the war as they can put it.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10156940804413641
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Combating extremism: Saudi Arabia must act, not just talk
I refer to Gharawi Mohammed’s response to my piece dated Aug 15, “Why Saudi Arabia is not qualified to lead an anti-terrorism centre”.
I appreciate that the Saudi crown prince is working hard to spread moderate thought and eliminate extremism in the region. This means that immoderate thought and extremism really does exist in some Muslim societies, and this has to be reined in.
The House of Saud has maintained its politico-religious alliance with the Wahhabi sect since the proclamation of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. Wahhabi teachings are the official, state-sponsored form of Sunni Islam in Saudi Arabia. Wahhabism, or Salafism, is an idiosyncratic Islamic doctrine on monotheism, which brands other Muslims as practising shirk (idolatry or polytheism).
Strict and literal interpretations of the Quran and hadith from the seventh-century perspective have made this school of thought rather extreme in the eyes of moderate Muslims. The majority of Muslims in Malaysia, on the other hand, are the moderate Ahlus-Sunnah. Peaceful Malaysia is not ready to accept extremist ideologies of any kind.
The US State Department estimates that over the past four decades, Saudi Arabia has invested more than US$10 billion in bodies disguised as “charitable” foundations in many countries in an attempt to replace mainstream Sunni Islam with the intolerant Wahhabism.
My contention is that Malaysia should stay away from extremists, Saudi Wahabbism and its influence on Malaysian soil.
Disunity in Muslim communities
Islamic scholars, including those from the Al-Azhar University, have denounced Wahhabism which has been labelled as “a source of global terrorism”, inspiring the ideology of the Islamic State (IS), and accused of causing disunity in Muslim communities by labelling Muslims who disagree with the Wahhabi definition of monotheism as apostates (takfiri) and justifying their killing.
Regrettably, with the help of funding from Saudi petroleum dollars, the movement has crept into the psyche of extremist groups as early as the 1970s and now has worldwide influence.
Billions spent spreading Wahhabism
According to reports by US intelligence, financial support for terrorism from Saudis “remains a threat to the kingdom itself and the international community”. Saudi Arabia has discredited its own image by continuing to spend billions of dollars spreading Wahhabism, its ultra-conservative brand of Islam, which in turn inspired IS, Al-Qaeda and other Sunni extremists.
It was reported that this was done through a network of clerics, imams, madrasas and mosques in countries all over the world including Indonesia and Pakistan. The symptoms have spread to many other Muslim countries and groups in Muslim-minority nations
Too dependent on the Wahhabi clerics for acceptance and in order to stay in power, the royal family of Saudi had been dawdling in reforming a religious school of thought (Wahabbism) which teaches that non-believers and wayward Muslims should be shunned or fought if they reject its strict doctrines. In fact, experts who have pored over the Saudi school curriculum have reported that some Saudi school texts seem to make a virtue of hating others.
Foulest of all, the Saudis have funded dubious schools and organisations throughout the Islamic world. Many of these establishments have been used as breeding grounds for anti-secularist indoctrination. The schools, for example, not only indoctrinate students in an infectious and extreme form of Islam, they also teach them to abominate secular Western values.
They are taught that the West is the centre of infidel power in the world and the enemy of Islam. Adherents of these schools were the main recruits for terror network as well as other extremist groups.
Of note are the copious numbers of extremist madrasas funded by the Saudis operating in Pakistan and many other Muslim countries. As reported, the Saudis have been the primary financial supporters of Afghanistan’s detestable Taliban movement since at least 1996. They have also channelled funds to other groups that have committed terrorist acts in other parts of the Middle East.
The foremost foreign funder of extremism
Saudi Arabia’s influence on Pakistan abounds. Today, Pakistan’s culpability is nearly as great as Saudi Arabia’s. Without vigorous support from the government in Islamabad, the Taliban could never have come to power in Afghanistan.
The Saudis are now creating more extremists with their ruthless war in Yemen. Thank God, Malaysia has pulled out its military forces involved in this tribal, intra-religious and territorial conflict.
According to a British think tank, as reported in 2017, Saudi Arabia is the “foremost” foreign funder of Islamist extremism in the UK.
Willingness of Saudi and its cohorts to actually combat terrorism is doubtful
As yet, the disposition of Saudi Arabia and its cohorts the world over to actually rein in terrorism is implausible. Some of these countries appear to be part of the problem, not part of the solution. That concern is especially grave with respect to Saudi Arabia and countries on its list of friends and ideological influences.
Saudi Arabia should defund terrorist organisations and the extremist “schools” that provide them with recruits and influence. This also means severing ties with terrorist movements such as the Taliban and other extremist groups nestling in some Muslim countries with the help of their petrol dollars By Moaz Nair
and look at TE Lawrence on Wahabism, in 1916: https://twitter.com/VioletVampire2/status/1031246102069096448
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Mainstream Media Finally Concedes Defeat on Yemen, Ends Blackout Of Coverage
Ever since the Saudi-led assault on Yemen began in March of 2015, alternative media outlets everywhere have been repeatedly and aggressively decrying the mainstream media in the US and UK for their spectacular failure to adequately and accurately cover the violence and humanitarian disaster with appropriate reporting on who is responsible for it. After the 2016 US election, journalist Michael Tracey wrote an essay documenting how throughout the entire year and a half that Americans were pummeled with updates from the mass media about candidates and their campaigns, not one single question about Yemen was ever asked by any mainstream outlet of any candidate.
This is of course outrageous, but because of how media coverage works, mainstream attention was never drawn to the problem. It hasn’t been a total media blackout, but because it only turns up in mainstream media reports every once in a while with little if any emphasis being placed on who is behind the devastation, it occupies a very peripheral place in western consciousness.
This has all changed in the last few days. Suddenly, the atrocities being inflicted upon the people of Yemen are being pushed into mainstream attention by the mass media outlets which have been ignoring them for more than three years. Now politicians and celebrities everywhere are shoving the horror of their government facilitating the slaughter of innocents into mainstream attention.
What’s interesting here is that nothing at all has changed except for the coverage. Nobody with their eyes open believes that the mainstream media have just suddenly developed a conscience and now deeply care about the mass murder of Middle Eastern civilians. So why the change? If you ask some of the Trump supporters I’ve seen responding to the shift, it’s because their president can now be unfairly blamed for a military campaign which began long before he took office. But that doesn’t really hold water, does it? I mean, the aforementioned year in which MSNBC didn’t cover Yemen took place entirely during this administration, and every American with cable TV knows that MSNBC markets itself as the anti-Trump network. If they’d wanted to use Yemen as another angle from which to criticize this administration they would have done so, instead of not doing so at all.
The entirety of mainstream media have been grossly neglecting this issue up until the last week despite having every opportunity to condemn Trump for it. For the record, while we’re on the subject, I personally don’t much care if Trump gets all the blame for the Yemen catastrophe at this point. I’ve spent 2017 and 2018 fighting the insane corporate liberal notion that all American depravity began in January of last year, but at this point I’m happy with literally anything that just ends the death and devastation. But again, from what I’m seeing right now I don’t believe that this is about Trump. Not directly anyway. From what I can see right now, I think what we are witnessing is a clear instance in which alternative media successfully caused the establishment to lose control of the narrative on an important issue.
In the US, criticism of Saudi Arabia is nearly as taboo as criticism of Israel. As we saw explained in a leaked State Department memo last year, it is standard US policy to use human rights abuses as a bludgeon with which to attack rival governments, while sweeping the atrocities committed by allies under the rug.
And the plutocrat-owned media, whose controllers have a vested interest in protecting the establishment upon which their kingdoms are built, consistently fall right in line with that same State Department policy.
This, and the fact that the control of a key strategic region is at stake, is why we’ve been seeing the Saudi war crimes in Yemen and the US facilitation thereof downplayed for years by the mass media. And they would surely remain downplayed indefinitely were it possible.
But it wasn’t possible. The story kept getting pushed toward mainstream consciousness year after year, and eventually the fact that an outlet which upholds itself as the flag bearer of Trump’s opposition has been completely ignoring this administration’s facilitation of war crimes was made viral. At a certain point a Dem-voting audience which is being told day in and day out that Trump presents a unique and unprecedented level of danger to the world will lose trust in the outlets which market themselves to that demographic if they refuse to make a big deal about the fact that this administration is helping tyrants murder busloads of children.
For this reason, western mainstream media have been forced to finally report on the cruelty being inflicted upon the people of Yemen by Saudi Arabia and its allies in order to avoid losing credibility. The story got out, and the story about their lack of coverage of that story got out, and now they’re all reporting on it like they’ve been doing so this entire time. Which, if it continues, will make it very difficult for the US/UK/Saudi war machine to retain the consent of the governed for its mass slaughter.
In my opinion, we can safely call this a win for alternative media - by Caitlin Johnstone
https://theantimedia.com/media-concedes-yemen-defeat-ends-blackout/ = https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/msm-finally-concedes-defeat-on-yemen-ceases-blackout-of-coverage-1b774266dbfe
My comment: Let us simply hope so. I do not believe it. I fear this just will be a singular case.
Remark: Several articles dealing with the US role in Yemen had been published within the last 3 days. Look at cp9.
cp1b Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle
(A K)
Während des Eid al-Adha-Festes geht es im Jemen weiter
Am Dienstag setzte der Kampf zwischen Regierungstruppen und Kämpfern der iranisch unterstützten Houthi-Rebellen im Jemen zu Beginn des muslimischen Feiertages Eid al-Adha fort.
Die Kämpfe während Eid al-Adha, oder das Opferfest, waren Zeugen eines vorübergehenden Waffenstillstandes, der erschöpften Bürgern keine Chance gab friedlich friedlich vor Beschuss und Explosionen zu feiern.
In der Stadt Hodeidah an der Küste des Roten Meeres wüteten erbitterte Kämpfe zwischen Huthis und den Brigaden der Giganten, die der jemenitischen Regierung in Durayhmi und anderen umliegenden Gebieten gegenüber loyal waren.
Lokale Quellen erzählten, dass die Houthi-Rebellen in Durayhmi nach dem Verlust wichtiger Positionen in früheren Gefechten mehr Kämpfer mobilisiert und Gegenoffensiven gegen die Regierungstruppen gestartet hätten.
Er sagte, dass die regierungstreuen Kräfte die volle Kontrolle über Durayhmi Distrikt trotz des Rückzuges der Houthis aus den Regierungsinstitutionen nicht übernehmen konnten.
Die Houthi-Rebellen überfielen viele Gebiete mit Landminen und nutzten die Wohngebäude als militärische Standorte, was den Regierungskräften zufolge den Zugang zu Regierungskräften in der Stadt schwierig machte.
Früher am Tag starteten Kampfflugzeuge der saudischen arabischen Koalition Luftangriffe und zielten auf Waffenlager der Rebellengruppe Houthi in der Nähe von Durayhmi.
Die Luftangriffe bombardierten ein Lagerhaus mit lokal hergestellten Waffen und Raketen und verursachten eine Reihe von Explosionen am Tatort, sagte ein Armeekommandeur.
https://www.tekk.tv/welt/waehrend-des-eid-al-adha-festes-geht-es-im-jemen-weiter/
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Two Saudi aggression airstrikes hit Hodeidah
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news505927.htm
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United Nations Population Fund: Increased assistance for vulnerable women and girls fleeing Hodeidah
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund welcomed the generous contribution of $4.2 million from the Yemen Humanitarian Pooled Fund to assist the most vulnerable women and girls displaced from the recent escalation in fighting in Hodeidah and western coastal areas of the country.
The funding will help to reach more than 200,000 women, girls and their families with life-saving reproductive health services, and transit kits containing hygiene items for those who are either on the move, displaced or stranded between frontlines.
“With more than 750,000 women of childbearing age inside Hodeidah and many more displaced, every form of assistance we can provide can mean the difference between life and death. These funds are crucial for us to address the immediate and urgent non-food related needs of women and girls that often go overlooked,” stated Anjali Sen, UNFPA’s Representative to Yemen.
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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: Yemen Humanitarian Update Covering 9 - 15 August 2018 | Issue 24
Fighting escalated in Ad Durayhimi District, south of Al Hudaydah City with a significant impact on civilians, including a high casualty rate. Ambulance services are unable to reach the impacted population due to heavy shelling and airstrikes. Scores of families are reportedly trapped by the fighting inside Ad Durayhimi Town, but some have managed to flee to Al Hudaydah City and neighbouring districts.
Partners are trying to evacuate the wounded from Ad Durayhimi Town. Ongoing conflict in Al Hudaydah Governorate has displaced over 50,800 households, of whom 50,100 (98 per cent) have received assistance including hygiene kits, transit kits and food rations. In Al Hudaydah hub, over 11,000 households have received multi-purpose cash grants.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-update-covering-9-15-august-2018-issue-24
cp2 Allgemein / General
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Interactive Map of Yemen War
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Film: Remember Buthaina? This little girl, only survivor, after her mother,father &siblings were killed by US-Saudi airstrike while sleeping NYemeni capital Sanaa? Saudis kidnapped her & her uncle to Riyadh after she drew a lot of attention Appealing for help!
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1032171118042521600
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Yemen: Why is the US Helping Saudis Kill Children, Allying with al-Qaeda?
The Saudi and United Arab Emirates war on little Yemen, which was launched by Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman in March of 2015, has flown under the radar among the US public until recently.
Then on August 9, the Saudi-led air coalition struck Saadeh, the stronghold of the Helpers of God (Houthi) movement in north Yemen, killing over 51 people, including 40 children. They sent an enormous bomb down on a schoolbus setting out on a class field trip.
There are only a few possibilities for explaining this atrocity. One is that the Saudis and the Emiratis hate the Helpers of God movement so much and despise its homeland Saadeh so much, that they are targeting civilians there as part of a determination to wipe it out or cow it into submission. If so, the strike was a war crime, and resembles the current Israeli sniping policy against unarmed civilian protesters in Gaza.
Another possibility is that the strategic planners for the Saudi and UAE air forces are not very good at their jobs, or are deliberately disregarding the guidance of international law on avoiding civilians when targeting the enemy. In that case, they are pursuing the sort of policy in north Yemen that the Israeli air force pursues in its major Gaza actions– a simple disregard for the high possibility of killing civilians.
The forty dead children have turned out to be highly inconvenient for the Saudis and the Emiratis. They did their best to copy Israeli propaganda by charging that the Helpers of God are using children as human shields or even had conscripted the children as child soldiers (it was a civilian school field trip).
The US Department of Defense is, in short, an unindicted co-conspirator in Saudi and UAE war crimes. Saudi propaganda paints the Zaydis as puppets of Iran. Iran has given them some help, but it is difficult to see how it could have given them very much, since the Houthis are surrounded by the Saudis. Most of their weapons are American, from Saleh’s depots (Saleh broke with them and they killed him).
The Helpers of God would exist as a movement if there were no Iran. It is an indigenous Zaydi movement (they don’t have ayatollahs e.g.) Iran is not in a position to direct them, though perhaps a few secret agents or Lebanese Hizbullah proxies have given them some advice. The Iran role is tiny compared to the American role in backing the Saudis and Emiratis.
The Zaydis appear to have rallied around the Helpers of God, since they’re able to get out big supportive crowds, and who could blame them if the alternative is the al-Qaeda extremist Salafism of the south with which the invaders have surreptitiously allied?
The Helpers of God made a huge error with their 2014 coup and alliance with Saleh. They have also been erratic and highly authoritarian, suppressing journalists and putting out conspiracy theories and crazily talking about going on to Riyadh.
The US has been reduced to a butler for Mohamed Bin Salman, lapping up Saudi propaganda about an Iranian under every bed and politely suggesting where he might bomb (he often ignores the advice and hits hospitals, schools, bridges, etc.)
With Bolton as National Security Adviser, Pompeo at State, and Mattis at Defense– all of them certifiably insane when it comes to Iranophobia– there is however no prospect of the US backing away from its sinister role in the Arabian peninsula.
Prepare for more doleful headlines about dead Yemeni children, over the next two years – by Juan Cole
https://www.juancole.com/2018/08/helping-children-allying.html
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UN: Two-thirds of child soldiers in Yemen fight for Houthi rebels
A report documented the recruitment of more than 800 child soldiers in 2017 in Yemen - including some as young as 11 years old.
The United Nations has blamed the Saudi-led coalition for being responsible for most of Yemen's child casualties from the past year.
It has also called for an investigation into the school bus attack that killed 40 children earlier this month.
But children in Yemen are vulnerable in many other ways, including being recruited as child soldiers, mainly by the Houthi rebels.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/08/un-two-thirds-child-soldiers-yemen-fight-houthi-rebels-180821062444661.html = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXuGd-QzGPw
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Cutting ties with Saudi Arabia won't stop the war in Yemen, says expert
The West must work with Saudi Arabia to resolve the conflict in Yemen because the violence could get worse if the Kingdom pulls out, according to an expert in international relations.
"If Saudi Arabia is going to go, the war is not going to stop," said Fatima Alasrar, a senior analyst at the Arabia Foundation, a Washington-based think-tank.
"It's even going to be, you know, scarier in some parts for a lot of people," she told The Current'sguest host Ioanna Roumeliotis.
"Saudi Arabia can go away, the coalition can go away, but ultimately, the conflict is going to remain in Yemen, and it's brutal."
Alasrar, a Yemeni national living in the U.S., argued that cutting ties would not stop Saudi Arabia from turning to China or Russia for support.
She said that the West should focus on "having that dialogue with Saudi Arabia, as opposed to saying: 'OK, no we're going to stop talking to them … it's all going to be stick, stick, stick, and no carrot.'"
Calling Saudi Arabia's record in Yemen "abysmal," Cesar Jaramillo, the executive director of Project Ploughshares, called for the West to review its own involvement in the conflict.
"The world needs to denounce Saudi Arabia, and denounce it strongly," he told Roumeliotis (with Audio and full transcript)
My comment: Alasrar in own articles had proofed to be a Saudi propaganda mouthpiece:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/there-is-no-case-for-u-s-support-for-the-war-on-yemen/ and https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-442-yemen-war-mosaic-442
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The Massacre of the Innocents in Yemen
Ahmad Algohbary and Faisal Edroos report from Dahyan in the wake of the Saudi coalition massacre of dozens of children on August 9.
The attack on the market and school bus in Dahyan was an especially bloody and outrageous crime, but it was unfortunately not unusual for the coalition to deliberately drop bombs on civilian targets in Yemen. It happens often enough that no one can seriously believe that coalition governments are trying to minimize civilian casualties, and in this case there was obviously no attempt to avoid killing civilians at all. The U.S. provides the weapons, refueling, intelligence, and political cover that enable the Saudis and their allies to continue doing these things to the people of Yemen.
The survivors of the attack were fortunate not to lose their lives, but they will have to live with the memory of their slaughtered classmates. Like so many other Yemeni children scarred and traumatized by the war, they will suffer from this attack long after the war ends. Marta Rivas Blanco, a nurse with the Red Cross serving in Yemen, recounted her experience in treating the survivors of the massacre:
The U.S. government has it in its power to cut off the coalition and halt their war effort, and in so doing our government could end a war that it has disgracefully enabled for more than three years. The U.S. should have done this long ago, but in the wake of yet another horrific massacre of innocents it is imperative that our government end all support for the war, cease all arms sales to the coalition’s members, and insist that the Saudis and their allies accept a cease-fire and enter into negotiations to resolve the conflict – by Daniel Larison
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-massacre-of-the-innocents-in-yemen/
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Film: Yemen's skies of terror
Yemen's war has devasted the country, leaving 22 million in need of humanitarian aid.
Today, on #WorldHumanitarianDay, Contrast VR takes you into Yemen through the lens of three children and teens impacted by the war.
https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera/videos/1823351571112486/
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News Analysis: Conflicting regional interests behind Yemeni war, solution lies overseas
Yemen has become a theater for conflicting regional interests and ambitions that led to a devastating civil war whose settlement is in the hands of concerned regional parties rather than the Yemenis themselves, said Yemeni and Egyptian experts. The conflict in Yemen between the Houthis and the internationally-recognized government represents a larger conflict between the regional backers of both sides, namely Iran and Saudi Arabia, the two major rivals in the Middle East region.
"These regional parties talk about the Yemeni issue as if it's their own affair, whereas none of them is concerned about the sufferings of the Yemeni people who face poverty, famine, cholera and other fatal epidemics due to the ongoing war," Badawi told Xinhua.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-08/20/c_137402945.htm
My comment: Nothing really new – and Iran certainly is not the man problem when talking of foreign interference in Yemen.
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Child soldiers from #Yemen recruited by Saudi led coalition have been arrested and turned in to the #ICRC and #UNICEF
A total of 31 child soldiers, minors, who were recruited by the Saudi led coalition have been captured and arrested by the Yemeni army and popular committees during battles fought on the frontlines in Yemen.
In a press conference held at the Ministry of Human Rights in the capital #Sanaa, The Chief of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee, Mohammed al-Houthi, stressed the need to release the minor prisoners and return them to their families.
Al-Houthi urged the minor prisoners’ families to maintain their children from being misled or dragged to the frontlines, calling on the local authorities to cooperate with the families in this regard.
For her part, Minister of Human Rights, Alia Abdullatif, explained that the 31 minor prisoners were received by the ministry and handed over to the ICRC [international committee of Red Cross] in the presence of representatives from UNICEF. (photos)
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1886668428052845
and
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Defense Ministry and Security Services Hand-Over 31 Children to UNICEF
Ministry of Defense and the Presidency of the General Staff and Security Services, on Sunday, handed over to the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and UNICEF 31 children captured by the Army and the Popular Committees. These young boys, under the age of 18, were captured in a number of fronts and security points, recruited by and fighting in along with the US-Saudi Aggression. The Red Cross is to return them to their families.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Defense Intelligence revealed a number of tricks that were used, by the mercenaries and agents of US-Saudi aggression, on children to deceive them and their families, in a number of governorates. They are usually told wanted for jobs in fields and will be transferred to work in Qat farms. During the period of custody, children were given full care, and were kept away from dangerous places, as they stated in their voluntarily testimony.
The report also revealed the use of schools as military training camps for children, as is the case in the school of Nima Rasam in Taiz, where children are recruited for the so-called 22nd Brigade Mika.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2336&cat_id=1
My comment: The Saudi coalition always emphasizes the Houthi child soldiers – but themselves they also recruit children.
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
Siehe / Look at cp1
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UNICEF-MITARBEITERIN GAMILA AUS DEM JEMEN: „UNSERE ERFOLGE GEBEN MIR KRAFT“
Dr. Gamila Hibatulla – sie ist Doktorin der Medizin – ist UNICEF-Spezialistin für Gesundheit und Ernährung im Jemen. Die letzten Jahre des Konfliktes und der Krise in ihrem Heimatland waren nicht einfach. Manchmal hat sie Angst, manchmal ist sie frustriert, erzählt Gamila bei einem Besuch in der UNICEF-Geschäftsstelle in Köln. Aber sie hat Erfolg mit dem, was sie tut. Und sie hat Hoffnung. „Ich glaube, dass UNICEF dazu beiträgt, das Leben von Kindern und Müttern zu retten“, sagt sie. Eine Geschichte, die dafür ein Beispiel sein kann, ist die Geschichte von Muhammad. Gamila traf ihn und seine Familie, als er neun Monate alt war. Für Gamila ist der Fall des kleinen Muhammad mehr als eine Erfolgsgeschichte.
Er zeige auch, wo der Schwerpunkt der UNICEF-Arbeit im Jemen liegen müsse: „Zuerst müssen wir die Mangelernährung der Kinder behandeln“, sagt Gamila. Nur, wenn die Kinder nicht mehr hungern müssen und gesund aufwachsen, können sie ihre Fähigkeiten entfalten, spielen, lernen. In der Stadt Ahwar im Zentrum des Jemen ist seit kurzem kein Kind mehr bedrohlich unterernährt – einer der Erfolge von Gamila und ihrem Team. Aber es bleibt noch viel zu tun: 400.000 Kinder unter fünf Jahren sind nach Schätzung von UNICEF in Gefahr, lebensbedrohlich mangelernährt zu werden.
Gamila hat sich während ihrer Ausbildung zur Ärztin auf die medizinische Betreuung von Kindern und Müttern und Familienplanung spezialisiert. Zu UNICEF kam sie, weil sie hoffte, hier mehr Kindern helfen zu können. Eine Million Kinder sind Geflüchtete im eigenen Land. Neben dem Hunger bedrohen Krankheiten wie die Cholera ihr Leben.
Gamila aber lässt sich von all dem nicht entmutigen. Sie sieht sich als Anwältin der Kinder des Jemen und macht dafür manchmal das scheinbar Unmögliche möglich. So organisierte sie einen Hilfskonvoi für die Menschen in Aden, als dort gekämpft wurde. Neun Fahrzeuge brachten Medizin, Lebensmittel und andere Hilfsgüter in die Stadt. Ein anderes Mal funktionierte das Team eine Halle, in der bisher Hochzeiten gefeiert worden waren, zu einem Warenlager für Hilfsgüter um. „Ich hoffe auf eine Zeit, in der dieser Konflikt zu Ende sein wird und die Menschen im Jemen in Frieden leben können“, sagt Gamila mit Blick auf die Situation in ihrem Heimatland.
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Aid and Conflict: Pitfalls in Yemen
The current struggle for the control of Yemen is not only a complex humanitarian emergency in the midst of war, but it is a complex humanitarian emergency that is a consequence of war. Yemen’s antagonists are battling for control of the country, and they are using whatever tools are at hand in order to advance their interests. In the Yemen context, where scarce food and fuel boost prices and money is in short supply, aid invariably becomes part of the equation of the conflict. It does so in several ways.
First, local political actors battle for the control of resources to distribute, to reward their supporters and to add to their own coffers. Every humanitarian organization needs an array of local partners.
Second, outside donors can use aid to further political goals with the population. Directing resources to government-controlled areas and denying them to those controlled by the Houthis, for example, essentially besieges Houthi areas and holds the civilian population hostage. Yemen presents a series of wicked problems, but one of the most difficult is the best way to distribute aid. When humanitarian and political crises are intertwined, there is no way to neatly separate the two. Humanitarians are committed to providing relief from suffering, yet they increasingly understand that there are circumstances in which providing that relief may actually prolong the conflict and increase overall suffering.
There is no denying the scale and scope of assistance that the Saudi-led coalition (SLC) has promised to Yemen. And yet, despite its scope, the SLC has been sharply criticized for using its assistance to further its war aims. The SLC, for example, has continued to discourage trade through the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah, which supplies approximately 70 percent of Yemen’s food and medicine.
Rerouting through the Emirati-controlled port of Aden not only overburdens a port with limited capacity and moves shipments further from their intended targets, but also subjects shipments to multiple checkpoints controlled by combatants, any of which may seek to extort funds to ensure safe passage. The SLC has also helped build up the inland city of Ma’rib, formerly something of a backwater with a long tradition of rebellion in retribution for government neglect. Now, Ma’rib is a boomtown hosting General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a veteran soldier and controversial political figure who has expertly navigated Yemen’s shifting political sands and maintains close ties with the SLC.
The SLC coalition is not the only party using aid to further its aims. The Houthis reportedly sought to block assistance from reaching internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled Hodeidah prior to the SLC’s assault in an attempt to discourage others from following. The goal was to retain a large civilian population in the city as a sort of “human shield” to prevent an SLC assault.
Humanitarians in Yemen face a number of obstacles. Increasingly, in the Yemen conflict and other humanitarian emergencies embedded in—and resulting from—conflict, humanitarians discuss the importance of being “conflict sensitive.” – by John R. Alterman
https://www.csis.org/analysis/aid-and-conflict-pitfalls-yemen
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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: Yemen: Humanitarian Dashboard (January - June 2018)
Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Some 22.2 million people - 75 per cent of the population - are in need of humanitarian assistance. 17.8 million people are food insecure and 8.4 million people do not know how they will obtain their next meal. Conflict, protracted displacement, disease and deprivation continue to inflict suffering upon the country’s population. Disruption to commercial imports, inflation, lack of salary payments to civil servants and rising prices of basic commodities are further exacerbating people’s vulnerability.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-dashboard-january-june-2018
Yemen: Humanitarian Access Snapshot (1 June - 31 July 2018)
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-access-snapshot-1-june-31-july-2018
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Feature: Displaced Yemenis to celebrate Eid al-Adha amid suffering, hunger
Yemeni families used to start preparing and shopping to enjoy Eid al-Adha, the second largest religious festival for Muslims, to be celebrated across the country on Tuesday.
But this year, thousands are suffering due to displacement and no preparations could be made to receive Eid al-Adha, as some families struggle to survive hunger and diseases after leaving their residential buildings.
Standing with his four children next to their tent at an internally displaced camp in the outskirts of Aden province, Obeid told Xinhua that there is no place for happiness to enjoy festival celebrations this year.
"This is the first Eid I receive without my beloved relatives. Fighting deprived us of staying inside our houses to receive Eid al-Adha peacefully with joy like previous years," he said.
He said that most of the displaced families are without financial sources and did not receive new clothes for their children from aid organizations.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-08/20/c_137405142.htm
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Yemen war: Disease rife amid water and sewage crisis | Al Jazeera English
After almost four years of war, much of Yemen is suffering from a lack of basic services. Repeated bombings have damaged or destroyed a great deal of the country's infrastructure, including water and sewage facilities, as malnutrition and poor sanitation are making people more vulnerable to diseases.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeeCKe612T8
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Funded by @monarelief's online fundraising campaign. Our team in #Hajjeh in northern #Yemen delivering food aid to most vulnerable families there. Please donate to help more families in #Yemen Cc @monareliefye https://www.gofundme.com/colourofwar (photos)
https://twitter.com/monarelief/status/1031306077634285569
Monareliefye.org distributes food baskets in Hodeidah
Food aid distribution project was carried out today by monareliefye.org 's team in Hodeidah in western #Yemen where heavy fighting being erupted in the city.
Our project was funded by our great donors in #Kuwait. (photos)
Monareliefye.org delivers food aid baskets funded by Humanity First Org to IDPs and most vulnerable families in Sana'a
Monareliefye.org has distributed today food baskets to IDPs and most vulerable families in the capital Sanaa.
Our project was funded by Humanity First organization. #Yemen (photos)
film: https://twitter.com/monarelief/status/1031311199445626880
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Horrifying picture of a malnourished child reveals desperation of 17 million people starving to death in Yemen's brutal civil war
Shocking pictures were taken on Saturday at a hospital in Abs, northern Yemen
The famine is currently killing around 130 people every day according to figures
More than half of the entire population of Yemen is now experiencing starvation
According to the World Health Organisation the famine has partially been caused by the US-backed Saudi forces devastation of Yemeni infrastructure.
The coalition is said to have targeted Yemen's water supplies in particular, making crop production and agriculture almost impossible.
Jan Egeland, who heads the Norwegian Refugee Council and also advises the United Nations on Syrian humanitarian operations said: 'We will have a famine of biblical proportions, if it continues like now with only a portion of those in greatest need getting humanitarian relief.'
My comment: It’s no more just a civil war.
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
(B H)
UN High Commissioner for Refugees: Yemen: IDPs Hosting Sites (as of August 2018) (Map)
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-idps-hosting-sites-august-2018
Yemen: Shelter/NFI/CCCM Monthly Dashboard (July 2018)
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-shelternficccm-monthly-dashboard-july-2018
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
(A number of militia gunmen - belonging to the #Houthi so-called supervisor at Ans market in the capital- have assaulted attorney Abdulkareem Qasim Al-Hamadi, who is the undersecretary of Legal Affairs Ministry in @BinHabtoorr Gov in #Sanaa. (photo)
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1032019428001628160
(A K P)
Security services in Taiz arrest several recruited of Saudi-led coalition
The security services in Taiz province arrested on Monday a recruited of Saudi-paid mercenaries on their way to join to the Saudi-led coalition's camps upon the ranks of the mercenaries, a security official said.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news505734.htm
(A P)
Mothers association condemn Houthi mass abduction of oppositionists in Ibb
The Association of the Mothers of Abductees in the jails of Houthi militia have condemned the latest Houthi campaign of massa abduction of oppositionists in al-Odein, an outskirt of Ibb province.
In a rally they held on Sunday in the city, the Association raised banners and chanted slogans demanding an end to the sweeping arrests and appealing to the UN special envoy to stipulate the release of the forgotten abductees in the militia's jails as one of the trust building steps in the peace talks he is soon to sponsor between the government and Houthis.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-21973
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
Siehe / Look at cp1
(* A P)
Security Deployment of Army and Police Forces to Secure Demonstrations Against Development Halt and Reform-Related Governor in Socotra
Angry citizens from all over Socotra Archipelago demonstrated in front of the governorate’s building while military and police troops were deployed to secure peaceful demonstrations. Protesters said that they are protesting against the acts of Reform Party represented in governor of Socotra who is halting all development efforts granted by the Arab Coalition, especially UAE that generously supported the Archipelago.
My commnt: This is the separatists’ view. The UAE and Saudis not at all are the humanitarian benefactors as separatists’ propaganda is claiming here. The UAE had occupied Socotra by military and are interested in exploiting the island for military and economic profit.
(A H P)
Thirty-one CSO demand breakthrough in Houthi siege on Taiz city
As many as 31 Yemeni civil society organizations have joined voices of appeal to the international community to force a breakthrough in the years long Houthi siege against the central Yemen city of Taiz.
In a statement on Sunday, the CSOs called on the UN organizations to force the Houthis to open some outlets for the flow of basic food stuff and medical provision into the city.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-21976
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Southern Transitional Council Denounces Targeting Southern Figures and Confirms Failure of All Tries to Falsify the Southern Will
The southern transitional council expressed full denouncement of targeting southern figures and brave resistance by some suspicious parties that try to use the legitimacy in failure try to show control over the south.
In its statement issued on Sunday Aigust 19th, 2018, the council asserted that creating any tension in Aden and the whole south will never serve peace efforts nor security and stability, exerted by brothers and friends and at the same time will lead the situation to return to chaos and violence that dark forces and enemies of the south are trying to impose. The following is the statement of the council:
Leadership of the southern transitional council observed with major concern the events of Saturday August 18th, 2018 in Salah El-Din – Al-Berika in Aden during the graduation ceremony of military academy and came after of reactions. The council would like to clarify the followingThe southern people called for brothers and friends to find a peaceful solution the liberate the south from this occupation, oppression and humiliation. But all these efforts failed due to authority’s arrogance and encouragement of corrupt religious organization that the authority follows all its false opinions justifying such acts.
After the second invasion of the south in 2015 by the same powers, the southern people summoned all his powers, will and anger and, thanks to God and support of brothers of the Arab Coalition, managed to defeat the military/tribal machine of the north and expel them outside the south. Unfortunately, some of their military units remained in control of oil and gas fields under the cover of securing them while they are waiting for war conditions to change so that they can take over the south and robe its fortunes.
Influential military and party powers of the north realized that after 2015 Sanaa, for them, was too far to reach. So, they worked hard to find an alternative capital they can run the war from as war for them is a precious gain they can never sacrifice.
These powers tried to use the legitimacy to occupy Aden for the third time in row by all means. Evidences of such thing are clear for all friends and brothers.
This last systematic try that happened on August 18th, 2018 in the military academy in Salah El-Din is another try to send a message to UN envoy Martin Griffith, just before Geneva talks, that they are controlling the south. They are trying to say that they represent the south and its will while they have never been, and never will be, God wills.
My comment: Thisis really a strange thinking…
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Southern Resistance Forcefully Cancels a Military Ceremony Where Union Flags were Raised in Aden
Southern resistance troops forcefully canceled a graduation ceremony held in the military academy in Aden where Union flags were raised.
Sources indicated that southern resistance troops forcefully canceled a graduation ceremony held in the military academy in Al-Berika as heavy gunfire targeted flag carriers who raised Union flags in the public square during the ceremony. The source also indicated that all Union Flags were dropped down and the ceremony was canceled as only prominent graduates were honored in a hall inside the academy. The gunfire led to minor injuries for three student officers.
Salah El-Din area is under tense conditions as young citizens of the area blocked several streets in protest to raising the Union flag during the graduation ceremony of the military academy.
My comment: This is how southern separatist propaganda puts the separatists violent assault against a president hadi army graduation ceremony, killing one cadet (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security/yemens-southern-separatists-attack-military-academy-in-aden-idUSKBN1L30KJ ). It’s the ordinary Yemeni flag which is named as a pretence here. Will the Hadi government let this happen??
(* A P)
Hadi refers Security Belt leaders to investigation after attack on the military college
President Abdurabbo Mansour Hadi has ordered the reference of two leaders of the Security Belt in Aden to investigation after they attacked a military college in Aden.
According to the state-run news agency "Saba", Hadi referred Mounir Mahmoud Ahmad al-Mashali (Abu al-Yamamah) and Abdul-Nasser Rajeh al-Bahwa (Abu Hammam) and anyone involved in the attack on military graduates in the military college in Salahuddin quarter in Aden.
Hadi instructed the judicial authorities to take the necessary action.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-21948
and
(A P)
Yemen: Hadi refers UAE-back Security Belt leaders for investigation
Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi has referred two leaders of the UAE-back Security Belt militia in the interim capital of Aden for investigation following clashes at a military college graduation ceremony.
The leaders were named as Munir Mahmoud Ahmed Mashali and Abdul Nasser Rajeh Baath.
My comment: Such an investigation will not be needed. SMA News clearly told that this had been a deliberate attack and what had been the reason.
(A P)
Shabwa Elites: Anti-Terrorism and Anti-Drugs Operations are Parallel Lines
https://en.smanews.org/shabwa-elites-anti-terrorism-and-anti-drugs-operations-are-parallel-lines
My comment: Southern separatists are propagating their militia, well-known for many Human rights violations.
(A P)
Southern Transitional Council: We Will Retaliate Firmly and Heavily with Those Who Deliberately Humiliate Southern Citizens, and the Legitimacy Should Control Its Tools and Stop Provocative Acts
In a press release issued by Fadl Al-Gaadi, acting secretary general and member of the presidency, the southern transitional council denounced and resented assaults, violations and provocative acts of armed powers and groups related to Muslim Brotherhood of the legitimacy against citizens of Bihan – Shabwa and directorates of Hadhramaut valley. The council warned these powers and who support them from the consequences of their hostile and provocative acts indicating that the council will retaliate firmly and heavily to save the dignity of southern citizens everywhere.
My comment: Southern separatists versus Hadi government and its supporters.
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
(A P)
19 Prisoners of the army, popular forces in Marib released in exchange deal with coalition
19 Prisoners of the army and popular forces on Tuesday were released in prisoners exchange deal with the US-backed Saudi-led mercenaries in Marib front-lines.
A source in the National Committee for Prisoners Affairs told Saba that the deal was the fruit of several months of negotiation with the mercenaries
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news505948.htm
(A P)
Al-Houthi Presents initiative on Prisoners Case
The head of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, on Sunday presented an initiative on prisoners captured by the Army and Popular Committees and prisoners captured by the countries of aggression.
"We are ready to release all prisoners held by the Army and Committees before Eid al-Adha, provided the countries of aggression release our prisoners," he said.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2335&cat_id=1
My comment: The Hadi government claims that as „confidence-building“ measure the Houthis must release their prisoners;of course, they did not offer a prisoner swap.
(A P)
Yemeni Minister to Asharq Al-Awsat: References for Ending Conflict Still Valid
Minister of State for National Dialogue Yassir al-Roaini stressed that the three references for ending the conflict in Yemen enjoy national, regional and international consensus, refuting allegations that they were no longer valid.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The references were comprehensive in the past and they are still valid for the present and future.”
The three references refer to the national dialogue outcomes, Gulf initiative and United Nations resolution 2216.
Once implemented, they will pave the way for the establishment of a transition period in Yemen, continued the minister.
My comment: What he calls the 3 „references“ here are the preconditions of the hadu government and the saudi coalition. They would fix the hadi government’s superity and de facto demand the Houthis to capitulate. Our precondition for dividing the cake is: we take 100 % of it.
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
Siehe / Look at cp1
(A)
Muslim pilgrims in Muzdalifa prepare for final stages of haj
More than 2 million Muslims gathered at Mount Arafat on Monday for a vigil to atone for their sins, and then descended to Muzdalifa to prepare for the final stages of the annual haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
(A P)
Film: Analyst: Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Reforms Sham
Saudi Arabia's plan to execute a female human rights activist not only shows that Riyadh's reforms are just a sham but also that the Saudis are "almost out of control," says a political commentator.
"Saudi Arabia has the worst human rights record on the planet and the new crown prince (Mohammed bin Salman) is playing a game saying he is a moderate and he is going to try to reform Saudi Arabian women's rights," said Journalist and International Lawyer Edward Corrigan during an interview with Press TV on Tuesday.
"But when you really look at his record closely, it's just more of the same and even worse. They are executing women human rights activists, which is condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch the United Nations and other organizations," he added.
(* A P)
Saudi-Arabien: Menschenrechtsaktivistin soll wegen friedlichem Protest öffentlich geköpft werden
Der saudische Kronprinz Mohammad bin Salman stellt sich gerne als Reformer Saudi-Arabiens dar. Jüngst wurde es Frauen dort erlaubt, einen Führerschein zu erwerben und sich selbst ans Steuer zu setzen, und es gibt wieder Kinos im Land. Auch die staatlichen Deradikalisierungsprogramme hätten den Nachwuchs für terroristische Gruppen deutlich zurückgehen lassen. Die von der westlichen Presse gepriesene Reform ist Kritikern zufolge aber nur vordergründig. Im Land regiere weiterhin der Wahhabismus, eine besonders strenge und radikale Form des Islam. Personen, die für die Gleichberechtigung und Meinungsfreiheit kämpfen, sitzen demnach hinter Gittern. Dafür reiche schon die Teilnahme an einer Demonstration. […]
Wie die Europäisch-Saudische Organisation für Menschenrechte (ESHR) berichtet, warten derzeit 51 Menschen in Saudi-Arabien auf ihre Hinrichtung. Acht davon seien bei der Tat minderjährig gewesen. Ihre Vergehen seien die Teilnahme an Demonstrationen und das Rufen von Anti-Regierungs-Slogans gewesen.
Für 31 von ihnen könnte das Leben bald mit einem jähen Schlag zu Ende sein, denn das Oberste Gericht Saudi-Arabiens bestätigte bereits ihr Todesurteil. Im standardisierten Exekutionsverfahren ist die Unterschrift des Königs der letzte Schritt vor der Vollstreckung des Urteils. Die Verfahren, so die Organisation, seien meist unfair. Die Kontrolle über das Gericht obliegt dem König. […]
Nach der Volksrepublik China und dem Iran nimmt Saudi-Arabien die drittgrößte Anzahl an Exekutionen weltweit vor. Im letzten Jahr wurden 150 Menschen exekutiert. Dieses Jahr könnte das Land einen neuen Rekord aufstellen.
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Saudi Arabia seeks death penalty for woman activist: rights groups
Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor is seeking the death penalty against five human rights activists from the kingdom’s Eastern Province currently on trial in a secretive terrorism court, groups including Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
Among the detainees is Israa al-Ghomgham, whom Saudi activists said was the first woman to possibly face the death penalty for rights-related work. Charges against her include incitement to protest and providing moral support to rioters.
“Any execution is appalling, but seeking the death penalty for activists like Israa al-Ghomgham, who are not even accused of violent behavior, is monstrous,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW, said in a statement on Wednesday.
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Saudi Arabia: News of Execution of Activist and Arrest of New Advocate
A large number of media sources circulated a video that they said documented the moment of executing a Saudi activist, Esraa al-Ghamgam. They confirmed that she was escorted by one of the security agents. The execution of the death sentence shows a woman who is "killed by the sword." She screams in the Saudi dialect, "I killed no one."
Hundreds of people called on international human rights organizations to intervene and stop Saudi authorities from prosecuting lawyers. The Saudi authorities were preparing to sentence to death a Saudi activist, Esraa al-Ghamgam, who was arrested with her husband, Musa al-Hashem, after their home was raided in Qatif.
In a related context Detainees of Opinion in Saudi Arabia website confirmed the news of the arrest of Sheikh Dr. Saleh Al-Talib Ghamam, a preacher of the Grand Mosque. The reason for the arrest is his call in one of his speeches to "reject evil people."
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2331&cat_id=2
Photos: Execution of the civil rights activist Isra-al-Gagham of Qatif by sword because of its criticism of the Saudi regime and she screamed at the killers and the sword before her saying: "I am not killed until you kill me this with injustice, I'll complain to God."
https://www.facebook.com/nafisa.alharazi/posts/10156606219942790
(A)
Muslims begin annual haj pilgrimage amid heavy rains
As more than 2 million pilgrims from around the world braved stormy weather in Saudi Arabia on Sunday to begin the annual haj ritual, the country’s health minister said there was no sign of any outbreaks of disease.
(A )
'We are real': Saudi feminists launch online radio
Operating out of a small room in an unknown country, a new internet radio station broadcasts a programme aimed at campaigning for greater women's rights in Saudi Arabia.
Three weeks ago, Nsawya FM set up a Twitter account and announced it would broadcast a weekly programme that would be the "voice of the silent majority".
It also called for volunteers who wanted to get involved in production or contribute material.
In the past two weeks, the station has broadcast two one-hour programmesusing only a microphone, a laptop with editing software and the live audio streaming website Mixlr.
The poor quality of the sound and the whole production, in general, reflects the non-professional nature of this project
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-45181505
cp9 USA
Siehe / Look at cp1
(* B K P)
US Leaders Aid and Abet War Crimes in Yemen
S leaders who provided military support to the Saudi-led coalition that bombed civilians in Yemen this August could be charged with aiding and abetting the commission of war crimes under customary international law, which is part of US law.
The 500-pound laser-guided MK 82 bomb, which the coalition dropped on August 9, killed 51 people, including 40 children. The bombing constituted a war crime.
According to customary international law, aiding and abetting a war crime requires three elements: 1) a person or entity committed a war crime; 2) another actor committed an act that had a substantial effect on the commission of the war crime; and 3) the other actor knew that the act would assist, or have a substantial likelihood of assisting, the commission of the war crime. All three of those elements were present in the August 9 bombing. First, the coalition committed a war crime. Willful killing and the targeting of civilians constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The US War Crimes Act defines grave breaches of Geneva as war crimes. Second, US leaders provided the means to commit the war crime. The purchase of the bomb was part of an arms deal with Saudi Arabia that the US State Department sanctionedThird, the US military knew that supplying the bomb to the coalition was likely to result in the commission of a war crime. A similar bomb killed 155 people in a funeral hall in Yemen in October 2016.
After the 2016 bombing, the Obama administration, citing “human rights concerns,” banned the sale to Saudi Arabia of precision-guided military technology. That ban was reversed the same month Trump made his deal in Riyadh, and the US government reauthorized the provision of Paveway laser-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi war on Yemen could not continue without support from the United States and the United Kingdom, according to Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institution. The US House of Representatives unanimously passed a non-binding resolution in November 2017, calling on the US military forces to withdraw from “unauthorized hostilities” in Yemen. It stated that US military aid to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen was not sanctioned by prior congressional authorizations. The resolution condemned the targeting of civilians and urged all parties to “increase efforts to adopt all necessary and appropriate measures to prevent civilian casualties and increase humanitarian access.” https://truthout.org/articles/us-leaders-aid-and-abet-war-crimes-in-yemen/
(* B K P)
Democrats’ Responsibility for America’s Forever War
Trump is expanding the foreign policy failures of previous administrations. Why aren't his opponents in Congress more vocal about it?
Saudi Arabia’s rationale for intervention is straightforward: The Sunni royal family backs the Yemeni government against the Shiite Houthi rebels, who allegedly are backed by Iran. The rationale holding a supportive coalition of Western nations together isn’t quite so clear. Nevertheless, both major political parties in America maintain an overall commitment to the policy, though their justifications for doing so differ According to Zenko, based on off-the-record comments to him, Trump officials justified the policy as a means to check Iranian might. In likewise off-the-record remarks during the Obama administration, officials had cited a need to shore up international support for the Iran deal.
If Zenko’s characterization is accurate, the latter excuse helps explain the politically difficult position Democrats are in today. Whatever Obama’s reasons, his failure to end America’s multi-pronged forever war led to this point—to “a litany of war crimes,” as Zenko put it. Trump took the broad strokes of Obama’s foreign policy—the Saudi military alliance in the Middle East, the continued presence of thousands of troops in Afghanistan, drone strikes in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere—andexpandedthem, further committing the U.S. to a policy that shows few signs of success. And he’s done so without consistent opposition from Democrats.
The Democratic Party has never been an anti-war party, and it seems unlikely to unite today around an alternative to interventionism. Ending assistance to Saudi Arabia’s campaign in Yemen would be an implicit rejection of part of Obama’s legacy, and it could demand a substantive reordering of the party’s foreign policy priorities. There’s no way to to pull out of the coalition without jeopardizing American relations with Saudi Arabia, and despite plenty of evidence that Saudi Arabia isn’t a reliable ally, the prospect of a fractious relationship with the wealthy petrostate might be enough to dissuade Democrats from changing course.
But if the Democratic Party internalizes the lessons of Yemen, it will have to do more than end munitions sales to Saudi Arabia. It will have to rethink its entire foreign policy. The war crimes in Yemen are just recent entries in an older series of interventionist failures, and previous Democratic presidents bear responsibility for the consequences. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is contemplating future conflicts.
https://newrepublic.com/article/150799/democrats-responsibility-americas-forever-war
(* B K P)
We, the United States, Are Massacring the Innocent People of Yemen
On August 9, the coalition hit a school bus with bystanders inside. When I say “hit,” I am using a polite verb. What I mean is that they bombed it from on high.
When I say bystanders, I mean children, and when I use the plural “children,” I mean forty children. They killed forty children.
How did the coalition do it? With our support. What does “support” mean? It means Saudi Arabia acted with our blessing, using bombs we made. With intelligence we provided. And with us fueling them in mid-air. We did that, too.
Words mean things, but what they mean change, depending on who is speaking. Strange, isn’t it? How language can bend. Like holding a long piece of hanging rope in your hand. In the blink of an eye, a phrase like “I murdered that man with my gun” can become “A man was shot and killed today with a firearm with ties back to me.”
We hide behind distance. We hide behind words.
So you see, it’s not just the Saudis bombing Yemen.
We are bombing Yemen. We helped bombed that school bus. There is—there was—a kid named Osama Zeid Al Homran, who took cell phone footage from inside of the bus. He did it before the Saudis dropped the American bomb on the bus. Then the Saudis and the Americans killed him.
The Trump Administration doesn’t care about civilian casualties. Neither do the Saudis or the coalition. The Coalition would start caring, if America asked them to. We won’t. Last May, the President of the United States signed a defense deal worth $110 billion with the House of Saud.
Washington could cut off the funding for the Yemen War. They won’t. Trump could order the Secretary of Defense to insure that the Coalition meets standards of international law. He won’t. We could ask our good friends the British and the Australians and the Canadians and the Brazilians and the Finns to stop selling weapons. We haven’t. Why get in the way of business?
Did you know the coalition is cutting deals with Al-Qaeda in Yemen?
We call ourselves a great Republic. We convince ourselves we are the envy of the world … but we know nothing, absolutely nothing. We haven’t changed a bit since Iraq. The youngest child on that bus knows more about justice than the greatest general in the Pentagon.
This is not an ethical country. Had this been an ethical country, we would care about children dying in a foreign land. We would nail this picture to the door of every government office until they stopped the bombs.
This is your regular seasonal reminder that the United States of America is helping kill people in Yemen.
(* B K P)
Time for a full US withdrawal from the Yemen conflict
What is just as disturbing is that Washington’s military and political support to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition is a worthless endeavor with little to no benefit for America’s national security interest in the region. Indeed, Washington’s Yemen policy is one more illustration of an ineffective, reactive, and unwise trend toward overextension—the same overextension that the American people have grown tired and disillusioned with after 17 years of U.S. investment in the Middle East. The U.S. may not be a direct party to the conflict, but it is by no means a blameless bystander either. As of March 2018, the U.S. Air Force has delivered 88 million pounds of fuel to Saudi and Emirati aircraft throughout the Horn of Africa region.
While Pentagon officials may dismiss these operations as routine assistance to an American partner, the mid-air refueling has been instrumental in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi's capacity to continue the bombing campaign.
When asked to explain the reasons for Washington’s support to the Saudi-led coalition, U.S. officials cite the need to aid a strategic partner during a turbulent period. U.S. officials also claim that assistance to the Saudis will be a force multiplier in the war against terrorist groups that have used Yemen as a base of operations for well over a decade.
None of these rationales, however, pass the laugh test. Not only has the war continued in a never-ending cycle of carnage for the Yemeni people, but U.S. intervention in Yemen’s civil war has afforded Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) with a major opening.
It goes without saying that none of these developments serve U.S. national security interests or meet U.S. counterterrorism objectives. Far from it; picking winners and losers in another Middle Eastern conflict has brought the civil war no closer to a resolution.
For the Trump administration, there is only one choice in Yemen: Cease all further military support, including mid-air refueling, to a Saudi-led coalition that has committed war crimes on a weekly basis; redouble support for U.N. mediation efforts by pressuring Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to seriously engage with their Houthi opponents during the next round of U.S.-backed peace talks on Sept. 6
There is no U.S. national security objective to be served in continuing to intervene in a tertiary conflict with no direct connection to U.S. security and economic prosperity.
The sooner the United States removes itself from the Yemen catastrophe, the better. There are no good sides in this war and Washington should stop convincing itself otherwise – by Daniel DePetris
(* B K P)
The US Helped Massacre Yemeni Schoolchildren
Back in 2010, New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman descended brieflyupon Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, where he “took part in a ‘qat chew’” with Yemeni officials, businessmen, and other elites.
Qat, Friedman explained to his uninitiated readership, was “the mildly hallucinogenic leaf drug that Yemeni men stuff in their cheek after work.” Though Friedman himself “quit after fifteen minutes,” he still managed to devise the following “new rule of thumb” for US involvement in the country: “For every Predator missile we fire at an Al Qaeda target here, we should help Yemen build fifty new modern schools that teach science and math and critical thinking — to boys and girls.” This magical “ratio of targeted killings to targeted kindergartens” was, Friedman felt, America’s best bet “to prevent Yemen from becoming an Al Qaeda breeding ground.”
Fast forward to August 2018, and the concept of targeted kindergartens has acquired rather more sinister connotations
In a recent essay, University of Richmond professor and Yemen scholar Sheila Carapico slams as “poppycock” the notion that the Houthis — the coalition’s adversaries in Yemen — are a “proxy” of Iran, and that “forty months of relentless bombing and blockade” somehow qualifies as “self-defense.” Noting that mass protests in Yemen in 2011 — “led, incidentally, by women” — had propelled the panties of the “Gulf patriarchies” into a royal bunch, Carapico goes on to affirm that the victims of the onslaught on Yemen, far from being Iranian Revolutionary Guard surrogates, are “starving children under attack by filthy-rich monarchies wielding the most advanced weapons Britain and the United States have to sell.”
So much for innocence.
Which brings us back to the issue of US complicity in the whole gruesome business. Chatham House’s Micah Zenko has taken to the pages of Foreign Policy to argue that, in Yemen, “America Is Committing War Crimes and Doesn’t Even Know Why,” serving as a “willing co-combatant in a war without any direction or clear end state.”
But while Zenko insists that America must “never again go to war, or support other’s wars, without purpose or objectives,” this sort of overlooks the fact that a central purpose of American bellicosity is to generate big bucks for the arms industry — whether or not nobler objectives like freedom- and democracy-proliferation are trotted out. The longer Yemen is made to suffer, the better it is for an industry that flourishes in accordance with influxes of Saudi oil money and general regional conflict.
We’d best get to work on those kindergartens.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/08/yemen-saudi-war-school-bus-bomb-civilians
(* A B K P)
Three Years Late, Has CNN Finally Discovered the U.S. Role in the Saudi War on Yemen?
Has CNN finally discovered the U.S.’s complicity in the brutal, horrific war being waged largely upon Yemeni civilians by Saudi Arabia? Previously they’ve appeared well-aware of the war, but painfully, willfully ignorant of the U.S. role in it. A recent report on the network may be cause for some encouragement. The bomb that destroyed the school bus was a MK-82 manufactured by Lockheed Martin.
Did the U.S. provide targeting for that school bus, or just the intel and weapons to destroy it? This question remains unanswered. The United States has claimed it played no role in this attack or its planning.
If CNN has finally discovered the U.S. role in this ongoing atrocity, as the CNN graphic above might indicate, that shouldimprove its coverage of the war considerably, but will it? The network is traditionally loath to criticize the U.S. military industrial complex and has rarely shone a light on the death and destruction caused by U.S. weaponry used by our allies upon civilians.
Wolf Blitzer’s previous interest in the subject of Yemen seemed to revolve primarily around how reigning in the Saudi-led death and destruction there might adversely affect jobs at U.S. weapons manufacturers.
Interviewing Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky in 2016, Blitzer expressed alarm over Paul’s opposition to a major arms sale to Saudi Arabia. His concern was not for Yemen.
(* B K P)
After School Bus Massacre in Yemen, US Media Finally Begins to Pay Attention
A leading US anti-war activist told Radio Sputnik Tuesday she is “so glad” to see the Saudi war in Yemen finally getting mainstream media attention after having been ignored for three years. “Cable networks don’t cover international news” anymore, she lamented, “unless it has to do with Russia.”
"It is quite remarkable that in these last three years, where the US has been so involved in this devastating war in Yemen, there has been so little coverage," Medea Benjamin, activist and co-founder of anti-war organization Code Pink, told Radio Sputnik's Fault Lines Tuesday. "And we in Code Pink have had campaigns trying to get even MSNBC to cover the war. A year went by; they didn't do a story on the war in Yemen. So it's not just Fox News; it's CNN, it's MSNBC, and it's in general even the print media. There's been almost no coverage on Yemen for the past three years."
[Interview begins 78:00]
Noting to hosts Garland Nixon and Lee Stranahan that MSNBC was once thought of as a leftist news source, Benjamin said her organization's relationship with the network has changed over the years, and they and the conflicts they oppose get significantly less attention there now. "I am so glad to finally see CNN not only covering the slaughter of these children, but calling out General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon for being the ones that supply these bombs," Benjamin told Sputnik. "This has been happening every week since March of 2015, but to finally see a graphic in a mainstream US media calling out these weapons manufacturers is a positive thing," she said, adding that it "puts pressure on the US Senate."
Benjamin noted that the Pentagon claims it's impossible to determine where US-supplied bombs are falling in Yemen and so refuses to take responsibility for having supplied those bombs. "Of course it's US bombs that were used: the US is supplying billions of dollars of bombs. But it was great that CNN went a step further and actually identified which bombs were being used, which companies they were coming from, not only in the graphic, but there have been shows that show the remains of these weapons with their identifications on them."
"So yes, something that was ‘too difficult' for the Pentagon to do seemed quite easy for CNN." (with audio)
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201808211067372755-Yemen-School-Bus-Massacre-US-Media-Attention/
(* B K P)
The Pentagon won’t check if US bombs killed kids in Yemen. CNN did it for them.
The Defense Department first said it might “never” find that out. Now it says the US military doesn’t “vet” strikes by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.
“We may never know if the munition [used] was one that the US sold to them,” Army Maj. Josh Jacques, a spokesperson for US Central Command, told me. “We don’t have a lot of people on the ground.”
The military could conduct an investigation to find out if that’s the case, but it’s unclear if that probe would ever happen or how long it would take, he continued.
Well, it turns out CNN launched an investigation of its own and reported last Friday that the bomb used in the attack did, in fact, come from the United States. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a Pentagon spokesperson, told me on Monday that the Defense Department “cannot independently verify what may have been found on site” and referred me to speak with Saudi officials.
But, she noted, “the US is not investigating strikes conducted by the Saudi-led coalition,” adding that the Defense Department takes “all credible reports of civilian casualties seriously.”
That’s somewhat surprising, as the strike in Sa’ada that killed innocent civilians is not an isolated incident
To summarize: The Saudi-led coalition is using American-made weapons dropped from planes refueled by Americans to kill civilians — including children — and the Pentagon won’t look into it.
As Rebarich explained it to me, the Pentagon doesn’t “provide or vet the Saudi-led coalition targets.”
The US says it wants an investigation, but America won’t lead it
On August 12, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said he sent a three-star general, Army Lt. Gen. Michael Garrett, to encourage the Saudis to investigate what happened in the Sa’ada attack. According to the Defense Department, Garrett has already pressed Saudi Arabia to conduct a “timely and transparent investigation.”
That’s unlikely, though, as a top spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition defended the August 9 strike by calling it a “legitimate military action.”
In the meantime, the US continues its three-year support for the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen.
https://www.vox.com/2018/8/20/17760322/yemen-children-bomb-bus-pentagon
(* A K P)
Film: CNN Exposes Defense Contractors Behind Yemen Destruction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5jHz8Pm15c
(* A K P)
Film: CNN Shames U.S. Defense Contractors For Providing Yemen Bombs
CNN has actually done something righteous. They've called out U.S. defense contractors for providing bombs that kill children. Sam Seder and the Majority Report crew discuss this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXyxjq4a_Mw
and from the comments.
All right CNN! Stormy Daniels stories: 585. Yemen stories: 1.
We hooked up Vietnam with weapons that would eventually be used against us. We hooked up Iran with weapons that were poised to be used against us. We hooked up the Muhajiadeen with weapons that have been (and are still being) used against us in Afghanistan and Iraq. So if we can't even guarantee our own troops won't ever be on the receiving end of munitions we allow our defense contractors to sell abroad, there's no way in hell this wouldn't be an inevitability. By 2020 our Defense budget could possibly top $1T (you know, with that "Space Force" and all), so the MIC shall remain a well-oiled machine; oiled by the blood of our own troops and innocent civilians.
(* A B K P)
YEMEN WAR: U.S. IS FINALLY REALIZING AMERICAN-MADE BOMBS WERE USED DURING AIRSTRIKES
A recent CNN report has prompted the widespread sharing of evidence that U.S.-built weaponry was being used in Saudi-led airstrikes that have reportedly killed civilians in Yemen. The news prompted a wave of coverage from some U.S. outlets such as The Hill and USA Today, as well as numerous international agencies like Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Haaretz, Press TV—a semi-official Iranian station frequently critical of U.S. foreign policy—and the South ChinaMorning Post. It has also led to an outcry among elected officials who have once again questioned the military relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
(* B K P)
Film: Nasser Morshid Arrabyee: United States shamelessly say it’s not engaged in the Saudi war on Yemen.
Who would believe that?
When the Pentagon commanders themselves say: they do not know why they have been killing and destroying Yemen with Saudis!
And the most honest of them say: ‘We just can not stop Saudis’
Saudis have been bogged down in the quagmire for 4 years now.
It’s not a cakewalk as they wrongly thought.
And the Saudis would not want to stop unfinished or defeated whatever the cost.
Otherwise, the would-be king would not be king!
So, now it’s only two options for US:
https://www.facebook.com/600869838/videos/10156613066559839/ = https://www.facebook.com/600869838/videos/vb.600869838/10156613066559839/?type=2&theater
(* B K P)
It’s Time For The U.S. To Stop Supporting The War On Yemen
Through our so-called allies in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the United States is helping to destroy Yemen. It's time for our support for that war to come to an end.
I’m not sure that I agree with Larison that it is within our power to end the war on Yemen. Even if we stopped supporting the Saudis tomorrow and stopped supplying them with the weapons they are using to fight that war, which is admittedly unlikely, there’s every indication that they would continue fighting and that they would simply find other sources to purchase their weapons from, such as the French or the English, or even the Russians and Chinese. As ill-conceived an idea as it might be, the Saudi leadership has its entire credibility tied up in this war at this point, withdrawing absent total victory is going to cause problems at home notwithstanding the fact that total victory is basically an impossible goal at this point.
American support for the Yemeni war is, as Larison has said elsewhere, a prime example of everything wrong with American foreign policy. In the beginning, it was motivated by both blind allegiance to the idea that we ought to back so-called allies even when we don’t have an obligation to do so and by the idea that the Saudi war on Yemen was in some sense a proxy war against Iran. In the first case, it has resulted in the refusal of both the Obama and Trump Administrations to hold our supposed friends in Saudi Arabia accountable for the numerous human rights violations they and their allies were committing in the name of that war from the beginning. At the same time, the war was and is seen by many inside both Administrations, and many outside analysts as a way of engaging against Iran given the fact that the Houthi rebels that are the primary target of the war are loosely allied with Iran.
While the United States is not directly involved in the conflict, our support for the Saudis and their allies from the United Arab Emirates is as close to involvement as one can get without actually putting American boots on the ground. From the beginning it was a war of choice started by the Saudis and our involvement, albeit on the sidelines, has also been a conscious choice notwithstanding the fact that there are no American interests implicated in the conflict and that, arguably, American interests are being harmed the longer the war is allowed to continue and the deeper Yemen is plunged into the kind of chaos that will inevitably turn it into the same kind of breeding ground for terrorists that we saw in pre-9/11 Afghanistan and more recently in Syria and Libya.
At some point down the line, I’m afraid, we are going to pay a price for turning a blind eye to the war crimes and human rights violations that the Saudis and Emiratis are committing with our full support in their war on Yemen. What that price will be is unclear at this point, but it could include everything from the establishment of an Iranian-backed beachfront on the Arabian Peninsula to a breeding ground for a whole new generation of terrorists that will direct their aim at the United States and other Western targets. At that point, we’ll wonder why they’re so mad at us, and most people won’t even realize that it was our own support for this genocidal war that created a new generation of enemies – by Doug Mataconis
https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/its-time-for-the-u-s-to-stop-supporting-the-war-on-yemen
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Trump, Democrats face off over Yemen war
Shortly after Trump signed an annual defense authorization bill on Monday, the White House issued a statement objecting to several provisions in the law, including language that would make it more difficult for the United States to continue support for the Saudi-led coalition in its aerial campaign against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
“Particularly in light of the horrific hit against the school bus last week, that’s very disappointing to hear the White House take that approach,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., a key architect of the Yemen language, told Al-Monitor. “We should be doing everything we can to try to reduce casualties in Yemen to try to get the parties to the table and to urge the Saudis and Emiratis to do everything they can to avoid the kind of casualties that we’re seeing.”
“I’d like to know what their legal rationale is for ignoring stuff we put into the [National Defense Authorization Act],” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., a member of the Armed Services Committee, which drafted the bill, told Al-Monitor. “And they certainly didn’t reach out to us to tell us not to put them in, so that’s kind of weird.” Further exacerbating the confusion, Trump’s nominee to become under secretary of state for political affairs, Ambassador David Hale, committed to upholding the Yemen certification requirements during his confirmation hearing today.
“If we’re unable to find the elements that we’re required to certify, then we will of course have to act accordingly; that’s the law,” Hale promised the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “I’m not fully briefed on the details of this legislation, but I understand the significance of this and the need to be in accordance with the law.”
Kate Kizer, the policy director of Win Without War, a coalition of activist groups that aggressively pushed Congress to pass the Yemen language, called Trump’s signing statement “preposterous,” noting that the law overwhelmingly passed 359-54 in the House and 87-10 in the Senate.
“If Trump makes good on his threat to disobey the law, we expect there will be a bipartisan showdown in Congress, which has already come incredibly close to cutting off US assistance to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Yemen,” Kizer told Al-Monitor.
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Trump’s Yemen policy is one of hypocrisy and indifference
Last December, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, held a news conference highlighting what she described as proof of Iran’s role in supplying illicit weapons to Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
It’s worth considering Haley’s adamant stance in light of what has happened since. The failed Houthi missile strike caused no casualties, but it prompted Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf allies to tighten their blockade on Yemen and intensify the war against the Houthis. Since then, the country’s epochal humanitarian crisis has only worsened, and airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition have killed dozens of civilians. The United States, as we’ve detailed in the past, has abetted the Saudi-led war in Yemen, helping refuel aircraft and supplying intelligence and munitions to the coalition. But while Trump administration officials leap to conclusions about the Iranian hand in Yemen’s ruinous war, they are far more coy about their own.
When pressed about the American role in the deadly strike, a senior U.S. official expressed apathy.
“Well, what difference does that make?” the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said to reporters in Cairo. “We are providing the refueling and support to Saudi aircraft. We are also selling them munitions. … We are not denying that.”
While the Trump administration may wave away its actions in Yemen, there’s a growing uproar in Washington about the horrors of the war.
And while the Saudis and their U.S. allies “have a point” when it comes to pinning the blame on the Houthis, argued Frank Giustra and Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group, it’s not a strong one.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/08/20/trumps-yemen-policy-is-one-hypocrisy-indifference/
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Murphy Amendment Would Defund US Involvement in Yemen War
This week, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) is taking another crack at defunding the war, with an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act of 2019, which is coming up for debate in the Senate. This amendment withdraws all funding, prohibiting the Pentagon from spending any money on the Yemen War.
This is the only realistic recourse Congress has to President Trump’s refusal to abide by NDAA limitations, The power of the purse allows Congress to defund conflicts, and Sen. Murphy says it is particularly vital in this case, because the war is unconstitutional and never authorized by Congress.
https://news.antiwar.com/2018/08/19/murphy-amendment-would-defund-us-involvement-in-yemen-war/
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Trump Quietly Overrides What Little Civilian Protections Remain in Yemen War
Ignoring Congress, Trump says he doesn’t have to obey limited protections included in the defense bill.
With little public attention, President Donald Trump used his August 13 signing statement for the $716 billionNational Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to override restrictions aimed at minimizing civilian deaths in the U.S.-Saudi war on Yemen. The signing statement is the latest evidence that, after three years and tens of thousands killed, the Trump administration has no intention of curbing its role in the bloody war it inherited from Obama.
As In These Times previously reported, the 2019 NDAA’s restrictions on the war were already insufficient when it reached Trump’s desk, merely requiring increased transparency and vaguely defined verification that the coalition is attempting to minimize harm to civilians—rather than ending the U.S. role in the Saudi-led war altogether. Yet the measures were better than nothing, given the failure of Congress to end three years of U.S. participation in the war.
But in one fell swoop, Trump dismissed roughly 50 statutes included in the NDAA, claiming that the provisions unconstitutionally tread on his executive authority. Signing statements outline presidents’ interpretations of laws, often with heavy input from White House and Department of Justice legal teams. Former President George W. Bush infamously used a signing statement to override a 2005 ban on torture.
Among Trump’s targets is section 1290, which stipulates that, before greenlighting the refueling of warplanes, the Secretary of State must certify that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are minimizing harm to civilians, mitigating Yemen’s humanitarian crisis and trying to end the civil war. That provision was already weak, offering a waiver in cases of U.S. “national security interests,” which are are often invoked by U.S. officials who misleadinglyoverstate Iran’s influence in Yemen to justify intervention. Furthermore, the measure relied on Mike Pompeo to tell the truth, when the U.S.-backed coalition already claims to be mitigating the humanitarian crisis and trying to end the war, despite overwhelming evidence otherwise.
As limited as this provision is, Trump claims he doesn’t have to comply. In his signing statement he cites the president’s “exclusive constitutional authorities as commander in chief and as the sole representative of the nation in foreign affairs.”
(A K P)
Amerikanischer Schauspieler Jim Carrey verurteilt Tötung jemenitischer Kinder
Carrey veröffentlichte auf seinem Twitter Bilder von Kindern, deren Bus mit einer US-Rakete angegriffen wurde, und schrieb: " Das sind 40 unschuldige Kinder, die in einem Bus im Jemen getötet wurden." Und er fügte hinzu: "Unser Verbündeter. Unsere Rakete. Unser Verbrechen."
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
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Jeremy Hunt defends UK-Saudi ties after children killed in Yemen bus blast
Jeremy Hunt has defended UK ties with Saudi Arabia after a bomb dropped on a school bus in Yemen killed dozens of children.
The Foreign Secretary said links with Riyadh helps “keep the streets of Britain safe” as the Kingdom passes crucial intelligence to British spies.
Asked about UK ties with Riyadh during a visit to Washington yesterday, Mr Hunt said: “Saudi Arabia is a close military ally and they help us keep the streets of Britain safe and so that relationship is very important to us.
“It doesn't mean we don't raise concerns about what happened with the Saudi foreign minister Al-Jubeir, as I did last week.”
He added: “We look at that humanitarian situation with a huge amount of concern.
“It's impossible to see the reports of what happened in that bus in Yemen without being very concerned about what is happening.”
My comment: This man must be insane. Bombing Yemen into ruins and killing Yemeni children is making British streets safe?? – His “concern” is bullshit.
Comment: PARTNERS in fighting Islamic extremism - really??? Did you see the reports by the UN and AP recently that revealed that Al Qaeda is fighting alongside the Saudi led coalition ??? If not then you really are not fit to be foreign secretary.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10156940792178641
Presiding over deaths in the NHS and now presiding over deaths in the Foreign Office. This man has no shame.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10156940786588641
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Britain 'raised concerns' with Saudi Arabia over Yemen civilian deaths
Jeremy Hunt said he was very concerned after the Saudi-led coalition hit that killed 51 people in total
Britain 'raised concerns' with Saudi Arabia over the rising civilian death toll in Yemen, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said today.
The Foreign Secretary said he was very concerned after the Saudi-led coalition hit that killed 51 people in total.
The UK is a key military and security ally of Saudi Arabia and has faced criticism over arms sales in the face of an overwhelming humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Answering questions after a speech in Washington, Mr Hunt said: "We look at that humanitarian situation with a huge amount of concern.
"It's impossible to see the reports of what happened in that bus in Yemen without being very concerned about what is happening.
Saudi Arabia is a close military ally and they help us keep the streets of Britain safe and so that relationship is very important to us.
"It doesn't mean we don't raise concerns about what happened with the Saudi foreign minister Al-Jubeir, as I did last week."
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/britain-raised-concerns-saudi-arabia-13118226
and in fil: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-45265871/foreign-secretary-defends-uk-saudi-ties-after-yemen-bus-deaths
My comment: “Concern” is a hollow phrase which allows to calm the public and to continue supporting the Saudis exactly as before.
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Scottish Business Minister Jamie Hepburn defends Raytheon funding
THE Scottish business minister has defended public cash being given to an arms giant which sold munitions to Saudi Arabia, who are engaged in a bombing campaign against neighbouring Yemen.
Jamie Hepburn said the money from Scottish Enterprise – totalling £185,000 since 2014 – was to help Raytheon move into areas away from the manufacture of weapons.
and
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Scottish firm linked to Yemen market air strike that killed 40 children
GLENROTHES based US weapons manufacturer Raytheon are reportedly one of the makers of a bomb used by the Saudi-led coalition in a devastating attack on a school bus that killed 40 children in Yemen earlier this month.
It’s understood the 500-pound laser-guided MK 82 bomb was sold to Saudi Arabia as part of a US State Department-sanctioned deal.
Research by CNN, and local Yemeni journalists and munitions experts, linked the bomb used on the the attack in Yemen’s Houthi rebel-held north market on August 9 to aerospace company Lockheed Martin.
Jane’s Defence Weekly said remnants of a Raytheon guidance kit appear to have been found close to the scene of the attack.
Reports in yesterday’s Sunday Mail suggested Raytheon had, in recent years, been awarded substantial grants and support from Scottish ministers and government agencies.
One Green MSP accused the SNP of “stomach churning” hypocrisy for attacking the UK government for licensing arms sales, while at the same time pandering to the firm.
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
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Rüstungsexporte an Türkei und Saudi-Arabien fast gestoppt
Seit März wurden nur noch in Einzelfällen Ausfuhrgenehmigungen für Waffen erteilt. Abgesehen von je einer Ausnahme für Saudi-Arabien und Jordanien gingen gar keine Waffenlieferungen mehr in Länder, die am Krieg im Jemen beteiligt sind. Die neue Bundesregierung hat die Rüstungsexporte nach Saudi-Arabien und in die Türkei in den ersten Monaten ihrer Amtszeit fast ganz gestoppt.
Aus einer Antwort des Wirtschaftsministeriums auf eine Anfrage der Linksfraktion geht hervor, dass für beide Länder zwischen dem 14. März – dem Tag der Vereidigung des neuen Kabinetts – und dem 30. Juni nur noch in wenigen Einzelfällen Ausfuhrgenehmigungen erteilt wurden. Von den Exportanträgen für Saudi-Arabien bewilligte die neue Regierung nur noch einen über 28.563 Euro. In den ersten zehn Wochen des Jahres sind es noch vier Rüstungsgeschäfte über 161,8 Millionen Euro gewesen. http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/deutsche-ruestungsexporte-an-tuerkei-und-saudi-arabien-fast-gestoppt-15748052.html
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
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Canada criticizes Saudi Arabia over another jailed female activist
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office is publicly voicing concern about another jailed female civil-rights activist in Saudi Arabia, continuing the Canadian government’s criticism of the kingdom’s human-rights record despite political and economic retaliation Riyadh inflicted on Canada earlier this month. Asked for comment on Ms. al-Ghomgham’s treatment, Ms. Freeland’s office released a statement saying Canada is worried about the Saudi woman’s case.
“As Minister Freeland has previously stated, Canada is extremely concerned by the arrests of women’s rights activists,” spokesman Adam Austen said. “These concerns have been raised with the Saudi government. Canada will always stand up for the protection of human rights, including women’s rights and freedom of expression around the world.”
The Canadian government, however, did not call on Saudi Arabia to “immediately release” Ms. al-Ghomgham, unlike earlier this month when the Department of Global Affairs used this phrase in calling on the kingdom to free a number of women activists. The Saudi government specifically cited “immediate release” as a reason for its anger when it began scaling back and cutting diplomatic and economic ties with Canada for this criticism earlier this month.
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
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Lockheed Martin to set up major plant in Saudi Arabia
Lockheed Martin said it has joined hands with Wahaj, a subsidiary of Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) to set up a production unit for its Paveway II Plus Laser Guided Bomb (LGB) mechanical parts in Saudi Arabia.
The company today (February 28) has signed a teaming agreement with Riyadh-based Wahaj to develop the company’s in-country production capability to co-manufacture the Air Foil Group (tailkits) for Paveway II Plus LGBs in the kingdom.
The agreement was signed at the Armed Forces Exhibition for Diversity of Requirements and Capabilities annual conference at the Riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Center.
"Today marks an important day for Saudi Arabia, as we make progress in the localisation essential to a strong defence industry. The team at Wahaj look forward to securing the best local talent to help us meet capacity of future Paveway II Plus LGB manufacturing,” remarked Abdulrahman A. Al Saif, the chairman of Wahaj.
Paveway II Plus LGB from Lockheed Martin integrates an advanced guidance system to convert conventional gravity bombs into precision guided munitions and includes an enhanced guidance package that improves accuracy over legacy LGBs.
http://tradearabia.com/news/MISC_337334.html
My comment: Paveway II Plus LGB from Lockheed Martin was used for the August 9 school bus raid.
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Lockheed Martin receives bloody images instead of cool weapons photos in failed Twitter campaign
Lockheed Martin’s social media appeal to send them the best photos of its products went horribly awry, as unimpressed Twitterati responded with gruesome images of the horrors of war.
The world’s largest defense contractor and one of the top defense manufacturers posted a tweet last week, asking Twitter users to send them an “amazing photo” of a Lockheed Martin item. It is unclear what the company expected to receive, given that it produces deadly weapons of war, but the campaign backfired spectacularly.
The “amazing photos” Lockheed received show what appear to be parts of their own missile that struck a Yemeni school bus, killing dozens, as well as children’s school backpacks covered with blood. The initial tweet was deleted, but screenshots taken by vigilant users are circulating on social media. Lockheed’s initial tweet coincided with reports that one of their 500-pound laser-guided MK 82 bombs was used in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on a school bus in Yemen earlier this month.
https://www.rt.com/usa/436381-lockheed-martin-tweet-backlash/
and also https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lockheed-martin-world-photo-day_us_5b78a2eee4b018b93e948af3
and
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Lockheed Martin has now deleted the first tweet. The weapons maker takes PR & perception seriously. Which is why it funds, pseudo-academic, lobby groups, such as @cepa, @AtlanticCouncil, @gmfus etc. Many prominent, war-focused, media commentators are funded by these entities.(showing the original Lockheed tweet)
https://twitter.com/27khv/status/1031129788633759744
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UAE Tests Patria AMV Vehicles with BMP-3 Turrets in Battle in Yemen
The United Arab Emirates Army (UAE) is reported to have tested Finnish manufacturer Patria AMV (Armored Modular Vehicle) in Yemen.
Reporting from TASS, Monday (08/20/2018), This was revealed by one source at the army official in anonymous condition.
According to information, the combat vehicle was equipped with a BMP-3 infantry combat module from Russia.
According to the source, the UAE has sent combat vehicles to Yemen used by the military from the UAE.
“The UAE military is actively testing Patria AMV with a BMP-3 turret in a combat environment in Yemen. The combination of chassis from Finland and combat modules from Russia are very effective. BMP-3 differs from other IFVs in terms of firepower, because of its strong weaponry, which consists of 100 mm missile cannon / launchers and 30 mm coaxial automatic cannons, “said the source.
cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner
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Qatar: Doha recruiting 10,000 southern Yemenis for service in #Qatar military. Salary: A whopping 5 times more than what #UAE pays. Plus Qatari nationality as a bonus.
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1029750073050193920
Interesting: South Yemeni recruits have been promised by Doha that post-training, they would only be deployed in the defence of Qatar, NOT anywhere overseas (e.g. like Yemen).
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1031470950527782912
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[from May 2018]
Mapping Erik Prince’s Private Mercenary Empire
Erik Prince is the modern architect of private military firms
His latest venture is in training security personnel in China
But he's been all over the world, outsourcing militaries to cheap labor markets
Al Bawaba has provided a partial map to track Erik Prince's activities over the years
Yemen
Erik Prince and his U.A.E. private military firm helped recruit and train over 1,000 soldiers from Latin American countries. Then, their bodies started appearing on battlefields in Yemen.
A single missile reportedly killed 45 mercenaries from the U.A.E.
Prince’s initial battalion of 800 soldiers had blossomed into almost 2,000 specialized troops hired mostly from Latin America to do the U.A.E.’s business.
Although officials say Erik Prince’s formal business role with the U.A.E. had ended several years before the intervention into Yemen, his corporate blueprint to partially outsource the U.A.E.’s military is doubtlessly still in use.
The U.A.E. keeping and even expanding Prince's blueprint for a private, outsourced army demonstrates just how influencial he and his mercenary business model has become.
https://www.albawaba.com/news/mapping-erik-prince%E2%80%99s-private-mercenary-empire-1127822
cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy
(A E)
Japan to import Yemeni Masila crude oil for the first time since 2015
Japan is set to import a Masila crude oil cargo from Yemen for the first time since 2015 as part of its efforts to expand its supply sources. The move to scout around for cargoes beyond its traditional suppliers and outside the Gulf of Aden area comes at a time when the region in the Middle East is witnessing prolonged geopolitical concerns.
Question: Who is benefitting?
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
(A T)
#IslamicState in #Yemen tries to brighten up its image after being slammed by #AQAP as a gang of brainwashed footsoldiers led by bullying thugs. Yesterday it launched “Photo Diary of a Mujahid in al-Bayda’ Province”. 13 idyllic images parade usual male enticements: food & guns (image)
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1031952592866304002
(A T)
“We have the right to kill 4 million Americans including a million children” - writes media group linked to #alQaeda in #Yemen in warped ‘logic’ of revenge for deaths blamed on US in #Palestine, #Iraq & other Muslim lands. The #AQAP-linked group also justifies germ warfare (image)
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1031940001750306817
(A T)
Pro-AQAP media issues new document on #alQaeda's dustup with #IslamicState in #Yemen (ISY) -Invites "deluded" ISY fighters to join #AQAP -Says ISY leaders deny fighters access to outside world & bully local tribes -Highlights confessions of 4 ISY captives in AQAP's 9 August video (image)
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1031445905407401986
(A T)
After unconfirmed reports that #AQAP's chief bomb-maker was killed by US #drone in #Yemen, AQAP-linked media group releases part 2 of "Why Are We Fighting America?" Warns USA to get ready as what's coming is as big as 9/11. Laughs at mediators sent to convince them to stop #jihad (image)
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1031522583655706625
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U.S. officials: Top terrorist bomb maker died in drone strike
U.S. military officials said they are confident a drone strike in Yemen last year killed the chief bomb maker for the al Qaida terror group.
Authorities told CBS News and Fox News they were confident Ibrahim al-Asiri died in the strike.
The intelligence was initially based on a United Nations team that tracks terrorist groups.
"Probably the most sophisticated terrorist bomb maker on the planet. Incredibly creative, incredibly innovative," former CIA deputy director Michael Morell told CBS News.
Al-Asiri, of Saudi Arabia, was known for his miniaturized bombs with little or no metal content that had better odds of getting past airport security.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2018/08/21/6201534866624/?sl=2
and
(B T)
Newspaper: Al-Qaeda bomb maker killed in US raid in Yemen
Yemeni officials and tribal leader said yesterday that a drone strike by a US drone killed al-Qaeda bomb maker Ibrahim al-Asiri, a major loss to al-Qaeda in Yemen.
According to Okaz newspaper, al-Asiri was killed by a raid in eastern Yemen.
The tribal leader said that Asiri was targeted while standing next to his car, accompanied by two or four members of the organization.
A UN report said last week that Asiri, 36, may have been killed in the first half of 2017.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-21949
cp15 Propaganda
(A P)
Yemen’s Hadi Says Battle is Almost Over
Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi has said that the battle led by the legitimate forces backed by the Arab Coalition against Houthi insurgents is almost over and victory is near.
He added that peace will not be achieved unless Houthis are eliminated and the country is put back on the right political track.
In his speech on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha, he stated that peace is the right choice “but the war was imposed on us by racist gangs, taking the future of Yemeni generations captive."
Hadi added that victory will be declared once the country is liberated from the Iran-backed Houthi militias and state institutions are restored.
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1370231/yemen%E2%80%99s-hadi-says-battle-almost-over
My comment: the battle would be far from over, the stalemate continues. – hadi clearly shows that he wants victory, not peace. Peace is an agreement with the (former) enemy, not to eliminate“ him. Hadi clearly says that he wants endless war.
(A P)
Highlights from the 2018 Aspen Security Forum
Yousef Al Otaiba, current United Arab Emirates ambassador to the US, is no stranger to criticism about his country’s military involvement in Yemen. He said the UAE’s efforts are an attempt to prevent Iran from dominating the country— and the region as a whole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=WvoiWNlmg7g = https://twitter.com/AspenInstitute/status/1031610819136483331
(A P)
Hudaida und der Schlüssel zur Lösung im Jemen
Der Botschafter des Jemen legt seine Sicht zum Krieg in seiner Heimat dar.
Die Befreiung der Provinz Hudaida begann nach Ausschöpfung aller friedlichen Mittel mit einer breiten Offensive der jemenitischen Armee, unterstützt durch die arabische Militärkoalition, als souveränes Recht der legitimen jemenitischen Regierung, auch die restlichen Provinzen des Landes aus den Händen der vom Iran unterstützten Milizen der Houthi-Putschisten zurückzugewinnen, Zivilisten vor ihrer Brutalität zu bewahren, den Schmuggel iranischer Waffen zu unterbinden und die internationale Schifffahrt im Roten Meer zu schützen.
Die Offensive zur Befreiung der Stadt Hudaida und ihres Hafens stimmt mit Resolution 2216 des Sicherheitsrates überein, die den Abzug der Houthis aus allen von ihnen beherrschten Gebieten fordert und erfüllt besonders Artikel 14, laut dem Waffenlieferungen an aufrührerische Milizen zu verhindern sind. Geschmuggelte iranische Waffen erreichen die Houthis über den Hafen von Hudaida. Sie verseuchen Festland und internationale Seewege mit Tausenden Land- und Seeminen; eine eklatante Verletzung des Völkerrechts. Die derzeit größte Herausforderung sind Angriffe der Houthis auf internationalen Schiffsverkehr, wie zuletzt am 25. Juli auf zwei saudische Öltanker.
Besondere Sorge bereitet der jemenitischen Regierung jedoch die humanitäre Lage in Hudaida. Seit Einnahme des Hafens, über den ein Großteil der humanitären Hilfe und Treibstoff geliefert werden, missbrauchen die Houthis ihre Macht.
Es ist wichtig, aufzuzeigen, dass wir mit einer militanten Gruppierung konfrontiert sind. Sie hat Waffen, aber keine politische Agenda und will mit Gewalt an die Macht, ohne die Zusammensetzung des jemenitischen Volkes und seine verfassungsrechtlichen Institutionen zu berücksichtigen.
Daher ist die internationale Staatengemeinschaft gefordert, die Verbrechen der Houthis zu verurteilen, wie etwa zuletzt die Angriffe auf das Al-Thawra-Krankenhaus und den Fischmarkt in Hudaida und sie unter Druck zu setzen, die Waffen abzugeben, aus den restlichen Städten abzuziehen und am politischen Prozess teilzunehmen.
Mein Kommentar: Für derartige Propaganda sollte die „Presse“ wirklich keinen Raum geben. Nur eines: Die Angriffe auf das Al-Thawra-Krankenhaus und den Fischmarkt in Hudaida wurden, wenn nicht on der Luftwaffe der saudischen Koalition, von Artillerie der von den Emiraten unterstützten pro-Hadi-Milizen, die im Süden der Stadt stehen, durchgeführt. Letzteres beweist eine genaue Untersuchung von Bellingcat.
(A P)
REPORT: IRGC OFFICER CONFIRMS HELPING HOUTHIS FIRE ROCKETS AT SAUDIS
Iran not only supported Yemen’s Houthis with weaponry but gave them directives to attack two Saudi Arabian oil tankers on July 25.
My comment: warmed up after ca. 10 ays again – even if he had said something quite different.
(A P)
Yemeni Minister: Houthi Landmines, Snipers Inhibit Infrastructure Recovery Projects
In Yemen, infrastructure is a determining factor for the accessibility of commercial and aid trucks on which the local population, traders and government currently survive.
Yemeni Minister of Public Works Dr. Moeen Abdul Malik described the mines planted by Houthi militias one of the main challenges obstructing infrastructure development projects.
In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Malik recounted what he labeled as ‘extraordinary efforts’ spent by the ministry to limit damage done to national infrastructure.
“The scale of destruction was enormous after Houthi militias were defeated and driven out of their strongholds,” Malik said.
My comment: This is abusrd propaganda. The main damages to infrastructure were caused by Saudi coalition air raids. Secondary to this, by shelling of ALL warring parties on the ground. Landmines are horrible but their dmage to infrastructure is limited.
(A P)
TIP CEO: Iranian Support Gave Houthi Rebels Resources to Wage War in Yemen
In an op-ed published in The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, TIP CEO & President Joshua S. Block detailed how support from Iran gave Houthi rebels the resources to wage war in Yemen and how the humanitarian crisis affecting the Yemeni people could be alleviated by cutting off the Houthis from their Iranian masters.
“It is clear that the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM), which provides clearance for commercial shipping to Houthi-controlled territory, has failed to stop the flow of illicit arms to the rebels,” Block observed, adding that “Since the war broke out and the Houthis unseated the legitimate government of Yemen, the group has received training, expertise and weapons from Iran and Hezbollah.”
(A P)
Yemen’s opportunistic arrangements
The United Arab Emirates, a Sunni Muslim Arab nation and Saudi Arabia’s primary ally in Yemen, is publicly incensed at the “deals with al-Qaeda” accusation. A senior Emirati officer said the terror group is a regional and global threat and the UAE is “determined” to destroy AQAP.
If there was an opportunistic arrangement between coalition forces and local AQAP fighters, it sounds like the deal was very local, and extremely short-lived.
http://www.bostonherald.com/opinion/op_ed/2018/08/yemen_s_opportunistic_arrangements
My comment: The author seems to know little of Yemen and it seems whrthre he was totally insecure what to write of. Anyway, his objective was evident: to lift the allegation against the Emirates to have made deals with Al Qaeda.
(A P)
KSRelief celebrates rehabilitation of 27 child soldiers in Yemen
The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) held the closing ceremony of the second session of its fifth and sixth phases of the rehabilitation project of child soldiers in Yemen.
The center celebrated the rehabilitation of 27 children who were recruited by Houthi militias in Yemen from different cities across the war-torn nation.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1359121/saudi-arabia
(A P)
Gargash: Lebanon must not be haven for Houthis after Hezbollah meeting
Hassan Nasrallah has held a meeting with senior Houthi political officials
Lebanon must not become a haven for the Houthis, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Sunday after the Hezbollah secretary general met a senior delegation from the Yemeni rebels.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah held a meeting with senior Houthi political officials on Saturday, the party’s media outlets reported. He met with a delegation that included spokesman Mohamad Abdelsalam and council members Abdul Malik Al Ajri and Ibrahim Al Daylami.
"Lebanon cannot be a logistical or political station for Houthis and ignoring the issue will exacerbate its repercussions,” Mr Gargash said in a series of tweets after the news broke.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-08/19/c_137402790.htm
and
(A P)
The #Houthis recent visit to #Hezbollah’s leader is yet another proof added to the overwhelming evidence of the destabilizing role of Hezbollah in #Yemen and its support to the Houthis. This came just a couple of weeks ahead of the upcoming round of the #UN peace talks in Geneva.
https://twitter.com/YemenEmbassy_DC/status/1030908183773097984
Comment: #Yemen-is trapped in Yemen have never been 'destabilised' by #Hezbollah's air-raids, blockade, secret prisons, air raids on school buses. Just saying
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.961595153893515/1885978038121884/?type=3
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
(A K pH)
Two Saudi aggression airstrikes hit Hodeidah
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news505927.htm
(A K pH)
Over 25 Saudi-led aggression airstrikes hit Hajjah
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news505931.htm
(A K pH)
Saudi aggression planes launches 2 air strike on Hajah
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news505903.htm
(A KpH)
Aggression’s Daily Update for Tuesday, August 21, 2018
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2362&cat_id=1
(A K pH)
Saudi aggression air planes launches 3 air strike on Sadah
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news505899.htm
(* A K)
In past 24 hours, Saudi-led raids killed 23 pro-Hadi troops and injured 7 others in #Yemen cities of Jawf and Hajjah. Killing civilians is called collateral damage. Killing troops is called friendly fire! And US and UK will block a UN probe into Saudi war crimes to protect trade!
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1031442890936004608
Here is one of explanations for Saudi-led air strikes killing pro-Hadi forces in #Yemen: disagreements between Hadi and UAE. Whenever Hadi's Govt disagrees with UAE actions including forming more anti-Hadi militias, UAE warplanes target Hadi forces. Pretext: friendly fire.1/2
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1032116558196166656
UAE targeted Hadi forces before: when southern transitional council tried to overthrow Hadi's Govt in Aden in January, UAE planes struck presidency protection brigades. UAE is fighting alongside Hadi forces against Houthis and alongside separatists and Salafists against Hadi 2/2
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1032117627764858880
(* A K pH)
13 fisher men killed in Saudi-led aggression air strikes on Hodiedah
At least 13 fisher men were killed and four others wounded in Saudi-led aggression air strikes on Hodiedah province, an official told Saba.
The strikes hit a fishing boat al-Sawaba Island, killing 13 fishermen and injuring other four, the official added
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news505732.htm
(* A K pH)
Film: These tears will never dry
His father left early today with other fishers.
He was waiting for him to bring some fish & money for them, but US-SAUDI warplanes murdered him with 12 fishers, 4 were injured & 4 are still missing.!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n5NreqZoZg = https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/videos/235242413850429/ = https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/1031270952234041349
photo: http://www.newnewss.net/saudi-coalition-backed-by-us-killed-13-yemeni-fishermen-19-aug-2018/
(A K P)
UN, Security Council fully responsible for Saudi-led aggression on Yemen: Scholars
Yemeni scholars and religious figures have strongly denounced a recent deadly airstrike by Saudi warplanes on a bus carrying schoolchildren in the country’s northwestern province of Sa’ada, criticizing the silence and inaction of world bodies vis-à-vis the Saudi-led coalition's crimes against Yemenis.
The scholars, in a statement released on Sunday, held the United Nations and the UN Security Council responsible for the atrocities of the Saudi-led military alliance against the Yemeni nation.
(* A H K)
"I don't want to go anywhere near a bus. I hate buses, I hate school and I can't sleep. I see my friends in my dreams begging me to rescue them.” —survivor of school bus attack
https://twitter.com/madamghazal/status/1031227454705356801
(*A H K)
1st Picture Was Captured in Eid Al Adha 2017: He was the Father of the three youngest Children
2nd Picture Was Captured Today, Eid al-Adha: He Is Father of The Only Child Left
Between These two Pictures less than a Year in Which the Saudi Led Coalition Decided to Attack the School Bus in #Dahyan#Saada#Yemen
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1890235597696128?
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
(A K pS)
Hadi government and allied forces repulse al Houthi attack in Hajjah governorate; Hadi government forces advance through Sawadiyah district, al Bayda governorate; Hadi government forces seize Mt. Thamran, Taiz governorate
(A K pH)
Army fires ballistic missile on Jizan
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news505913.htm
and
(A K pS)
#Saudi_Arabia Air Defense Forces said they intercepted and destroyed a #Houthi-launched #ballistic_missile that was targeting the Kingdom's southern region of Jizan, according to the Arab Coalition spokesperson.
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1032023021572313089
(A K pH)
Saudi missiles and artillery shells targeted populated villages in Shida and Baqem border disstrict.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2345&cat_id=1
(* A K pS)
Houhi militants killed by their own landmines in Hajjah
More than 20 Houthi militants were killed and two military pickups were destroyed in Abs district in Hajjah in the explosion of landmines they of their own planting.
The two pickups packed with the 20 militants were heading toward Hayran district to the east passing through areas they had previously mined, only to be blown up by their own landmine
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-21975
(A K pH)
2 Saudi Drones Shot Down over Yemen
Two drones belonging to the Saudi-led coalition were shot down by the Yemeni army and popular committees over Jizan province, Arab media reports said on Tuesday
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13970530000706 .
(A K pS)
Army shoots down Houthi drone in Hajjah
"The drone known as Sammad 1 was downed as it hovered over the sites of the army south of the center of Hayran district," read a statement fom the army. "As it circulated over the sites of the army it was downed immediately."
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-21974
(A K pH)
Aggression’s Daily Update for Sunday, August 19, 2018
In Saada, a child was killed by explosion fired by US-Saudi aggression on residential areas in Razih district.
The US-Saudi aggression launched 5 raids on Baqem district and 4 others on Al-Safra district. It also targeted civilians' farms and houses in Baqem district with missiles and artillery shells.
In Mareb, Mercenaries of the US-Saudi aggression targeted civilians' farms with artillery shells in Sirwah district.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2332&cat_id=1
(A K)
Yemen's Houthi group says it fired missile at Saudi Arabia's Najran province
Yemen’s Houthi group fired a Badr-1 missile at the Saudi Arabian province of Najran, the Houthis’ Masirah TV said in a tweet on Monday.
The missile targeted a “new Saudi army camp” in the western part of Najran, near the border with Yemen, the tweet said.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news505753.htm
(A K pS)
Houthi missile intercepted over Jazan
Saudi air defenses intercepted a ballistic missile fired toward the Jazan region on Saturday, Saudi media said.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-21951
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
(A P
Sabah al-Khayr @RealDonaldTrump. After centuries
of close observation, a tribe in #Yemen has apparently
identified a link between guns and deaths: Hadramawt’s Aal Shamlan al-Tamimi
tribe has just announced a ban on firing guns at weddings. Smart. (image)
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1032198483569192961
(A E)
Nothing personal, but I am not entirely comfortable with the possibility of @Tesla being owned by Saudi Arabia. Millions of cars worldwide that can be driverless driven via central Tesla tech control sorta smells like a filthy-rich ISIS jihadi's wet dream.
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1031701250176372736
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-447-yemen-war-mosaic-447
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-447 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-447:
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
http://yemenwarcrimes.blogspot.de/
und alle Liste aller Luftangriffe / and list of all air raids:
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