... Spannungen in Taiz – USA trainiert saudische Piloten – und mehr
August 31, 2018: UN report on war crimes in Yemen – Yemen war: US playing with fire – The man who lost 28 relatives – The killings of clerics in the South – Tensions between pro-Hadi groups at Taiz – The US training Saudi pilots – 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
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics
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
cp7a Saudi-Arabien und Iran / Saudi Arabia and Iran
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
cp9 USA
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp12a Katar-Krise / Qatar crisis
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms Trade
cp13b Wirtschaft / Economy
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp15 Propaganda
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
Klassifizierung / Classification
***
**
*
(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
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
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Anzeichen für Kriegsverbrechen im Jemen
Die Regierungen von Saudi-Arabien und den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten sind laut Experten des UN-Menschenrechtsrats möglicherweise für Kriegsverbrechen im Jemen verantwortlich.
Im Bürgerkriegsland Jemen gibt es nach Überzeugung von UN-Menschenrechtlern starke Anzeichen für Kriegsverbrechen. Eine Expertenkommission erhob schwere Vorwürfe gegen die Regierung und ihre Verbündeten Saudi-Arabien und die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate und verlangte, dass Verantwortliche vor einem unabhängigen Gericht zur Rechenschaft gezogen werden.
Rolle der westlichen Unterstützer nicht thematisiert
Während der seit dreieinhalb Jahren andauernden Kämpfe gegen Rebellen sei es dort zu Vergewaltigungen, Folter, Verschwindenlassen von Personen und "Entzug des Rechts auf Leben" gekommen, hieß es in einem Bericht. Die drei Experten beschuldigten auch "De-facto-Obrigkeiten", womit offenbar die Anführer der Huthi-Rebellen gemeint sind, Verbrechen begangen zu haben, darunter willkürliche Festnahmen, Folter und das Rekrutieren von Kindersoldaten.
Die Expertenkommission habe eine Liste mit den Namen möglicher Täter an den UN-Hochkommissar für Menschenrechte geschickt. "Es gibt kaum Anhaltspunkte, dass die Konfliktparteien versuchen, zivile Opfer zu vermeiden", sagte der Vorsitzende der Expertengruppe, Kamel Jendoubi, in Genf.
Jendoubis Team wollte nicht sagen, wie viele Personen oder Gruppen auf der Liste stehen.
Die Rolle der westlichen Unterstützer der Koalition, etwa der USA und Großbritanniens, thematisierte die Gruppe nicht.
Die Experten riefen die internationale Gemeinschaft auf, keine Waffen zu liefern, die in dem Konflikt eingesetzt werden könnten.
Das Team des Menschenrechtsrats bereiste für die Erstellung des Berichts Teile des Jemens. Es berichtete von etwa 6475 Todesfällen durch den Konflikt im Zeitraum März 2015 bis Juni 2018. Die tatsächliche Zahl sei aber wahrscheinlich wesentlich höher.
Die Experten kritisierten auch tödliche Luftangriffe der von Saudi-Arabien geführten Allianz gegen die Rebellen. Einige Kämpfer des Bündnisses würden sich "routinemäßig" nicht über Listen mit Orten informieren, die nicht angegriffen werden sollten.
https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/un-jemen-105.html
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UN-Experten: Anzeichen für Kriegsverbrechen im Jemen
Eine Expertenkommission der Vereinten Nationen beschuldigt die Regierung Jemens und ihre Verbündeten, in dem Bürgerkriegsland Verbrechen gegen internationales Völkerrecht begangen zu haben.
Laut dem Bericht der vom UN-Menschenrechtsrat beauftragten Expertenkommission könnten alle Konfliktparteien im Jemen Kriegsverbrechen begangen haben.
"Es gibt keine Anhaltspunkte, dass die Konfliktparteien versuchen, zivile Opfer zu vermeiden", sagte der Vorsitzende der Kommission, Kamel Jendoubi, in Genf. Seit März 2015 seien mindestens 6.600 Zivilisten getötet und mehr als 10.000 verletzt worden. "Die wahren Zahlen sind wahrscheinlich deutlich höher", so die Experten.
Folter und willkürliche Verhaftungen
Demnach hätten Luftschläge der Koalition Hochzeits- und Trauergesellschaften, Märkte, Schiffe mit Zivilisten an Bord und medizinische Einrichtungen getroffen. Auch Rebellen seien wahrscheinlich für zivile Opfer verantwortlich, etwa durch den Einsatz von Streumunition bei innerstädtischen Kämpfen. Diese Vorwürfe müssten weiter untersucht werden.
Sowohl die Koalitionskräfte als auch die Huthi-Rebellen sollen Kinder gezwungen haben, "aktiv an den Kampfhandlungen teilnehmen". Es gebe Hinweise darauf, dass bereits Achtjährige rekrutiert würden. Zudem würden überall im Land Menschen willkürlich verhaftet und teils gefoltert.
https://www.dw.com/de/un-experten-anzeichen-für-kriegsverbrechen-im-jemen/a-45253943
weitere deutschsprachige Berichte:
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Yemen: United Nations Experts point to possible war crimes by parties to the conflict
Information documented by the Group of Regional and International Eminent Experts on Yemen strongly suggests that parties to the armed conflict have perpetrated, and continue to perpetrate, violations and crimes under international law.
The findings are detailed in a 41-page report published on Tuesday by the Group Experts, which was mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council to carry out a comprehensive examination of the human rights situation in the country.
The Group of Experts’ report, which covers the period from September 2014 to June 2018, analyses the main patterns of violations and abuses of international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law committed by parties to the conflict. The report also identifies significant areas where violations and abuses may have been committed but further investigation is required.
Among their conclusions, the experts say individuals in the Government of Yemen and the coalition, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and in the de facto authorities have committed acts that may, subject to determination by an independent and competent court, amount to international crimes.
The report notes that coalition air strikes have caused most direct civilian casualties. The airstrikes have hit residential areas, markets, funerals, weddings, detention facilities, civilian boats and even medical facilities. Based on the incidents they examined, the Group of Experts have reasonable grounds to believe that individuals in the Government of Yemen and the coalition may have conducted attacks in violation of the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution that may amount to war crimes.
“There is little evidence of any attempt by parties to the conflict to minimize civilian casualties. I call on them to prioritise human dignity in this forgotten conflict,” said Kamel Jendoubi, chairperson of the Group of International and Regional Eminent Experts on Yemen.
According to United Nations Human Rights Office, since March 2015 up to 23 August 2018, 6,660 civilians were killed and 10,563 injured; however, the real figures are likely to be significantly higher.
The coalition has imposed severe naval and air restrictions in Yemen, to varying degrees, since March 2015. There are reasonable grounds to believe that these restrictions imposed by the coalition constitute a violation of the proportionality rule of international humanitarian law. Moreover, the effective closure of Sana’a airport is a violation of international humanitarian law protection for the sick and wounded. Such acts, together with the requisite intent, may amount to international crimes.
The Group of Experts also found that many parties fighting in Ta’izz have been responsible for civilian casualties. The alleged use by the Houthi-Saleh forces of weapons with wide area effect in a situation of urban warfare, is particularly concerning as such use in an urban setting is indiscriminate. However, the breakdown of responsibility for civilian casualties in Ta’izz requires further investigation, the report notes.
“I urge all parties to take the necessary measures to remove disproportionate restrictions on the safe and expeditious entry into Yemen of humanitarian supplies and other goods indispensable to the civilian population, and the movement of persons including through Sana’a International Airport in compliance with international humanitarian law,” said Mr Jendoubi.
Investigations by the Group of Experts confirm widespread arbitrary detention throughout the country, and ill-treatment and torture in some facilities. In most cases, detainees were not informed of the reasons for their arrest, were not charged, were denied access to lawyers or a judge and were held incommunicado for prolonged or indefinite periods. Some remain missing.
The Experts also have reasonable grounds to believe that, since September 2014, parties to the conflict in Yemen have severely restricted the right to freedom of expression. Human rights defenders and journalists have faced relentless harassment, threats and smear campaigns by the Government of Yemen, coalition forces, including those of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and by the de facto authorities in blatant disregard of human rights law. The de facto authorities have also targeted Baha’is.
Victims and witnesses described to the Group of Experts persistent and pervasive aggressive behaviour, including sexual violence perpetrated by the Security Belt Forces and United Arab Emirates personnel. Examples include rape, of men and women, and sexual violence against displaced persons, migrants and other vulnerable groups.
The Group of Experts received substantial information indicating that the Government of Yemen, the coalition-backed forces and the Houthi-Saleh forces have all conscripted or enlisted children into armed forces or groups and used them to participate actively in hostilities. In most cases, the children were between 11 and 17 years old, but there have been consistent reports of the recruitment or use of children as young as 8 years old.
“The primary legal responsibility for addressing these violations and crimes lies with the Government of Yemen, which bears the duty to protect persons under its jurisdiction. I call upon the Government of Yemen to investigate and prosecute violations that amount to crimes by their nationals and armed forces,” said Jendoubi.
The Group of Experts has identified, where possible, individuals who may be responsible for international crimes, and the confidential list of individuals has been submitted to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. More information is needed on some incidents documented by the Group of Experts to establish responsibility.
Their report urges the Human Rights council to ensure that the situation of human rights in Yemen remains on the Council’s agenda by renewing the mandate of the Group of Experts.
About the Group of International and Regional Eminent Experts on Yemen
In its resolution 36/31, the Human Rights Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish a group of eminent international and regional experts on Yemen to monitor and report on the situation of human rights. The Group of Experts was mandated to carry out a comprehensive examination of all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights and other appropriate and applicable fields of international law committed by all parties to the conflict since September 2014, including the possible gender dimensions of such violations, and to establish the facts and circumstances surrounding the alleged violations and abuses and, where possible, to identify those responsible.
On 4 December 2017, the High Commissioner established the Group of Independent Eminent International and Regional Experts, appointing Mr. Kamel Jendoubi (Tunisia) as Chairperson, and Mr. Charles Garraway (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), and Ms. Melissa Parke (Australia) as experts.
As part of their investigations, the Group of Experts visited Aden, Sana’a, Sa’dah and Hudaydah but due to security constraints, they were unable to visit all the affected governorates, notably Tai’zz.
For the full report please go to: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/YE/A_HRC_39_43_EN.docx
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23479&LangID=E
and full report also here: https://www.axios.com/un-report-us-backed-coalition-in-yemen-may-have-engaged-in-war-crimes-c0112028-3581-465c-97c8-1ed2f857d5e4.html
My comment: „possible war crimes“??? when there are lots of evident war crimes.
Comment: If Putin or Assad had blown up a school bus heading to summer camp in Syria, killing 40 children, instead of US-UK-armed Saudi Arabia in Yemen, there’d be a never-ending stream of global outrage along with calls for sanctions and regime change.
https://twitter.com/sahouraxo/status/1035187616579313664
Comment by Tawakkol Karman: We can say that recent violations contained in UN Experts’ report on #Yemen r not even equal to a drop in a sea of Saudi-led coalition crimes against Yemenis
https://twitter.com/TawakkolKarman/status/1035517640410841088
and abridged reports:
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Experts: UAE, Saudis may have committed war crimes in Yemen
Three experts working for the U.N.'s top human rights body say the governments of Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia may have been responsible for war crimes including rape, torture, disappearances and "deprivation of the right to life" during 3½ years of escalated fighting against rebels in Yemen.
In their first report for the Human Rights Council, the experts also point to possible crimes by rebel Shiite militia in Yemen.
The experts have also chronicled the damages from coalition airstrikes, the single most lethal force in the fighting, over the last year. They urged the international community to "refrain from providing arms that could be used in the conflict"- an apparent reference to countries including the United States and Britain that help arm the Saudi-led coalition, as well as Iran, which the coalition has accused of arming the Houthis.
The experts visited some but not all parts of Yemen as they compiled the report.
"(We have) reasonable grounds to believe that the governments of Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are responsible for human rights violations," the report said. It cited violations including unlawful "deprivation of the right to life," arbitrary detention, rape, torture, enforced disappearances and child recruitment.
The U.N. report accused the "de facto authorities" - an allusion to rebel leaders that control some of the country's most populated western and northern areas - of crimes including arbitrary detentions, torture and child recruitment. Human rights advocates have faulted the Houthis for laying land mines and targeting religious minorities and imprisoned opponents.
Kamel Jendoubi, a Tunisian human rights advocate who chaired the group of experts, said they compiled a "confidential list" of people suspected of committing international crimes, which was being handed over to the office of the U.N. human rights chief on Tuesday. His team refused to indicate how many or which people or groups were on the list - whether on the government or rebel sides.
"Despite the gravity of the situation, we still note a total disdain for the suffering of the Yemeni people," Jendoubi told reporters in a briefing on the report Tuesday. "This crisis reached its peak with light appearing at the end of the tunnel. This conflict has in effect fallen into the void."
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War Crimes Report Accuses Saudi Arabia and U.A.E. in Yemen
Torture, rape, and the use of child soldiers are among the litany of war crimes that have been committed in Yemen, and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates appear to be responsible for many abuses, United Nations experts said in a report issued on Tuesday.
The casualties and misery inflicted by the Saudi-led coalition’s airstrikesalso received a damning appraisal in the report, which said that the rebel Houthi forces may also have committed war crimes, such as torturing detainees and recruiting young children to take part in fighting.
“None have clean hands,” one of the experts, Charles Garraway, told reporters in Geneva. “Despite the severity of the situation, we continue to witness a total disregard of the suffering of the people of Yemen.”
A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition said that it would respond after its legal team had reviewed the report.
The Emirati minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said on Twitter that his government would need to study the report before responding, but he said the culpability of the Houthis for civilian suffering needed to be recognized.
Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni human rights activist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, responded to Mr. Gargash by tweeting that the United Nations report would not be credible unless it named the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and of Saudi Arabia, as well as the head of the Houthi movement, as responsible for massacres of civilians.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/world/middleeast/un-yemen-war-crimes.html
http://www.irinnews.org/news/2018/08/28/un-experts-signal-possible-war-crimes-yemen
https://www.afp.com/en/news/23/un-points-possible-war-crimes-yemen-conflict-doc-18n4a33
films: https://www.facebook.com/PRESSTV/videos/228186387859237/
My comment: Reuters for instance took the headline: „Some Saudi-led coalition air strikes in Yemen may amount to war crimes: U.N.“ – Even this is whitewashing war crimes. The whole Saudi aerial war was a war crime from day 1 on.
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IntelBrief: Who Will Answer For Yemen?
The U.N. release about the report, which will be submitted next month, says that all parties have likely committed, and continue to commit, violations of international law. It further states ‘individuals in the Government of Yemen and the coalition, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and in the de facto authorities have committed acts that may, subject to determination by an independent and competent court, amount to international crimes.’
Yet while all parties are guilty, the report states that the Saudi-led coalition is the worst violator, given that it is conducting inaccurate or indiscriminate airstrikes against an opponent with no credible air defenses. The release bluntly states that the report finds ‘coalition air strikes have caused most direct civilian casualties.’ This assessment is widely known but generally hedged as ‘all sides’ given Saudi pressure on any country or organization that criticizes its performance and aims in the war.
That criticism has resulted in some symbolic but ineffective Congressional efforts to force the Trump administration to be more transparent about the scope of U.S. involvement in Yemen, and the possibility that its forces might be legally exposed to the ongoing war crimes. As with the Obama administration, the Trump administration has decided that supporting Saudi Arabia in its misguided and poorly-executed military campaign in Yemen was a geopolitical gain worth whatever the Yemenis would pay. The campaign has been sold as a vital front against Iranian expansion, even though the war itself has actually increased Iranian inference with the Houthi rebels, and degraded the counterterrorism effort against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. On August 28, U.S. Secretary of Defense Mattis stated that U.S. military support to Saudi Arabia in Yemen is ‘not unconditional,’ which counts as pointed criticism in such circles.
http://www.soufangroup.com/intelbrief-who-will-answer-for-yemen/
And
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Film: Have war crimes been committed in Yemen?
Air strikes by the Saudi-Emirati coalition cause most civilian deaths but a UN report also blames Houthi rebels.
"None have clean hands."
That was the conclusion of UN human rights investigators who say all parties in the three-year conflict in Yemen may have committed war crimes.
Their report said the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen are guilty of human rights violations.
Air strikes by the Saudi-Emirati coalition are responsible for causing the most civilian casualties. But Houthi rebels are also blamed for recruiting child soldiers and using sexual abuse as a weapon of war.
The UN experts urged the international community to stop supplying weapons to those involved in the conflict that has killed at least 10,000 people - a figure that is likely far higher.
But do UN reports achieve anything? And will anyone ever be held to account for Yemen's disaster?
Guests: Hussain Al Bukhaiti - Yemeni journalist; Elisabeth Kendall - senior research fellow at Pembroke College, Oxford University; Martha Mundy - retired professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics
https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2018/08/war-crimes-committed-yemen-180829195917221.html = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrHy0Q5uKvc
and
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Coalition denounces UN report on Yemen as inaccurate; will respond legally
The Arab Coalition supporting legitimacy in Yemen denounced as inaccurate a report by U.N. human rights experts on the situation in Yemen.
The following are the conclusions of the Arab Coalition after reviewing the report from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
1: The Coalition has been keen to cooperate in an open and transparent manner with a group of experts since it was formed by the High Commissioner for Human Rights in December 2017 and began its tasks. Two meetings were held at the Coalition’s headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with team members and specialists.
[…]
2: The Arab Coalition supporting legitimacy in Yemen affirms its continued commitment to take all steps to ensure that civilian casualties in its military operations are prevented and that civilians and civilian objects are protected in accordance with the principles of international humanitarian law.
3: The report asserts many inaccuracies regarding false reports that the coalition is obstructing humanitarian access to civilians in Yemen. In this regard, the Alliance asserts its continued cooperation with the United Nations and other relief agencies to ensure humanitarian access to the civilian population in Yemen and to facilitate the flow of commercial goods.
The coalition is surprised by the disregard of the report for the great humanitarian role played by the coalition countries in Yemen and the huge humanitarian assistance it has provided in this regard in order to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people, most recently the generous donation from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, amounting to $1.18 billion for the United Nations organizations operating in Yemen.
4: The report was conducted with many methodological fallacies and its description of the facts of the conflict, which was characterized by lack of objectivity, especially when dealing with the parties to the conflict in Yemen and attempts to take full responsibility of the coalition countries on the conflict in Yemen, ignoring the real reasons for this conflict falls under the coup of the Houthi militias backed by Iran to the legitimate government Yemen, and its rejection of all United Nations-led peace efforts based on the three internationally recognized benchmarks of the outcomes of the national dialogue, the Gulf initiative and the relevant Security Council resolutions, in particular resolution 2216.
5: False allegations and claims in the report of the Coalition forces targeting civilians, restrictions on access to humanitarian aid, allegations of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment, violations of freedom of expression, sexual violence and child recruitment. These allegations were based on misleading reports of some NGOs.
[…]
6: The coalition refuses citing names of the commanders and officials from the coalition states in the report's annex.
It stressed the existence of duplication and selectivity in the standards of the panel in its review of allegations of human rights violations and that pointed toward the panel's limited access, resources and time for its tasks, and the short duration of its six-month mandate.
[…]
[…]
8: The coalition states do not agree with most of the conclusions of the report, in particular paragraphs 106, 108 (a), (b) and 109.
9: The report ignored the continuing Iranian role in Yemen through Tehran’s support toward the Houthi militias, despite the clear evidence provided by the coalition to international mechanisms; including those established in the report of the Panel of Experts of the Security Council Sanctions Committee established under paragraph 19 of Security Council resolution 2140 (2014).
10: Although the report referred to the launching of rockets by Iran’s Houthi-backed militias into Saudi Arabia, the report omitted to mention the large number of such rocket attacks and that the Houthi militias targeted civilians, resulting in a number of casualties.
The statement emphasized that the coalition will subsequently provide a comprehensive and detailed legal response in which the allegations contained in the report will be refuted and that will be presented to the Human Rights Council. The coalition also affirmed its keenness and full readiness to cooperate with various United Nations bodies and mechanisms concerned with the conflict in Yemen, in a way that contributes to the achievement of peace, security and stability for Yemen and its people.
http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/542257/SAUDI-ARABIA/Coalition-denounces-UN-report-on-Yemen-as-inaccurate-will-respond-legally = http://wam.ae/en/details/1395302705784
Comment: The Coalition strikes back. This time by words.
Bombs will follow. Tonight. Tomorrow. The day after.
Silly of #Yemen not to appreciate the strikes, blockade, genocide.
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1902227956496892
My comment: Comments to the single points above.
Point 1: It’s not possible to recognize from outside whether this is true. But evidently “transparency” never had been a characteristic of Saudi information policy on the Yemen War. On the contrary, the world was filled with bulks of bullshit ptopaganda all the time. Just think of the coalition’s self-whitewashing own “investigations” by the Saudi coalition’s “JIAT” team – or of the quickly changing, self-contradictory stories the Saudi coalition had told after horrible air raids as in the case of the August 9 school bus raid.
Point 2: This simply is a lie. The opposite is told by the destroyed infrastructure of Northern Yemen, by thousands of raids hitting residential homes, schools, mosques, cultural heritage, agriculture, water facilities, hospital and medical facilities, streets, bridges, petrol stations, by many thousands of killed and injured civilians.
Point 3: It’s odd Saudi propaganda when trying to deny the Saudi blockade of Northern Yemen (Houthi-held ports and Sanaa airport). This blockade had made all sorts of imports – even most basic needs) much more difficult and has reduced them to a very and much too low level.
Does the Saudi coalition really think that its humanitarian donations (which at least for great parts are used according to political specifications) really could lift the guilt of war crimes, as if you could offset war crimes and donations?? Let’s take US $ 50.000 for every killed Yemeni civilian, suggest 10.000 at all (in fact it’s much more), thus still having $ 0.68 billion = 12.400 more civilians for free???
Point 4: “Methodological fallacies”?? It seems that Saudi coalition propaganda thinks all blames against the Saudi coalition would be baseless and due to “Methodological fallacies”?? The “real reasons” of this conflict are – at least – very complex. The Saudi coalition’s biased propaganda version should not be adopted by anyone. – And, generally, the “real reasons for this conflict“ do not have anything to do with the ar crimes committed by any of the waring parties. – The Houthis‘ „rejection of all United Nations-led peace efforts“ is a Saudi / UAE / Hadi government propaganda story, the „three internationally recognized benchmarks“ simply are the Saudi coalition’s odd preconditions for „peace negotiations“, which in this case would not be any „negotiations“, as they simply demand the Houthis to capitulate.
Point 5: This is an odd propaganda denial simply neglecting the facts.
Point 6: „selectivity in the standards“: Does the Saudi coalition simply think they have the right not tob e blamed for anything they do?
Point 8: Point 106 of the UN reports reads: „The Group of Experts has reasonable grounds to believe that the Governments of Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are responsible for human rights violations, including unlawful deprivation of the right to life, arbitrary detention, rape, torture, ill-treatment, enforced disappearance and child recruitment, and serious violations of freedom of expression and economic, social and cultural rights, in particular the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to health.” – Thus, the Saudi coalition simply wants to make us believe that they did not commit any Human rights violations. This simply is odd.
Point 9: A great Iranian role in Yemen is a baseless Saudi coalition / US propaganda story. Iran is no warring party in Yemen, does not have any boots on the ground, does not commit any air raids. Iran is no warring party in Yemen and does not conduct any war crimes there. Other foreign powers which are supportive to any side in this war are not named at all in this UN report, nor Iran nor the US nor the UK. The US and UK role in the Yemen War would be much more relevant thsn the role of Iran, they should have been mentioned befor mentioning Iran. The US even is droning itself and had boots on the ground.
Point 10: These Houthi attacks are absolutely minor compared to the Saudi coalition air raids against Yemen, and they mostly were directed against military targets, but also hitted civilians and civilian structures. It’s not true that the UN report would neglect these Houthi attacks; they are mentioned in Point 45 of the report.
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The War in Yemen: Playing With Fire
Officials in US President Donald J. Trump’s administration have repeatedly described the ongoing conflict in Yemen as a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, hence justifying the United States siding with a country that many US officials view as “our strong ally” against Iran.
Ironically, the Yemen policy of Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, was also Iran-centric, lending the Saudi-led coalition vital logistical and intelligence support in order to get grudging support from Riyadh for his nuclear deal with Iran.
Both administrations have been guilty of looking at Yemen solely through the prism of Iran policy. In both cases, Yemen has suffered the consequences.
In an August 23 tweet, the US Mission to the United Nations commented on a photo depicting a meeting between a Yemeni Houthi delegation and the secretary general of Hezbollah in Beirut. “This meeting b/w Hezbollah & Houthi leadership shows the nature of the regional terrorist threat. Iranian proxies in Lebanon & Yemen pose major dangers to peace & stability in the entire Middle East. The int’l community should be taking notice of this & be very concerned,” the tweet said.
This argument is fallacious. It resorts to ad hominem attacks on the Houthis: They are terrorists, therefore everything they do is by definition bad. The central argument is also a circular one: the Houthis are proxies of Iran, hence everything they do merely pushes Iran’s agenda in the region.
In court-room parlance, the US Mission to the United Nations is leading the witness (its listeners and readers in this case). Its assumptions are far from proven and not necessarily linked to the conclusions it draws. Rising above the moral one-upmanship, let us posit that both sides to this conflict, nay all sides, have selfish intentions and are committing war crimes against civilians and killing and starving children. If this war is to end, and with it the daily death and destruction of the Yemeni state and its people, the two main protagonists—the Houthis and the Saudis—must stop vilifying one another, get back to serious talks, and take the necessary steps to deescalate the conflict and eventually end it.
It is worth reminding ourselves that the conflict has national, regional, and international aspects. Iran has become an issue at the regional and international levels, but it was not involved, and remains so to this day, in the internal Yemeni struggle for power. – by Nabeel Khoury
http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/the-war-in-yemen-playing-with-fire
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This Yemeni man lost two sons and 26 family members in a Saudi airstrike
The survivors of Duraihimi massacre say that the Saudi backed coalition started a relentless bombing campaign from early August, even targeting the vehicles carrying injured civilians.
Ibrahim Dahfash is a farmer in Al Koie area in Duraihimi district. He lives with his extended family in a shanty house. Many desperate people in this part of Hudaida governorate, affected by the gruelling war, usually live in rickety shanty towns made of wood and tarpaulin sheets.
But when the bombs and artillery shells began to fall on Duraihimi in June, many residents fled their houses towards Hudaida city. But Dahfash, who's in his late 50s, stayed back and chose to face the lingering danger than becoming a refugee in his own country.
"The airstrikes have been targeting our farms and shanties randomly, so we have stopped to work," Dahfash told TRT World. "We are just praying for Allah's help."
"Many were killed and injured," he continued. "It's dangerous to even help the injured people. The airstrikes sometimes target the same area several times."
When Dahfash saw relentless airstrikes killing civilians, he thought he could be the next target. There was no easy escape, though. The fighter jets pounded everything that moved - from push carts to vehicles on the main roads between Duraihimi and the Hudaida city.
"I felt that death was staring at us," Dahfash said. "We stayed indoors waiting for whatever was written in our destiny."
The father of 12 children, Dahfash shared a single-room doorless shanty with his two sons, two nephews and a grandson. His relatives lived nearby in four other shanties.
One night, menacing sounds of fighter jets tore through the town's silence, leaving Dahfash and his family cold with fear. Dahfash comforted his family saying it was just another night of horror, which will end soon.
But the sound drew nearer and nearer and in a few seconds, Dahfash recalls, everything went blank.
"I lost consciousness and when I regained my senses, I found myself under debris and dust," Dahfash said. "I was under a wooden column of our shelter house."
Dahfash said he crawled out of the debris until one of his sons found and carried him to another shanty.
Dahfash's body was severly wounded, blood oozing out of his belly, arms, legs and other body parts. Outside, the air assault continued all through the day and the night. The Saudi backed forces also launched a ground offensive, clashing with the Houthi rebels along the border towns of Hudaida.
While Dahfash struggled with stinging wound pain, he was told that the airstrike killed his two sons, two nephews and a grandson, while it was him and his youngest son who survived the attack.
The family covered Dahfash's wounds with pieces of cloth. The next day, the ground fighting subsided but every now and then an aircraft dropped a bomb or two. The family decided to take Dahfash to the hospital, despite the risk of being targeted on the way to Hudaida city.
He's currently receiving treatment at al Askri Hospital in Hudaida. And a couple of days ago, another bad news followed him.
His relatives who lived next to his room were struck by another air strike on August 24, while the family drove out of Duraihimi in three rented cars. At least 26 people were killed in the attack, most of them children – von Nasser Al-Sakkaf
(* B P)
Tensions heighten between pro-Hadi groups in Yemen's Taiz
Salafi brigade fighters closed off the city's entrance for hours on Wednesday, threatening to impose a siege if conflict with Islah went on
As the Yemeni conflict rages on between Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led coalition backing President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, on the ground, alliances have not been so tightly knit.
On Wednesday, Salafi fighters blockaded the only entrance to the southwestern city of Taiz for hours in an alleged bid to pressure a fellow pro-Hadi group in the city - the latest flare-up in an ongoing turf war that has raised questions about local fractures within the pro-government coalition, while civilians are left to suffer the consequences.
A history of collaboration and rivalry
When Houthis took over Taiz in April 2015, Salafis and members of Islah – the Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood - were fighting the Houthis shoulder-to-shoulder, under the leadership of the Popular Resistance.
The “Popular Resistance” group, bringing together civilians who took up arms to fight the Houthis, was backed by Yemeni government forces and the Saudi-led coalition to recapture parts of Taiz - breaking the Houthi siege on Taiz from the southwest in August 2016.
Later in 2016, the leadership of the Yemeni army merged the Popular Resistance with the army. Salafi fighters, many under the leadership of Abu al-Abbas, were incorporated into the 35th Armoured Brigade, while most of the Islah-affiliated fighters moved into the 22nd Mechanised Brigade.
Just as clashes between the Houthis and pro-Hadi forces in Taiz dwindled in early 2017, conflict emerged between Salafi and Islah fighters.
Islah has accused Abu al-Abbas - whose real name is Adil Abduh Fari - of refusing to relinquish control of public institutions in Taiz to the government, while Abbas himself has accused Islah of stealing Popular Resistance funds.
The recriminations devolved into full-blown confrontations earlier this year between the 22nd Brigade and fighters belonging to the “Abu al-Abbas battalion”, leading to dozens of deaths and injuries.
Hadi appointed a presidential committee earlier this month seeking to appease tensions between Salafis and Islahis in Taiz, notably by reclaiming public institutions from both groups - in vain.
On Saturday, Abbas announced that his battalion would leave Taiz by early September, demanding that government authorities secure them safe passage out of the city.
(** B P)
Who is killing Yemen's clerics?
The pace of the assaults has increased sharply since October with 15 clerics killed, including two last month, according to Yemeni officials and members of the religious community. All were attacked in drive-by shootings or killed near their mosques. Scores of other clerics have fled the city, and yet others have limited their working hours to stay alive.
In this chaotic southern Yemeni city, where local government is barely functioning and rival gunmen rule the streets, clerics have filled a leadership vacuum. As prominent community leaders, they now compete for authority with ambitious militias, al-Qaida and the Islamic State. And that has made the clerics targets.
"With each killing, society is being weakened," said Leila Shabibi, a Yemeni human rights and democracy activist. "The clerics were effective leaders in their communities. They solved disputes and gave advice. They were their communities' teachers and spokesmen."
The killings appear linked to a power struggle between the proxies of two American allies: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Many of the assassinated clerics, including Sharjabi, were members of an influential Islamist political party, known as Islah. The Saudis view it as an ally, vital to Yemen's rebuilding. The Emiratis, however, view Islah as dangerous radicals linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, viewed by some regional powers as extremists.
Some of the murdered clerics also advocated keeping Yemen unified, while a powerful constellation of militias aligned with the UAE favor secession for the southern part of the country.
"This is a carefully thought through and orchestrated campaign," said Peter Salisbury, a Yemen analyst with the International Crisis Group. "The people who are being targeted are outside the new mainstream in the south, which is pro-secession."
In Aden, a sprawling port city where the law enforcement and judicial system has collapsed, political killings have gone into overdrive. Both al-Qaida and the Islamic State have staged numerous suicide bombings targeting government officials, soldiers and civilians. Men and boys clutching guns roam in pickup trucks, their allegiances unknown.
Assassinations are so prevalent that human rights groups hold conferences on how to deal with threats. Posters and billboards memorializing victims are visible around Aden – By SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/who-is-killing-yemens-clerics-mystery-murders-are-sending-a-chill-through-the-mosques/2018/08/27/10b7da3c-ce0f-49e2-ad8e-d4adf05ef885_story.html = https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/who-is-killing-yemen-s-clerics-1.544654
and also
(** B P)
UAE-backed forces likely behind targeting of 27 clerics in Yemen
The UAE is likely behind the killing of some 27 Islamic clerics who have been assassinated in Yemen over the past two years, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
The assassinations, which are taking place in southern capital city of Aden, are occurring in areas where the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) operates in an effort to form an independent state which directly opposes internationally backed President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
All the clerics were killed by “drive-by shootings or killed near their mosques” according to the Washington Post. As a survival strategy, the clerics have either fled Aden city, or restricted working hours in the mosques.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a US official said some elements of the STC were likely behind the killings. “Islah is really facing heavy pressure in Aden and elsewhere, both politically and security-wise,” the official said. But Shalal Ali Shaiya, head of Aden’s security and an official within the STC batted off the claims, blaming the opposition Islah party for the killings.
The STC claims that Islah are targeting the “moderate” clerics, to replace with more hard-line scholars and imams. However, some of the murdered clerics were advocating for a unified Yemen, in line with Hadi’s objectives, while UAE-STC aligned militias favour secession for the southern Yemen.
“This is a carefully thought-through and orchestrated campaign,” said Peter Salisbury, a Yemen analyst with the International Crisis Group. “The people who are being targeted are outside the new mainstream in the south, which is pro-secession.”
(** B P)
Tensions heighten between pro-Hadi groups in Yemen's Taiz
Salafi brigade fighters closed off the city's entrance for hours on Wednesday, threatening to impose a siege if conflict with Islah went on
As the Yemeni conflict rages on between Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led coalition backing President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, on the ground, alliances have not been so tightly knit.
On Wednesday, Salafi fighters blockaded the only entrance to the southwestern city of Taiz for hours in an alleged bid to pressure a fellow pro-Hadi group in the city - the latest flare-up in an ongoing turf war that has raised questions about local fractures within the pro-government coalition, while civilians are left to suffer the consequences.
A history of collaboration and rivalry
When Houthis took over Taiz in April 2015, Salafis and members of Islah – the Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood - were fighting the Houthis shoulder-to-shoulder, under the leadership of the Popular Resistance.
The “Popular Resistance” group, bringing together civilians who took up arms to fight the Houthis, was backed by Yemeni government forces and the Saudi-led coalition to recapture parts of Taiz - breaking the Houthi siege on Taiz from the southwest in August 2016.
Later in 2016, the leadership of the Yemeni army merged the Popular Resistance with the army. Salafi fighters, many under the leadership of Abu al-Abbas, were incorporated into the 35th Armoured Brigade, while most of the Islah-affiliated fighters moved into the 22nd Mechanised Brigade.
Just as clashes between the Houthis and pro-Hadi forces in Taiz dwindled in early 2017, conflict emerged between Salafi and Islah fighters.
Islah has accused Abu al-Abbas - whose real name is Adil Abduh Fari - of refusing to relinquish control of public institutions in Taiz to the government, while Abbas himself has accused Islah of stealing Popular Resistance funds.
The recriminations devolved into full-blown confrontations earlier this year between the 22nd Brigade and fighters belonging to the “Abu al-Abbas battalion”, leading to dozens of deaths and injuries.
Hadi appointed a presidential committee earlier this month seeking to appease tensions between Salafis and Islahis in Taiz, notably by reclaiming public institutions from both groups - in vain.
On Saturday, Abbas announced that his battalion would leave Taiz by early September, demanding that government authorities secure them safe passage out of the city.
(** A K P)
Jemenkrieg: Pentagon sucht Ausbilder für saudische Kampfpiloten
Das US-Verteidigungsministerium sucht nach einem privaten Vertragspartner (private contractor), der saudi-arabische Kampfjetpiloten ausbildet. Die Ausbildung für die F-15S-Piloten, die explizit auch die Waffensysteme des Luftüberlegenheitsjägers in der saudischen Form umfasst, soll auf US-Boden stattfinden.
Der Hinweis auf die Ausschreibung der US-Air-Force findet sich in einem Bericht des US-Mediennetzwerkes The Young Turks. Dort wird das angesichts der saudischen Brutalitäten im Jemen-Krieg mit Misstrauen und Kritik behandelt.
"Verstörend und beunruhigend"
Zu Wort kommt die Leiterin der Human-Rights-Watch-Abteilung im Nahen Osten und Nordafrika, Sarah Leah Wilson, die das Vorgehen der US-Air-Force "verstörend und beunruhigend" findet.
Wilson stellt der Intensivierung der Beziehung, wie sie sich durch die Ausbildung der saudischen Piloten zeigt, entgegen, dass Pentagon-Chef Mattis doch kürzlich erst Saudi-Arabien davor gewarnthabe, dass man die US-Unterstützung zurückschrauben würde, wenn das Land "nicht alles Menschenmögliche unternimmt, um Menschenleben zu schonen".
Das Datum der Ausschreibung für die Piloten-Ausbildung durch private contractors ist auf der Regierungswebseite mit 23.August angegeben (die Frist für die Bewerbungen endet am 24. September). Das Ausbildungsgesuch der Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) ist also ziemlich aktuell. Die Anfrage der RSAF mit dem Angriff auf den Schulbus am 9. August in Verbindung zu bringen, liegt nahe.
Man könnte darüber spekulieren, ob die saudi-arabischen Piloten wegen solcher Tragödien, die sie verursachen, eine bessere Ausbildung nötig haben.
Big Business für Raytheon
Die saudischen Bestellungen, die, wie im November 2017 bekannt wurde, beim Hersteller der gelenkten Munition, Raytheon, eingingen, waren beträchtlich. Laut Reuters hatte das Geschäft ein Volumen von 7 Milliarden Dollar.
Raytheon konnte auch der Grund für das Ausbildungsgesuch sein. Die Flotte der saudischen F-15s sollen modernisiert werden, berichtet das Fachmagazin Aerobuzz. Bei sechs Jets haben die Umrüstungen begonnen.
Möglich, also dass die saudischen Piloten dafür eine neue Einweisung brauchen. Der Zusammenhang mit dem brutalen Angriff auf den Schulbus wäre damit nicht direkt gegeben und auch der Vorwurf, dass die USA "trotz dieser Tragödie" die militärische Zusammenarbeit noch verstärkt, ist so nicht unbedingt zu halten. Ein sehr bitterer und übler Geschmack drängt sich dennoch auf, schon seit längerem.
Unverdrossen am Krieg festhalten
Das liegt zum einen daran, dass die US-Air-Force-Ausbildungsmission daran erinnert, wie viel an Unterstützung der saudischen Kriegsmaschine die Öffentlichkeit nicht mitbekommt.
Die US-Führung wird dies nicht weiter beeindrucken, wie zuvor schon nicht. Sie setzt ihre Unterstützung des Kriegs fort. Das ist der andere bittere Punkt, neben dem, dass im Schatten der Aufmerksamkeit höchstwahrscheinlich mehr aktive militärische Unterstützung geleistet wird, als man zugibt. Die Sturheit, am Krieg festzuhalten - wie auch in Syrien. – von Thomas Pany
(** A K P)
Pentagon to Train Saudi Pilots on US Soil Amid Yemen Uproar
The Pentagon is planning to train Saudi Arabian military pilots on US soil, federal documents show, for what appears to be the first time since a Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen’s civil war.
Federal procurement documents reviewed by TYT show that the US Air Force is actively soliciting private contractors for training of Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) personnel to be “conducted in the U.S. at contractor’s facility.” The solicitation gives potential contractors a response deadline of Sept. 24, but does not indicate when the training will begin.
One human rights advocate called the new training “disturbing.”
Following international outrage over several Saudi-led coalition atrocities in Yemen, including an airstrike on a school bus that killed 40 children, the Pentagon warned on Tuesday that it would withhold military and intelligence support if the Kingdom didn’t improve efforts to reduce civilian casualties.
The Pentagon’s solicitation for training Saudi pilots, however, was posted on August 23, two weeks after the school bus bombing, the procurement records show. What’s more, the training will be for warplanes including the F-15 fighter jet, which the Saudis are using in Yemen.
The records even mention weapons-specific training, listing things like, “F-15S Weapons School Instructor Pilot” and “Air Battle Manager/Weapons School Weapons Director Instructor.”
Informed about the training, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director for Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division, told TYT, “At a time when even the Pentagon has threatened to cut military and intelligence [support] for Saudi’s disastrous campaign in Yemen, it’s disturbing that the Air Force is ratcheting up its relationship by training more Saudi pilots, however veiled by the use of contractors.”
“Saudi pilots have shown a reckless disregard for human life in the countless atrocities they’ve caused in Yemen; at this point, we need accountability for war crimes, not more training,” Whitson added. The documents do not indicate how many RSAF personnel will be trained, or for how long.
The new training is not the first sign of the Trump administration’s increased affinity for the Saudi regime – von Ken Klippenstein
https://tytnetwork.com/2018/08/30/pentagon-to-train-saudi-pilots-on-us-soil-amid-yemen-uproar/
https://tyt.com/stories/4vZLCHuQrYE4uKagy0oyMA/6f4tlUE7qoQ8OgeOoIsG48
and
(* A K P)
Plan to Train Saudi Pilots on US Soil Undermines Pentagon Denial of Complicity in Yemen Carnage
"The U.S. is a willing participant in the Yemen genocide despite claims to the contrary."
Independent journalist Walker Bragman—who helped start a social media campaign to pressure America's corporate media outlets to cover the U.S. role in Saudi Arabia's assault on Yemen—argued that Klippenstein's reporting provides further evidence that the "U.S. is a willing participant in the Yemen genocide despite claims to the contrary."
Other progressive commentators echoed Bragman, noting that despite its feigned concerns for Saudi atrocities, "U.S. complicity in the most brutal human rights abuses in the world is increasing."
Alluding to the fact that 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were Saudi citizens, some of whom trained at U.S. flight schools in preparation for their attackm, writer Karen Geier declared sardonically, "training Saudi pilots has never been a problem for America."
and
(* A K P)
Pentagon seeking contractors to train Saudi pilots on US soil amid bloody Yemen air campaign
The Pentagon plans to hire private contractors to train Saudi military pilots on US soil, documents show. Human Rights Watch (HRW) called the move disturbing amid outcry over US involvement in Saudi Arabia’s air campaign in Yemen.
The US Air Force is currently soliciting private contractors for training Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) personnel, the federal documents reveal. Conveniently, contractors interested in providing their expertise to Saudi pilots won’t have to relocate to the Middle East as all training will be “conducted in the US at contractor’s facility,” the government solicitation states.
The training will include instructions for the US-made F-15 fighter jet, which the Saudis are currently using in Yemen. The deadline to bid on the government contract is September 24, but it’s not clear when the US-based training program is scheduled to begin.
The training program would mark a new chapter in US logistical support for the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen, raising the ire of human rights activists concerned over the rising death toll in a conflict which has left thousands of civilians dead including many children (with several tweets)
https://www.rt.com/usa/437353-saudi-pilots-us-training/
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics
(* B H)
Yemen faces new surge in cholera cases: UN
Yemen faces a possible third wave of a cholera epidemic, the UN warned Thursday, following a jump in the number of suspected cases over recent weeks.
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said current rains were increasing the risk of infection in the war-torn country, which has seen 1.1 million suspected cases since last April.
"The number of suspected cholera cases has been increasing over the last two months in Yemen," he said.
"Between the beginning of the year and mid-August 2018, nearly 120,000 suspected cases have been reported.
"Although this figure is lower than during the same period in 2017, the increasing rate of infections over recent weeks is raising concerns of a possible third wave of the epidemic."
Dujarric confirmed that medical supplies to treat over half a million people were ready for use in high risk areas.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-6116263/Yemen-faces-new-surge-cholera-cases-UN.html
(* B H)
Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, 30 August 2018 - Yemen
And our humanitarian colleagues tell us that the number of reported suspected cholera cases in Yemen has been increasing over the last two months. Since April 2017, more than 1.1 million suspected cholera cases and 2,310 associated deaths have been reported across Yemen. The outbreak is the most serious on record. Between the beginning of the year and mid-August 2018, 120,000 suspected cases have been reported. Although this figure is lower than during the same period last year, the increasing rate of infections over recent weeks is raising concerns of a possible third wave of the epidemic, with the current rains increasing the risk of spread.
Humanitarian partners are working to avoid a large‑scale resurgence.
(** B H)
#Dengue Fever #Outbreak
Medical sources in the province of #Shabwa(eastern #Yemen) said that dengue fever returned to the province again, citing four deaths and over 500 infected.
The spike in cases recorded in recent weeks is due to lack of hospitals and proper treatment.
A government official confirmed that the district health office was unable to cope with the epidemic.
Local authorities, alone, will in fact not be able to contain the epidemic, which is increasing with the monsoon season.
Al Rawdah, Al-Asad, Mif'a, and Lower Marha are among the most affected areas.
The World Health Organization has registered 17,796 suspected cases of the epidemic. Forty-two people died in Yemen during the first six months of 2016.
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.961595153893515/1902283383158016/?type=3
(* B H)
NASA-Investition in Cholera-Prognosen hilft, Leben im Jemen zu retten
Zum ersten Mal werden Messungen von Erdbeobachtungssatelliten der NASA eingesetzt, um einen möglichen Ausbruch lebensbedrohlicher Cholera zu bekämpfen. Humanitäre Teams in Jemen zielen auf Bereiche ab, die von einem von der NASA unterstützten Projekt identifiziert wurden, bei dem Regionen mit hohem Risiko basierend auf den aus dem Weltraum beobachteten Umweltbedingungen präzise prognostiziert werden.
Seit diesem Frühjahr nutzen die britische Regierung und internationale Hilfsorganisationen im Jemen diese neuen Cholera-Prognosen, um ihre Arbeit bei der Verringerung des Cholera-Risikos zu steuern. Diese Arbeit beinhaltet die Förderung einer guten Hygiene, um die Ausbreitung der durch Wasser übertragenen Krankheiten zu verhindern und Hygiene- und Cholera-Behandlungssets zu verteilen. Die bisherigen Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass das Vorhersagemodell das Potenzial hat, die Art und Weise, wie die internationale Gemeinschaft die Cholera anspricht, grundlegend zu verändern.
Das NASA-Prognosewerkzeug teilt das gesamte Land Jemen in Regionen mit der Größe eines typischen US-Bezirks ein und prognostiziert das Risiko von Cholera-Ausbrüchen in jeder Region. Um die Wahrscheinlichkeit eines Ausbruchs zu berechnen, führt das Wissenschaftsteam ein Computermodell durch, das Satellitenbeobachtungen von Umweltbedingungen, die die Cholera-Bakterien betreffen, mit Informationen über Sanitär- und Reinwasserinfrastruktur kombiniert. Das Prognose-Tool analysiert eine Vielzahl von NASA-Satellitenbeobachtungen, einschließlich Niederschlagsdaten der Global Precipitation Measurement-Mission, Luft- und Meerestemperaturen aus den MODIS-Instrumenten (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) der Terra und Aqua-Satelliten der NASA sowie Messungen der Phytoplankton-Konzentrationen in in der Nähe von Küstengebieten.
Im Jahr 2017 erreichte das Modell eine 92-prozentige Genauigkeit bei der Vorhersage der Regionen, in denen Choleras im Jemen am wahrscheinlichsten auftraten und sich ausbreiteten, und identifizierte sogar Binnengebiete, die normalerweise nicht anfällig für die Krankheit sind, aber Ausbrüche erlitten.
http://nordhessen-journal.de/2018/08/29/56473/
Remark: Reports in English Yemen War Mosaic 450.
cp1b Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle
Siehe / look at cp4
(* A K pH)
A new #Massacre Committed by War Coalition Warplanes in #Hodeidah ,Where they Targeted a Group of Fishermen were in three Fishing Boats.
Warplanes Still Hovering which is Preventing the Rescue team from Starting their Mission.
Victims No. Still not Confirmed .
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.963391330380564/1903875149665506/?type=3
and
(* A K pH)
Saudi-led airstrikes hit 3 fishing boats nearby Hodeida Okban Island
The fighter jets of the US-backed Saudi-led aggression coalition hit on Thursday three fishing boats nearby Okban Island in Hodeida province, a security official told Saba.
The fishermen were lost.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news506833.htm
and
(* A K pH)
Yemen: 19 fishermen missing after Saudi airstrike
As many as 19 fishermen have reportedly gone missing after a Saudi Arabian airstrike on fishing boats off Yemen’s western coastline, which has come under an unrelenting Saudi-led offensive.
The attack took place off the port city of Hudaydah, near the island of Uqban, Yemen’s al-Masirah television network reported on Friday.
The head of the Yemeni Union of Fishermen said the attack targeted three fishing boats.
There has so far been no report about those still unaccounted for in the aftermath of the attack.
and
(* A K pH)
Dozens of fishers men r reported missing aftr wave of #Saudi #UAE strikes on fishing boat s in Ugban island NW #Hodeidah W #Yemen Another wave of strikes targeted all water wells in Kamaran island Coalition backed by #USA #US #UK & #France is trying 2 empty island from civilians (maps)
https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/1035457726074245120
and
(* A K)
Fishermen in Hodeidah reportedly targeted by Saudi-UAE attacks
Saudi-UAE coalition says boats targeted were being used to smuggle weapons.
Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher, reporting from neighbouring Djibouti, said verifying reports of the attack and the casualty figure was difficult because of the location of the reported incident, an island off the coast of Hodeidah.
"Three fishing vessels, according to reports, were setting out to do their normal job when they were targeted by the Saudi-led coalition and were sunk," he said.
"Initial reports suggest that about 70 fishermen are missing. That figure has now been amended by Houthi media to 19.
"No one can get to the location to verify the number and the exact details of the incident."
and
(* A K)
Film: Yemen: Hodeidah offensive, fisherman scared to return sea
The media controlled by Yemen's Houthi rebels is reporting that 12 fishermen were killed in a Saudi-Emirati coalition air raid.
The media controlled by Yemen's Houthi rebels is reporting that 12 fishermen were killed in a Saudi-Emirati coalition air raid off the coast of Uqban Island in Hodeidah province.
But the coalition says the boats were being used to smuggle weapons.
Fishermen in Hodeidah say they are scared to go out to the sea, because of ongoing fighting.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/08/yemen-hodeidah-offensive-fisherman-scared-return-sea-180831100819357.html = https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tv/yemen-hodeidah-offensive-fisherman-scared-to-return-sea/vp-BBMGNJS = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZZJC1ateaQ
My comment: “the boats were being used to smuggle weapons“ is little more than a pretense. Fisher boats had been relentlessly attacked, without any real hints that they had smuggled arms. – The mere claim they could have smuggled is no reason at all to bomb any fisher boat. This is just a war crime.
(A K pH)
Child Killed and 4 Injured by US-Saudi Aggression Strikes in Hodiedah
A child was killed and four others were injured, including two children and a woman, on Thursday by the US-Saudi aggression strikes that targeted their home in Hodeidah governorate, hours after a similar crime in the same governorate.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2514&cat_id=1
(A K pH)
5 Saudi airstrikes hit Hodeidah
five airstrikes on -Kamran island in Hodeidah province
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news506821.htm
The missiles targeted water wells.
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.961595153893515/1903724396347248/?type=3
(A K pS)
Houthis Target Aid Truck on Yemen's West Coast
Giants Brigades affirmed that the Iranian-supported Houthi militias targeted Wednesday morning a Red Cross aid truck at Tuhayat District, south of Hodeida.
In a statement published on Facebook, Giants Brigades said that the Houthi militia targeted a Red Cross aid truck at Tuhayat District. It added that the Houthis are targeting food trucks provided by international organizations to citizens on the west coast – Houthis are attempting to intimidate the humanitarian organizations and force them out of the area.
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1378241/houthis-target-aid-truck-yemens-west-coast
My comment: As claimed by Saudi media. Let’s wait for the Red Cross statement.
Here it is:
(A K P)
The Red Cross Denies Targeting Humanitarian Convoy in Hodeidah
The spokesman of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Yemen, Adnan Hazam, denied what some media said about targeting a humanitarian convoy of the Red Cross in Hodeidah governorate.
In a statement to Almasirah channel, Hazem said, no humanitarian convoy of the Red Cross in Tahita district or any humanitarian convoy of the Red Cross in another area in Hodeidah, was targeted on Wednesday.
The spokesman also called on the media to be honest and not to publish news without the ICRC's confirming, as this affects the conduct of humanitarian operations of the International Red Cross in Yemen.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2519&cat_id=1
(* A K pH)
7 Citizens Killed and Injured by Aggression Shelling in Attohayta
Seven people were killed and injured from one family on Wednesday night following an artillery shelling of the US-Saudi aggression and mercenaries in Attohayta south of Hodeidah province.
According to Al-Masirah Net correspondent, a man, his wife and one of his children were killed while four others from the same family were injured when the US-Saudi aggression targeted the family's home in Al-Modmen area south of Attohayta.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2508&cat_id=1
(** B H K)
Yemen war: 'Nowhere left to hide' for 400,000 trapped in Hodeidah
Several residents say they can't afford to flee and are instead trying to live 'normal lives' amid the chaos of war.
More than 120,000 Yemenis had already fled the war-ravaged city [Hodeidah] since the start of June, most of them heading to the relative safety of the capital, Sanaa, about 170km away.
As laser-guided bombs were being prepared for release, Yassin and his family-of-four boarded a rickety old bus in which they spent the next few hours, peering out of the windows monitoring the skies.
It wasn't long before the deafening sounds of warplanes fell silent, and the thick trails of white smoke from the multi-million dollar jets became small specks in the horizon.
"As we headed to Sanaa, I was looking forward to putting my family in the safe trust of the United Nations," he told Al Jazeera.
But when they reached the capital, they were greeted by the sight of charred buildings, crumpled cars, and sewage in the streets - a city reeling from more than three years of air attacks by a Saudi-UAE military alliance.
'Go hungry or go home'
Hundreds of Yemenis, most of them women and children, had been forced to take refuge in schools, he said.
The institutions had long-abandoned teaching and instead became makeshift shelters for the displaced, according to Yassin.
Children were found sleeping on the dusty floors of the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq school where his family, and dozens of others, had been housed.
According to several Yemenis who had also made the journey, costs had skyrocketed. The price of escorting a family to Sanaa had surged to 60,000 riyals ($240).
Once the internally displaced made it to the capital, rent and food cost a staggering 200,000 riyals ($800) a month.
With fruits, vegetables, and cooking gas in short supply, Yassin said the cost of living was just "too high".
After all his savings dried up, he said he was presented with two options; either stay in the capital and go hungry, or return to Hodeidah and provide for his family.
"I had no option but to return home," he told Al Jazeera.
"I am worried about facing death [in Hodeidah], but I am also worried about staying in a city without any source of income".
According to aid groups, about 400,000 people still reside in the city, where Houthi fighters have started erecting barricades, digging trenches, and fortifying positions in preparation for guerrilla warfare.
"We have immediate concerns about the safety of people in the path of fighting," said Suze van Meegen, a spokeswoman for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Hodeidah.
"We are concerned for children, the elderly and people with disabilities. We are concerned that the city could be closed off for a long period with nothing able to get in or out, and in that case, the biggest concern of all is the possible severing of supply lines into the rest of Yemen.
"That will push millions of people over the cliff of hunger into a full-blown famine."
'Can't afford to leave'
With the Saudi-UAE alliance intensifying their bombing campaign on Houthis-held areas, several residents told Al Jazeera they had grown tired of trying to flee, only to find their next refuge becoming a target as well.
In June, the last month where statistics of air raids were available, the Saudi-UAE alliance carried out at least 258 air raids, nearly a third of which hit non-military sites.
'Nowhere safe left to hide'
Should the alliance advance beyond the airport into the poor neighbourhoods of al-Rabsa and Ghalil, Houthi snipers and landmines will lie in wait, he added.
"The alliance absolutely wants to avoid street battles," said Adam Baron, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
"But it's hard to see the Houthis - absent a diplomatic breakthrough - simply packing up their bags and moving on."
Warning the human cost of retaking the city could be catastrophic, aid agencies have been trying to broker a deal saying the assault puts thousands of civilians "at grave risk" and could turn the city into a "graveyard".
As the Saudis continue to bomb the city and drop leaflets calling for an insurrection, Yassin said the future looked bleak for the thousands of trapped civilians.
"There's nowhere safe left to hide" – by Manal Qaed & Faisal Edroos
(A K pH)
#Hodeidah: A man, his wife and one of his children were killed and 4 of the same family were injured in the al-Modmen area south of al-Tuhaita district by shells and artillery of the mercenaries of the aggression.
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.963391330380564/1902490999803921/?type=3
(A K pH)
Saudi-led airstrike hit citizen's house in Hodeida
A US-backed Saudi-led aggression coalition jet fighter launched on Tuesday an airstrike on a citizen house in Hodeida province, a secuirhy official told Saba.
The airstrike hit the area of Jrouba in Bait al-Fakih district.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news506650.htm
(* A E P)
Houthi militia shuts down Yamani factory, stations their forces at ist wall
Houthi militia gunmen have shut down Yamani Factory in the port city of Hodeidah and have stationed at its wall, as they also installed sand barriers and prevented employees from entering it until a mediation intervened and granted the employees a small entrance to the factory.
This comes as part of the militia group’s violations against the people of Hodeidah and against the facilities in the city. Furthermore, the militia group has also dug new trenches in the streets of the city.
Furthermore, several Houthi militia gunmen have as well stormed dozens of houses, state facilities and factories in the entire province of Hodeidah, which is currently witnessing a state of alert due to the advancements of the National Resistance Forces.
Activists have expressed their surprise regarding Houthi targeting on Yamani factory, which continued to be operational despite the fighting and the difficult situation, as they also pointed out that the over 7000 employees are working in the factory and helping their families; and shutting the factory down would entail a humanitarian disaster for tens of thousands of people.
http://republicanyemen.com/archives/10231
Remark: By anti-Houthi website.
cp2 Allgemein / General
(* A K P)
Interactive Map of Yemen War
(* B K)
Adding to the Genocide in #Yemen:
White phosphorus has been used against Yemenis since the beginning of the Saudi aggression, areas that witnessed most of the affects of it being used are in #Marib, #Saada, #AlJawf and #Sanaa
In 2016 U.S. officials had confirmed that the American government had supplied the Saudis with white phosphorus in the past but declined to say how much had been transferred or when. After reviewing a social media image taken from the battlefield that showed a white phosphorus mortar shell, a U.S. official said it appeared to be American in origin but could not trace it to a particular sale because some of the markings were obscured:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/saudi-arabia-appears-to-b…/
August 2018, The Saudi coalition used white phosphorous during air raids in the Baqim district, Saada, seen clearly in this video:
https://youtu.be/2RXVuV1xygw
America’s deadly gift: U.S. gave Saudi Arabia skin-burning white phosphorus. Questions remain about how it’s being used in Yemen:
https://www.salon.com/…/secret-weapon-the-u-s-gave-saudi-a…/
Supplying White Phosphorus to Saudis? New Claims Reinforce US War Crimes Complicity in Yemen:
https://www.commondreams.org/…/supplying-white-phosphorus-s…
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.963391330380564/1903914079661613/?type=3
(B K pS)
Analysis : Yemen rebel threats to Dubai show danger looms
In November 2017, for instance, the hard-line Tehran-based newspaper Keyhan ran a headline asserting that Dubai was the "next target" for the Houthis after they launched a ballistic missile at Riyadh.
A false claim by Yemen's Houthi rebels of an attack on the world's busiest airport for international travel this week may have been quickly disproven by authorities in Dubai. That doesn't mean, however, it can be taken too lightly.
The insistence of the Houthis and hard-line media in Iran on trumpeting the falsehood serves as a warning to the city-state and other parts of the United Arab Emirates, now engaged in the years long Yemen war led by Saudi Arabia. And while a previous threat carried by Iranian media drew an immediate government response from censors, this one went by without censure.
That means as American sanctions sparked by President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal increase, so too will the threats against the US-allied UAE. The recent war of words began Monday afternoon.
Any attack on the airport would cause travel disruptions across the world, as the airport serves as the hub of the long-haul carrier Emirates that links the East and the West from the Arabian Peninsula.
Though quickly disproved, the claim gained immediate traction in Iran, which backs the Houthis in the conflict.
https://apnews.com/8eedcebb5ae84814938c5af72924c558 = https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/world/analysis-yemen-rebel-threats-to-dubai-show-danger-looms-2902151.html
My comment: A quite biased article. The so-called “false claim” had caused a lot of delays.
(A K)
The death of Saba's official news agency in Al-Baydha and another person
The Director-General of the Saba branch of the government news agency in Al-Baydha province (central Yemen), journalist Ahmed al-Hamzi, was killed while covering the battles in the Northern District of Radman.
A government source told Almasdar online that al-Hamzi and another person were killed by Houthis shelling on the government force site at “Al shabakah” in the Radman District, and that the missile targeted them as they covered the battles.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1035088291501146112
(* B K P)
Film by Press TV Iran: Saudi Arabia enjoys US, Israel backing on Yemen atrocities: Expert
The United Nations is incapable of pressuring Saudi Arabia to end its military aggression on Yemen as the kingdom has the the support from the United States and Israel, says an analyst.
“The UN is more or less being dragged into this, telling a little bit of truth about the horrific massacres that have been going on in Yemen," Kevin Barrett, American scholar and author, told Press TV in an interview on Thursday. "This country has essentially been decimated by Saudi bombing of civilian infrastructure designed to punish the population for essentially wanting to stay independent.”
“This war is really a war of Saudi conquest … and gradually the world is being forced to face the fact that the Saudis made a huge mistake, that the suffering has just gone off the charts, people of Yemen are facing a situation that is actually going beyond what we have seen in a lot of other humanitarian crisis areas,” Barrett said.
“So the UN is perhaps going to call for some kind of relief, to call for increase and so on, but whether this will actually pressure the Saudis to end their war on Yemen is another story because the Saudis seem to have the support of the [US President Donald] Trump administration … and of course the Saudis are also very close to the Israeli leadership and so this mafia is still able to hold off international pressure and essentially do what it wants and I don’t think the UN and the countries of the world have enough courage to stand up to it,” he added.
(B K)
Film by Ron Paul: The War In Yemen: The Worst In The World
https://twitter.com/RonPaul/status/1034864148893577216
(* B K P)
Audio: Talk Nation Radio: Shireen Al-Adeimi on Ending the U.S.-Saudi War on Yemen
Shireen Al-Adeimi is originally from Yemen, and is an assistant professor of education at Michigan State University. She co-authored a recent article at In These Times titled “Trump Quietly Overrides What Little Civilian Protections Remain in Yemen War.” She comes back on Talk Nation Radio to discuss current efforts to end U.S. involvement in the war on Yemen.
Total run time: 29:00
http://davidswanson.org/talk-nation-radio-shireen-al-adeimi-on-ending-the-u-s-saudi-war-on-yemen/
(* A K)
Irans Unterstützung für Huthi-Rebellen? US-Marine beschlagnahmt Waffen im Roten Meer
Die US-Navy hat Hunderte Kleinwaffen von einem Schiff im Golf von Aden im Roten Meer sichergestellt, berichtet der Fernsehsender CNN unter Berufung auf einen Pentagon-Beamten.
Laut dem Sender handelt es sich um eine Dau – ein kleines, häufig in dieser Region verwendetes Segelschiff – ohne Flagge. Mehr als 1000 Waffen sollen beschlagnahmt worden sein. Die Operation wurde am Dienstag von der Besatzung des Zerstörers „Jason Dunham“ vollbracht.
https://de.sputniknews.com/politik/20180830322142381-aden-usa-jemen-huthi-iran/
Mein Kommentar: Die Dhau soll Kurs von Jemen Weg gehabt haben. „Irans Unterstützung für Huthi-Rebellen?“ Wohl kaum. Solche Waffen gibt es im Jemen schon in riesiger Menge.
(* A K)
US Navy seizes cache of AK-47s in Gulf of Aden
The US Navy has intercepted a small boat packed with hundreds of automatic rifles in the Gulf of Aden, and has handed the sailors over to Yemeni authorities, a defense official told AFP on Thursday.
Investigators have not yet determined where the boat came from or where it was headed, but it was boarded in an area where the US Navy has previously confiscated Iranian-supplied arms destined for war-ravaged Yemen.
"We're not ready to pin this on anyone yet, we are doing an investigation of the evidence," the US official said.
The incident occurred Tuesday when sailors from the USS Jason Dunham boarded a small skiff that was having engine trouble and taking on water.
On board, they found about 600 bags filled with small arms -- mostly AK-47s -- totalling more than 1,000 rifles, the official said.
The skiff sailors were then transferred to the Yemeni coastguard. Their nationality was not released.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-6115203/US-Navy-seizes-cache-AK-47s-Gulf-Aden.html
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1364066/middle-east (with photos)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/us-navy-seized-1000-ak-47-rifles-boat/story?id=57505601 (with film)
photos: https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1035303531048316928
and
(* A K)
Destroyer intercepts arms shipment near Yemen
A boarding team from the guided-missile destroyer Jason Dunham captured more than 1,000 AK-47 rifles from a vessel sailing in the Gulf of Aden.
Navy officials said the warship intercepted the stateless skiff while it was drifting without engine power on Tuesday. The boarding team determined that the vessel was not flagged to any nation and then discovered the cache of weapons.
The Gulf of Aden is a bustling waterway that abuts Somalia and Yemen, two nations undergoing civil wars, but officials have been unable to determine the source of the weapons, according to a Navy press release.
https://www.navytimes.com/news/2018/08/30/destroyer-intercepts-arms-shipment-near-yemen-2/
My comment: In Yemen, there exists such a lot of such small weapons, nobody would need them.
Comment: Would the @USNavy please inform the world that the Kalashnikov-laden ship was outbound FROM Yemen? Don't be shy.
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1035190332558909441
and
(A K)
#USNavy Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Jason Dunham (MMSI:366997034) had been operating in the United States Fifth Fleet area of responsibility, and went dark 2018-08-27 18:48Z, presumably to stalk the vessel.
https://twitter.com/steffanwatkins/status/1034922382677426176
(* B E P)
Yemeni tensions with Hizbullah
Economic conditions are worsening in the Yemeni capital Sanaa against a background of rising tensions between the Yemeni government and the Lebanese group Hizbullah,
Commerce in Sanaa is suffering due to the political and security conditions in the country as a whole. Merchants are complaining of the slump in trade due to the war and the plummeting value of the Yemeni riyal, one source told Al-Ahram Weekly, adding that “such things are natural in times of war. However, the recent holiday exposed the extent to which Yemeni families were unable to celebrate in the traditional way.”
Meanwhile, a wave of rising tensions between the government and the Lebanese Hizbullah group reached a new peak earlier this week when the government lodged a complaint with the UN Security Council against Hizbullah’s meddling in Yemen.
On Monday, Yemen’s Ambassador to the UN Abdullah bin Mubarak asked the Security Council to launch an investigation into Hizbullah’s support for the rebel Houthi Movement in Yemen and charged that it was trying to sabotage the forthcoming negotiations in Geneva. He accused Iran of engineering these developments.
Shortly before this, the Yemeni Embassy in Washington lashed out against a meeting that Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah had held with a Houthi delegation in Lebanon.
The statement drew attention to the fact that this meeting had taken place just two weeks before the round of consultations between the Yemeni parties set for Geneva on 6 September.
In the context of the forthcoming talks, one person who had served as a member of the delegation representing the GPC, the party founded by former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, in previous negotiating rounds between the Yemeni factions, told the Weekly from Sanaa that the pro-Saleh contingent of the GPC would not be taking part in the forthcoming talks.
He explained that the Houthis had kept many members of the contingent under house arrest or close surveillance while some, most notably GPC Deputy Secretary-General sheikh Yasser Al-Awadi, had left the capital for their home towns and no longer appeared in public for fear of their lives.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/25258.aspx
Remark: All this already had been reported earlier.
(* B H K P)
The Saudi Coalition’s Callous Disregard for Yemeni Lives
The New York Times also calls for a halt to U.S. support for the war on YemeThe focus of most recent criticism of the Saudi coalition has understandably been on their indiscriminate bombing campaign, but that shouldn’t cause us to forget the coalition’s even more far-reaching and destructive policy aimed at wrecking and starving the country as a whole. Kevin Watkins of Save the Children UK describeshow the coalition’s economic war on Yemen does enormous harm to the civilian population and especially to the country’s children:
„It’s not just bombs, bullets and artillery shells that threaten Yemen’s children. This is a conflict that also kills by stealth. Economic strangulation is being used by the Saudi-led coalition as a weapon of war, targeting jobs, infrastructure, food markets and the provision of basic services. Nobody is there to count the bodies of the victims. But for every child buried beneath the rubble of a building hit by a “smart bomb”, there are dozens of children – like Ayesha – threatened by the starvation that has accompanied the economic assault.“
By providing unstinting military and political support for the war, the U.S. has enabled the creation of the largest humanitarian disaster in the world today. The gravest threat to Yemen’s civilian population doesn’t come from airstrikes, terrible and criminal as they are, but from a deliberate, cruel policy of collective punishment that puts millions of lives in danger. Our government tacitly endorses this policy every day that it provides military assistance and diplomatic cover for the Saudi coalition, and insofar as our military supports the coalition blockade it is directly involved in enforcing that policy.
Yesterday Secretary Mattis made a remarkable assertion:
“We recognize every mistake like this is tragic in every way, but we have not seen any callous disregard by the people we’re working with ,” Mattis said. “So we will continue to work with them.”
The entire Saudi coalition war effort is defined by callous disregard for civilian lives. All parties to the war have shown this same disregard, but it is ludicrous to think the coalition is not guilty of this. The evidence of that callous disregard is staring all of us in the face with each new massacre of children, wedding-goers, and hospital patients. If the Trump administration can’t see that, they have to be willfully blind to the consequences of backing the unjust and unnecessary war on Yemen.
(B K P)
Film by Press TV Iran: 'Yemeni fighters capable of damaging Saudi security'
Retaliatory attacks by Yemeni fighters against positions in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) show Yemenis’ capability to damage security in the two countries, says an academic.
After three years of deadly Saudi-led airstrikes on Yemen, the Yemeni army, supported by popular Houthi Ansarullah movement, has launched rocket attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Jamal Wakim, professor at the Lebanese International University, told Press TV on Wednesday that “the escalation and retaliation by the Yemeni side is a sign of their capacity to damage security of Saudi Arabia and of the UAE.”
“This is also a sign of their capacity to resist the Saudi and Emirati assault on Yemen,” and at the same time a sign of the “incapacity of Saudi” to impose their will on the Yemeni people, Wakim said.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/08/29/572574/Yemen-Saudi-Arabia-Security
(* A K)
United Nations: 450 civilians lost their lives in Yemen within 9 days of August
More than 450 civilians have lost their lives in Yemen during the first nine days of August due to the ongoing conflict in the country, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The statement was issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
"The severity of the conflict in Yemen has escalated dramatically over the past three months, especially in the province of Hodeidah (west)," the statement said.
"According to the Civilian Impact monitoring report, more than 450 civilians lost their lives in Yemen in the first nine days of August, making it one of the bloodiest periods since the conflict began in March (March 2015)," it added.
Remark: More on this report: cp4.
(* B K P)
Wars only destroy
Imagine the countless benefits if the two current Arab wars in Syria and Yemen were to be ended. If so, why do the parties locked in such futile fights not opt for the most obvious alternative: Stop the war, end the destruction, save lives, save money and rescue any remaining possibility for restoring normal peaceful relations within the same Arab family?
False pride is part of the answer. Admitting responsibility for wrong decisions, particularly when of such magnitude, is not that easy.
False pride is a human disease that hits people at all levels. Some heads of state often act in the same petty manner as the most impulsive uneducated primitive humans, who fail to foresee the potential cost of foolish decisions based on stubbornness and “devil may care” or “after me the deluge” logic.
Whether war decisions are taken by irresponsible individuals, or by a group of equally irresponsible evil-minded conspirators, such as in the case of the unjustified 2003 war on Iraq, the result is the same. In both cases the war makers fail to see the terrible outcomes of their deeds. They fail to recognise the futility of their decisions, and like gamblers, they continue to desperately accumulate losses in the hope that the next attempt will reverse the trend.
Although it is often tempting to conclude that unnecessary war perpetuation, if the mere idea of war is ever necessary, could be the responsibility of both warring sides, it is not that easy to apply this same formula to the two wars in question; Syria and Yemen.
In the case of Syria and Yemen, it is not easy to accurately determine where the responsibility for starting the war lies or, to be more specific, for allowing the war to drag on for so long despite the massive cost, the misery, the destruction, the loss of life, the disease, the hardships, the displacement of millions of otherwise normally living people and the hopeless pursuit of any benefits.
Neither in Syria nor in Yemen was the war initiated by the legitimate government.
Slightly different is the case of Yemen, where a local militia, the Houthi Ansarullah, led an armed rebellion against the existing state. Had there been a functioning UN system, both conflicts could have been resolved by UN-sponsored negotiations without war. Sadly though, the UN system has long been disabled; being the victim of superpower manipulation, particularly when such powers’ interests are served by the permeation of such deadly proxy conflicts.
The same can be said about a long-disabled Arab League.
The striking and obvious question that requires urgent consideration is this. Why should the participants in those wars insist on involvement in fighting losing battles and totally counterproductive wars. Would it not be wiser to cut losses, rebuild bridges and save the potential for reconstruction not only of buildings and cities, but of souls and sound healthy communities as well? – by Hasan Abu Nimah
http://jordantimes.com/opinion/hasan-abu-nimah/wars-only-destroy
(* B H K)
Why Misery Is Being Weaponized In War
In the film Sicario, in which murderous drug cartels ravage communities along the U.S.-Mexico border, there is a sobering moment when a black-ops agent working for the United States explains the barbarism that terrorizes people.
“You will not survive here,” he tells an FBI agent, devastated by the savagery she has seen. “You are not a wolf. And this is a land of wolves now.”
Millions of people, caught in conflicts the world over, are finding that line applies to where they live, too. Misery as a strategy is spreading, with devastating consequences.
Government forces and armed groups compete for power by targeting civilians, inflicting starvation upon men, women and children, and destroying infrastructure even at the cost of unleashing deadly diseases. This is a prime reason 68 million refugees are fleeing their homelands, the largest human exodus since the Second World War.
Consider one example, on the edge of the Arabian Peninsula. Last week, the Saudi-led coalition killed at least 29 children in Yemen in an airstrike against the country’s rebel Houthis. Eight million citizens – think of the entire populations of Boston and Rome – are now on the verge of starvation as a result. This isn’t a natural disaster, caused by drought. It is but one instance of the weaponization of misery.
What’s happening in Hodeida is the Yemen war in microcosm.
Since March, 2015, when Saudi Arabia and the UAE entered the war to oust the Houthis and reinstall the internationally recognized Yemeni president in the capital, Yemen has been under blockade and much of it under intense bombardment. The Saudis and their allies loosen the cordon slightly, and temporarily, whenever the catastrophe is prominent in the news. Still, some 22 million people, in a country of 29 million, urgently need humanitarian aid.
Such siege warfare is meant to starve and exhaust the enemy. The Saudi-led coalition wants to squeeze the Houthis into submission. But its tactics – chiefly, a blockade but also the bombing of cities and villages, or school buses – cause systematic and fatal harm to civilians in its enemy’s territory.
If Hodeida is a microcosm of Yemen, then Yemen, in turn, is a microcosm of an increasingly prevalent mode of warfare that uses misery as a strategy.
Preventing and resolving these manmade emergencies ought to be among today’s foremost moral imperatives. Unless governments and ordinary citizens are prepared to take action against those who use misery as a military strategy, the 68 million men, women and children now fleeing for their lives will surely grow in numbers.
And, as in Sicario, the wolves will rule the land – by Frank Giustra and Robert Malley
http://www.nationalmemo.com/why-misery-is-being-weaponized-in-war/
(B K P)
The war in Yemen must end
The international community must not only keep a watchful eye over the horrible war in the country and issue pious statements every now and then with no avail. The war must end now. Who is right or who is wrong is no longer the primary issue in Yemen. Stopping the killings and destruction must be the primary concerns for all sides including the immediate combatants.
http://jordantimes.com/opinion/editorial/war-yemen-must-end
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
(* B H)
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: Yemen: Humanitarian Fund Dasboard - Second Reserve Allocation 2018
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-fund-dasboard-second-reserve-allocation-2018
(* B H)
Yemen cancer patients – their struggle for care in wartime
The World Health Organization said around 35,000 people have cancer in Yemen, with about 11,000 cases diagnosed each year.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/yemen-cancer-patients-struggle-care-190951442.html
(A H)
2 Relief aircraft of UN arrive to Sanaa airport
wo relief aircraft arrived on Tuesday to Sanaa International Airport sent by UNICEF and the World Food Program, in the statement told Saba on Wednesday.
These two planes carried Medical and Therapeutic aids.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news506638.htm
(* B H)
The Presidential Committee reviews its achievements in Ta'izz and calls on Abu Abbas to reverse his decision
More ex-child soldiers to be rehabilitated in Marib
Wethaq Foundation for Civil Orientation, an NGO that with financing from King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) has been rehabilitating ex-child soldiers will subject a new group of children to a rehabilitation course.
Wethaq offers psychological care to children who are psychologically affected because of participating in the conflict or witnessing it without participation.
The new session which was launched on Sunday will seek to rehabilitate 26 new children over a duration of one month.
Wethaq's experts have rehabilitated 215 children since they began a joint project with KSrelief.
Most of the children are caught by the army fighting in the ranks of the Houthi rebel militia in different warfronts.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-22115
(* B H)
In Sanaa, community solidarity helps needy Yemenis survive wartime
Restaurants in the Yemeni capital donate food to thousands of people, as the conflict worsens an already precarious humanitarian situation
Unable to subsist on modest aid rations alone, Mohammed and many other Yemenis have instead turned to charitable schemes run by restaurants, as many credit such solidarity for easing the hardships of thousands of impoverished citizens.
Lines for rice and soup
Al-Taizi, found on Amman Street in the centre of Sanaa, is one such restaurant.
Often bustling with customers, who flock to taste the restaurant’s famous aseed – a dish from southern Yemen’s Taiz consisting of a large dumpling served with broth – it’s also common now to see dozens of Sanaa’s poor lining up outside.
Some of them have bags in their hands to carry donated food, while others bring their children with them.
For an hour every morning, al-Taizi’s owner Lufti al-Azazi and his staff serve around 50 families aseed, rice, soup and, on occasion, chicken. On Thursdays, they cater for an additional 250 families who come from the outskirts of Sanaa.
"It is a crime to see hungry people and not help them. God commands us to help needy people,” Azazi told Middle East Eye. “This is part of our religion, so we do it to go to heaven.”
Azazi used to help people even before a Saudi-led military coalition intervened on behalf of Yemen’s government against Houthi rebels in 2015.
Now, however, the number of impoverished in the Yemeni capital has swelled.
Life-saving charity
Employment has also been badly affected by the war, as the economy worsens and competing authorities wrangle over who controls the central bank and other state institutions.
As a result, many have been out of work or found their salaries unreliable or insufficient to make a living.
Around 1.25 million civil servants have either failed to receive their salaries or only been paid sporadically since August 2016. Meanwhile, prices of essential goods have doubled compared with before the war.
Mohammed and his family spent several weeks suffering intense hunger when the pharmaceutical company he was working for shut down, leaving him unemployed.
International NGOs have helped them over the past two years with food donations - rice, wheat, oil, sometimes sugar – but they remained insufficient to eke out a living for his wife, two sons and four daughters.
"I lost my work as a guard and my body is weak, so I cannot work hard jobs,” he said. “Some people like me resorted to begging, but I prefer not to beg. Death is better than begging for me.
"But then a friend told me that there are some restaurants that provide needy people with free food and he gave me their names."
Displaced swell the ranks of the needy
Impoverished natives from Sanaa aren’t the only people to find respite at these restaurants.
"I have been receiving food from restaurants for two years, and every day more people come to the restaurants," Mohammed said.
Community solidarity as a guardrail
In times of war, expressions of solidarity and charitable initiatives are hugely important, according to Fadhl al-Thobhani, a sociology professor at Taiz University.
“The wealthy have to help the needy during war, or the number of people starving to death will hit unbelievable heights,” he told MEE.
“Yemenis empathise with the needy’s suffering,” he added. "Community solidarity also prevents many people from joining the fighting or engaging in bad behaviour such as stealing."
Walking between restaurants seeking sustenance for his family, Mohammed also acknowledged the schemes’ key role in keeping the most vulnerable Yemenis alive.
"I thank all restaurants that help needy people as they are playing a major role in helping many families, but I do not want to continue receiving food forever,” he said, adding that his 15-year-old son Khaled would soon be able to look for work to help provide for his family.
“I trust that God will not forget us in this war," Mohammed said – by Nasser al-Sakkaf
(* B H K)
This Is What It's Like To Go To School While Your Country Is In The Middle Of A Civil War
Millions have been displaced in Yemen's conflict, with thousands dead from starvation and cholera, but the country's schoolchildren continue to try to get an education.
A 14-year-old Yemeni schoolgirl has written a letter describing her life inside Yemen's four-year-old civil war.
Hanin al-Asaadi's family, her sisters, 17-year-old Khulood and 16-year-old Asma, as well as her 5-year-old brother, Yousef, live with their parents in Yemen's capital, Sanaa. Her mom, Shams, looks after the family while her dad, Mohammad, used to be a journalist but now works for UNICEF.
You can read Hanin's whole letter here: Dear friends, I wish you a happy new school year.
I am Hanin Al-Asaadi, 8th grader, from Yemen, let me tell you something about our school and life.
First of all, war is such a scary story, everyone feels afraid of, nobody ever likes it, it's really awful.
Five years ago, we we're having kind of normal life, we we're safe with our families and friends, playing, running, laughing, and learning without any scariness.
Suddenly without any introductions, the crazy war began. Families were dispersed, friends got separated. Most of my close friends have traveled and I haven't seen them since this damn war began.
We were about thirty students in our class but now, we are less than the half of what we used to be!
We were moving to school safely, but now bombings might surprise you while you are on the way to school or maybe to a place you like for example, parks.
Few months back we decided to change home routine and go to the park (Fun City), we went there to enjoy our time but while having fun with my sisters and brother two bombings changed everything, everybody who were inside went to the exit, that place was very crowded, we moved on, we wanted to ride on a bus to get back home but third strong bombing exploded, it was to near to us, bombing's fragments, stones and dust fall on us like heavy rain drops, we went back home scared.
No more parks, no more games, no more family trips to climb mountains, in short no more fun!
I hope that Yemen will be a safe and wealthy place to live in like your countries, so I can invite you to come visit and enjoy Yemen's beauty.
Even it's so hard I will go to school again.
Enjoy your school days.
Your friend from Yemen again.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosebuchanan/yemen-civil-war-children-school-airstrikes
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
Siehe / Look at cp1b
(B H)
The war is always ugly. Civilians all the time are the victims A new wave of displacement was reported lately from Hayran area of Hajjeh due to ongoing fighting there which forced 1000s families to displace 3 million people have been displaced in #Yemen due to the war. (photos)
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1034914137468555273
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1035026224068866049
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1035013476270460928
(* B H)
UN High Commissioner for Refugees: UNHCR calls for more protection for civilians fleeing Yemen’s Al Hudaydah
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is ramping up its response to meet the most urgent protection needs of thousands of families displaced by the fighting in Al Hudaydah, the strategic port city through which 80 percent of all food and aid arrives into Yemen. The offensive to capture the city began in June and has resulted in the displacement of over 50,800 families according to OCHA. UNHCR is calling on all parties to ensure the physical safety of civilians and their freedom of movement and to guarantee safe routes for civilians to leave conflict areas.
The conflict has escalated significantly over the past 3 months, in particular in Al Hudaydah governorate. According to the Civil Impact Monitoring Report, over 450 civilians have lost their lives in Yemen in the first nine days of August alone, making it one of the deadliest periods since the start of the conflict in March 2015. Since then, a total of 6,600 civilians have been killed in Yemen and 10,563 have been injured, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
During focus group discussions with displaced persons from Al Hudaydah conducted in June and July, UNHCR identified a series of protection needs requiring urgent attention. Most prominent among them are the specific needs of children who may be separated from their families, and women, who may be at high risk of sexual harassment and violence either during flight or when living in overcrowded settings. Another common concern is the loss of livelihoods, exacerbated by a decline in purchasing power due to increasing food prices and the decline in value of the Yemeni currency, the riyal.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/unhcr-calls-more-protection-civilians-fleeing-yemen-s-al-hudaydah
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
(A P)
Ibb.. Houthis kill young man during vigil to demand release of kidnapped
A young man was killed in a town in August province, central Yemen, by armed Houthis, following a protest to demand the release of kidnappers in militia jails.
A local source said to "Almasdar online " Nasr Sharaf Hizam was shot dead by militants of the Houthi leader Abu Yahya Al Siraji, after a protest was carried out yesterday, in which the victim joined with a number of the villagers of Hamedan in the isolation of Kahlan in the district of al-Radhmah northeast of Ibb.
According to the sources, the Houthi militia abducted five members of the village of Hamdan in Radhmah at the Beit al-Yazidi checkpoint while travelling towards Aden governorate after the Eid al-Fitr, and their families were unable to identify their fate or release, forcing them to protest peacefully and inform the Director of the Directorate and the administration of the consensual security Their intention to carry out a protest demanding the release of their families.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-22169
(A P)
Houthi militias kidnap three children from al-Baydha and took them to an unknown destination
On Tuesday, the al-Houthi militia abducted three children from al-Baydha province at a point on the road between the governorates of al-Baydha and Dhamar, central Yemen.
According to sources for the "Almasdar online ", the Houthi leader called "Waseem al-Wishli", arrested children as young as 13 years of age, at one of the points of the militia, and took them to an unknown place.
The abduction of the three children was due to the attitude of their tribe, the "Serar Al Baydha", which rejects the presence of the Houthis in their area, the sources said.
According to the sources, Ali al-Sarari and two of his companions were returning from the town of Dhamar to their hometown of Serar in Qaifah area.
The Houthi leader, Waseem al-Wishli, from the village of al-Washel-Zubaid, south of Dhamar City, abducted and tortured dozens of Al - Baydhah children and sons.
(A P)
Al-Houthi: We Hold the US Responsible for any New Crimes, after US Admitting Support of Aggression
The head of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee, Mohammad Al-Houthi, blamed the United States and held US the responsible for any massacres that could occur after US Defense Secretary James Matisse's remarks about Yemen.
Al-Houthi said on his Twitter account on Tuesday, "what we know about Americans is they do opposite of what they say."
The US defense secretary said that “the United States of America will continue to work with the coalition to reduce the impact of this tragedy and reducing the number of civilian casualties in Yemen.”
"James Matisse's remarks carried a hidden message that allows killing of Yemenis, but in unclear form, which is not embarrassing to the US," Al-Houthi said.
"We are with returning to the negotiating table, forming a national reconciliation committee and going to an electoral process to elect a president and a parliament representing all the forces in Yemen." He added, "we want to have international guarantees to start reconstruction, prevent any aggression from foreign countries on Yemen and reparation."
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2504&cat_id=1
(* A K P)
Houthis threaten more attacks against coalition airports and vital installations
Houthi rebels have threatened to conduct more attacks against Saudi Arabian and UAE airports and vital installations in response to what they called the Saudi-led coalition’s “brutal aggression” on Yemen.
The threats were made after the Houthis announced on Monday that they had targeted Dubai International Airport with a Samad 3 armed drone. The claim was denied by the authorities in the emirate.
According to military analyst Brigadier General Yahya Al-Houthi, “The operation was a response to the coalition’s brutal aggression against Yemen and the innocent people of Yemen.” He drew attention to the “terrorism” carried out every day against innocent children. Al-Houthi explained that armed drones have changed the course of the battle. “We will target vital installations including airports and oil companies or anything that these drones can reach,” he added.
(* A P)
Yemen’s Houthi militias besiege town in Dhamar, kidnap at least 60
Houthi militias kidnapped dozens from the town of Al-Kharba in the Jahran District in the Dhamar Governorate after clashing with the townspeople and imposing a siege on the town.
Tribal sources said the Houthis kidnapped more than 60 people from the town, adding that they have detained them in the central prison in Dhamar and are interrogating them in a tyrannical way.
They also said that the Houthis are still pursuing the townspeople and arresting people.
Mohammed Hussein al-Maqishi, the Houthi militia commander in Dhamar, went to the house of Sheikh Ahmad Ali Qassem Salah and obliged him to hand over those he described as “murderers and wanted men” and gave him 24 hours to hand them over.
Remark: As claimed by Saudi media. Earlier reportig: Yemen War Mosaic 450, cp5.
(A H K P)
Ministry of Health, Transport Demand Medical Air Bridge into Yemen
The Ministry of Health and Transport at a joint press conference, on Tuesday, called for an urgent transporting of medicines into Yemen and allowing the wounded and sick children to travel abroad. The two ministries also stressed the importance and urgency of opening Sana'a Int. Airport. This step is needed to save the lives of thousands, especially children.
The Minister of Public Health and Population, Dr. Taha al-Mutawakil, called on the United Nations and the Security Council to stop the US-Saudi aggression, lift the siege and send needed medicine and supplies for children, the wounded and the sick. The international community should demand the lift of the siege on transporting those who can not be treated internally.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2474&cat_id=1
(A K P)
Abdulsalam: The Raids on Sana’a Int. Airport Sign of US-Saudi Failed Aggression
The official spokesman of Ansarullah, Mohamed Abdel Salam, said on Tuesday that the extensive airstrikes, of last night, on Sana'a International Airport reveals the pain and failure hiding inside the US-Saudi coalition, after the Yemeni Air Force targeted the UAE airports and as Saudi Arabia under the threat of Yemeni Drone's bombing.
In a tweet on Twitter, Abdul Salam said that "at the beginning of the US-Saudi aggression, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been bombing Sana'a Int. Airport, and throughout last night they carried out absurd raids on Sana'a Int. Airport and Al-Dailami Airbase."
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2478&cat_id=1
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
Siehe / Look at cp1
(A P)
Mothers protest to demand release of forcibly disappeared sons
The mothers of forcibly disappeared people in Aden staged a protest rally on Wednesday to demand the release of their sons in the jails of the UAE-affiliated paramilitary forces without charge.
The mothers staged their rally in front of the residence of the Interior Minister Ahmed Al-Maysari asking him to do something for the release of their sons and other relatives.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-22170
(A P)
Shabwah.. Security campaign to evacuate civilians from government buildings and facilities
The joint forces in the southeastern province of Shabwah began implementation of the first phase of the security campaign to evacuate government buildings and facilities controlled by civilians, following the withdrawal of the Houthis from the city of Ataq in mid-August 2015.
(* B P)
Constant Campaign of Rape Involving Women, Children under Ten in UAE-Controlled Yemeni Province
The number of crimes of rape and kidnapping of women and children ,under the age of ten, increased in the city of Aden , under the control of UAE, main part of the U.S backed -Saudi-led coalition ,and which were carried out by mostly unknown gunmen in light of the security chaos experienced by the cities under the control of the UAE forces.
On Tuesday, the city of Aden witnessed a horrific rape crime of a 10-year-old girl by a security man ,belonging to the UAE-backed security forces, which controls the city.
According to an eyewitness in a telephone interview with “Yemen Extra” ,a security man, working at Mualla police station , kidnapped a 10- year -old girl in front of her house in the neighborhood of Hafun ,Sheikh Othman city, and took her to his home in the same neighborhood,where he raped her brutality.
Last Monday, armed elements in Khor Muksar district kidnapped and raped a displaced child from the province of Hodeidah, which is in a state of widespread displacement due to the military attacks launched by the coalition since last April.
According to local sources, the child was found in a residential neighborhood in the city of Khor Maksar, after being severely beaten by the abductors.
On the same day, armed men in uniform kidnapped a 16-year-old girl, named ‘Athar Ali Saeed’ ,from her home in Khor Maksar district ,Aden.
The girl’s father said in a telephone conversation with the editor of “Yemen Extra” that the car stopped in front of the girl, and a person ,in military uniform,and carrying a Kalashnikov, got out and forced the girl to get into the car, which then moved to an unknown destination.
He added that a number of citizens gathered when they heard the scream of the girl during the abduction, but they did nothing after being threatened by the gunmen .
The kidnapping of the girl came a few days after “unknown” gunmen kidnapped a young woman, “Fatima Shakib,” 26 years, while she was on her way to a market in the neighborhood of Abu Idarous in the Directorate of Crater, and took her to an unknown destination .
According to witnesses, the incident took place in front of a number of citizens who also did nothing amid a frightening escalation of the crimes of abduction and rape of women in the provinces, under the control of the coalition.
This comes two days after a woman was found on the road leading to Aden in a horrible condition and with signs of torture. She was taken to the hospital for treatment after being abducted from Lahj province two weeks ago.
A 17-year-old girl, Manar Ibrahim Ahmed Ghanem, was kidnapped by unknown assailants in Block 12, Mansoura Directorate, on last July 12, whereas her fate is still unknown.
(A P)
Salafi leader Abu Al Abbas changes mind about exiting Taiz, citing pressure from @HadiPresident and senior officials in the city. His forces have sporadically engaged in clashes with rival groups via @adenalghad
https://twitter.com/saeedalBatati/status/1035239577051643906
Internationally recognized #Yemen government begs a militia sanctioned for connections to #AQAP and #ISIS to stay in Yemen's third largest city, Taiz... Abu Abbas has been credited with welcoming #alQaeda into Taiz, but also fights al #Houthi forces.
https://twitter.com/MaherFarrukh/status/1035255980869734400
(A T)
One soldier and another wounded when a bomb exploded at a security checkpoint in Al-Dale’a
A security source in the southern city of al- Dale’a said an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded on Wednesday in a transporting truck that injured a soldier of the security belt and the truck driver.
The source told Almasdar online that the IED exploded in the back of a truck at the security checkpoint of the security belt in front of Aboud Brigade headquarters in the city of Al- Dale’a the governorate center with the same name.
(A T)
Director General of Bayhan Security Department survives assassination bid
Local sources said General Abdullah al-Ayyashi was in his office in the Security Department of Bayhan when gunmen besieged it and started storming it and shooting fire, before the building guards responded to them, arrested two of the gunmen. The third gunman managed to flee.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-22141
(A P)
Yemen #exclusive: Interior Minister is talking about electricity problems, saying Govt is solving them. But he never talks about security problems including homicides that occur on daily basis. In Yemen, Agriculture minister represents Govt to meeting of Arab interior ministers.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1034872789361143810
(* A P)
#AdenNet: The Mirage
Government sources said that factions of the Southern Transitional Council backed by the #UAEprevented the Yemeni government from continuing the work of "Aden Net" in the interim capital Aden.
The project was suspended because the transitional leadership prevented the workers from implementing the project while the Minister of Communications and Information Technology L. Sharif is said to have left the Coastal city in a state of rage.
President in exile Hadi launched the $100 million Aden Net project last June, which includes nine telecommunications and Internet projects,
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.961595153893515/1902039936515694/?type=3
(A T)
New Crime in Aden, Unknown Armed Men Killed Citizen
On Tuesday evening, armed men killed a citizen on the street in the Al-Mamdara area in Sheikh-Othman district, Aden. They, then threw his body near the 22 May stadium.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2484&cat_id=1
(* A T)
Officials: Al-Qaida attack on Yemen checkpoint kills 5
Yemeni tribal and security officials say a suspected al-Qaida attack on a checkpoint in a southern province has killed five soldiers and wounded four others.
They say the attack took place late Tuesday in Ahwar district in Abyan province and targeted Security Belt forces — fighters trained and financed by the UAE, which is part of a Saudi-led coalition battling the country's Houthi rebels.
Comment: Interesting. In the last couple of weeks a report by UN and another by AP confirmed what many suspected already - militias who had previously been fighting with Al Qaeda in Yemen had been recruited by UAE - and later UAE confirmed this - saying in effect that these were men who were disillusioned with AQ and defected. Now this check point attack by AQ is against the Security Belt militias, rumoured to contain radical Sunni fighters - which seems to indicate that there is some rivalry going on. Watch this space.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10156958246523641
(A P)
Soldier killed and 3 wounded in clashes between presidential protection and the Osbah Brigade in central Ta'izz
A soldier was killed and three others injured Tuesday in clashes between the military police and the “AL ‘Osbah” brigade in Bab al-Kabir district in the southwestern city of Ta'izz.
The military police kicked the motorcycle drivers from the Bab area before the arrival of the Presidential Commission and assaulted a gunman who was driving a motorcycle, a military source told Almasdar online.
"The gunman moved in front of the al-Saeed market, and from there he opened fire on the military police and fled the scene, after which the protection of the Presidential Commission was returned by shooting at Nasser School, where the “AL ‘Osbah” Brigade is stationed."
This was followed by the positioning of the “AL ‘Osbah” Brigade in Nasser School and indiscriminate firing at the Presidential Commission protection soldiers, killing one soldier and injuring three others, after which the situation was contained.
Remark: Infight between pro-Hadi forces.
(A K P)
After Three Years of Muslim Brotherhood Army Inside, Southern Troops Liberate Zones of Taiz in Yemen
On Monday August 27th, 2018, southern troops controlled strategic posts in Maoia directorate, east of Taiz, after heavy clashes with Al-Houthi militias.
It is noteworthy that southern troops advanced from Lahj in the south to liberate the northern governorate of Taiz while seven northern brigades in Taiz, only 25 km away from the front line, failed to liberate it for three years.
Observers indicated that Muslim Brotherhood army in Taiz only fought against Salafist resistance to control the city for Reform Party, as these troops never fought with Al-Houthi militias, an act described by leaders of Salafist resistance as treason.
My comment: Conflict and infight between separatist militia and Islah Party-backed militia, and blaming “northern brigades”, pro-Hadi army or militia recruited from Northern Yemen.
(A P)
Ben Brik: We Will Face Terrorism and Occupation Forces by All Means and Will Never Let Our Southern People Down, No Matter the Costs Are
General Ahmed Said Ben Brik, chairman of the national assembly of the southern transitional council said: “The council will face occupation by force and we will never let our southern people down, no matter the costs are. The Yemeni crisis will end soon”.
Ben Brik indicated that the militias exercise terrorism through killing innocent civilians and disturbing security and stability, he added that the southern transitional council came to eliminate these criminal elements in the area and end the era of terrorism asserting that the southern people mobilized in massive demonstrations to delegate General Al-Zubaidi. He also confirmed that the council assumes the responsibility of achieving the southern project of restoring the independent southern state and the council will work on that project no matter the costs are.
(A P)
Ben Brik to Sputnik: “We Will Participate in Upcoming Peace Settlements and We Will Support Peace Efforts That neither Oppress Our Southern People nor Contradict with Their Freedom
General Ahmed Said Ben Brik, chairman of the national assembly of the Southern Transitional Council, indicated that the council will participate in upcoming peace settlements in Geneva for permanent peace in Yemen.
In a phone call with Sputnik, a Russian media agency, on Tuesday August 28th, 2018, Ben Brik said that the national assembly held an extraordinary meeting a few days ago to discuss indicators of Geneva talks as five members were chosen to participate in upcoming talks of political settlement. He added that he previously met UN envoy to Yemen and recognized well Mr. Griffith’s vision.
Ben Brik asserted full support to all efforts seeking permanent peace in the country on condition that they neither oppress the southern people nor contradict with their freedom. He also indicated that the Arabs have political powers and strategically significant zones that will help them get of of these crises.
(A T)
He was killed trying to protect others’ lives. Abdullah, explosives expert in @UNDP’s demining partner (#YEMAC), was killed while trying to defuse a time bomb in #Aden last Thursday. Our hearts are with Abdullah's family and his loved ones!
https://twitter.com/UNDPYEMEN/status/1034335911746658304
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
Siehe / Look at cp1
(* A P)
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect: Atrocity Alert No. 120, 29 August 2018: Myanmar (Burma) and Yemen
Despite mass civilian casualties and regular violations of international law - resulting in the worst humanitarian crisis in the world - the UNSC has not passed a substantive resolution on Yemen in over three years. The Council should immediately call for an independent investigation into the recent airstrikes, and pursue accountability for atrocities in Yemen.
https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/atrocity-alert-no-120-29-august-2018-myanmar-burma-and-yemen
My comment: Oh yes, this is 100 % urgently true.
(A P)
Martin Griffiths to meet Yemen’s President Hadi in Riyadh
UN Envoy Martin Griffiths will meet Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi on Saturday in Riyadh, official sources told Al Arabiya English.
The meeting was based on a request from Griffiths coinciding with the launch of new negotiations between the legitimate government and the Houthi militias in Geneva next Wednesday.
The sources added that Griffiths called for the meeting to discuss the newest developments in the negotiation process with President Hadi.
(* A B P)
Griffith: Through the Geneva consultations, we seek a definitive solution to the conflict in Yemen
The UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, said he is seeking, through the upcoming negotiations in Geneva, between the Yemeni government and the Houthis, to reach a definitive solution to the Yemeni crisis.
"The most important thing the Geneva talks will focus on next week is to build upon what we saw during the previous talks (in order to find a definitive solution to the conflict and to restore life to Yemen, " he said, quoted by Sky News as saying.
The two parties involved in the peace talks in Geneva were willing to resolve the conflict, he said.
"The last three rounds have progressed, but they have not been enough," he said. The main task we hope to achieve is to understand the aspirations of the two parties and to find out how much they are committed to the framework of the talks, and accordingly, we will draw some outputs. "
He added, "We will learn from the mistakes of the past and its positive lessons and we will try to move forward with these conversations,".
Griffiths revealed that the parties whose presence was confirmed next week were "a delegation from the Yemeni government as well as a delegation from Sana'a (the Houthis)."
With regard to the conditions that may be put on the table, the international envoy explained that there are always "secret measures to be discussed during all conflicts, adding," We want to make progress through the release of prisoners and to build trust between the parties. "
(* A P)
UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths stated the main objective of the September 6 Geneva consultations is to understand the goals of each of the parties and ensure their commitment to a framework for talks. Griffiths emphasized the need to restore legitimate government institutions during an August 29 interview with Sky News Arabia. He added that he hopes the consultations will build toward a solution to the conflict. Yemen President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s Foreign Minister Khalid al Yamani emphasized that the Hadi government delegation to the consultations will focus on agreeing to confidence-building measures with al Houthi movement. Al Yamani emphasized the release of prisoners and paying civil servants as key confidence-building measures for the Hadi government on August 30.[3]
(B P)
UN envoys are walking in a vicious circle. Well, White House and Downing Street, if you really want peace in #Yemen. It's easy to understand that Saudi and UAE proxies can't do anything without without US and British support. Question now is: what do US and Britain want from us?!
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1034934188946939904
(A P)
UN Envoy meets Southern Transitional Council on Resumption of Political Process
The Special Envoy of the Secretary General for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, conducted a consultative meeting with the President of the Southern Transitional Council, Aidarous Zubaidi and a number of the Council's leaders in the Jordanian capital, Amman on 29 August 2018.
The meeting reviewed the efforts of the Special Envoy in ensuring consultations with all Yemeni political parties. The meeting also discussed the role that southerners can play in the political process.
The envoy praised the positive role of the Transitional Council in finding agreed political solutions.
Mr. Aidarous affirmed the Transitional Council's support for the efforts of the Special Envoy and the readiness to participate positively in the political process.
The meeting stressed the importance of continuing meetings with the Transitional Council at all levels.
https://osesgy.unmissions.org/un-envoy-meets-southern-transitional-council-resumption-political-procese = https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/un-envoy-meets-southern-transitional-council-resumption-political-process
(A P)
Yemen Govt, Ambassadors Discuss Geneva Peace Talks
The Yemeni government intensified its consultations with regional and Western diplomatic figures on means to support United Nations efforts for the upcoming Geneva peace talks with Houthi militias.
Yemeni sources close to the matter told Asharq Al-Awsat that Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yemany expressed to a number of regional and Western ambassadors the legitimacy's concern of Houthis’ declared intention to throttle the upcoming consultations in Geneva, especially in light of repeated statements undermining the talks.
Sources indicated that Yemany informed the Western ambassadors that the legitimacy wanted to ensure the success of UN efforts to achieve peace in accordance with the three agreed references: the Gulf Initiative and its Executive Mechanism, the outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference, and Security Council Resolution 2216.
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1377076/yemen-govt-ambassadors-discuss-geneva-peace-talks
My comment: The Hadi government’s view is a propaganda scam: the „three agreed references“ are the Hadi governments preconditions which simply demand the Houthis to capitulate and giving all power to the hadi government.
(* A K P)
Jemen: Amnesty fordert Waffenembargo für Länder der saudischen Koalition
Die Menschenrechtsorganisation Amnesty International, AI, fordert ein Waffenembargo für die Länder, die sich im Jemenkrieg in der Koalition unter saudi-arabischer Führung zusammengeschlossen haben.
Lynn Maalouf, die Direktorin des Nahost-Büros von Amnesty International sagte am Dienstagabend, die Expertengruppe der Vereinten Nationen für den Jemen (GEE - Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen) habe darauf hingewiesen, dass es unverhältnismäßig viele Beweise gebe, dass unverantwortliche Waffenlieferungen an die von Saudi-Arabien geführte Koalition großen Schäden unter den jemenitischen Zivilisten anrichten.
Sie rief die internationale Gemeinschaft auf, dringend und genau zu überprüfen, was im Jemen geschehe, und fordert die Vereinigten Staaten, Großbritannien und andere Länder auf, die humanitäre Katastrophe durch den Krieg im Jemen zu beenden.
(* A K P)
Amnesty International: YEMEN: SCATHING UN REPORT UNDERSCORES NEED FOR ARMS EMBARGO, TOUGHER SCRUTINY
Responding to a scathing report published today by the United Nations Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen (GEE) which concludes that all parties to the conflict may be guilty of war crimes, Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East research director, said:
“The GEE, in its first report, confirms what we have known for the past three years, namely that all parties to the conflict in Yemen have acted with utter disregard for civilian lives. The Saudi Arabia-led coalition and allied forces, Huthi and Yemeni government aligned forces have consistently carried out unlawful attacks, restricted access to humanitarian aid, carried out widespread arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, child recruitment and other serious violations that have and continue to inflict unimaginable suffering on Yemen’s civilian population.
“Scrutiny and strong action from the international community are more crucial than ever. The USA, UK and other states should do everything in their power to prevent further violations and address the catastrophic humanitarian crisis. They should start by immediately stopping the flow of arms to the country and end the Coalition’s arbitrary restrictions on humanitarian assistance and essential imports.
“The armed conflict is still ongoing, and the GEE’s mandate should be renewed ahead of the 39thsession of the Human Rights Council next month. It is imperative that it can investigate new violations and abuses, and identify those responsible, with the same depth and rigour.”
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Jemen: Straflosigkeit beenden!
Jemen-Bericht: Pressestatement von Save the Children zum UN-Bericht über Kriegsverbrechen im Jemen: Internationale Gemeinschaft muss Straflosigkeit beenden!
Save the Children begrüßt den neuen Bericht der Vereinten Nationen zu Menschenrechtsverletzungen und Kriegsverbrechen in Jemen. In dem Bericht der Expertenkommission werden alle Konfliktparteien für ihre Missachtung der Rechte von Zivilisten verurteilt.
Sylvia Ghaly, Save the Advocacy-Direktorin im Jemen, sagte:
„Dieser Bericht bekräftigt, was wir bereits wussten: dass alle Konfliktparteien gegen das Völkerrecht verstoßen und in einigen Fällen höchstwahrscheinlich Kriegsverbrechen begehen.Wir müssen erleben, dass Kinder den höchsten Preis für diesen Krieg zahlen – sie werden in willkürlichen Angriffen getötet und verstümmelt. Der Bericht liefert dokumentierte Beweise für diese schrecklichen Gräueltaten.“
Save the Children fordert die Staatengemeinschaft zum Handeln auf. „Jetzt muss die internationale Gemeinschaft die Straflosigkeit beenden und die Verantwortlichen zur Rechenschaft ziehen. Außerdem müssen Regierungen, die Waffen an Konfliktparteien verkaufen, ihren Teil an dieser Krise und ihren verheerenden Auswirkungen auf die Menschen in Jemen eingestehen.Wenn sie dies tun würden, würden sie sehen, dass die Fortsetzung dieses gewaltsamen Handels unzumutbar und nicht zu rechtfertigen ist“, sagte Ghaly weiter. „Die Kinder im Jemen werden ihrer Kindheit und ihrer Zukunft beraubt. Wir können diesen Zustand nicht akzeptieren. Kinder und ihre Familien müssen nicht nur während dieses Konflikts geschützt werden, sondern alle Parteien müssen bei den bevorstehenden Friedensgesprächen echte Lösungsversuche anstellen“, forderte Ghaly.
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemen-straflosigkeit-beenden
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UAE minister says U.N. Yemen rights report merits response
United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Tuesday a United Nations report accusing the Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthi group in Yemen of human rights abuses merited a response.
“We should review and respond to the (UN) experts’ report published today,” said Gargash in a tweet.
“The coalition is fulfilling its role in reclaiming the Yemeni state and securing the future of the region from Iranian interference,” he added.
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What Mentioned In UN Report Is Small Part Of US-Saudi Crimes In Yemen : Ansarullah Spokesman
What was Mentioned in UN report is small part of heinous committed war crimes by Saudi-led coalition backed by US In Yemen, Ansarullah Spokesman “Mohammad Abdulsalam” confirm on Wednesday .
He called UN that You must investigate ,be commitment about real facts and stop of elusive.
In a tweet on his page on twitter wrote, ” What included in the UN report about the committed crimes by the US-Saudi coalition is a small part of the coalition heinous crimes .He added, the US-Saudi coalition is based on committing crimes as it is their behavior as invasion alliance in which they are ready to burn everything to impose their hegemonic domination.
Abdulsalam wrote , ” I ask UN to investigate more , be commitment to truthfulness and stop bluffing. UN must free from blackmail of the aggression countries US, UK , KSA, UAE.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2497&cat_id=1
(* A K P)
Saudi-Arabien weist UN-Bericht zu Völkerrechtsverstößen im Jemen zurück
Saudi-Arabien hat einen UN-Bericht zu massiven Verstößen gegen internationales Völkerrecht im Konflikt im Jemen zurückgewiesen. Der Bericht der UN-Experten sei ungenau und "nicht neutral", erklärte die von Saudi-Arabien angeführte Militärkoalition am Mittwoch. Insbesondere gehe der Bericht nicht auf die Rolle des Iran in dem Konflikt ein und Teherans "fortgesetzte Unterstützung der Huthi"-Milizen.
Die Koalition kündigte in ihrer Reaktion eine eigene ausführliche "Antwort" auf den Bericht an.
(* A K P)
Saudi-led coalition condemns U.N. rights report on Yemen
The coalition of Arab states fighting against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis on Wednesday denounced as inaccurate and biased a report by U.N. human rights experts that said some of its air strikes may amount to war crimes.
“The report had several methodological fallacies and misconstrued the facts of the conflict... ignoring the true reasons for the conflict which are the coup of the Iran-backed Houthi militias against the legitimate government in Yemen,” said a statement published by the Saudi state news agency SPA.
The report was the first United Nations investigation into possible war crimes in Yemen although international human rights groups have regularly documented abuses. It was released ahead of U.N. peace talks between Hadi’s government and the Houthis scheduled for Sept. 6 in Geneva.
The coalition said it would provide a “comprehensive and detailed legal response” at a later time. It rejected the report’s assertion that it had not cooperated or provided information to the panel.
The experts said they did not examine the United States and Britain, who supply weapons and intelligence to the alliance, or Iranian support for the Houthis, but other U.N. bodies were doing so. They urged all states to restrict arms sales to help end the war.
Remark: More details, cp1.
(* A K P)
Yemeni government: We are shocked by the report of the UN Team of Experts
The Yemeni government said it was shocked by the report of the United Nations Team of Experts on the parties to the conflict in Yemen.
The Ministry of Human Rights in Yemen, in a statement, said on Tuesday that the report of the Team of experts formed on the basis of resolution 31/36, "was shocking in many of its paragraphs that lacked precision and neutrality."
She noted that the report also lacked the exact conceptual definition of what was going on.
"The ministry has noted that the group has exceeded the mandate given to it by the Human Rights Council, according to the resolution issued under the tenth item on technical and technical assistance to countries," she said.
She explained that she was currently working on studying and refuting what the report had done and would react to it after it had been completed through formal mechanisms.
My comment: This is “His Puppet’s Voice”: “Shocked” wants to make us believe that the report would be “shocking”. It really could be this, but in a quite different sense than the Hadi government wants to make us believe. – “It’s lacking precision”, but in a quite different way as well: “Saudi Arabia, UAE (not US, UK, France) Among Accused of Possible War Crimes in Yemen” is really lacking precision. Much more precise would be: “Saudi Arabia, UAE, US, UK, France Among Accused of obvious War Crimes in Yemen”.
(* A P)
«Ben Daghr» says UN report on Yemen relied on misleading, fraudulent and false reports
Prime Minister Ahmed Ben Dagher on Thursday described the UN Human Rights Council report on Yemen as non-neutral and not professional and relied on misleading, false and fraudulent information.
"The report omitted the humanitarian crimes committed by al-Houthi militia against civilians throughout Yemen," the state news agency Saba quoted Ben Daghr as saying.
"It is inconceivable that the report ignores the coup d'état by the Houthi militia on the constitutionally elected legitimacy, the state and its control over the cities and the capital, Sana'a, by force of arms and with clear support from Iran, and that the crisis in Yemen depicts a conflict over Power between two parties. "
My comment: For the Saudi coalition and ist puppets, all reports on Saudi coalition war crimes are “misleading, false and fraudulent information”. We are asked to eat their propaganda instead. – "It is inconceivable that the report ignores the coup d'état by the Houthi militia on the constitutionally elected legitimacy”: The UN report is about war crimes and not about the development of the political situation in Yemen. Ben Dagher is trying a classical deflaction here. And even more, what he is telling here, is just the Hadu government’s interpretation of the political development; for which reason ever a UN report on war crimes and violations of Human rights should NOT ignore this??
(A P)
Spokesperson of the National Commission of the investigation on violations: expert report weak analysis. We have two reports to be released next week
The spokesperson for the National Commission of the investigation into human rights allegations in Yemen, Eshraq al-Maqtari, described the recent International report on human rights violations in Yemen as very weak and no different from the reports of non-governmental civil society organizations, or any media reports.
The report of the Team of Experts of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) did not provide any new information and did not show any results, especially since the team had a substantial budget enabling it to be present in the field to conduct investigations, inspect victims and be present in the governorates. Yemeni, “probably because of the difficulties " pointing out that this is a disadvantage of international organizations.
As stated in the report, Al-Maqtari explained that he did not give a picture of the fact that it was the result of a team been investigating according to international standards, such as conducting weapons inspections and measuring the distances of parties in conflict zones, and the team did not go to the residential areas, nor did they investigate each case individually to find out who was the culprit. In every violation.
"We were in the National Committee, we hope that the report of the OHCHR expert team will be well served by the Yemeni community, so that it can hold accountable the officials and perpetrators, but it has not been more a legal analysis of the reality of human rights in Yemen, rather than the results of an investigation team Internationalist ".
My comment: Look at comments above. The UN report might be “weak”, but it is “weak” especially as it omits a lot of further war crimes by all warring parties, mostly by the Saudi coalition. It is waek because the US and the UK are not blamed as well and no US, UK figures are namend in the annex “Mapping of actors of the conflict”. – if this UN report really is “no different from the reports of non-governmental civil society organizations, or any media reports”, this simply means that it further CONFIRMS all these reports.
(A P)
Yemen vows action against biased agencies
The Yemeni government has vowed to take “deterrent” measures against international organisations having links with the Iran-allied Al Houthi militants.
The warning was issued by Yemeni Foreign Minister Khalid Al Yamani days after UN humanitarian experts accused a Saudi-led coalition fighting Al Houthis of having mounted some deadly air strikes that could mount to war crimes.
https://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/yemen-vows-action-against-biased-agencies-1.2272882
My comment: ???? All international organisations doing humanitarian work in Northern Yemen do have any links with the Houthis.
Comment: Eh? Is he loony, threatening United Nations aid agencies?
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1035204850861174784
(A K P)
Al Jaber: Int'l expert's labeling of Hodeidah operation as "an aggression" raises question marks
The Saudi Ambassador to Yemen said the international experts' description of ongoing military operation to restore Hodeidah from the hands of Houthi rebels as "an aggression" raises question marks on the credibility of those experts.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-22143
My comment: Attack and assault are “aggression” – naming it different would be Orwellian speech.
(* A K P)
UN Report: Saudi Arabia, UAE (not US, UK, France) Among Accused of Possible War Crimes in Yemen
The “Group of Regional and International Eminent Experts on Yemen” published its findings in a 41-page report on Tuesday, accusing individuals from the Government of Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of ‘acts which may amount’ to war crimes. There was no mention in the report of the US, UK or France — all parties to the conflict in Yemen — providing support, training and weapons to Saudi Arabia.
My comment: Oh yes, this is a great failure.
(A K P)
IRC welcomes the latest report of the Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) welcomes the latest report of the Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen, which adds to the increasing evidence of violations and crimes under international law perpetrated by all sides in the war. With the first round of peace negotiations now less than two weeks away the international community and members of the UN Security Council must now act to protect civilians, bring an end to the violence, and ensure assistance can reach the millions of Yemenis in desperate need.
IRC’s Yemen country director Frank McManus said: "The report of the Expert Group highlights the daily reality faced by millions of Yemenis who must contend with the ongoing risks of air and artillery strikes by all sides, combined with the enormous and often systematic challenges in accessing basic life-saving humanitarian assistance. Even by the grim standards of this war, the mass casualties of the past month have been brutal - and Yemenis are constantly suffering from lack of access to food, clean water, and lifesaving medicine due to systemic obstacles put in place by all sides to this conflict. Like attacks that harm and kill civilians, restrictions on humanitarian assistance violate international law.
https://www.rescue.org/press-release/irc-welcomes-latest-report-group-eminent-experts-yemen
(A H P)
United Nations Population Fund: UNFPA thanks the State of Kuwait for its generous contribution for the most vulnerable women and girls in Yemen
My comment: From a member state of the Saudi coalition, this is blood money. The UNFPA should have stayed quiet at least.
cp7a Saudi-Arabien und Iran / Saudi Arabia and Iran
(A P)
Sanctions unlikely to stop Iran oil exports completely: Saudi adviser
Current U.S. sanctions on Iran are unlikely to stop Iranian oil exports completely, a long-time adviser at Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said on Tuesday, adding Iran would be unable to close the straits of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab even partially.
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
(A P)
The Mecca police is holding a Yemeni journalist after exposing him to corruption in the Yemeni hajj mission
The Mecca police in Saudi Arabia detained Yemeni journalist Salah Eddin Asadi, after the latest revelation of corruption in the Yemeni mission for Hajj this season. A member of the Press Syndicate, chairman of the Training and Qualification Commission, Nabil Alasidi, said on his Facebook page that Asadi "has been detained since yesterday in the Saudi Mecca region, and the Yemeni journalists ' syndicate holds the legitimate government fully responsible for what happens to him."
He noted that Asadi had recently uncovered cases of corruption in the Yemeni pilgrims ' agencies, collecting illegal money from pilgrims and criticizing the performance of the Yemeni hajj mission.
My comment: One more case of Hadi government’s total corruption.
cp9 USA
Siehe / Look at cp1
(* B K P)
No More Forgotten Wars: End US Support for Saudi Coalition War Crimes in Yemen
If the US were to follow the rules of warfare written into US military law and treaties to which the US is a party, the US must immediately end its support for the Saudi Arabia-led war in Yemen. We should also marshal all of its diplomatic tools to end the conflict.
The conditions in Yemen are unbearable and entirely man-made. Saudi Arabia and its allies, including the United States, are causing massive suffering for millions of civilians.
Pursuing peaceful negotiations to end the conflict is an important diplomatic effort the United States should take immediately. It must also end its support for states and groups committing war crimes. The preponderance of evidence suggests Saudi Arabia is regularly violating the laws of war, and the US is complicit as long as it continues to enable Saudi actions. It must stop refueling Saudi jets and providing targeting intelligence. Crucially, the United States should initiate, and pressure other governments to support, an arms embargo on warring parties. At minimum, it must immediately suspend all weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. Finally, if US leaders claim to care about civilians in Yemen, they should drastically increase humanitarian aid for Yemenis whose suffering they have caused and the United States must reopen its refugee resettlement program to displaced Yemenis.
From 2015 to late 2016, the Obama Administration did not push for this moderate set of diplomatic initiatives and Trump is even less likely to take these actions. It is therefore incumbent upon Americans to call and write to their elected representatives to pressure them to end our support for the decimation of Yemen. If Americans care about human rights and international law, the bare minimum we can do is stop abetting war crimes against the people of Yemen.
(B K P)
Film by Nasser Arrabyee: This is why it’s only President Trump who can stop the war crimes in Yemen, If he loves the Americans.
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1035443123378446336
(A P)
Senators press Trump administration on Yemen civil war
A bipartisan group of senators is urging the Trump administration to adhere to a recently signed law requiring certification that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are meeting certain humanitarian criteria or else cut off some U.S. military assistance.
The letter is in response to the ongoing civil war in Yemen, which the senators say has led to a “humanitarian crisis” that will threaten U.S. interests as it continues.
“As you know, Yemen is suffering from the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” the senators wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“The ongoing civil war has caused or exacerbated these horrific humanitarian conditions. Iran and other nefarious actors have capitalized on the instability resulting from the civil war to threaten the U.S., our partners, and our interests. We believe this humanitarian crisis and the threats to our interests will only worsen the longer the civil war continues.”
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/404425-senators-press-trump-administration-on-yemen-civil-war
My comment: Piff paff puff. The Senate as the administration’s clowns. What will really happen? Nothing, and everybody knows.
(A P)
US official calls for investigation into Saudi-UAE raids in Yemen
Recent UN report blames Saudi-UAE military coalition for most of the civilian deaths in Yemen's war.
A US official has called for an investigation into attacks by the Saudi-UAE coalition in Yemen and for perpetrators to be held accountable.
In an interview with Al Jazeera in the Saudi city of Jeddah, Deputy US Ambassador to Yemen Ana Escrogima called for a speedy and transparent probe into the raids carried out by the Saudi-UAE coalition in Yemen.
Escorgima's calls came after a team of UN-mandated investigators said in a report they had "reasonable grounds to believe that the parties to the armed conflict in Yemen have committed a substantial number of violations of international humanitarian law".
My comment: What an investigation did he ask for? An independent, international investigation or just a Saudi coalition own “investigation”?
(A P)
UN's Yemen war crimes report 'very concerning': US
The United States said Wednesday that a UN report on possible war crimes in Yemen is "very concerning," calling on parties to the conflict to avoid violations.
"We've seen that report from the Human Rights Council," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters, saying that possible violations of international law "as outlined in that report are very concerning to the US government."
"We believe that if such crimes have taken place that there is simply no justification," she said, calling on parties to the conflict to "take necessary measures to prevent such violations."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-6112267/UNs-Yemen-war-crimes-report-concerning-US.html
My comment: The US is complicit, and nothing at all will change.
(* B K P)
The U.S. Has Blood on Its Hands in Yemen, and Can’t Wash It Off
Whatever effort Mattis is making to scold the Saudis into behaving themselves is unlikely to bear much fruit, considering the lack of moral standing the U.S. has on this particular issue. As a former senior U.S. intelligence official put it in comments to Al-Monitor: “There is great frustration on the Saudi side that a country that fought a war in Iraq for 20 years and turned Raqqa and Mosul to rubble is telling the Saudis what to do in a country that’s on their border three years in … They know they’re one lucky shot from having a missile from Yemen hitting their own preschool in Jazan.”
Saudi state media outlets, meanwhile, are praising the coalition’s “peace efforts” in Yemen and touting the dispatch of some aid trucks to the embattled Red Sea port of Hodeidah, where much of the latest fighting and associated civilian misery has taken place. Saudi officials have accused the U.N. of bias, even though the report concluded that the Houthis were also at fault. All in all, our ally is not sounding terribly contrite.
Even if Mattis decides to scale back support for the coalition, it’s not clear that his boss will sign off on such a move. President Donald Trump has been highly solicitous of Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., which he sees as important allies against Iran. I
Nonetheless, it is beyond dispute that the U.S. supplies Saudi Arabia and the UAE with billions of dollars’ worth of arms, that both countries are serial violators of human rights, and that they are engaged in a war that is hardly a clear-cut, proportional act of self-defense. Those facts alone should call into question the legality of our support for their military activities under the Arms Export Control Act and the Foreign Assistance Act.
There’s a bigger-picture reason, however, why Mattis’s efforts are too little, too late: With or without our direct assistance, the Saudis and Emiratis have already purchased enough American-made firepower to keep bombing Yemeni schoolchildren for years to come. In that respect, our complicity is already set in and impossible to wash out. Furthermore, there’s little reason to believe the U.S. government or American companies will stop taking their money anytime soon. Whether or not those deals ultimately come through (and many of them will not), the Trump administration has been crystal clear about its preference to sell more weaponry to these countries, not less.
Taking a broader view of the problem, U.S. arms flow to Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich troublemakers in the Gulf under Republican and Democratic presidents alike, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. That’s because weapons manufacturers and defense contractors employ hundreds of thousands of Americans, so these sales are easily pitched to working-class voters as home runs for U.S. industry and by extension, their livelihoods.
Once the rockets ship out, who cares where they come down? That’s not our department – by Jonah Shepp
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/08/yemen-us-blood-on-hands.html
(* A K P)
Why Are U.S. Bombs Killing Civilians in Yemen?
The United States, by providing weapons and support to the Saudi-led coalition waging indiscriminate war in Yemen, shares in the blame.
The top American air commander in the Middle East voiced frustration in an interview last week over the murderously incompetent Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen. Though welcome, his sentiment was far too mild. It should have been more like horror — and shame over American complicity in what a new United Nations report views as criminal carnage. That’s the horror. The shame: The bomb that annihilated the school bus and its young passengers was American. A report published last week by Human Rights Watch focused on the “woefully inadequate” investigations conducted by the coalition’s own mechanism; they often amount to cover-ups of what are likely war crimes. The report also disparaged claims by the United States, which provides operational, logistical and intelligence support to the coalition, that the coalition has “improved” targeting practices. But words are not enough. It’s time for the United States and its Western allies to stop selling arms or giving any military assistance to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners.
The horror in Yemen has gone way past any discussion of who’s right and who’s wrong, and it has become clear that only a negotiated peace agreement can bring the killings to an end. Saudi Arabia and its allies seem to have little compunction about slaughtering children as long as more bombs can be bought, so it’s up to the enablers to call a halt.
President Trump, alas, is not likely to lean on Saudi Arabia, but military officers have begun to speak out and Congress has begun to act.
The next move should be to cut off military aid to Saudi Arabia until it is prepared to talk about ending the assault on Yemen – by Editorial Board
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/opinion/us-yemen-saudi-arabia-trump-civilian-casualties.html
My comment: This is right, but still too soft. And, keep in mind: The NYT itself had backed the carnage in Yemen by it’s own reporting. For instance, greetings to Thomas L. Friedman.
(A P)
Mattis: US still backs Saudi coalition to limit Yemen deaths
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says the U.S. hasn't seen any "callous disregard" for innocent lives by the Saudi Arabia-led fight in Yemen, despite a new U.N. report outlining possible war crimes, rape and torture by the American-supported coalition.
Mattis says the U.S. has been working with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to improve airstrike targeting and recognizes that tragedies have occurred. He says the U.S. is working to end that by constantly reviewing its support for the coalition. Mattis says the U.S. will continue to do all it can to limit civilian deaths.
https://www.islandpacket.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article217444115.html
https://www.newsweek.com/mattis-yemen-pentagon-1093633
My comment: Telling the same bullshit again and again, contradictory to all evidence. – The truth would be: “US still backs Saudi coalition to increase Yemen deaths“.
And
Comment: MATTIS CLAIMS U.S. ONLY 'WATCHING' SAUDI-YEMEN WAR Q: What do we call one who trains Al Qaeda terrorists, advises them, gives them intelligence & targeting info, and sells them bombs & missiles? A: He's an Al Qaeda terrorist too. Not just a 'watcher'.
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1035452606074826752
(* A P)
Question on Child Casualties by US Weapons: 'We Didn't Start the War'
Secretary of Defense James Mattis let it be known he did not like the framing of a question from a reporter who asked if children deaths, in places like Yemen, from American-made weapons are acceptable.
“At what point [does it] become unacceptable for Yemeni children and innocent civilians to be killed with American weapons,” a reporter from Al Jazeera asked.
“That's a strange way to characterize the question, being that we didn't start the war,” Mattis interjected. “And I think we have to look at here is probably can we get this to the U.N. brokered peace table that the U.N. special envoy is trying to get it to.”
“That is the goal. That doesn't change no matter what tragedy happens on the battlefield,” he continued. “If what we've done in the past had reduce the loss of innocent life, then I would not want to stop doing that and think 'There we took care of that problem' and watch that number go up.”
When asked if the support for the Saudi Arabia coalition was unconditional, Mattis answered with a hard no.
The condition for the United States' continued support is that Saudi Arabia do “everything humanly possible to avoid any innocent loss of life and they support the U.N. brokered peace process.”
Watch the video below at 54:20:
https://ijr.com/2018/08/1119478-mattis-reporters-question-children-deaths-acceptable/
and also, with film: https://www.newsweek.com/mattis-yemen-pentagon-1093633?piano_t=1
and how Saudi propaganda puts it. https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1376971/washington-we-back-saudi-arabia-yemen
My comment: Mattis’ reply obviously is no answer to the question. – A blatant lie: The US support for Saudi Arabia would not be unconditional. Do not kid us: It IS unconditional.
Comment by Glen Greenwald: This is a standard US tactic going back decades: whenever one of its client states such as Saudi Arabia or Israel massacre civilians a bit too barbarically, the US leaks reports that it "warned" them to stop or risk aid cut-off (which never happens)
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1034448925711851520
And
(* A B K P)
UN war crimes report threatens US support for Yemen war
The report, which urges the United States and Britain to stop providing weapons to the Saudi-led coalition, forced Defense Secretary Jim Mattis onto the back foot at the outset of a rare Pentagon press briefing today. Mattis said US support for aerial refueling and intelligence support to the Saudi-led coalition “is not unconditional.”
"The reality is that the battlefield is a humanitarian field,” Mattis said. “Our conduct there is to try to keep the human cost of innocents being killed to the absolute minimum.”
Mattis said the United States is working with Saudi Arabia to probe reports of civilian casualties after an Aug. 9 Pentagon-supported bombing attack on a school bus killed 40 children. The attack prompted Army Lt. Gen. Michael Garrett to “urge a thorough and expedited investigation” by Saudi officials, Pentagon spokeswoman Rebecca Rebarich told Al-Monitor.
Mattis outlined remedies including “no fire” areas around hospitals and schools and a more rigorous Saudi-led targeting process. But these haven’t stopped airstrikes from being “the leading direct cause of civilian deaths and destruction of civilian infrastructure in the conflict,” according to the UN report, hitting residential areas, markets,religious sites, and other gatherings such as funerals and weddings.
Experts say Saudi Arabia’s perception of US military failings in the Middle East has sunk Washington’s credibility as it has sought to avert civilian casualties in Yemen.
“There is great frustration on the Saudi side that a country that fought a war in Iraq for 20 years and turned Raqqa and Mosul to rubble is telling the Saudis what to do in a country that’s on their border three years in,” a former senior US intelligence official told Al-Monitor. “They know they’re one lucky shot from having a missile from Yemen hitting their own preschool in Jazan.”
Those frustrations haven’t been eased by growing — and increasingly public — Pentagon skepticism about the air war.
and
(* A P)
Mattis’ Infuriating Answers on Yemen
As I said when I saw this, this is an infuriating and ridiculous response to a very important question. Civilian casualties from coalition airstrikes have increased in the last year, so clearly the coalition is getting worse rather than better when it comes to avoiding civilian casualties. The repeated slaughters of civilians when there is no legitimate military target anywhere nearby show that the coalition is not even seriously trying to avoid them.
There is no noticeable improvement in coalition targeting, and more civilians are dying from coalition attacks than before. There is no evidence to support Mattis’ contention that the U.S. has helped prevent civilian deaths, and the evidence that our support has enabled numerous war crimes is substantial.
The biggest problem with Mattis’ position is that the coalition depends on U.S. support to conduct their bombing campaign. Our government can’t pretend that it is limiting the damage when it is providing the coalition with the weapons and refueling they need to continue the bombing. The surest way to reduce the harm done to Yemeni civilians would be to pull the plug on the entire operation. It appears that Trump and Mattis still have no intention of doing anything like that, and so we are treated to more absurd excuses that our government isn’t involved in a war that could not be fought without its assistance.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/mattis-infuriating-answers-on-yemen/
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
(A P)
Diplomat who defended Saudi war crimes in Yemen and UK complicity in them at UN for 3 years, helping to cause worst cholera in the world, now engaged in PR over UK aid’s help for cholera. (image)
https://twitter.com/markcurtis30/status/1035150086945296384
(B P)
You were either on the right side of history over Apartheid, or you were on the wrong side. The Tories was led by someone who labelled Nelson Mandela a terrorist, whose members wore 'Hang Nelson Mandela' badges. Don't let them forget it. (film)
https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1034737000983789568
Just a reminder: while Jeremy Corbyn was protesting against the racist apartheid regime in South Africa, Boris Johnson & David Cameron were in the Confederation of Conservative Students which produced this infamous “Hang Nelson Mandela” poster (photos)
https://twitter.com/taylorchas/status/1034739988078968832
From Yemen to the Tories: Someday the war in #Yemen will end, and you may find yourself in a similar position to Theresa May. You don't have to fit in, make history now and resist your government's complicity in the Saudi war crimes in Yemen. "I hope I am not wasting my time".
https://twitter.com/HussamSanabani/status/1035305395479355393
it is not just the Tories despite what Labours like @OwenJones84 wants us to believe (pic 1 ) .. in pic 2 the list of the Labour MPs who "forgot" to go to vote to stop arming KSA .. dont fall for it Hussam there are not right ofr left when the establishment pockets are concerned (images)
https://twitter.com/2flamesburning1/status/1035310255452942336
(A P)
Film: Yanis Varoufakis on the links between the Tory Party & Saudi Arabia
"Have we learned nothing? Do we want more blood on our hands from the Middle East? Do you have agents making sure the bombs we sold the Saudi Arabians are landing on the right targets in #Yemen?
Amazing. You should call them back and get them to negotiate #Brexit."
https://www.facebook.com/NyeBevanNews/videos/235189010531889/
(* A P)
Saudi Arabia banned from promoting reform agenda on UK TV
The UK media regulator Ofcom has banned Saudi Arabia from paying to promote its so-called reform agenda on British television.
The move was prompted after revelations that Saudi Arabia had breached British broadcasting law by buying television adverts that promoted the reform policies of the country’s crown prince, such as the lifting of long-standing bans on women drivers and cinemas.
In one case cited by Ofcom in the Guardian, Riyadh had paid to air a minute-long advert which included images of old and contemporary Saudi Arabia, women driving, cinemas being reopened, entertainment, cultural events and members of the Saudi royal family.
The advertisement was aired 56 times on Britain’s Sky One channel back in March, around the time Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made an official visit to the UK.
Ofcom said the ruling was made after it found that Riyadh had been attempting to “influence public opinion in the UK on matters of public controversy,” and had broken Britain’s strict ban on paid political advertising on television and radio stations.
Ofcom stressed that it did not consider the ads were of “a public service nature.”
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/08/29/572533/Ofcom-Saudi-Arabia-reform-agenda-British-television
(A P)
‘UK complicit in war crimes taking place in Yemen’
THE UK is “complicit” in Yemen war crimes, an MP has claimed as the UN releases a scathing new report.
Yesterday SNP foreign affairs spokesperson Stephen Gethins said: “The UN’s damning conclusions that the Saudi-led coalition, alongside other parties, are likely to have been responsible for war crimes should be a wake-up call for the UK Government, which has been engaged in a shameful approach of selling arms to the Saudi regime whilst looking the other way as those very same weapons lead to the steep civilian death toll.
“The UK Government is not just linked to the devastating war in Yemen, it is actively complicit in the crimes being committed in the country – unless it heeds the calls in this latest UN report and immediately halts its arms sales to Saudi Arabia.”
“It’s high time Theresa May and her new Foreign Secretary stopped selling arms to one side, and instead played a meaningful role in bringing this protracted conflict to an end.“
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
(* A K P)
Keine Kehrtwende bei Rüstungsexporten auf Arabische Halbinsel
Bei den umstrittenen Waffenlieferungen an die am Jemen-Krieg beteiligten Länder plant die Bundesregierung offenbar keinen generellen Genehmigungsstopp. Man entscheide über die Erteilung von Ausfuhrgenehmigungen "weiterhin stets im Einzelfall", heißt es in einer Antwort der Bundesregierung auf eine Kleine Anfrage der Linken-Fraktion. "Die Bundesregierung verfolgt die Entwicklungen in Jemen und in der Region genau und berücksichtigt diese im Rahmen ihrer Genehmigungspraxis."
Die Rüstungsexpertin der Linken-Fraktion Sevim Dagdelen nannte es "verbrecherisch, dass die Lieferung von Komponenten für saudische Eurofighter und Tornados ausdrücklich möglich bleiben soll". Damit leiste die Bundesregierung weiter Beihilfe zu den Menschenrechtsverletzungen des saudischen Militärs trotz einer gegenläufigen Koalitionsvereinbarung zum Stopp der Waffenlieferungen an Saudi-Arabien.
http://de.qantara.de/content/keine-kehrtwende-bei-ruestungsexporten-auf-arabische-halbinsel
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
(* A B P)
Hacking a Prince, an Emir and a Journalist to Impress a Client
The rulers of the United Arab Emirates had been using Israeli spyware for more than a year, secretly turning the smartphones of dissidents at home or rivals abroad into surveillance devices.
So when top Emirati officials were offered a pricey update of the spying technology, they wanted to make sure it worked, according to leaked emails submitted Thursday in two lawsuits against the spyware’s maker, the Israel-based NSO Group.
Could the company secretly record the phones of the emir of Qatar, a regional rival, the Emiratis asked? How about the phone of a powerful Saudi prince who directed the kingdom’s national guard? Or what about recording the phone of the editor of a London-based Arab newspaper?
“Please find two recordings attached,” a company representative wrote back four days later, according to the emails. Appended were two recordings the company had made of calls by the editor, Abdulaziz Alkhamis, who confirmed this week that he had made the calls and said he did not know he was under surveillance.
The NSO Group’s actions are now at the heart of the twin lawsuits accusing the company of actively participating in illegal spying — part of a global effort to confront the growing arms race in the world of spyware.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/31/world/middleeast/hacking-united-arab-emirates-nso-group.html and abridged also here: https://www.timesofisrael.com/lawsuits-claim-israeli-spyware-firm-helped-uae-hack-opponents-phones/
(* B P)
Commentary: Ambitious UAE flexes military muscle
The foreign policy of the United Arab Emirates offers a curious case study for scholars of international relations: a small state with a tiny population and historically little presence on the world stage, but with outsized – and seemingly ever-expanding – ambitions. Over the past decade, while consolidating its status as a regional financial center and international business hub, the UAE has quietly become a rising military power in the Middle East.
Since the watershed of the Arab Spring, the UAE has pursued an increasingly assertive and interventionist foreign policy, the effects of which are most evident in the Red Sea basin and Horn of Africa. Here, the UAE has sought to become a major political actor, maintaining a formidable military presence, handing out lavish economic aid and taking on the role of kingmaker and peace broker. Today, the UAE operates ports in four of the seven countries bordering the Red Sea (Egypt, Somalia, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia), and military bases in Yemen, Eritrea and Somaliland.
The UAE has been ratcheting up its economic activities in the Red Sea basin as well. In 2000, Dubai government-owned, Dubai-based port operator DP World won a 20-year concession to operate the Port of Djibouti
These port deals were won through negotiation, but elsewhere the UAE has employed more forceful measures. The UAE has used its heavy involvement in the Yemen conflict (as part of the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels) to expand its geopolitical power in the region. In 2015, UAE-backed forces seized the port of Aden – once the British Empire’s busiest port – from the Houthis. In 2016, the UAE captured the ports of Mukalla and Ash-Shihr, about 300 and 375 miles east of Aden, respectively, as well as two strategically-located islands in the Bab el-Mandab Strait. Emirati troops secured the Red Sea port of Mokha in 2017, and are now engaged in an amphibious assault on Hodeidah, the only major Yemeni port not yet under Emirati control.
The passing on of leadership in 2004 from Sheikh Zayed, the founder of the state, to his heirs, Khalifa and Mohammed, seems to be the real dynamic behind policy change. While Zayed favored dialogue, quiet diplomacy and non-entanglement in the quarrels of other states, his successors are more proactive and daring. Awash with cash and ambition, they have sought to turn the country into a regional power with outstanding military might, a little Sparta on the Persian Gulf.
A new regional order is on the rise – by Nael M. Shama
(A P)
Human Rights Organizations Demand the Release of Bahrain’s Activist, Nabeel Rajab
On Wednesday, over 100 human rights organizations called on Bahrain's regime to release the activist Nabeel Rajab.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, in an opinion declared on August 13, considered Rajab's detention as "arbitrary and discriminatory," according to the joint communiqué issued by the 127 organizations, including the International Federation for Human Rights.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2503&cat_id=2
(A P)
Saudi foreign minister is in Russia. Lavrov says Russia is "hungry for Saudi money"; arms deals are underway. They're saying they want to fight terror together, but it seems that Russia is competing with US and UK for killing Yemenis. More psychopaths are eying Yemeni blood!
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1034938728421224450
(B H P)
Blue collar Koreans in their 50s have most accepting attitude toward Yemeni asylum seekers
Refugees have become one of the most hotly debated topics in South Korea since the arrival of around 500 Yemeni asylum seekers on Jeju Island. But no previous specifics were available on public opinion in terms of whether South Koreans support or oppose the humanitarian acceptance of the asylum seekers and where they stand in the refugee debate.
Working with the non-profit public research network Public View and the polling organization Time Research, the Hankyoreh conducted a deliberative web survey of 700 adult men and women across South Korea on Aug. 26 and 27. The result showed blue collar progressives in their fifties to be relatively accepting of refugees. Among respondents, 76.7 percent agreed with a restrictive approach including segregation – still substantially outnumbering the 23.3 percent who favored a more accepting approach.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/859613.html
(A P)
Finanza etica, se lo Stato vende elicotteri che volano sulla guerra nello Yemen
L'intervento del direttore della Fondazione Finanza Etica sul dibattito a proposito della gestione diretta di aziende di pubblica utilità da parte dello Stato, le sue competenze nel controllo e la logica del profitto privato
E quegli elicotteri al Qatar coinvolto nella guerra in Yemen? Il Comitato consultivo nel suo complesso e il Ministero degli esteri in primo luogo per aver autorizzato una transazione di armi ad un Paese, il Qatar, coinvolto nella guerra in Yemen che da anni insanguina il Paese ed è considerata ormai una tragedia umanitaria dalle Nazioni Unite.
Le violazioni della legge 185 del '90. La guerra in Yemen è certamente in contrasto con l’articolo 51 della Carta delle Nazioni Unite, che stabilisce il «diritto naturale» alla legittima difesa individuale o collettiva, nel caso in cui si verifichi un attacco armato contro un membro delle Nazioni Unite, fintantoché il Consiglio di sicurezza delle Nazioni Unite non abbia preso le misure necessarie per mantenere la pace e la sicurezza internazionali. Ora, il Qatar non è stato oggetto di un attacco armato, ma è semmai protagonista.
http://www.repubblica.it/solidarieta/equo-e-solidale/2018/08/26/news/finanza_etica-204962377/
cp12a Katar-Krise / Qatar crisis
(* B P)
The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are aiding terrorists in Yemen
There is no question that the humanitarian tragedy created by Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Yemen must come to an end — by one count 50,000 Yemenis have died in combat to date. It falls on our neighbors to take the right steps to bring peace and stability to Yemen, and the region writ large. Those steps do not include allowing al-Qaeda to stockpile arms and cash, or worse, incorporate extremist fighters into the coalition. These are the actions of an enemy, not an ally.
Unfortunately, our neighbors are shortsighted when it comes to Yemen. They see the war as a public relations exercise in which stories are contained and American perceptions reshaped, instead of properly addressing the very real problems they have created. We have seen this approach to countering terrorism and extremism before, with deadly results. There is no option to sweep radicals under the rug. Saudi Arabia and the UAE tried to ignore radicalization within their own borders in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The result was Osama bin Laden’s attacks against American embassies and the USS Cole, and on 9/11.
It should be concerning to American policymakers, as well as American allies, that on one hand, the UAE proclaims to be the United States’ strongest ally in the region, while at the same time, reports surface abouthow “one Yemeni commander who was put on the U.S. terrorism list for al-Qaida ties last year continues to receive money from the UAE to run his militia.” – by Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al-Thani, Qatar’s ambassador to the United States.
From the comments. Qatar isn't exactly innocent in all this. They were part of the coalition attacking Yemen before they were kicked out. I love seeing Qatar and UAE/Saudi fighting and getting into deep diplomatic conflict. Suits them about right. They are all following Zionist plan to further destabilize the region.
Comment: All 3 of you do, brother. All of you.
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1034929916628885504
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
Siehe / Look at cp11
(* A K P)
Jemenitische Kräfte schießen saudische Drohne ab
Die fortschrittliche in China hergestellte CH-4- Dohne wurde im Grenzgebiet Al-Tval in Dschizan angegriffen, berichtete der jemenitische Nachrichtensender Al-Masira am Donnerstag unter Berufung auf eine Militärquelle im Land.
Die CH-4-Drohne kann in großer Höhe fliegen. Sie wurde für Langstreckenmissionen konstruiert und kann Ziele in mehr als 5.000 Metern Höhe angreifen.
http://parstoday.com/de/news/world-i43212-jemenitische_kr%C3%A4fte_schie%C3%9Fen_saudische_drohne_ab
(* A K P)
Pictures of #Saudi #UAE coalition Chinese made drone type CH-4 that was shot down by #Yemen-i air defence Unit in Altiwaal border crossing north #Hajah province NW #Yemen
https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/1035167491637567489
Video shows the wreckage of #Saudi #UAE coalition Chinese made drone type CH-4 that was shot down by #Yemen-i air defence Unit in Altiwaal border crossing north #Hajah province NW #Yemen
https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/1035208026783924230
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2515&cat_id=1
(* A K P)
UAE purchases world’s largest rocket launcher from Turkey
Turkey’s weapons manufacturer and defence contractor, Roketsan, has developed the world’s most potent artillery, dubbed “Jobaria” at the request of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), local Turkish media reported yesterday.
Jobaria is a multiple cradle launcher that was first introduced at the International Defence Exhibition, which was held in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi in 2013. It consists of four rocket launchers attached to the trailer carrying 60 rockets, 122 millimetres each.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180827-uae-purchases-worlds-largest-rocket-launcher-from-turkey/
film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8fC7bxDYnA
cp13b Wirtschaft / Economy
(* B E H)
World Food ProgrammeYemen Market Watch Report, Issue No. 25/26, June/July 2018
Highlights
The Yemeni Riyals continued to alarmingly depreciate in July 2018, and lost about 131 % of its precrisis purchasing power.
In-country food stock estimated at 1.1 million MT, wheat and rice stock may cover the national requirement for mere ly two months while vegetable oil lasts not more than 10 days. Fuel commodities (petrol and diesel) are in severe supply and thus scarcely available in most markets.
Al Hodieda suffers the most from scarcity of commodities in the markets due to the ongoing war.
Retail prices of food commodities slightly rose by 1-2% between June and July 2018 compared with those in May, and 40%-103% higher than in pre-crisis period.
National average prices of diesel and petrol increased in June and July by about 5% from May 2018; and a reduction observed on prices of cooking gas (declined by about 8%). However, prices of fuel commodities were 58%-129% higher than those before the crisis.
The average cost of the monthly minimum food basket in June/July rose by about 2% from May 2018, and 68% higher than in pre-crisis period.
The Alert for Price Spikes (ALPS) indicators for all basic food items and the cost of food basket persistently maintained their crisis levels in July 2018.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-market-watch-report-issue-no-2526-junejuly-2018
(* A E)
The Yemeni currency is falling amid a major humanitarian crisis, the dollar reaches 610 riyals
The Yemeni riyal continues to collapse in front of the foreign currency basket and the dollar price in Aden, the interim capital (south of the country) reached 610 riyals, amid signs of collapse more.
Bankers told the Al masdar online that the collapse of the riyal occurred within only two days and the decline of 60 riyals per dollar since last Tuesday.
The price of the Saudi Riyal reached 162 riyals.
This comes without the intervention of the Central Bank of Yemen and the Yemeni government in the collapse of the local currency, which saw the prices of basic commodities falling significantly, and the price of the petrol bear 20 liters to 9000 riyals in Sanaa.
The collapse of the local currency has exacerbated the collapse of the humanitarian situation, during which Yemenis complain of deteriorating economic conditions, with salaries dropping for about 23 consecutive months.
(* A E)
As the war in #Yemen continues well-funded, the Yemeni Riyal is at all-time low (USD1: YER600). Prices of fuel & food commodities- mostly imported- are skyrocketing. A new chapter of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis looms. Worries of the population are mounting by the day.
https://twitter.com/alasaadim/status/1035276666216570884
Underreported crisis of #Yemen's currency: here is how the situation is: 1- Rial is collapsing, trading at 600 to dollar down from 215 before war. 2- Prices are skyrocketing. 3- Employees unpaid since September 2016. 4- Blockade has restricted imports including life-saving goods.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1035270811739930625
(* A E)
This was accompanied by a mad rise in commodity prices. Yemeni riyal collapses and approaches 600 per dollar
Bankers in the southern city of Aden said Wednesday that the dollar price reached 580 riyals after Stabling in the past two weeks at 550 riyals.
They mentioned in identical statements to Almasdar online, that the price of the Saudi Riyal amounted to 155 riyals, the lowest point of collapse of the Yemeni riyal.
This comes just two days after the announcement of the formation of the Economic Commission headed by Hafez Me’iad.
The collapse of the local currency was accompanied by a mad rise in commodity prices, with prices rising to 300 percent, and the price of the hen's price rise to 2,000 riyals high at 1100 riyals.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly announced the intervention to save the local currency, but that has not been done until now.
(A E)
Yemeni rial is trading at 585 to US dollar, down from 570 on Wednesday, 560 on Tuesday, 485 in early July & 215 before breakout of war in 2014. FYI, state employees haven't received salaries since September 2016! Blockade imposed by Saudi-led coalition has restricted all imports.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1035066281446309888
(A E)
Yemeni rial is trading at 570 to US dollar, down from 560 on Tuesday & from 215 before war. It is falling on a daily basis. Monthly salary of governor of Central Bank is $34.000. His deputy's salary is $25.500. I don't know why completely incompetent officials are being paid.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1034835148620083201
(A E)
Yemeni rial is starving to death as well. It is trading at 560 to the US dollar. No interventions are made to stabilise it. It is now falling on daily basis.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1034530642833428481
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
Siehe / Look at cp6
(B T)
U.S. forces launched six air strikes against al-Qaida in Yemen since May
U.S. forces say they conducted six strikes against al-Qaida targets in Yemen since May, with the most recent operation carried out in mid-August.
In a Wednesday press release, U.S. Central Command said the air strikes were carried out between May 25 and Aug. 14 in three different governorates. The operations bring the total number of counter-terrorism air strikes conducted by the U.S. in Yemen to 34.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4419543/us-air-strikes-yemen-al-qaeda/
https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2018/08/us-conducts-6-strikes-against-al-qaeda-in-yemen.php
Comment: US self-celebratory article where only AQAP suspects are targeted. No investigation, no trial. Just a drone strike
Note: areas targeted are all under 'legitimate government control'.
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1904348526284835
(A T)
Conflict boils over between #Yemen's #alQaeda & #IslamicState as formal AQAP media issues new Madad bulletin after 3 month gap. Rips into #ISIS. Caliphate messed up #jihad. "Their stupidity turned battles vs the infidel...into battles between Muslims". Frames #AQAP as real deal (image)
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1034549797070536710
cp15 Propaganda
Siehe / Look at cp1
(A P)
The false UN report on Yemen
The shock of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ report on Yemen, which is full of political and legal mines must be a “positive shock.”
The “international” Arab coalition is not just the coalition of Saudi Arabia and the UAE as these two countries are acting in Yemen under the umbrella of international legitimacy and the UN Security Council resolutions. That’s just a reminder!
Hence, things must be put on the right track. The war in Yemen is not between “parties” or “conflicting parties”, let alone between Hadi’s forces and Ansar Allah’s forces, i.e. the Khomeini Houthi militia.
No, it’s a conflict between legitimacy and illegitimacy, between international law and terror gangs, between the UN Security Council, which is the highest international authority, and terrorist coup militias.
This language and spirit are what was missing in the UN “experts” report, regardless of the report’s details.
Language used
Yemen’s ambassador at the UN Ahmad Awad bin Mubarak noticed something important and said during his interview with Sky News that the report “had a non-neutral language that’s closer to activists’ language!”
The report’s flaw – despite the fact that it condemned the Houthis a little and this is normal! – is, as we said, that it had a strange odor and attempted to “normalize” legal and legitimate equality between the Khomeini Houthi coup camp, which is a danger to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in particular, with Yemeni legitimacy.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2018/08/31/The-false-UN-report-on-Yemen.html
My comment: This is quite odd propaganda. Look at more in cp1, cp7. – The Saudi coalition not at all is “acting in Yemen under the umbrella of international legitimacy and the UN Security Council resolutions“. It’s just that the UN Security Council stays silent and lets the Saudi coalition act. – What else than different parties are fighting in any war on this planet, since Mesopotamian times??? – The Houthis do not have anything to do with Khomenei. – The Yemen war is no „conflict between legitimacy and illegitimacy“, as the „legitimacy“ of the Hadi government had ended on Feb. 25, 2015. – If the Houthis are a „terror gang“, most of anti-Houthi militia and the Saudi government also are „terror gangs“. – The UN Security Council not at all is a warring party in Yemen. –
the report “had a non-neutral language that’s closer to activists’ language!” is odd; it’s just naming the facts. The reports language is even closer to the Saudi coalition language, as it does not call the Sanaa government what it is (a government), but (how odd!!; this recalls Eastern German wordings from the 1980ies) calls it „De facto authorities“. – The UN report „attempted to “normalize” legal and legitimate equality“, what does this mean? The Saudi coalition is caliming that when it reclaims „legitimacy“ ist war crimes must be rated differently and must be overlooked.
(A P)
Why is peace with Houthis next to impossible?
The United Nations' peace mediator for Yemen has said he plans to invite the government and Houthi rebels to hold talks in the Swiss city of Geneva in September.
Beforehand, I can tell the that there will be no peace with Houthis whatsoever. I am not a foreteller and not a prophet of gloom and doom either.
But I base my predictions on the BIG FACT that the United Nations and its peace mediator Martin Griffiths seem to ignore; that Houthis are an uncompromising violent religious group that will either be militarily removed from power in the northern part of Yemen or they will stay there as a forever de facto authority and threat to the government-held part of Yemen and the whole region.
This fact is in everyone's head but Yemeni politicians did not give it a due thought, much less will the UN and international officials do.
The group's ideology take its root from an extremist form of Zaydi Islam that provides for the right of prophet Mohammed's descendants to rule unrivalled. Anyone who wants an alternative form of governance or believes in democracy should be eliminated; disappeared and tortured to death or disability if they are civilian and killed right away if they are a soldier.
I think that all Yemeni politicians and all foreign think-tanks and experts in Islamic sects in Yemen know this about Houthis.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-22171
My comment: Hadi-backing “Islah Party” on it’s news site pulling trousers down: They do not want any peace in Yemen, prefer spreading their propaganda.
(A P)
Through their controlled oil ministry, the #Iranian-backed #Houthi militia has increased the prices of oil derivatives in areas under their control, increasing the suffering of citizens after setting the price of 20 liters of gasoline by 8,400, and by 8,000 for diesel.
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1035292842074288128
My comment: It’s the downfall of the currency, stupid (look at cp13d).
(A P)
Hopes for peace in Yemen turn to Geneva
The success of next week’s talks depends on a change of attitude by the Houthis
Dr Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, who on Tuesday acknowledged the conflict’s significant “political and humanitarian challenges”. The coalition is united in pursuing peace, prosperity and stability in Yemen under the internationally recognised government of president Adrabu Mansur Hadi.
This aim has always been at the heart of the coalition’s mission. That is why it has the participation and support not just of Saudi Arabia and the UAE but of multiple governments across the world, from the US and UK to Sudan, as well as Nato itself.
The significance of UN Security Council Resolution 2216 calling on the Houthis to withdraw from the areas they seized is even greater with the renewed impetus to Yemen peace talks slated to start in Geneva on September 6.
Behind Dr Gargash’s comments is an important recognition that war is never simple while his acknowledgement that the coalition is open to scrutiny is indicative of the push towards a peaceful and durable conclusion to the conflict.
Meanwhile, the Houthis have shown no intention of ending the cycle of violence. Having occupied large swathes of land, including the capital Sanaa and the vital port city of Hodeidah, the rebels have entrenched themselves, planting up to a million landmines and imposing their reign of terror on the Yemeni people.
A political solution would not serve their long-term interests, which are shaped by grim self-preservation at the expense of a broken population.
The coalition is hopeful an agreement can be negotiated next week by Martin Griffiths, the UN special envoy for Yemen. Every day wasted in war is a day of loss for the people of Yemen. Its end cannot come soon enough.
If no progress can be made it will reveal the true colours of the Houthis, who have shown scant regard for the people of Yemen.
https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/editorial/hopes-for-peace-in-yemen-turn-to-geneva-1.764926
My comment: This is just propaganda – trying to blame the Houthis for what the Saudi coalition is doing. We should be made to believe that a peaceful solution would be that the Houthis acknowledge the Saudi coalition’s preconditions; and these preconditions simply demand the Houthis to capitulate. This is odd, having nothing to do with a “peaceful and durable conclusion to the conflict”. – The wording that the Houthis are “Having occupied large swathes of land, including the capital Sanaa and the vital port city of Hodeidah” is odd propaganda as well, as “the Houthis” since 2014 represent a concurrent Yemeni government, and hardly could “occupy” their own country.
(A P)
Yemeni minister lambasts Iran, Houthis for killing 1,372 children
A senior Yemeni official has put Iran and Iranian-backed Houthi militias on notice, revealing for the first time that Houthis have ruthlessly killed 1,372 children and 814 women since war broke out in Yemen in 2014.
Mohammed Askar, the Yemeni human rights minister, said: “Hundreds of children and women have been killed also from March to August this year.” The killings are being documented by the ministry in the form of a report to be released soon, he said.
Askar, while appreciating the support of Saudi Arabia and the Arab coalition, said: “The Kingdom and the UAE together have provided half of the humanitarian aid and assistance as per the target set by the UN for 2018.
“Saudi Arabia has also provided a $2 billion bank deposit to curb the collapse of Yemen’s national currency and to stimulate the economy,” said Askar, referring to the continuous humanitarian support extended by Riyadh.
In a toughly worded warning, Askar also lambasted the destabilizing behavior of Iran, noting the observation of a UN panel, which said that the Houthis are using “winning weapons including missiles and anti-tank guns smuggled from Iran.
“Iran has succeeded in turning the Houthis into a military tool that threatens international peace and security, especially in the navigational corridors of Yemen like Bab Al-Mandab and adjoining waters.”
Askar said: “Iran finds in the collapse of countries (like Yemen) an ideal opportunity to export its ideology of Khomeini revolution, and expand its regional influence.”
The Iran-Houthi nexus has led to the killings of more than 814 innocent Yemeni women since 2014 as well as 89 detainees, who died in the Houthi-run illegal prisons due to torture and even executions,” he added.
“Iran has poured funds and arms in a fervent bid to expand their hegemony in the region. The Iranian intransigence has kept the war raging, which has shattered the lives of Yemenis,” he said.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1363916/saudi-arabia
My comment: Now, after the UN report (look at cp1) is out, a new round of propaganda begins.
(A P)
Arab Coalition says nearly 90% of Yemen's area liberated from Houthis
In a press conference on Riyadh on Monday, the Coalition's spokesman Col. Turk al-Maliki said that "if we look at the situation in Yemen now, we are nearing a liberated percentage of 90% (of the Yemeni area).
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-22118
My comment: Games with figures… Ca. 66 % of Yemenis still are under Houthi rule.
(A P)
Yemeni Official: Iran's Arming of Houthis Intensified during Suspension of Hodeidah Operation
A local Yemeni official said that Iran had doubled its supply of arms to Houthi militias in Yemen during the suspension of the military operation to liberate Hodeidah. He also revealed that several militia leaders have escaped the city following strikes launched by the Saudi-led Arab Coalition forces.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, the governor of Hodeidah, Dr. Hassan Al-Tahir, said that Iran had supplied weapons to the Houthis during the past period, through large boats, taking advantage of the period during which the national army stopped its march towards the city center.
He added that the militias have brought in a large amount of weapons across the sea, or through mercenaries from African countries, exploiting their poor financial situation.
My comment: The Saudi blockade of Northern Yemen had not stopped at all – statements like this one are propaganda which should argue that it would be helpful to resume the Hodeidah assault. – And how thw Houthis could hire mercenaries from Africa bringing even arms with them will stay a mystery of propaganda. It’s well known that the UAE is relying on mercenaries from Africa and elsewhere, African child soldiers included.
(A P)
Trump can and must do something about Saudi Arabia killing Yemeni civilians
The U.S. has significant interest in maintaining strong relations with Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman. Still, President Trump must pressure bin Salman to take greater care to avoid civilian casualties in Yemen.
That need is clear due to the serious humanitarian suffering that has flowed with a Saudi versus Iran proxy war in the Middle Eastern nation. Attempting to restore government control in Yemen, the Saudis and their UAE allies have been battling Houthi rebel formations that are determined on destabilization. Iran, unsurprisingly, is the primary instigator of the chaos.
Nevertheless, Trump should pressure Saudi Arabia to avoid unnecessary civilian suffering.
My comment: It is not wrong that Trump should do this. But he will be the last to do so. The rest of this article is parrotting odd US propaganda.
(A P)
UN Report Confirms Houthi Crimes in Yemen
A United Nations report confirmed on Tuesday that the Iran-backed Houthi militias had committed vast violations throughout the regions it controls in Yemen.
The Group of Regional and International Eminent Experts on Yemen strongly suggested that the Houthis have perpetrated, and continue to perpetrate, violations and crimes under international law.
The Group Experts was mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council to carry out a comprehensive examination of the human rights situation in Yemen between September 2014 and June 2018.
The report accused the Houthis of human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, torture, ill-treatment and child recruitment, and serious restrictions on freedom of expression and of belief.
The Group of Experts voiced its concern by the Houthis’ use of weapons with wide area effect in a situation of urban warfare, as the use of such weapons in an urban setting is indiscriminate. Such acts would be violations of international humanitarian law.
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1375911/un-report-confirms-houthi-crimes-yemen
My comment: It’s really odd what Saudi propaganda is reporting on the UN report (look at cp1). The greatest and heaviest crimes had been committed by the Saudi coalition.
(A P)
Rights Team Documents Houthi Violations in Yemen
A Yemeni rights group has documented the ongoing violations committed by the Iran-backed Houthi militias in the country.
The Yemen International Team for Peace listed the crimes committed by the militias in the Rasaba region in the Dhamar province, as well as in the city of Hajjah.
The rights group has sought to highlight the violations that other organizations have overlooked.
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1375826/rights-team-documents-houthi-violations-yemen
My comment: This „Yemen International Team for Peace“ seems to be another propaganda scam.
(A P)
More Saudi coalition “WE are benefactors” propaganda
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
Siehe / Look at cp1
(* A K pH)
Saudi coalition air raids day by day
August 23: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/a.551858951631141/1125495800934117/?type=3
August 22: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/a.551858951631141/1125485987601765/?type=3
August 21: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/a.551858951631141/1125485177601846/?type=3
August 20: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/a.551858951631141/1125485660935131/?type=3
August 19: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/a.551858951631141/1125484280935269/?type=3
(* A K pH)
19 Fishermen Missing in Raids Targeted Their Boats in Hodeidah
19 fishermen are missing as a result of US-Saudi aggression raids targeted their boats near Akban island in Hodeidah, Al-Masirah Net correspondent in Hodeidah reported.
Head of the General Authority for Fish Resources, Abdul Qader Al-Wadai, said earlier that dozens of fishermen were aboard three boats targeted Thursday by US-Saudi aerial aggression near Akban island.
Al-Wadai added that the aggression air raids and intensive flights hindered the arrival of ambulance teams to the island to aid fishermen and rescue the victims.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2525&cat_id=1 and http://www.sabanews.net/en/news506833.htm
and
(* A K pH)
Yemen: 19 fishermen missing after Saudi airstrike
As many as 19 fishermen have reportedly gone missing after a Saudi Arabian airstrike on fishing boats off Yemen’s western coastline, which has come under an unrelenting Saudi-led offensive.
The attack took place off the port city of Hudaydah, near the island of Uqban, Yemen’s al-Masirah television network reported on Friday.
The head of the Yemeni Union of Fishermen said the attack targeted three fishing boats.
There has so far been no report about those still unaccounted for in the aftermath of the attack.
and
(* A K)
Fishermen in Hodeidah reportedly targeted by Saudi-UAE attacks
Saudi-UAE coalition says boats targeted were being used to smuggle weapons.
Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher, reporting from neighbouring Djibouti, said verifying reports of the attack and the casualty figure was difficult because of the location of the reported incident, an island off the coast of Hodeidah.
"Three fishing vessels, according to reports, were setting out to do their normal job when they were targeted by the Saudi-led coalition and were sunk," he said.
"Initial reports suggest that about 70 fishermen are missing. That figure has now been amended by Houthi media to 19.
"No one can get to the location to verify the number and the exact details of the incident."
and
(* A K pH)
A new #Massacre Committed by War Coalition Warplanes in #Hodeidah ,Where they Targeted a Group of Fishermen were in three Fishing Boats.
Warplanes Still Hovering which is Preventing the Rescue team from Starting their Mission.
Victims No. Still not Confirmed .
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.963391330380564/1903875149665506/?type=3
(A K pH)
Aggression’s Daily Update for Thursday, August 30, 2018
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2518&cat_id=1
(A K pH)
Child Killed and 4 Injured by US-Saudi Aggression Strikes in Hodiedah
A child was killed and four others were injured, including two children and a woman, on Thursday by the US-Saudi aggression strikes that targeted their home in Hodeidah governorate, hours after a similar crime in the same governorate.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2514&cat_id=1
(A K pH)
Aggression’s Daily Update for Wednesday, August 29th, 2018
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2499&cat_id=1
(* AK pH)
Aggression’s Daily Update for Tuesday, August 28th, 2018
The US-Saudi Aggression continued on Tuesday to launch raids and organize ground creeps on various Yemeni provinces and regions, killing, wounding many civilians and damaging public and private properties.
In Sa'ada: a civilian was killed and another was injured by missiles and artillery shells bombing which targeted Shida border district. The Saudi Army also targeted populated villages in Baqem, Munabeh and Shida border districts with missiles and artillery shells. Also in Sa'ada US-Saudi aggression launched two raids on Baqem district and a raid on Shida district.
In Hodiedah: The aggression targeted with an airstrike a civilian's house in Baet-Al-Faqeh district.
In Lahj: a citizen was killed by targetinghis house in Al-Qabaeta district. In Hajja: Aerial aggression launched 9 raids on Haradh and Medi districts.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2477&cat_id=1
(* A K pH)
More Saudi coalition air raids recorded on:
Aug. 31:
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news506835.htm Haradh, Medi p.
Aug. 30:
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news506826.htm Saada p.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news506821.htm Hodeidah p.
Aug. 29:
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news506727.htm Saada p.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news506650.htm Hodeidah p.
Aug. 28:
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news506539.htm Saada and Hodeidah p.
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
(* B K)
Yemen Missile War Update: Aug 17-29
Between August 17 and August 29, a reported eight Houthi-launched missiles targeting Najran and Jizan provinces were intercepted by Saudi air defense forces. Another three unconfirmed missile launches occurred during the same period. There were no successful Houthi-launched missile strikes confirmed. It was also reported that Saudi Arabia installed several Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) launchers outside of Mecca to enhance security during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage.
Below is a summary of each missile event during the August 17-29 period:
https://missilethreat.csis.org/yemen-missile-war-update-aug-17-29/
(* A K pH)
Army fires 3 Zilzal-1 ballistic missiles on Saud army's gatherings in Najran
The army on Wednesday launched three Zizal-1 ballistic missiles on Saudi army's gatherings and theirs paid-mercenaries in Najran province, a military official told Saba.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news506761.htm
(A K pS)
Government forces control villages and sites near al-Houthi stronghold in Sa'dah
The government forces supported by the Arab Coalition led by Saudi Arabia on Tuesday evening took control of on villages and areas in the directorates of al-Zahir , Bakil Almir and Razeh in the border with Saudi Arabia (northern Yemen).
A military source and a government official in al-Orobah brigade, told Almasdar online that battles were fierce in the directorates, following an attack by their forces on the positions of al-Houthi militants.
(A K pS)
Additional Royal #Saudi Land Force mechanized battalion has been deployed into Hajjah governorate to support the #Yemeni National Army operations south of Hayran towards Abs district.
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/1034898471512358913
(A K pH)
The air defenses of the army and popular committee shot down a reconnaissance aircraft in al-Fara area of #Yemen's western coast.
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.961595153893515/1902242323162122/?type=3
(A K pH)
Saada province: the coalition launched three missiles on al-Thaer border.
The missiles causing huge causalities in the civilians’ houses and farms.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news506727.htm
(* A K)
Yemen's Houthis say missile fired at Saudi Arabia's Najran region
Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile just over the border into Saudi Arabia, causing no apparent casualties, amid growing international concern about civilian casualties from a Saudi-led air campaign.
A Badr-1 missile targeted “a new military camp” in Najran, Houthi-controlled al-Masirah TV said on Wednesday.
(* A K)
Saudi Arabia says ballistic missile fired by Yemen's Houthis intercepted
Saudi Arabian air defenses intercepted a ballistic missile fired in the direction of the city of Najran by Yemen’s Houthi group, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported on Tuesday citing a military spokesman.
(A K pH)
5 Saudi missiles fire on Saada
A civilian was killed and other one was injured on Tuesday when the Saudi missile and artillery fired five missiles on several areas in Saada province, a security official told Saba on Monday.
The missiles fired one in Shatha district, another one on Kataf, air raid on Shatha’ triangle and two airstrikes on Baqim district.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news506681.htm
(A K pS)
Yemeni Army Downs Houthi Drone in Al-Baydha
The Yemeni national army downed on Monday a drone operated by the Iran-backed Houthi militias.
A field source told the September.net website that the aircraft was loaded with explosives.
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1375096/yemeni-army-downs-houthi-drone-al-baydha
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
(* B)
Soqotra Cultural Heritage
This website is designed to give an introduction to the diversity of cultural heritage of the Soqotra Archipelago.
Soqotra is well known for its rich and unique biodiversity, and was inscribed on to the World Heritage List in 2008 because of its natural heritage.
It has become more and more apparent that the heritage of Soqotra cannot easily be separated into “natural” and “cultural” counterparts as these are inextricably linked. Further, the cultural heritage of Soqotra has been neglected in comparison with the knowledge acquired about its biodiversity.
Funded by The British Council Cultural Protection Fund, the Soqotra Heritage Project seeks to gather information about the cultural heritage of Soqotra with the ultimate aim of conserving it for the future (photos)
http://www.soqotraculturalheritage.org/
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-450-yemen-war-mosaic-450
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-450 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-450:
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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