Allgemein
2.9.2015 – BBC
Yemen crisis: 'Serious abuses' against Aden detainees
Pro-government militiamen and Houthi rebels have committed serious abuses against detainees in Yemen's second city Aden, Human Rights Watch says.
The US-based group alleges southern militias have summarily killed at least seven Houthi prisoners since March.
In one case, a rebel was beaten in a public square before being shot dead.
The rebels are accused of unlawfully detaining and mistreating civilians before they were driven out of Aden in July after months of fierce fighting.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday that it had documented several cases of serious abuse committed by southern militiamen and Houthis against civilians and fighters in their custody since the battle for Aden began in late March.
On 23 August, southern militiamen are alleged to have placed an unidentified group of Houthi prisoners in orange jumpsuits on a boat in the middle of the port of Aden and then blown the boat up.
They reportedly filmed the explosion to the backdrop of IS flags raised on the port buildings.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34118025
2.9.2015 – Blick
Huthi-Rebellen in Jemen brutal hingerichtet
Die Menschenrechtsorganisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) hat Rebellen und Regierungstruppen im Jemen schwere Verbrechen gegen Zivilisten und Gefangene vorgeworfen. In der südlichen Hafenstadt Aden seien mindestens sieben Huthi-Rebellen hingerichtet worden.
Verbündete Milizen der Regierungstruppen hätten die Huthi-Rebellen nach der Eroberung Adens durch die schiitische Bewegung Ende März hingerichtet. Die Huthi-Rebellen hätten ihrerseits Zivilisten illegal inhaftiert und misshandelt, bevor sie Mitte Juli die Stadt wieder an die Truppen von Präsident Abd Rabbo Mansur Hadi verloren, erklärte die Menschenrechtsorganisation am Mittwoch
http://www.blick.ch/news/ausland/schwere-vorwuerfe-huthi-rebellen-in-jemen-brutal-hingerichtet-id4128710.html dazu auch http://www.luzernerzeitung.ch/nachrichten/international/international-sda/Extralegale-Hinrichtungen-im-Jemen;art46446,588908
1.9.2015 – Human Rights Watch
Yemen: Southern Forces, Houthis Abuse Prisoners in Aden
Southern armed groups and Houthi forces battling for control of Yemen’s port city of Aden have committed serious abuses against civilians and fighters in their custody. Southern militants have summarily executed at least seven Houthi prisoners since March 2015, most recently on August 24. Houthi forces have unlawfully detained and mistreated civilians.
The exiled Yemeni government, as well as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other members of the Saudi-led coalition supporting the southern armed groups, should press local authorities in Aden to end abuses and appropriately punish those responsible, Human Rights Watch said.
“Southern forces that have regained control of Aden should end abuses against prisoners and do all they can to establish law and order in the city,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director. “The Houthis need to release anyone wrongfully detained and account for everyone they are holding.”
https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/09/01/yemen-southern-forces-houthis-abuse-prisoners-aden
1.9.2015 – Sputnik News
West Beats War Drums Over Russian 'Menace', Overlooks Saudi Crimes in Yemen
If US policy makers are really concerned with the foreign aggression issue they should focus more on the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen and Bahrain, instead of pointing the finger at Russia's imaginary "threat," Canadian writer and political activist Stephen Gowans notes.
Ironically, what is happening now in Yemen is strikingly similar to the February 2014 upheaval in Ukraine, which lead to the ousting former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich in a coup forcing him to leave the country.
It should be noted that Yanukovich had far more support among Ukrainians than Hadi has in Yemen, Gowans remarked.
However, in contrast to Saudi Arabia, Russia is not bombing Ukraine, or "enforcing a blockade to starve Ukraine into submission," nor does Moscow seek the restoration of Viktor Yanukovich as the Ukrainian president.
"Yet bombings and blockades are happening in Yemen, and there's only silence in the West," the writer noted.
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150901/1026459632.html
1.9.2015 – Sayed Hasan
War without mercy on Yemen: the Saudi-US Massacres continue (26-08-2015 – ENG subtitles) –
English transcription of interviews to survivors of Saudi air aids
http://sayed7asan.blogspot.de/2015/09/war-without-mercy-on-yemen-saudi-us.html = http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-without-mercy-on-yemen-the-saudi-us-massacres-continue/5473308
Filme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJBzfrhTBeY und https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYISH2jjxS8 und https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGn1T7aheB0 (Mokhah)
ca.1.9.2015 – Morgenweb
Hunger als Kriegswaffe – Jemen droht humanitäre Katastrophe
Zerstörung der Infrastruktur, Blockaden der Wirtschaftswege, das Gesundheits- system am Zusammenbruch - die Not der Menschen im Jemen wird täglich schlimmer
Die blutige Geschichte des Jemen lehrt, ein Landkrieg in diesem unwegsamen, teils gebirgigen Terrain gegen einen waffenstrotzenden Feind wurde äußeren Mächten noch stets zum Verhängnis. Deshalb wählte Saudi-Arabien als Hauptstrategie, Sanaa auszuhungern, um die Huthis und Saleh zur Kapitulation zu zwingen. "Die Wirtschaftsblockade ist unter den jemenitischen Verhältnissen weit gefährlicher als ein Krieg" mit Waffen, erläutert Ahmed Said Shammkh, Ökonom der jemenitischen Zentralbank. Und die ersten Anzeichen dafür lösen Panik in der Hauptstadt aus – von Birgit Cerha
1.9.2015 – ABNA News
Fotostrecke: Bombardierung der Wohnsiedlungen in Jemen von arabischer Koalition
http://de.abna24.com/service/pictorial/archive/2015/09/01/708721/story.html
1.9.2015 – The Intercept
YEMEN’S HIDDEN WAR: HOW THE SAUDI-LED COALITION IS KILLING CIVILIANS
From visiting some 20 sites of airstrikes and interviews with more than a dozen witnesses, survivors and relatives of those killed in eight of these strikes in southern Yemen, this reporter discovered evidence of a pattern of Saudi-coalition airstrikes that show indiscriminate bombing of civilians and rescuers, adding further weight to claims made by human rights organizations that some Saudi-led strikes may amount to war crimes and raising vital questions over the U.S. and Britain’s role in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.
(The number of civilian casualties has not been officially collated or recorded by NGOs or aid agencies. Only a handful of humanitarian and independent human rights organizations have had a presence on the ground in Aden, while nationwide just a small fraction of the strikes have even been independently documented.
“The Obama administration needs urgently to explain what the U.S.’s exact role in Saudi Arabia’s indiscriminate bombing campaign is,” said Cori Crider, strategic director at the international legal group Reprieve. “It very much looks like there is a case to answer here — not just for the Saudis, but for any Western agencies who are standing behind them. International law shuns the intentional targeting of civilians in war — and in the United States it is a serious federal crime.”
These civilian deaths occurred in strikes that account for just a handful of the thousands of bombing raids carried out by the Saudi-led coalition since its aerial campaign began. Of particular concern are the U.S.-style “double tap” strikes — where follow-up strikes hit those coming to rescue victims of an initial missile attack — which became a notorious trademark of covert CIA drone strikes in Pakistan. On July 6, for instance, at least 35 rescuers and bystanders were killed trying to help scores of traders hit in a strike five minutes earlier on a farmers market in Fayoush, in Yemen’s Lahj province.
Along with the Saudi coalition’s bombing campaign, American warships have also helped to enforce a naval blockade that the Saudis say is necessary to prevent weapon shipments to the Houthis, whom they claim are supported by Iran. According to the U.N., this collective punishment has left the country “on the brink of famine,” with desperate shortages of food, medical supplies and fuel — vital not only for transportation but for pumping increasingly scarce water from the depths of the country’s depleted water tables. Four out of five Yemenis are now in need of humanitarian assistance.
To add to the worsening humanitarian crisis, on August 18 Saudi-led fighter jets bombed the port in the northern city of Hodeidah, a main supply route for aid agencies, while on the outskirts of Aden white sugar spills into shredded sacks of flour. Hundreds of pounds of vital food supplies lie ruined in bombed-out warehouses.
Last week, 23 human rights organizations called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to create an international commission of inquiry to investigate alleged violations of international laws by all sides in the ongoing conflict. This includes the U.S. and Britain. Some 45 U.S. advisers are currently assisting the Saudi coalition from joint operations centers in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, while the American government has also supplied intelligence, in-flight refueling of fighter jets, and weapons, including, according to rights organizations, banned U.S. cluster munitions.
America’s continued support of Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen comes as Saudi-U.S. relations have been strained by President Obama’s pursuit of a nuclear deal with the Kingdom’s regional nemesis, Iran. Adam Baron, a visiting fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations, suggests that the U.S. has been more eager to conciliate Saudi Arabia than usual, “because they want them and the other Gulf States to at least not actively oppose the Iran deal.”
A U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson responded: “We take all accounts of civilian deaths due to the ongoing hostilities in Yemen seriously. We continue to provide logistical and intelligence support to the Saudi-led coalition in response to ongoing aggressive Houthi military actions. We have asked the Saudi government to investigate all credible reports of civilian casualties and to undertake urgent steps in response if these reports are verified.” – by Iona Craug
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/09/01/yemen-hidden-war-saudi-coalition-killing-civilians/
1.9.2015 – Inner City Press
In Yemen, OHCHR Cites Airstrike on Taiz, Coalition Attack on Hodeidah Port
The UN Secretariat's bungling of Yemen mediation has become ever more clear, according to multiple sources and documents exclusively seen by Inner City Press, see below.
The consequences continue to rise. On September 1 the Office of the High Commission for Human Rights raised its estimate of civilians killed to 2,112 (from March 26 to August 27), with 4,519 civilians injured in that period in what OHCHR called a "conservative estimate." – by Matthew Russell Lee
http://www.innercitypress.com/yemen53fishy090115.html
31.8.2015 – Veterans Today
The Battle for Sanaa – the tale of a resistance in Yemen
A Saudi revolt would not come from the grassroots, but in a coup at the top
Yemen has reached a decisive crossroads in its fights against imperial Saudi Arabia. As communities, sects and regions have been pitted against each other to serve foreign powers’ agenda, the Houthi-led resistance movement might still carry a few arrows to its bow.
The real war for Yemen will be ultimately fought in its Highlands, a land which no conqueror could ever tame to its will. And though many tried: from the Romans to the Ottomans, the sons of Hamdan never could be made to submit. This time again, Yemen northern tribes could prove too much of a challenge, even before the combined might of Riyadh’s wealth and America’s military power.
Although carefully censored out by an all too pliable Western press, reports have confirmed that Al-Qaedahas conveniently staged a comeback in Yemen’s southern provinces, coincidentally mapping its advances with that of Al Saud’s coalition.
For should Sanaa fall, North Yemen will burn and with it its people, its heritage, its history… Saudi Arabia’s warning that it would hunt down and bury all those who dared defy its rule have been burned into people’s mind. This fight is one of survival.
More troubling yet for Riyadh, it has inspired others, to revolt against theocratic Al Saud. And if the kingdom has plotted the demise of Northern Yemen based on bought alliances and political favors, the Houthis and their allies have been too busy organizing a grand resistance movement – one which does not know any borders.
With nothing left to lose but their freedom, the northern tribes of Yemen are determined to do whatever it takes to strike deadly blows against the kingdom, starting with the disruption of the world oil route along the Bab Al Mandab strait and cross-border attacks against Saudi Arabia.
If the Saudis undoubtedly retain the military advantage in that their pockets are deeper and their technology superior, the resistance holds crucial geostrategic pressure points.
For all its political posing and grand statements, Saudi Arabia’s resolve against the Houthis is already wavering. So much so that talks of secession between north and south have been discussed in view of avoiding a drawn-out war – a means for the kingdom to establish a satellite Sunni-state and keep the Houthis locked in between two hostile Sunni regimes, while still claiming victory.
Only again, this could prove catastrophic for the kingdom since South Yemen has been a breeding ground of tribal instability and conflicting ambitions. As we could soon learn to remember, Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen will be its own unraveling – by Catherine Shakdam
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/08/31/the-battle-for-sanaa-the-tale-of-a-resistance-in-yemen/
30.8.2015 – NTV
USA dulden Vorgehen im JemenSaudis greifen wohl mit Streubomben an
Seit März zieht sich der Konflikt zwischen schiitischen Rebellen im Jemen und den von den Amerikanern unterstützten sunnitischen Nachbarstaaten. Saudi-Arabien scheint beim ersten großen Kampfeinsatz im Ausland bereit, geächtete Waffen einzusetzen.
Laut einem Bericht der Website "usnews.com" sind sich die USA bewusst, dass Saudi-Arabien bei seinen Luftangriffen gegen die Huthi-Rebellen im Jemen auch Streubomben, sogenannte "Cluster Bombs", abwirft. Sie zitiert einen ungenannten Offiziellen im Pentagon mit den Worten "wir wissen, dass die Saudis Streumunition eingesetzt haben."
http://www.n-tv.de/politik/Saudis-greifen-wohl-mit-Streubomben-an-article15825176.html
30.8.2015 – NDTV
Exiled Yemen President Says Fighting Huthis to Stop 'Iran Expansion'
emen's exiled President Abedrabbo Mansur Hadi said on Saturday that his forces were battling Shiite Huthi rebels across the country to check "Iranian expansion" in the region. Hadi was speaking as he made a short visit to Sudan, which was seen as being close to Iran before it joined a Saudi-led coalition against the Yemeni rebels in April. "We are currently leading a war based on stopping Iranian expansion in the region," Hadi said at a press conference with his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir.
"Iranian expansion is present now in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon," Hadi said.
Kommentar: Und das traut er sich in Anbetracht der Tatsache, dass der „Erbfeind“ (wenn man das Wort hier verwenden will, trifft aber seit 1934 zu) Saudi-Arabien das Land zerstört und besetzt. Was für eine elende Figur gibt dieser „Präsident“ ab
28.8.2015 – WBEZ
Saudi Arabia escalates attacks in Yemen
Sheila Carapico says Saudi Arabia seeks hegemony over Yemen
News coming out of Yemen seems to indicate that Saudi Arabia is making bold moves to establish a foothold in the country to counter its rival, Iran. Reports suggest that the Saudis now have boots on the ground in Yemen as it continues bombing raids against Shiite Houthi rebels. But many observers, like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, feel more attention must be paid to the “catastrophic” humanitarian crisis resulting from the conflict. Sheila Carapico, political science professor at the University of Richmond, will tell us why she thinks most of the news coming out of Yemen is Saudi propaganda meant to take the eye off the slaughter of civilians.
http://www.wbez.org/programs/worldview/2015-08-28/saudi-arabia-escalates-attacks-yemen-112764
28.8.2015 – PRI
When was the last time Yemen had a government?
My father-in-law asked, "When was the last time Yemen had a government?" I kept coming up with incomplete answers:
1. It has one now. But it's in exile.
Yemeni president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi is in exile in Riyadh. His government has Saudi backing and recognition from the US and Britain, among others. But his rule is dependent on foreign fighters and the massive armories of the Saudis and the UAE. When he was elected president in 2012 he was the only candidate. Sorry, Dad, Hadi's government doesn't have wide support.
2. It has one now. In the capital, Sanaa.
The Houthi leadership, with guidance and support from the former Yemeni president Saleh, has control of the Yemeni capital and several other key cities, and it has no intention of giving that up without a fight. But few argue that it's a real government that conducts statecraft, builds roads and schools, provides water or hauls trash. No, Dad, that's not it either – by Stephen Snyder
http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-08-28/when-was-last-time-yemen-had-government
3.7.2015 – Yemen News Today
Yemen: Under-reporting of war deaths – or genocide?
The estimates of numbers killed in this terrible war have varied from website to website.
Systems of recording deaths in Yemen during the war are not straightforward, hence the differences in death counts. Some agencies count deaths that have been reported in the media, but this is a multi-focal war, with both militia activity and air assaults by the coalition happening in all of the areas except Hadramaut, and journalists cannot access all areas where people are being attacked. As the war progresses, deaths in Yemen have become less newsworthy as it has become so commonplace and the Western media have not seriously tried to give the war in Yemen the coverage it deserves. Furthermore, militias and fighting forces have an interest in under-reporting any of their own fighters killed by the other ‘side’ as militia and military deaths have a propaganda purpose; these deaths can only be estimated.
Another way of collecting information about those killed is from hospitals and medical sources. However, many hospitals have themselves been out of action, either because of destruction caused by war activity, because of loss of personnel due to the conflict, or because they have run out of medical equipment and may have disruption of water and electricity supplies making it impossible to function. Additionally, many who died at the site of an attack will not be included in hospital statistics
Then there is the nature of Yemen itself. In rural mountainous areas Yemeni families bury the deceased in their own villages, and with the ongoing conflict there is no system for these deaths to be immediately recorded. In some areas, especially the north-west, villages are inside conflict zones and not excluded from serious effects of warfare. The lack of fuel also means that moving injured to hospital is a challenge, for example, a recent report from journalist Mathieu Aikins “Yemen’s Hidden War” published by Rollingstone, stated that whilst he was in Yemen injured people were bought into a hospital in Saada from a village – he pointed to the difficulties in getting the casualties to hospital, with little petrol available, and for many the cost prohibits access to petrol. Apart from the blockade by Saudi Arabia, 180 petrol stations have been bombed in Saada area. For those few who manage to get their injured loved ones to hospital, inevitably many others will have failed and the injured may have died from lack of medical care.
The Saudis are particularly targeting the Zaidi population in the northwest of Yemen, destroying homes, schools, petrol stations, hospitals, roads, factories, shops, mosques, historical artefacts, a refugee camp and vehicles. Although it was reported that those in Saada were given notice that their homes were about to be destroyed by leafleting prior to main bombing raids, the people living there had few choices. Some organisations claim that the bomb damage in the northwest amounts to war crimes. The majority of people in targeted areas lost their homes, belongings, sources of employment, and income. The destruction of their homes destroyed shelter for families in a hot desert region in midsummer; in winter, high mountainous areas can also experience cold conditions and night frosts, making life without shelter challenging all year round. With the loss of their homes, families also lost access to water, electricity, and cooking facilities. Whilst some of the displaced have moved to the capital Sana’a and other cities, they would not be able to escape to the more stable area of Hadramaut due to their tribal and religious identity, as that area is controlled by extremist Sunni militias with strong anti-Shia sentiments and a fear of Zaidi spies. A large proportion of the displaced from Saada area have remained in the northwest, finding or building temporary shelter with limited resources. Some have formed camps near to the Saudi border, as many have relatives in Jizan and Najran who might offer them sanctuary, but currently I understand they are denied entry into Saudi Arabia, and a wall prevents them from crossing the border – by Judith Brown
http://yemen-news-today.org/2015/07/31/under-reporting-of-war-deaths-or-genocide/ = http://sayed7asan.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/yemen-under-reporting-of-war-deaths-or.html#sthash.w2pgNICm.uxfs&st_refDomain=t.co&st_refQuery=/cLIhCnGAg8
Humanitäre Lage
2.9.2015 – Reuters
British doctor in northern Yemen unfazed by 'crazy warfare'
"You feel totally isolated and unsafe, but all you can do is try to stabilize the people and children who arrive with major injuries," said Roberts, emergency co-ordinator for northern Yemen for the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
Roberts spent two months in the northwestern Saada and Amran provinces, where she said air strikes had shut down most health facilities, forced medical staff to flee and damaged roads, leaving the sick and injured stranded and unable to seek help.
Nearly half of Yemen's health facilities have closed down and there are shortages of medicines, trauma kits and blood bank supplies amid a deepening humanitarian crisis across the country, the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week – by Kieran Guilbert
2.9.2015 – Spiegel Online
Jemen: Zwei Mitarbeiter des Roten Kreuzes erschossen
Im Bürgerkriegsland Jemen sind zwei Mitarbeiter des Internationalen Roten Kreuzes in ihren Fahrzeugen getötet worden. Wer die Schüsse abgab, ist unklar.
Sie waren in einem Konvoi auf dem Rückweg von der Rebellenhochburg Saada auf dem Weg zurück in die Hauptstadt Sanaa: Im Jemen sind zwei Mitarbeiter des Internationalen Komitees vom Roten Kreuz (IKRK) erschossen worden. Die beiden Jemeniten wurden vermutlich von einem Einzeltäter getötet, der auf die Fahrzeuge feuerte. Die Wagen seien klar als Fahrzeuge des Roten Kreuzes gekennzeichnet gewesen, sagte eine Sprecherin des IKRK.
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/jemen-mitarbeiter-des-roten-kreuzes-getoetet-a-1051086.html = http://derstandard.at/2000021633997/Zwei-Rot-Kreuz-Mitarbeiter-im-Jemen-getoetet
2.9.2015 – The Guardian
Red Cross suspends movements in Yemen after two workers shot dead
The Yemeni staff were killed when a gunman opened fire on a convoy travelling from Saada to the capital, Sana’a. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has suspended all movements in Yemen after two of its staff were killed in what the organisation says appears to have been a deliberate attack.
It is believed a single gunman opened fire on a convoy travelling in Amran province between the northern province of Saada and the capital Sana’a early on Wednesday. One staff member died at the scene and the other in hospital. They worked as a field officer and a driver, and both men came from Yemen.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/02/two-red-cross-workers-shot-dead-in-yemen und auch http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34128539
31.8.2015 – UN News Center
Yemen: ‘worrying outbreak’ of dengue fever prompts UN health agency appeal for safe humanitarian corridor
The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) is appealing for a safe corridor to reach more than 3 million people in war-torn Yemen’s most populated governorate, Taiz, where “an extreme spike” in cases of dengue fever has been recorded over the past two weeks.
“There is an urgent need for a humanitarian corridor to assess the situation and institute control measures,” said Dr. Ala Alwan, WHO’s Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean.
“We need protection and safety for all people working to control the worrying outbreak of dengue fever in Taiz, which includes support with residual spraying, health education of communities and distribution of other supplies,” Dr. Alwan said.
With an estimated population of 3.2 million people, Taiz, near the southern tip of the country, is the most populated governorate in Yemen where now three of its major hospitals are inaccessible or have been caught in the frontline of fire denying millions of displaced, sick and wounded civilians access to health services, WHO said in a press release issued over the weekend.
More than 800 deaths and over 6,000 injuries have been reported in Taiz since March 2015.
And now, according to WHO, an extreme spike in cases of dengue fever has been recorded in the governorate in the past 2 weeks from 145 suspected cases at the start of August to 421 by 25 August 2015.
“With the ongoing insecurity and mass displacement of thousands of people, it is likely that the situation will deteriorate in the coming days, placing over 3.2 million people at additional risk,” the agency warned.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=51760#.VecT9k0Vh9A siehe auch http://www.juancole.com/2015/09/outbreaks-humanitarian-corridor.html
31.8.2015 - Acted
Yemen: Rising Food Insecurity
efore the crisis, some 10.6 million people in Yemen were food insecure. In just over five months, there has been an astonishing 15.7% increase in this figure, leaving 12.3 million unable to access sufficient food. This figure is rising.
Ten governorates are at emergency level - just one level below famine. 1.5 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition. Availability of even basic foods varies dramatically between markets, and coupled with inflated prices, are often out of reach of many households.
Only a fraction of those in need are being supported to meet immediate needs. The suffering must end now.
http://www.acted.org/en/spotlight-yemen-rising-food-insecurity
31.8.2015 – The Guardian
There are 21 million in need of humanitarian aid in Yemen – please listen
Civil war has brought Yemen to its knees, and the fear is that things are about to escalate. We aid agencies need every bit of help we can get
This war has left Yemen, already the poorest country in the region, mired in a humanitarian crisis. Coalition forces led by Saudi Arabia have been conducting a bombing campaign to try to force out rebels from the Houthi sect, who overran the country in March, and restore the previous government. Conflict has since spread to 20 of Yemen’s 22 provinces. Ordinary people have paid the price for the violence – 21 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance now, more than anywhere in the world, including Syria. The UN estimates that some 2,000 people have been killed so far, nearly a quarter of them children.
The crisis has been compounded by the fact that getting aid into Yemen and transporting it around the country is very limited. Aid agencies like Save the Children are frantically trying to scale up our response, but it’s almost impossible when we can’t get relief supplies into the country. The recent bombing of Hodeida port – the key entry point for supplies to the hungry people in the north and centre of the country – was the last straw, putting the aid effort in jeopardy at a time when people are running out of food, water and medicine.
People are already desperate – I met a mother yesterday who had sold her family’s last mattress to buy her three-year-old son medicine. Now she and her children sleep on the cold, hard ground. She has nothing left to sell.
Everywhere I go people talk about food, or rather the lack of it. The spectre of famine is stalking large areas of the country. Yemen is slowly being strangled by a de facto blockade that prevents enough food and medicine getting to the families who need them most. If we don’t act soon, thousands of children will die from hunger-related causes before the year is out.
Across the country civilian infrastructure, including health facilities, markets, shops and schools, has been damaged and destroyed by airstrikes and ground war. For too long all parties to this conflict have been allowed by the international community to show an unashamed contempt for human life. - by Mark Kaye
31.8.2015 – Aljazeera
Yemen hospitals facing closures as fighting rages
Major hospitals in Sanaa and Taiz facing closure due to supply shortages as fighting continues to rage, NGOs say
Major hospitals in Yemen are struggling to function due to supply shortages caused by increased fighting between Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, two Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have saidThe main hospital in the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, is on the verge of shutting down due to limited access to basic medicines and equipment caused by a blockade imposed by pro-Hadi fighters, while hospitals in Taiz are under siege by Houthi rebels, acccording to Save the Children said.
In Taiz, Yemen's third city, two major hospitals have already closed due to a supply shortage caused by a blockade imposed by Houthi fighters, Medecins Sans Frontieres or Doctors without Borders (MSF) said.
"Yemen International Hospital and the military hospital, the biggest in Taiz, have shut their doors because the rebels refused to allow us to deliver drugs and medical supplies," Salah Ibrahim Dongu'du, a project coordinator at MSF, told Al Jazeera over the phone.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/08/yemeni-hospitals-verge-shut-150831110232260.html
31.8.2015 – Albawaba
Key hospital in Yemen's Sanaa faces closure
A humanitarian organization has warned of the imminent closure of a major hospital in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, due to a shortage of supplies in the war-racked country.
“Critical fuel shortages and a lack of medical supplies could force the al-Sabeen Hospital to shut its doors within 48 hours,” Save the Children said in a statement late Sunday.
The organization said that the hospital is the main facility for children and pregnant women in the area and provides services to an estimated three million people.
“The hospital has entirely run out of IV fluid, anesthetic, blood transfusion tests, Valium to treat seizures and ready-prepared therapeutic food for severely malnourished children,” the statement said, citing the hospital’s Deputy Manager Halel al-Bahri.
http://www.albawaba.com/news/key-hospital-yemens-sanaa-faces-closure-737574#
30.8.2015 – Save the Children
Key Yemen Hospital On the Brink of Closure as Airstrikes Intensify On Sana’a
Staff at a hospital which now serves an estimated 3 million people in and around the Yemeni capital of Sana’a has told Save the Children that it faces imminent closure, putting the lives of thousands of children significantly at risk.
Critical fuel shortages and a lack of medical supplies could force the Al Sabeen Hospital to shut its doors within 48 hours, even as airstrikes on Sana’a by the Saudi-led coalition intensify.
The hospital, which Save the Children supports, is the main healthcare facility for children and pregnant women in the area. Before the crisis it was reliant on Hodeida port for 90 percent of its imports, but since the beginning of a de-facto blockade on the country, supplies have dried up.
Al Sabeen’s Deputy Manager, Halel Al Bahri, said the hospital had entirely run out of IV fluid, anesthetic, blood transfusion tests, Valium to treat seizures and ready-prepared therapeutic food for severely malnourished children.
Even more worryingly, they only have enough black market fuel to run the electricity generators for another two days. Should they be forced to close hundreds of children currently admitted will stop receiving treatment.
“We are coordinating closely with the other functioning hospitals in the city, sharing our stocks so that everyone has a bit of everything. But everyone is running low now and there isn’t enough to go around,” said Halel Al Bahri.
“The situation is absolutely critical. We don’t have time to wait for stocks and fuel to come in. If this hospital closes, children and women will die. The numbers of those who die will be much higher than those being killed by the bombs and the fighting,” Al Bahri added.
http://www.savethechildren.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=8rKLIXMGIpI4E&b=9241341&ct=14757311¬oc=1 dazu auch http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/major-childrens-hospital-yemen-verge-closure-due-blockade-263077218#sthash.bUVkwaOl.dpuf oder http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/major-childrens-hospital-yemen-verge-closure-due-blockade-263077218
30.8.2015 – Huffington Post
Childhood Under Attack in Yemen
With street fighting, canon shelling and aerial bombardments now happening every day in Yemen, life for children like Nada is almost unimaginable in its brutality. Children are on the sharp end of the country's escalating conflict which deepened in March and shows no signs of abating. Too many children in Yemen are frightened, hungry, at risk of disease and violence. Hundreds have lost lives, family members, schools and homes to the bombs and bullets. Some children are even being recruited into armed factions when they should be in school and having a decent childhood.
The conflict in Yemen is a tragedy for the country's children. I wish I could make it stop. Despite the dangers and difficulties, Unicef staff are in the country and working day and night delivering vital, life-saving supplies, immunising children, providing emergency nutrition and clean water, and helping children wherever we can. Unicef only have a fraction of the funds we need and are stretched thin. We can help more children but only with your support.
The facts are chilling. Since the conflict intensified earlier this year at least 398 children have been reported killed and over 605 injured. To put that more bluntly nearly three children are being killed every day and another five injured. That's more than four times the number of children killed in Yemen in the whole of 2014. One child killed is too many.
The recruitment and use of child soldiers has also increased sharply. At least 377 children have been recruited to armed groups so far this year - more than double the total in 2014.
Indeed, children are in danger in the very places that they should be safe.
Nearly 400 schools have been damaged due to shelling or airstrikes since the end of March. 95 of those were completely destroyed. At least 3,600 schools have closed across the country, leaving millions of children without an education, and threatening their future..
But as well as bullets and bombs, Yemen's children are threatened by growing disease and malnutrition as Yemen's health services collapse and food shortages make it harder for families to survive.
Overall around 1.8million children are likely to suffer from some form of malnutrition this year alone - an increase of almost one million children since 2014. Over half a million of these children will be at risk of severe acute malnutrition in 2015 – by David Bull
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/david-bull/childhood-under-attack-in-yemen_b_8049924.html
29.8.2015 – Hamilton Spectator
Of lions, children and innocence of lives given
If you were a lion you'd have little in common with any little girl, unless it's the summer of 2015 when you could both die horrible deaths on the other side of the ocean and people on this side would know.
Her name was Baraah Fakierah. She was as ordinary and remarkable as any little girl, 10 years old, big brown eyes, a beautiful smile, this spirited girl living in Sana'a, Yemen.
Then the bomb. It plowed through her home. Her father died trying to protect Baraah from the fire. And a crowd-funding campaign got her to Amman, Jordan for emergency care for severe burns. Still, the girl died. She was, as the say, collateral damage.
"She suffered terribly," Walid al-Saqaf, her uncle, told me.Now in Sweden as a professor of media research, he's creating the Baraah Foundation. It's to help war children, to help them get life-saving medical care away from the fighting.
To learn more, go to "Support the Baraah Foundation" on YouTube.
http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/5819105-of-lions-children-and-innocence-of-lives-given/ mit Film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhCXLySVD5o
28.8.2015 – Rotes Kreuz
Yemen: Situation deteriorating in Taiz
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is seriously concerned about an increase in fighting in the city of Taiz. There has been indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas. Essential infrastructure is being destroyed. With Photos
https://www.icrc.org/en/document/yemen-situation-deteriorating-taiz
28.8.2015 – Iran German Radio
Kampfjets Saudi-Arabiens greifen Nahrungsmittelkonvoi in Jemen an
Kampfjets Saudi Arabiens haben am Freitag einige Konvois mit Nahrungsmitteln, die von Hauptstadt Sanaa Richtung Emran unterwegs waren, mit Raketen angegriffen.
Laut der jemenitischen Nachrichtenagentur SABA wurden bei dem Angriff zahlreiche Wohnhäuser und Geschäfte in Emran zerstört, weitere Gebäude wurden schwer beschädigt.
28.8.2015 – Anadolu
Yemen: Houthi land mines claim 100 lives in July
Report says Houthis planted mines in villages and residential areas
A new Yemeni government report said that mines planted by the Houthi Shia militia have claimed at least 100 lives and injured 225 people in July.
The Relief Committee for War Victims – a governmental committee in exile – reported that most of the victims are civilians.
The Houthis planted mines in residential areas and villages in Aden, Abyan, Dhale, Lahaj, Taiz, al-Baydaa, Maarib and Shabwah provinces, according to the report.
“Unexploded projectiles left from the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes form a direct threat to civilian lives,” the report said.
http://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/583333--yemen-houthi-land-mines-claim-100-lives-in-july
Kommentar: „Yemeni government“: Hadis Exilregierung.
28.8.2015 – Save the Children / UNOCHA
Yemen: Listening to children’s stories is key
Every child in this world has the right to live, to education, to protection and good health.
Yet today in Yemen children aren’t being afforded their rights. They aren’t being allowed to survive, thrive, learn or grow. Their voices aren’t being heard and unless things change soon, their potential is in huge danger of remaining unfulfilled.
Children are bearing the brunt of a violent conflict that is tearing my country apart.
On average, 8 children are killed everyday, even more are injured.
My team recently began a child-led assessment in which 20 Yemeni children were trained to conduct a needs assessment with other children who have been displaced to their areas.
This was children interviewing other children, hearing their accounts and highlighting the issues that they face as a consequence of this conflict.
It was amazing to see the participants so committed. They volunteered their time and efforts to support others affected by this crisis.
I saw how they used the same language to express ideas, listened to the children’s experiences with compassion and hoped that things will change for the better soon.
The numbers of those affected are shocking: over 5.9 million children are now food insecure; 1.8 million are at risk of malnutrition; 9.8 million do not have adequate access to water or sanitation; 2.9 million are out of school and at least 624,000 have been displaced internally.
Meanwhile the constant airstrikes and conflict mean that children are particularly vulnerable to violence, abuse, exploitation and even death.
It is in times like these that listening to children is most important. Both to understand their fears and daily challenges but also to provide an opportunity for them to speak and be heard – by Fatima Al-Ajel
http://blogs.savethechildren.org.uk/2015/08/yemen-listening-to-childrens-stories-is-key/ = http://www.unocha.org/aggregator/sources/80?page%3D1=
28.8.2015 – World Food Programme
On the Run Again: Somali Refugees Return Home from Yemen
More than 28,000 people – nearly half of them children – have arrived in Somalia fleeing the conflict in Yemen. Most are Somalis returning to their homeland.
World Food Programme (WFP) Communications Officer Laila Ali visited the Bossaso Transit Centre, where WFP is providing humanitarian assistance to those in need, including cooked meals for new arrivals, as well as nutrition support for pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and small children to prevent them from becoming malnourished – by Laila Ali
https://www.wfp.org/stories/somali-refugees-yemen
28.8.2015 – Rotes Kreuz
Yemen: Situation deteriorating in Taiz
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is seriously concerned about an increase in fighting in the city of Taiz. There has been indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas. Essential infrastructure is being destroyed.
https://www.icrc.org/en/document/yemen-situation-deteriorating-taiz
23.8.2015 – Stepfeed
From Yemen, a story of survival and courage despite the conflict
Living in a conflict–torn country, I’ve always struggled to understand the concept of peace. How can an individual who lives under air raids, naval shelling and ground fighting feel any sense of security?
For this reason, for the past few months I’ve been documenting nothing but stolen moments of peace. During this ruthless war in Yemen, life has not stopped. I am always amazed how people can cope with the situation, how they manage to enjoy life despite hardships. Women shopping, children playing and men gathering for breakfast in different neighborhoods were among the moments I captured.
When I was younger, war was something that I learned about only in books and movies. Now I find myself living it, trapped in a seemingly endless conflict. Documenting glimpses of peace in a war ridden reality has become a way of defying war, of searching for peace in pages of a torn book.
Lately I started taking photos in the hardest hit areas in Sana’a and I met Hilema; the woman who embraced her pain and refused to be intimated – von Thana Faroq
19.8.2015 - Ärzte ohne Grenzen
Yemen: "Each Time a Bomb Hit . . . I Could Feel the Ground Shake"
With the conflict between armed groups escalating in Yemen, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) project coordinator Christine Buesser headed for the southwestern province of Al-Dhale’, where medical staff are struggling to keep hospitals running in the face of fighting, bombing raids, and desperate shortages of medicine and fuel. Here, she recounts her experience.
I arrived in Qataba on the day that airstrikes hit Houthi army positions. Each time a bomb hit a target near the hospital where we lived and worked, I could feel the ground shake and the air pressure change inside my body. During the strikes, the women and children huddled together in the hospital corridor, some of them crying. Other patients left the hospital when the bombing started, either to check on family members, or because they were afraid the hospital would become the next target.
The days that followed were frantic and intense as clashes intensified between the warring parties and the front line shifted. We got little sleep as we were receiving seriously injured patients day and night. Besides attending to the patients, the team was working hard to reinforce the hospital building with sandbags and bring in more medical supplies.
Fighting, shelling, and bombing are disrupting daily life, but perhaps the most devastating effect of this conflict is the lack of fuel, basic provisions, and essential services, including water, sanitation, and health care. Almost all hospitals and pharmacies in the areas where we work have closed down.
During my time in Yemen, MSF was the only international organization working in Al-Dhale’ governorate with both Yemeni and international staff on the ground. One person told me: “I haven’t had anything to smile about in weeks, but seeing you here today puts a smile on my face, as it gives me and my fellow Yemenis hope.” -by Christine Buesser
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/yemen-each-time-bomb-hit-i-could-feel-ground-shake
Kriegsereignisse
2.9.2015 – Alalam
Saudi Jets Pound Regions across Crisis-Hit Yemen
Saudi military aircraft have carried out a new round of attacks against several areas across Yemen as Riyadh presses ahead with its military campaign
http://en.alalam.ir/news/1734967
2.9.2015 – Gulf News
Marib campaign will be turning point in Yemen liberation
Governor confirms that province will be the launch pad of Sana’a recapture
Al Mukalla: The governor of Yemen’s Marib province said at least 3,000 Yemeni soldiers have been or are being trained in using sophisticated armoured personnel carriers that will take part in what he called “the liberation of Yemen” from Al Houthis.
Sultan Al Arada told Gulf News on Sunday night that some of those soldiers have arrived in the province with their advanced vehicles and the rest are receiving training in a desert area near the Saudi border with Yemen. The governor made no mention of the date of the operation on Al Houthis strongholds in northern Yemen. Leaders of the exiled government’s army have, however, been quoted in the Saudi press saying they are ready for a push on Sana’a next month.
Kommentar: Propagandasprech: “Liberation”.
1.9.2015 – World Socialist Web
Saudi-Arabien und VAE bereiten US-gestützte Bodenoffensive im Jemen vor
Der fast ununterbrochene Luftkrieg wurde von den USA mit Informationen der militärischen Aufklärung, mit Logistik und mit Luftbetankungsflugzeugen unterstützt. In den letzten Wochen wurde er außerdem durch den zunehmenden Einsatz von Bodentruppen der Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate und Saudi-Arabiens sowie jemenitischer Truppen ergänzt, die von den Saudis ausgebildet wurden.
Das Wall Street Journal berichtete am Montag, dass Truppen der VAE seit Ende Juli heimlich im Südjemen kämpfen. Fast 100 VAE-Soldaten mit unmarkierten Panzerfahrzeugen wurden in Aden stationiert und haben eine wichtige Rolle bei der Vertreibung der Huthi aus der Stadt gespielt.
Die Koalition bereitet Berichten zufolge einen Angriff von drei Seiten auf den Nordjemen vor, der zu einem Blutbad führen könnte: aus der Provinz Saada im Norden, der Provinz Marib im Osten und der Provinz Jawf im Nordosten. Mehrere tausend VAE- und saudische Truppen sowie Kampfpanzer und andere Panzerfahrzeuge wurden bereits im Jemen stationiert.
Die saudische Koalition rechnet wohl damit, dass ein erfolgreicher Angriff auf die Huthi-Hochburg Saada den Anti-Hadi-Kräften einen schweren Schlag versetzen und die Rückeroberung von Sanaa erleichtern würde.
Im Laufe der letzten Woche haben Bodentruppen der Koalition außerdem begonnen, aus dem Nordosten in den Jemen einzudringen. Dabei haben sie die ölreiche Provinz Marib erreicht, aus der Sanaa Strom und Treibstoff bezieht. Sie grenzt außerdem an das Gouvernement Al Jawf, wo Huthi-Kräfte Berichten zufolge als Vorbereitung auf eine Bodenoffensive Schützengräben angelegt und Minen ausgelegt haben.
Die von Saudi-Arabien finanzierte Zeitung Asharq Al-Awsat schrieb am Montag, Bodentruppen der saudischen Koalition hätten den dritten Stoß der Invasion begonnen und seien in die Provinz Saada einmarschiert. Die Truppen haben sich im Stammesgebiet außerhalb der Stadt Saada verschanzt, während saudische Flugzeuge Flugblätter abwarfen, auf denen die Einwohner aufgefordert wurden, die Einsetzung der Hadi-Regierung zu unterstützen – von Niles Williamson
https://www.wsws.org/de/articles/2015/09/02/jeme-s02.html
1.9.2015 – World Socialist Web
Saudi Arabia and UAE prepare for major US-backed ground offensive in Yemen
Facilitated by US military intelligence, logistical support and air tankers to refuel jets, the campaign of nearly continuous airstrikes has been supplemented in recent weeks by a growing ground invasion involving troops from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia as well as Yemeni forces trained by the Saudis.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that troops from the UAE have been secretly leading the fight in southern Yemen since late July. Nearly 100 UAE troops with unmarked armored vehicles were deployed in Aden and have played a key role in pushing the Houthis out of the city.
The coalition is reportedly preparing a bloodbath in northern Yemen by setting up a three-pronged assault from Saada province in the north, Marib province in the east and Jawf province in the northeast. Several thousand UAE and Saudi forces, along with battle tanks and other armored vehicles, have already been deployed inside Yemen.
The Saudi coalition is reportedly calculating that a successful assault on the Houthi stronghold of Saada would deal a fatal blow to the anti-Hadi forces and would facilitate the recapture of Sanaa.
Over the last week, Saudi coalition ground forces have also begun entering Yemen from the northeast and have reached the oil-rich Marib province, which provides Sanaa with electricity and fuel. It is also adjacent to the Al Jawf Governorate, where Houthi forces have reportedly set up trenches and planted mines in preparation for a ground battle.
The Saudi-backed Asharq Al Awsat reported on Monday that Saudi-led ground forces have initiated the third prong of the ground invasion, moving troops into Saada province. The troops have entrenched in tribal areas outside of the city of Saada, while Saudi planes have been dropping leaflets encouraging residents to support the reinstatement of the Hadi government – by Niles Williamson
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/09/01/yeme-s01.html
1.9.2015 – Yemen Post
Battle to retake Yemen capital nears
The Yemeni forces with support from the popular resistance and the Saudi-led coalition have started the battle to drive the Houthi militants out of Marib and Jawf provinces.
More than 250 tanks and 8 Apaches from the coalition are participating in the Marib battle, military sources said on Monday, pointing out that there have been massive preparations in recent days for the main battle to retake the capital Sanaa from the militants.
In the first day of the fight, the two sides exchanged missile attacks with more than a dozen of fighters from both sides killed and others injured, the sources said.
http://yemenpost.net/Detail123456789.aspx?ID=3&SubID=8179&MainCat=3
Kommentar: Gewissermassen pro-saudische Terminologie. Warum sollten „Yemeni forces“ die Anti-Houthi-Koalition sein. Sind die Houthis keine Jemeniten? Ach so, die tauchen dann als „militants“ auf. Sind die Houthi-Gegner keine „militants“? Sind die hier mit dem Puppenwagen unterwegs, oder was?
1.9.2015 – Neues Deutschland
Saudische Angriffe auf zivile Ziele in Jemen
Bei Luftangriffen auf eine Fabrik in Jemen sind mindestens 34 Menschen getötet worden. Der Krieg erzielt derweil unerwünschte Ergebnisse: Wo die Huthi vertrieben wurden, greift Al Qaida nach der Macht.
Normalerweise wird in der Fabrik in der Provinz Hajja zwischen der Hauptstadt Sanaa und der saudischen Grenze Wasser in Flaschen gefüllt. »In einer Zeit, in der es aus dem Wasserhahn kein sauberes Trinkwasser gibt, ist das überlebenswichtig«, sagt Ibrahim al-Rasum, der Besitzer der Fabrik. Doch Anfang der Woche legten Bomben und Raketen der von Saudi-Arabien angeführten Militärallianz die Hallen in Schutt und Asche, 34 Menschen seien gestorben, sagt Rasum; bestätigen kann das in der extrem unübersichtlichen Lage niemand. Die Militärallianz, die auch von den Vereinigten Staaten unterstützt wird, bestätigt so gut wie nie zivile Opfer. In der Fabrik hätten die Huthi Waffen hergestellt und Kämpfer ausgebildet, erklärt Koalitionssprecher Ahmed Asseri, ein Brigadegeneral.
Bereits seit Tagen werden Städte und Dörfer in den Regionen in der Nähe zu Saudi-Arabien regelmäßig bombardiert und unter den Zielen waren auch Schulen und Krankenhäuser.
In den nordjemenitischen Grenzregionen haben die Huthi nach wie vor ihren Rückhalt: Der ins saudische Exil geflohene Präsident Abd Rabbo Mansur Hadi und seine Regierung sind verhasst; das Militär und ihm loyale Milizen versuchten mehrmals, diese Regionen unter Kontrolle zu bringen, scheiterten aber am heftigen Widerstand von Huthi-Milizen und Bevölkerung. Die jüngste Angriffswelle solle, sagen Quellen aus dem Umfeld der Militärallianz, nun endlich vollendete Tatsachen schaffen, auch weil die Huthi-Milizen in den vergangenen Wochen verstärkt Ziele in Saudi-Arabien angegriffen haben; einige Male überschritten Kämpfer auch die Grenze.
Der Krieg nähert sich jetzt einer entscheidenden Phase: Die Hadi-treuen Truppen haben sich vor Sanaa aufgebaut und geben sich siegesgewiss. Doch zunächst einmal sollen Hochburgen der Huthi im Umland erobert werden, um die Milizen einzuschließen.
Doch der Aufmarsch vor Sanaa hat unerwünschte Nebenwirkungen: Um für die Offensive gewappnet zu sein, wurden Truppen und loyale Milizen zusammengezogen; in vielen Regionen unter Kontrolle der Hadi-Treuen blieben nur wenige Kämpfer zurück. Dies hat dazu geführt, dass radikale Gruppierungen mit Nähe zu der Ideologie von Al Qaida oder des Islamischen Staates dort nach der Macht greifen.
http://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/983028.saudische-angriffe-auf-zivile-ziele-in-jemen.html
31.8.2015 – Today’s Zaman
Yemen factions gear up for key battle over central province
Yemen's warring factions were bracing for a key battle in a central province, where victory could allow pro-government forces to move rapidly north into the heartland of the country's Shiiterebels.
Security officials from both sides said the focus was now on Marib, an oil-rich province that supplies the rebel-held capital of Sanaa with electricity and fuel, after months of combat and air strikes that have killed some 2,000 civilians, according to the UN.
Pro-government forces have recently tightened their grip on the province's capital, also called Marib, while the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, have consolidated their positions on its outskirts, digging trenches and laying mines in nearby Jawf, security officials from both sides and witnesses said.
If pro-government forces manage to push the rebels out of Marib, they could potentially advance rapidly across Jawf, a flat, desert province bordering Saudi Arabia that is also a gateway to Saada, the rebels' northern stronghold, where Saudi planes have been dropping flyers urging people to support the "legitimate" government of internationally-recognized president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
1.9.2015 – Threat Matrix
Gulf states pay price for intervention against Houthis in Yemen
While the Emirati and Saudi intervention against Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels and their pro-Saleh supporters has been hailed as a success since Aden and other southern cities and towns have been retaken, the gulf countries have paid a price that is often not seen. The Houthis have destroyed several armored vehicles, including US-supplied M1 Abrams tanks, while battling Saudi and Emirati troops.
Houthi rebels, through their official satellite channel Al Masirah TV, have released several videos detailing the destruction of Saudi and Emirati vehicles in Yemen and in southern Saudi Arabia – by Caleb Weis
31.8.2015 – Yemen News
Dozens of civilians killed in Yemen airstrike
Dozens of civilians were killed and injured in a reportedly misdirected airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition in northern Yemen on Sunday.
Local security sources said the coalition struck a mineral water factory in the district of Abs in Hajjah province killing at least 35 workers and injuring tens of others.
Most bodies were completely burned as the attack destroyed the factory, they added.
http://yemenpost.net/Detail123456789.aspx?ID=3&SubID=8176&MainCat=3
31.8.2015 – ABNA
Saudi-Arabien ist mit 100 Panzern in den Jemen eingefallen
Jetzt rollen also die Panzer. Nicht überraschen kann, dass in den westlichen Mainstream-Medien von der neuen Phase des Krieges nichts zu sehen und zu hören ist. Doch im Internet kursieren reichlich Videos, sodass der Angriff gerichtsfest dokumentiert werden kann. Nach Augenzeugenberichten sollen allein in zwei Tagen an die 100 saudische Panzer und gepanzerte Fahrzeuge den saudisch-jemenitischen Grenzposten Wadia im Norden des Landes überquert haben. Dafür gibt sogar das jemenitische Militär gegenüber der Nachrichtenagentur AFP Zeugenschaft ab: „Dutzende Panzer, bewaffnete Fahrzeuge, Militärtransporter und hunderte von Saudi-Arabien ausgebildete jemenitische Soldaten kamen über Nacht in den Jemen.“
Eine andere Militärquelle führte an, dass es sich um Lieferungen für den „Volkswiderstand und die National-Armee“ handle, Truppen, die ankamen, seien zunächst zu Anfang des Jahres geflohen, nur um jetzt zurückzukehren und für den im saudischen Exil lebenden Präsidenten Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi zu kämpfen. Noch vor dem Panzer-Überfall sollen rund 2800 Soldaten hauptsächlich aus den Emiraten in den Jemen einmarschiert sein, um die Regierungs-Kräfte zu unterstützen. Dazu kommen saudische Spezialeinheiten, Geheimdienstler und logistisches Personal.
http://de.abna24.com/service/middle-east/archive/2015/08/31/708551/story.html
31.8.2015 – News of Yemen
In Pics #Saudi strike killed 29 workers in water bottling company #YemenCrisis
At least 29 Yemeni workers have been killed in an airstrike by Saudi Arabia on Yemen’s southwestern province of Hajjah.
The victims are mostly workers at a mineral water plant in the district of Abs in the province, local media outlets reported on Sunday.
Reports also said that Saudi warplanes bombarded the district at least 15 times and many people sustained injuries in the deadly attacks.
Saudi Arabia also conducted 12 airstrikes on the district of Baqim in the province of Sa’ada, injuring at least one civilian.
Saudi fighter jets also bombarded as many as six times the area of Talh in the province. There has been no report on the possible number of casualties or size of damage caused in the raids.
Also on Saturday, Saudi warplanes bombarded an area in the district of Razeh in Sa’ada, killing at least one child.
The Saudi jets also bombarded the southwestern Yemeni province of Ta’izz, injuring eight civilians including four children. Similarly, residential areas in the provinces of Ma’rib and Hudaydah were targeted.
31.8.2015 – Common Dreams
Saudi Coalition Bombs Yemen Water Bottling Plant, Killing Dozens of Civilians
In the midst of a war-fueled water crisis, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition reportedly bombed a water bottling plant in northern Yemen on Sunday, adding to mounting civilian casualties as the military onslaught enters its sixth month.
"The corpses of 36 workers, many of them burnt or in pieces, were pulled out after an air strike hit the plant this morning," resident Issa Ahmed told Reuters of Sunday's bombing in the province of Hajjah.
The Yemeni Defense Ministry put the number of civilians killed at 34, with dozens wounded.
Coalition spokesperson Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri denied that the bombing hit a civilian target. However, this claim contradicts reports by residents and medical officials.
30.8.2015 – Iran German Radio
Sudan schickt Bodentruppen in den Jemen
Die Regierung in Sudan hat sich zur Entsendung von Bodentruppen in den Jemen bereit erklärt.
Präsident Omar Al-Baschir traf sich Samstagabend in Khartum mit dem zurückgetretenen und flüchtigen Präsidenten Mansur Hadi und versprach, ihm 6000 Soldaten zur Verfügung zu stellen. Die Regierung Sudans hat sich an der militärischen Invasion in Jemen beteiligt, Al-Baschir nannte die jemenitische Regierung legal und erklärte sich bereit, sie zu unterstützen.
http://german.irib.ir/nachrichten/item/288944-sudan-schickt-bodentruppen-in-den-jemen
30.8.2015 – Veterans Today
Saudi Arabia Showing Fake Videos on Military Gains in Yemen
The Saudi media are running a hype about their country’s unreal military gains in Yemen in order to boost the morale of their troops, even showing fake videos of slain Yemeni forces.
The footage of Saudi Arabia’s false videos comes just days after the Yemeni army and revolutionary forces uploaded their genuine videos on their victories in Yemen and Southern Saudi Arabia
On Saturday, a senior Yemeni popular commander cautioned that Saudi Arabia is running a media hype about war in Sana’a in a bid to reduce pressure on the Riyadh-led forces in the South.
“The Saudi media hype about Sana’a battle is no more than the enemy’s psychological warfare to help the forces loyal to fugitive president Mansour Hadi who are fighting against the Yemeni forces in the South and the Saudi army in Najran and Jizan to feel less pressure and boost their morale,” a senior Ansarullah commander told FNA.
The commander said that the Saudi enemy has to pass through Southern provinces before opening its path to Sana’a, while it has failed to do so. “Before Sana’a, they should come in control over Ibb, Taez and Damar, but have failed to stretch their control over these provinces.” – by GPD
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/08/30/saudi-arabia-showing-fake-videos-on-military-gains-in-yemen/
30.8.2015 – SZ
Saudi-Arabien bereitet Sturm auf Sanaa vor
Im Krieg in Jemen bereitet die von Saudi-Arabien geführte Militärkoalition eine Großoffensive vor, um die Hauptstadt Sanaa zu erobern. Sie wird derzeit wie große Teile des Nordens von den Huthi-Milizen und mit ihnen verbündeten Einheiten kontrolliert. Saudische Medien melden, dass Panzer in das östlich von Sanaa gelegene Gouvernement Marib vordringen. Nachrichtenagenturen meldeten am Sonntag bis zu 35 Tote bei einem Luftangriff. Unter den Todesopfern des Angriffs auf eine Fabrik seien 17 Zivilisten, teilten Ärzte mit.
Ein stillgelegter Flugplatz bei den Ölfeldern von Safir solle als Drehscheibe für Nachschub reaktiviert werden, hieß es in Medienberichten. Saudi-Arabien hat bereits acht Apache-Kampfhubschrauber dorthin verlegt. Die Schlacht werde binnen acht Wochen beginnen, kündigte Riad Yassin Abdullah an, der Außenminister der international anerkannten Regierung, die sich im Exil in Riad befindet – von Paul-Anton Krüger
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/jemen-saudi-arabien-startet-grossangriff-auf-sanaa-1.2627312
30.8.2015 – Die Welt
Regierung und Huthis rüsten sich für gewaltige Schlacht
Lange waren die schiitischen Huthi-Rebellen im Jemen auf dem Vormarsch. Doch jetzt könnten die Regierungstruppen und ihre Verbündeten die Provinz Marib erobern – und den Huthis den Strom abstellen
Die Bürgerkriegskontrahenten im Jemen bereiten sich auf eine Schlacht um wichtige Regionen im Zentrum des Landes vor. Sicherheitsbeamte beider Seiten erklärten am Sonntag, im Zentrum der Militäraktionen von schiitischen Huthi-Rebellen und Regierung sowie deren jeweiligen Verbündeten stehe die ölreiche Provinz Marib. Von dort aus werde die von den Huthis kontrollierte Hauptstadt Sanaa mit Elektrizität und Treibstoff versorgt.
Die Regierung und ihre Verbündeten haben nach Aussagen von Augenzeugen und Beamten ihren Druck auf die Provinzhauptstadt Marib verstärkt, während die Huthis ihre Stellungen in der nördlich gelegenen Provinz Dschauf verstärken, Gräben ausheben und Minen legen. Falls es den regierungstreuen Kräften gelingt, die Huthis aus Marib zu vertreiben, könnten sie schnell nach Dschauf vorstoßen, das an Saudi-Arabien grenzt und den Zugang zur Huthi-Hochburg Saada kontrolliert.
30.8.2015 – Spiegel Online
Krieg im Jemen: 36 Zivilisten sterben bei saudi-arabischem Luftangriff
Bei einem Luftangriff auf eine Abfüllanlage im Norden des Landes sind nun 36 Arbeiter getötet worden.
"Das Bergen der Körper ist jetzt geschafft", sagt Issa Ahmed aus der Provinz Hajjah beim Telefonat mit der Nachrichtenagentur Reuters. "Die Leichen von 36 Arbeitern, viele davon verbrannt oder in Einzelteilen, wurden herausgezogen."
Ahmed berichtet von den Folgen eines Luftangriffs im Nordjemen, bei dem am Sonntag ersten Berichten zufolge 36 Zivilisten ums Leben gekommen sind. Sie sollen in einer Abfüllanlage gearbeitet haben.
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/saudi-arabien-36-zivilisten-sterben-bei-luftangriff-im-jemen-a-1050571.html ebenso http://de.euronews.com/2015/08/31/mindestens-40-zivilisten-sterben-durch-saudi-arabische-luftangriffe-im-jemen/
30.8.2015 – Sky News
Saudi-Led Strike 'Kills 36 Civilians' In Yemen
A bottling plant in Hajjah province is hit as Amnesty International warns of a "bloody trail of civilian death" in Yemen.
More than 30 civilians have been killed in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike at a factory in northern Yemen, according to a witness.
Issa Ahmed, a resident in Hajjah province, told the Reuters news agency the bottling plant was hit on Sunday morning.
He said: "The process of recovering bodies is finished now.
"The corpses of 36 workers, many of them burnt or in pieces, were pulled out after an airstrike hit the plant this morning."
http://news.sky.com/story/1543967/saudi-led-strike-kills-36-civilians-in-yemen
see also https://www.rt.com/news/313823-saudi-yemen-civilians-airstrike/
30.8.2015 – Press TV Iran
Saudi fighter jets continue bombarding Yemen
Late on Saturday, the fighter jets conducted attacks on the northwestern Yemeni province of Hajjah. Saudi jets also bombed a fuel station and several houses in the Bayt al-Faqih district in Yemen’s western province of Hudaydah.
Moreover, two Saudi air raids hit the Sirwah district in the central province of Ma'rib.
Also on Saturday, Saudi fighter jets pounded the Baqim district of thenorthwestern Sa'ada province.
In response to the Saudi raids, Yemen’s Ansarullah fighters and allied army units targeted two Saudi bases with shells and artillery fire in the southwestern Dhahran al-Janub region.
http://presstv.com/Detail/2015/08/30/426904/Saudi-Arabia-Yemen-Hajjah-Hudaydah-Marib
29.8.2015 – Alex Potter
Bilder aus Sanaa
http://apps.npr.org/lookatthis/posts/yemen/
29.8.2015 – Anadolu
After losses, Houthis make gains in Yemen’s Taiz
Pro-Hadi source attributes ‘tactical retreat’ from Al-Dabab Mountain region to dwindling military supplies
Following a number of recent reverses, the Shia Houthi militant group has reportedly managed to capture a number of strategic positions from forces loyal to president-in-exile Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in and around Yemen’s southwestern city of Taiz.
The Houthis have succeeded in taking Al-Salih Gardens in Taiz, along with areas of the Al-Dabab Mountain region, according to an Anadolu Agency reporter.
A pro-Hadi source attributed the retreat from the latter region to a lack of military equipment, noting that Houthis forces in the area currently enjoyed an advantage in terms of supplies.
The Houthis, he said, had attacked pro-Hadi forces with tanks and artillery, leading to a “tactical retreat” by the latter.
Recent days have seen fierce clashes in the Al-Dabab Mountain region, which have left dozens dead from both sides.
Fighting is reportedly ongoing around the presidential palace, while Houthi forces have continued to attack pro-Hadi positions in the Thaabat and Sadr Mountain regions.
http://www.aa.com.tr/en/news/583921--after-losses-houthis-make-gains-in-yemen-s-taiz
29.8.2015 – AFP
Coalition pounds Yemen rebels, sets sights on capital
Warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition hit Yemen rebel positions Saturday as reinforcements reached pro-government forces preparing for an anticipated advance towards the capital, military sources said.
Apache helicopters struck a base occupied by rebel forces near Bayhan, in the southern province of Shabwa, hours after fighter jets targeted a convoy of the Iran-backed Huthi rebels in the area, a military source said.
Warplanes also pounded arms depots in the rebel-held capital Sanaa, according to witnesses.
Bayhan borders the eastern province of Marib, where military reinforcements have arrived from neighbouring Saudi Arabia to bolster forces loyal to exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, military sources said.
Armoured vehicles have crossed the Wadia border point in Hadramawt province, heading to Marib, where loyalists are preparing a large offensive, a military official told AFP.
The coalition has also deployed eight Apache helicopters that will be based at the Safir oil fields, the official said.
The operation, aimed at driving the Huthis out of Marib and pushing west towards the capital, will begin in the next few days, the official said requesting anonymity.
http://news.yahoo.com/coalition-pounds-yemen-rebels-sets-sights-capital-130555105.html
29.8.2015 – Press TV Iran
Persisting Saudi aggression kills 31 Yemenis
The warplanes pummeled southwestern Yemen on Friday, killing eight civilians and injuring four others in Al Bayda Province.
Airstrikes against the city of Ibb took the lives of nine people, mostly women and children, and wounded 18 more, while two civilians died after the fighters targeted the Taiz Province.
Pounding northwestern Yemen, Saudi aerial attacks claimed the lives of three grocery store workers in the city of Dhahyan, killed five and injured two others in the Razeh district, and wounded a child elsewhere in the Sa’ada Province.
The bombardment of the Al Hawak district in the Al Hudaydah Province, located in the west, also claimed the lives of three people.
http://presstv.com/Detail/2015/08/29/426805/Saudi-Arabia-Yemen-Bayda-Saada-Jizan-Najran
28.8.2015 – South Front
YEMEN MAP OF WAR, AUGUST 28, 2015
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State in Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) continue to use Saudi-led coalition victories as leverage to increase their territorial control and recruitment in Yemen. Coalition forces have been attempting to strengthen Saudi-controlled President Abdu Mansour Hadi’s ability to govern and control recently captured territories in southern and eastern Yemen.
The Saudi-led offensive in Yemen has lost it’s initial momentum. After breaking out of Aden and advancing into the lightly defended areas of Lahj and Ibb provinces, anti-Houthi advances have now reached areas
where they cannot to move further fastly In the west, clashes have been focused on the city of Taiz, where the urban terrain and entrenched Houthi positions have slowed the offensive significantly. Houthi forces have been answering by a flexible defense in these areas.
To the east, where Saudi forces have captured the Lawder city, Houthi forces have successfully established positions in the Mukayras area, preventing northwestern operations into Bayda province. As forces
reorganize following the breakout from Aden and as more resources are brought into the area, Saudi Arabia’s military and militants will eventually be able to overpower Houthi in Yemen’s southern regions. Nonetheless, their momentum to advance has failed. In the north, Saudi Arabia has been working to open another front in Marib. An offensive push driving west toward Sanaa is an evident move for Saudi-backed units. Houthi fighters have been answering by increasing
http://southfront.org/yemen-map-of-war-august-28-2015/ = http://thesaker.is/yemen-map-of-war-august-28-update/
28.8.2015 - Live Leak
Stop the Illegal Attack on Yemen!
Saudi warplanes have conducted new attacks on Yemen’s northwestern Sa’ada Province, killing five people there.
The fatalities were caused in the Razeh city on Friday. Casualties were also reported after Saudi warplanes launched airstrikes on the city of Amran, also located in the country’s northwest.
Meanwhile, in the southwest, Saudi fighter jets conducted four airstrikes on the central security camp in the city of Ibb, the provincial capital of a province with the same name.
Two women were killed and three people wounded in airstrikes on the Majma’ah complex in the province.
In an exclusive interview with Press TV, political activist and radio host Don DeBar offered his vision of what the future holds for the Saudis in their invasion of Yemen.
The Saudis “have been engaged by the Yemeni people on the ground before and they haven’t fared very well… I guess the strategy before was to try to take out Yemeni infrastructure, and then they figured if they could do that, the population would be in such disarray that they would be able to just walk in,” DeBar said.
Yet, he said, when the Saudi tried that, Yemenis started to fire rockets into Saudi Arabia and “took out some Saudi troops on Saudi territory.”
He said the Saudi regime “really stands on paper clips really,” and that “a good huff-puff would blow their house down, so I think they got a little nervous and I assume they sat down with the command-and-control folks at the Pentagon, who have been guiding the airstrikes and said, ‘We have to do something more aggressive.’”
How such a ‘strategy’ could fail
“The problem with their ‘strategy,’” DeBar said, “is number one… they are not very well-protected. The regime itself is highly unpopular… So, if the people stand up there (in Saudi Arabia), that regime goes down, particularly if the army is out in the field.”
The second problem, he said, is that Saudi Arabia, which has forces in Bahrain to suppress a popular uprising there, does not have enough resources to use against Yemen.
The third problem, he said, is that the Yemeni people are very organized as a people and as a nation.
“Once they get into the Yemeni cities, they (the Saudis) are going to lose their entire army,” DeBar concluded.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bb4_1440767922
28.8.2015 – Middle East Eye / Hürriyet Daily News
Yemen army recruits 4,800 southern fighters: officer
The Yemeni army has recruited 4,800 southern fighters following a presidential decision to integrate loyalist militiamen who helped push Iran-backed rebels out of second city Aden, a military official said Aug. 28.
"This brigade has 4,800 fighters, including soldiers and officers. Most of the recruits are former fighters of the Popular Resistance" pro-government militia, Colonel Fadel Mohammed Hassan told AFP at a military base in Aden.
The majority of the recruits come from Aden province, where forces loyal to exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi pushed back Iran-backed rebels last month, aided by Saudi-led Arab coalition air power.
The Salman Decisiveness Brigade is named after the Saudi king, whose country has led the campaign in support of Hadi since late March.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/yemens-army-recruits-almost-5800-southern-fighters-officer-73573537 = http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/yemen-army-recruits-4800-southern-fighters-officer-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=87693&NewsCatID=352
Kommentar: Gewissermassen pro-saudische Wortwahl: Yemen army: Pro-Hadi-Truppen; Yemen government: Hadi-Exilregierung
28.8.2015 – RT
The battle for Sanaa - the tale of a resistance
Yemen has reached a decisive crossroads in its fights against imperial Saudi Arabia. As communities, sects and regions have been pitted against each other to serve foreign powers' agenda, the Houthi-led resistance movement might still carry a few arrows to its bow.
With oil-rich Saudi Arabia getting ready to launch what it hopes will be the last blow to the resistance movement, Yemenis are bracing themselves for what is to come; acutely aware that the northern city of Sanaa, could soon become the last stand against Al Saud, the ground were all battles are won or lost.
Now that the kingdom and its regional allies have established a stronghold in the southern seaport of Aden, thus securing both an opening onto the sea and a passageway into the mainland, military equipment and men have flooded in - everyday advancing further into Yemen territory, every day challenging the resolve of Yemen's resistance fighters. But if losses were indeed suffered, if indeed towns and positions were abandoned before the fire power of the Saudi-led coalition, Yemen is far from done.
The real war for Yemen will be ultimately fought in its Highlands, a land which no conqueror could ever tame to its will. And though many tried: from the Romans to the Ottomans, the sons of Hamdan never could be made to submit. This time again, Yemen northern tribes could prove too much of a challenge, even before the combined might of Riyadh's wealth and America's military power.
And while most media have been only too keen to portray this war against the Republic of Yemen - the only democracy in the Arabian Peninsula - as a liberation campaign against the evil of the Houthis, on the premise they looked to Iran for support and political guidance, the jury is still out on what it is they have done to deserve annihilation.
While the Houthis have been demonized ad nauseam on account of their religious affiliation to Shia Islam as well as their desire to see rise in Yemen a popular democracy, one in the service of the people and not an oligarchy, they are far from alone in this fight.
Behind them, the northern tribes have rallied, offering both their arms and their political weight - all determined to break Al Saud's imperial legacy, all only too aware that should North Yemen fall, the dormant threat of radicalism would awaken an unstoppable monster over Southern Arabia.
Although carefully censored out by an all too pliable Western press, reports have confirmed that Al-Qaeda has conveniently staged a comeback in Yemen’s southern provinces, coincidentally mapping its advances with that of Al Saud's coalition.
With Aden as good as gone, Sana'a is a city waiting for war - barricaded behind the walls of its surrounding mountains, trenches at the ready.
And though Riyadh continues to rain lead on the capital city, hoping to lay waste the caches of weapons and hinder the inflow of fighters to the city, Sanaa will never open its doors to Al Saud; its people will stand and fight, defend and protect - until they can no more.
For should Sanaa fall, North Yemen will burn and with it its people, its heritage, its history… Saudi Arabia's warning that it would hunt down and bury all those who dared defy its rule have been burned into people's mind. This fight is one of survival – by Catherine Shakdam
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/313717-sanaa-yemen-saudi-houthis/
28.8.2015 – The American Interest
The Looming Bloodbath in Yemen
The capital of Yemen, Sana’a, has been in the Saudi-backed coalition’s sights ever since the rebel Houthis were driven out of the southern coastal city of Aden last month—and now the Saudis are poised to try to take it.
Just as the Houthis were unable to hold Aden, the South Yemenis are likely to find taking and holding Sana’a—which is in the Houthis’ heartland—not much of a cakewalk. Yemen is in many ways two countries (from 1967-1990, this was officially the case). The Houthis are a mountain-dwelling people from the north, and belong to the Zaidi sect of Shi’a Islam. The population of South Yemen is not, and it’s not surprising the Houthis could not hold the south or its old capital, Aden. But for similar reasons, the Saudi-backed, southern-based coalition will likely have real trouble taking and holding the old capital of the north (and more recently, capital of the united country), Sana’a.
The Saudis can and probably will, however, bomb the city heavily and indiscriminately in supporting the effort, killing lots of innocent people and creating a Biblical-scale humanitarian catastrophe in the process. And given the touchy politics of the Iran deal, the temptation for the White House to go along with the Saudis on this one—or at least stay silent as the epic carnage unfolds—will probably be huge.
http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/08/28/the-looming-bloodbath-in-yemen/
28.8.2015 – NZZ
Zunehmendes Chaos in Südjemen
In Aden beherrschen Bewaffnete die Strassen. Das IKRK hat nach einem Raubüberfall alle ausländischen Mitarbeiter aus der Hafenstadt abgezogen.
Der von den Rebellen befreite Süden des Landes gerät zunehmend ausser Kontrolle. Verschiedene Milizen, unter ihnen Verbände, die von der Kaida kontrolliert werden, sind in Südjemen aktiv. Weiter nördlich versuchten die Saudi den Riegel zu brechen, den die Huthi und die Truppen von Ex-Präsident Saleh in Taiz, Jemens drittgrösster Stadt, gelegt haben.
Seit Wochen wird in Taiz erbittert gekämpft. Saudische Flugzeuge bombardieren Huthi-Stellungen und treffen dabei regelmässig zivile Ziele. Teile der Stadt sind zerstört, medizinische und andere Hilfe beinahe unmöglich geworden. Obwohl die Anti-Huthi-Koalition beträchtliche Truppen zur Unterstützung der lokalen Milizionäre nach Taiz gebracht hat, liessen sich die zaiditischen Kämpfer bisher nicht vertreiben. Solange sie ihre Stellung halten, bleibt aber der Weg nach Sanaa versperrt.
Der Abzug regulärer Truppen der Militärkoalition, zu der neben Jemeniten auch Soldaten aus den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten (VAE) und Saudiarabien gehören, hat Aden den lokalen Milizionären ausgeliefert. Diese gehören im Wesentlichen drei Gruppen an, den südjemenitischen Separatisten, der Islah-Partei – welche von den Muslimbrüdern und Salafisten gesteuert wird – sowie dem Kaida-Ableger auf der Arabischen Halbinsel. Seit Wochen wird in sozialen Netzwerken über Schiessereien berichtet, wobei aber nie klar wurde, wer darin verwickelt war.
http://www.nzz.ch/international/asien-und-pazifik/zunehmendes-chaos-in-suedjemen-1.18603900
28.8.2015 – Al Araby
Yemen's pro-government forces prepare for 'final liberation' of Taiz
Preparations are reportedly underway for a decisive battle to liberate Yemen's city of Taiz from Houthi militias and pro-Saleh forces, senior commanders have said.
28.8.2015 – Reuters
Saudi-led air strikes kill 10 people in central Yemen: officials
Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition killed 10 people in air raids in central Yemen on Friday, local officials said.
One air strike targeted the home of a retired army brigadier in the central city of Ibb, killing him and five members of his family, the officials said.
Four more people were killed in separate air strikes on military and security buildings in the city, the officials said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/28/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN0QX1VP20150828
Politik der USA
31.8.2015 – The American Conservative
Yemen and the Folly of “Reassuring” Bad Clients
the U.S. has no need to mollify its clients, but it does anyway. They already get a great deal out of the relationship with Washington, and they contribute virtually nothing in return, but all they need to do to get more out of the relationship is to make noises about how neglected they are. We have an absurd situation in which the U.S. feels compelled to bribe and indulge despotic client states at the same time that those states pursue regional policies that are actually at odds with our interests, and our government does this not to avoid “losing” these clients to another patron but only to keep them from moaning too loudly in public. Far from benefiting the U.S., these client relationships keep pulling us deeper into regional conflicts that our government has no business joining. Yemen is the most obvious example of this, but it isn’t the only one, and if this pattern continues it won’t be the last.
As Khalaf notes later in her column, U.S. support for the campaign in Yemen hasn’t had the effect of “reassuring” the Gulf states, but has prompted a new round of complaints: “Gulf officials are vocal about their frustrations — the US, they say, is not doing enough for them in Yemen [bold mine-DL].” In other words, these officials expect the U.S. to take on more of the costs and risks of an unnecessary and reckless war that their governments started. Since the Saudi-led coalition has struggled to make much progress in their intervention, it’s not surprising that they want the U.S. to bail them out of their horrible blunder, but there is absolutely no reason why the U.S. should do any more than it already has. Indeed, the U.S. should never have lent support to this campaign, and failing that ought to have withdrawn its backing months ago. U.S. backing for this war is one of the most disgraceful episodes of reckless interventionism in recent history, and it is fitting that the administration’s terrible decision to take sides in the war hasn’t even “reassured” the despotic governments that it was meant to satisfy – by Daniel Larison
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/yemen-and-the-folly-of-reassuring-bad-clients/
31.8.2015 – The American Conservative
The Pointless Suffering of Yemen
Marc Lynch comments on the U.S. role in Yemen in his recent Foreign Affairs essay on Obama’s policies in the region:
„The Obama administration’s willingness to support the Saudi campaign in Yemen has been more cynical. Few in Washington believe the Saudi rationale for war, and even fewer believe the campaign has any hope of success. In reality, the United States was appeasing the Saudis on Yemen in order to prevent them from acting as a spoiler on the Iran talks, thereby condemning millions of Yemenis to pointless suffering.“
This has become the standard explanation for why the U.S. is backing the intervention in Yemen, but it remains a very unsatisfying one. If the U.S. hadn’t aided the Saudi-led attack, what exactly would the Saudis and their allies have been doing to “spoil” the Iran talks? They would have expressed their objections to the deal publicly, much as the Israeli government has done in the strongest terms, and then the P5+1 would have pressed ahead with the negotiations regardless. The administration indulged its Gulf clients’ paranoia about Iran and endorsed their reckless war to win tacit acceptance of a deal that those clients had no ability to derail. Like the war on Yemen itself, this was unnecessary and foolish.
The fact that so few in Washington expect the Saudi-led intervention to succeed makes U.S. support for it that much worse. Of course, even if the intervention did “work” to achieve some of the Saudis’ goals (which has never been likely), that wouldn’t make it any less indefensible or appalling. Yemen’s civilian population continues to pay the price for this war, and the humanitarian crisis is set to worsen. This is especially true since the Saudis bombed one of the country’s major ports earlier this month. Mark Kaye explains:
The crisis has been compounded by the fact that getting aid into Yemen and transporting it around the country is very limited. Aid agencies like Save the Children are frantically trying to scale up our response, but it’s almost impossible when we can’t get relief supplies into the country. The recent bombing of Hodeida port – the key entry point for supplies to the hungry people in the north and centre of the country – was the last straw, putting the aid effort in jeopardy at a time when people are running out of food, water and medicine.
As Kaye makes clear, the suffering of the people of Yemen is enormous and is only going to increase under current conditions, and as Lynch says it has all been pointless suffering – by Daniel Larison
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-pointless-suffering-of-yemen/
30.8.2015 – Foreign Affairs
Assisting Al Qaeda. How U.S. Strategy Could Empower AQAP in Yemen
To a significant degree, the problem is also a product of the West’s failure to grasp how Yemenis view AQAP—a failure that both facilitated the group’s expansion and undermined those best placed to contest it: the majority of Yemenis who believe that the group is an elite fabrication.
There are two errors in conventional Western thinking about AQAP. The first is the belief that the government in Sanaa is necessarily motivated to fight groups that violently challenge its rule—and is understood to do so by its population. The second is that AQAP authentically represents a segment of Yemeni society, which gives the group a firm foundation from which to expand its support base.
For Yemenis, though, the line between the state and AQAP is not always clear, and a loss for AQAP is not necessarily a win for the central government. Many believe that competing factions in Yemeni politics stoke the AQAP threat for political advantage. In turn, the fight against AQAP is just a stage on which other domestic power struggles play out. By viewing AQAP as merely a terrorist organization—and not also part of a plotline that has sustained a squabbling elite—the West has been left fumbling around in a domestic confrontation that it continues to misunderstand. The consequences of this are borne by ordinary Yemenis, who are “caught between a drone on one side and Al-Qaeda on the other,” as one cleric told a researcher from Human Rights Watch.”
…
Within Yemen, however, what little survey-based evidence that does exist suggests that AQAP is unpopular. An opinion poll of 1,005 Yemenis from March 2011 found that 86 percent of respondents saw AQAP as either “very” or “somewhat” unpopular in their local area. At the same time, 96 percent said that they disapproved of the Yemeni government’s cooperation with the United States. So AQAP is bad, but the domestic and international politics surrounding its extermination are worse—indeed, in most narratives, they are what sustain the group. The West’s attempts to bolster a central government to fight terrorism, and that government’s penchant for playing the terrorism card, has probably given AQAP longer legs than it ever would have had from popular support alone.
Yemenis do not deny that AQAP exists, but their understanding of the group includes reasons for its resilience that are fundamentally different from the ones in most Western minds. Drone strikes may degrade the AQAP that the West sees—the non-state terrorist entity that shelters in the Yemeni hinterland—while simultaneously empowering the one most visible to Yemenis, that is, the AQAP that signifies a multitude of domestic injustices, many of which the West has been a party to – by Sarah Philipps
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/yemen/2015-08-30/assisting-al-qaeda
30.8.2015 – Sayyidali
Freedom Rider: American Hell for Yemen
The U.S.-spawned whirlwind of carnage and destruction has wrecked the societies of Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia and Yemen, yet most Americans feel themselves blameless. “The people, the corporate media and the political system all accept that their government has the right to intervene in the affairs of other nations and that it is always right and moral in its claims.” They behave like zombified cogs in an imperial death machine.
The United States used the Al Anad airbase in Yemen as the staging area for drone attacks which killed some 1,000 people since 2009. Those crimes were committed under the guise of fighting terrorism but now that same place is the location of karmic justice for the American government and its ally, Saudi Arabia. United States Special Forces fled from Al Anad before it was overrun by Ansar Allah rebels, also known as the Houthis.
It is true that Saudi Arabia bombed Houthi positions and threatens to start a ground invasion with the help of Egypt. Both of these countries are American client states and would not contemplate these actions without having a green light from Washington.
In its zeal to have and maintain hegemony the United States resorts to brute force and supports others who do likewise. The result is dead bodies in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia and Yemen, but the decisions that lead to these crimes are endemic to American policies.
To say that Barack Obama and his Oval Office predecessors made a mess of the Middle East is the very definition of understatement. Because America’s goals are never benevolent its policies lurch from one awful decision to the next with human suffering being the only common denominator.
Washington used jihadists in Libya to overthrow the Gaddafi government only to have those same groups kill the American ambassador. Now the U.S. is fighting the same people it supported there just a few years ago. America fights with al Qaeda and ISIS in Syria but against those same two groups in Iraq.
Washington eventually chose to accept the overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt but now supports the restoration of a dictatorial regime with another leader. The United States calls the president of Sudan a war criminal but now fights on the same side in Yemen. When imperialism is the intention, events will never turn out as predicted.
The chaos makes sense only when the true nature of American foreign policy is acknowledged. The shifting alliances and seemingly strange bedfellows are part of the longstanding doctrine of Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny asserts that the United States has the right to expand its reach anywhere it wants to. The term originally referred to the conquest of North America in the 19th century, but the thinking behind it is still a part of this country’s consciousness.
Most Americans know little or nothing about Yemen or Saudi Arabia, but still happily refer to themselves in the first person plural when speaking of their government. They ask, “What should ‘we’ do about Syria/Iraq/Yemen/Libya?”
While presidents go in and out of office, the people, the corporate media and the political system all accept that their government has the right to intervene in the affairs of other nations and that it is always right and moral in its claims. The numbers of Americans who question whether Barack Obama ought to be in the business of ousting the president of Syria or supporting the president of Ukraine are quite slim.
Yemen is now the epicenter of imperialism run amuck. The Saudis fear that the Shi’a Houthis will be supported by their rival Iran, which the United States now wants to come to terms with in nuclear energy negotiations. Saudi Arabia is therefore on the side of Israel in attempting to scuttle any agreement. There is still no honor among all the thieves.
Whatever policy decisions Washington chooses to make will result in unintended consequences and more violence. Every escalation brings greater danger and America still has no rival for bringing destruction to millions of people. Violence and chaos have become not just the means to certain ends, but ends in and of themselves. That is just how America rolls.
29.8.2015 – Real News Network
Extraordinary Brutality Inflicted on Civilians in Yemen
Interview with Vijay Prashad
In fact there are not only two sides to this conflict. There are many sides to it. All sides have been ruthless in their use of force, not only against each other but against civilian areas.
Saudi Arabia is a very important ally of the United States. It is in fact as important an ally as Israel is in the region. The behavior of the United States toward Saudi Arabia in this conflict against Yemen is eerily like the behavior of the United States towards Israel when Israel bombs Gaza.
And so it's facing asymmetrical bombardment. Whatever the rebels are doing is not being done from the air. The Saudis command the air and they're bombing the whole country. In the same way, the violence between the Israelis and the Palestinians in Gaza is utterly asymmetrical. The Israelis command the air, and all that can happen from Gaza is some minor rocket attacks into Israel. It's comparatively nothing.
In both cases the United States, during the conflict, has resupplied the superior side. In the case of Israel the United States, in the middle of the bombardment of Gaza, resupplied Israel. In this case in the middle of this conflict, which Amnesty International has said that the Saudis are committing alleged war crimes, in the middle of all this the United States has resupplied Saudi Arabia with the very weapons they're using against the Yemeni people.
So just as with Israel, they are supplying them during the war. And similarly in both cases the United States is providing diplomatic cover. In the one case for Israel in its war against Gaza. In this case Saudi Arabia in its war in Yemen. Amnesty International has called for a UN Human Rights Council Commission inquiry of potential war crimes against the Yemeni people. It's unlikely that the Americans are going to allow this commission of inquiry to be set up without a lot of pressure on the countries in the Human Rights Council.
So the American hand in this conflict is considerable. As considerable as it has been in each of the Israeli bombings of Gaza.
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14585 = http://www.globalresearch.ca/extraordinary-brutality-inflicted-on-civilians-in-yemen/5473079
Politik der EU
5.4.2015 / 21.3.2015 – Global Research
Massive EU Weapons Sales to Saudi Arabia Contribute to Fuelling International Aggression and Terrorism in the Middle East
According to the German magazine Der Spiegel, the European Union is the most important weapons exporter to Saudi Arabia. Of all EU member states, France comes first with Euro2168.6 million of exports in 2010. Italy is in second place with Euro435.3 million, before Great Britain, with Euro328.8 million.
By arming the Saudi kingdom, the member states of the European Union are breaking prevailing EU rules regulating the exports of weapons, notes Der Spiegel.
It is worth noting, in this regard, that a large quantity of the weapons sold to Saudi Arabia by EU member states has ended up in the hands of Libyan and Syrian “rebels” including terrorists, thus largely contributing to fuelling international aggression and regional instability. According to Finian Cunningham: “Saudi Arabia and Qatar in particular were also instrumental in driving events in Syria and Libya, providingfinancial support, weapons, covert fighters and strident diplomatic backing for the self-styled “transitional councils”.
Der Spiegel confirms that Saudi Arabia participated in the violent repression of popular revolts in Bahrain, an issue which was largely ignored by the Western mainstream media.
In a bitter irony, the world’s top weapons traders (US, Russia, Britain, France, China) are the countries designated under the UN Charter to “preserve peace”, namely as permanent members of the UN Security Council. (See Richard F. Grimmett, CRS Report for Congress; Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2003-2010, September 22, 2011.)
Politik Saudi-Arabiens
31.8.2015 – Al Monitor
Saudi king wants Obama to tackle Iranian 'mischief'
The new Saudi king will use his first official visit to the White House this week to make clear that his country’s lukewarm support for the nuclear deal with Iran comes with strings attached.
King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud’s three-day visit, strategically scheduled just days before Congress votes on the agreement, offers the Saudi leader a powerful platform to insist that the United States help combat Iranian “mischief.” The king is seeking assurances in the fight against Iran’s proxies across the region, as well as with elements of the nuclear deal itself.
The visit “underscores the importance of the strategic partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Aug. 27.
“The president and the king will discuss a range of issues and focus on ways to further strengthen the bilateral relationship, including our joint security and counterterrorism efforts,” Earnest said. “They will also discuss regional topics, including the conflicts in Yemen and Syria, and steps to counter Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region.” – by Julian Pecquet
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/saudi-king-washington-visit-iran-deal.html#
8.2015 – Crescent Online
Yemen: the Saudi “lebensraum”
Hanan al-Harazi, a Yemeni refugee in Kenya talks to Vanessa Beeley about her escape from Yemen and the “Saudi” crimes against her people.
Aden is being portrayed by the pro-aggression media as being a battleground for the legitimacy of Hadi. In 2011, Hadi was the only viable choice to fill the power vacuum. Six million northerners voted for him while the south actually boycotted elections. This alone should counter the claims that he has legitimacy in the South of Yemen. In Aden what is happening now is that Hadi has gone back to the South but it has to be made clear that the people of Aden and the surrounding areas are not pro-Hadi, they are also fighting for their independence and are not pro-Saudi aggression.
If you look at the map of the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is landlocked. Its only access or lifeline to the outside world is via the Bab al-Mandab straits in the south of Yemen and the Straits of Hormuz which are controlled by Iran. Yemen has never attempted to block or impede movement through the Yemeni controlled Mandab straits. To be honest I don’t even think that Yemen truly controls this area; it is covertly under the control of the imperialist powers. Saudi Arabia has a lot of internal turmoil and is brutally crushing its own internal opposition. We would never interfere in Saudi internal affairs but I believe that they fear a strong Yemen. With our new constitution clearly stating that leaders can only have two terms in power, we would be the only republic in the GCC bloc. In Saudi Arabia, which is a despotic regime, our evolution could threaten the stability of their ruling families.
http://www.crescent-online.net/2015/08/yemen-the-saudi-lebensraum-5044-articles.html
Huthi-Herrschaft
1.9.2015 – AP
Yemen's Shiite rebel leaders announced Tuesday that they will form a Cabinet in 10 days as mediated talks with the country's internationally recognized government hit an impasse in the Gulf nation of Oman.
The country's major political parties dismissed the move and didn't attend the press conference at Sanaa, where it was announced.
"No one will recognize this Cabinet," said spokesman Rageh Badie of the internationally recognized Yemen government, exiled in neighboring Saudi Arabia. "It is a suicidal move." – by Ahmed Al-Haj
http://news.yahoo.com/yemens-shiite-rebels-form-cabinet-10-days-165816351.html
31.8.2015 – AP
Yemen Rebels Raid Dozens of Homes of Opponents in Capital
Shiite rebels in Yemen's capital have raided dozens of homes of political opponents and local NGO workers, claiming they are affiliated with the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, security officials said Monday.
The officials said that last week the Houthis detained at least 20 people, one of whom works for the U.N., near the capital's presidential palace. Houthi officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/yemen-rebels-raid-dozens-homes-opponents-capital-33435169 und auch http://news.antiwar.com/2015/08/31/yemens-houthis-raid-homes-of-rivals-in-sanaa/
28.8.2015 – Reporters without borders
YEMEN’S HOUTHI REBELS THOUGHT TO BE HOLDING 11 JOURNALISTS HOSTAGE
According to the Reporters Without Borders tally, at least 11 journalists are currently being held hostage by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who are responsible for most of the threats and acts of violence against journalists in an all-out civil war with a death toll from the past four months now exceeding 4,000
http://en.rsf.org/yemen-yemen-s-houthi-rebels-thought-to-28-08-2015,48274.html
Terrorismus – ISIS – Al Qaida
2.9.2015 – Middle East Eye
Double bomb attack rocks mosque in Yemen
Car bomb reportedly hit outside the mosque after a suicide bomber detonated explosives belt inside during evening prayers .
Worshippers were killed and injured in Yemen on Wednesday when suicide bombers targeted a mosque in Sanaa.Twenty people were killed, according to the Yemeni Health Ministry, which is currently controlled by Houthi rebels.Al-Mu’ayyad Mosque, in the northern district of al-Jiraf, was rocked by the explosion when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt as worshippers gathered for evening prayers.
According to numerous reports, a car bomb went off outside the same site minutes later, killing those who had flocked to the mosque to help people hit by the first attack
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/double-bomb-attack-rocks-mosque-yemen-1521426823 see also http://www.whdh.com/story/29943769/bombs-at-mosque-in-yemens-capital-kill-at-least-20-people and http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/09/02/world/middleeast/ap-ml-yemen.html?_r=0
2.9.2015 – BBC
Has Yemen war handed Aden to jihadists?
Unseen by most of the world, the once tranquil port of Aden is being steadily infiltrated by jihadists from both al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) and the so-called Islamic State (IS).
They are not in charge of the city, the military forces of the UAE are. But in the last few days disturbing reports have emerged of the summary executions of prisoners by the jihadists, along with their black flags hoisted onto public buildings.
The war in Yemen, now in its sixth month, has effectively offered the jihadists a backdoor entry into the country's second most important city and a major Indian Ocean port.
"The jihadists have been taking advantage of the chaos in Aden to infiltrate the city," says Aimen Deen, a Dubai-based consultant and former jihadist himself.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34115952
28.8.2015 – ORF
Al-Kaida-Ableger lässt im Jemen Männer auspeitschen
Die radikale Islamistenorganisation Al-Kaida auf der Arabischen Halbinsel (AQAP) hat im Jemen zehn Männer öffentlich auspeitschen lassen.
Der Vorfall ereignete sich nach offiziellen Angaben von gestern in der Küstenstadt Al-Schihr in der Provinz Hadramaut. Die Vorwürfe gegen die zehn Männer lauteten auf Gotteslästerung sowie Konsum von Drogen und Alkohol. Bei der öffentlichen Auspeitschung gab es Dutzende Augenzeugen. Den Männern wurden zwischen 80 und 100 Peitschenhiebe zugefügt.
http://orf.at/stories/2295673/
28.8.2015 – AFP
Qaida lashes 10 in Yemen for blasphemy, alcohol
Al-Qaida militants in southeastern Yemen have publicly flogged 10 men in a new sign of their growing control over the lawless region, witnesses and an official said on Friday.
The men were whipped in Al-Shihr, a coastal town in Hadramawt province, after being summarily convicted of insulting God and consuming alcohol and drugs, the official said
Dozens of people attended the flogging, which is said to follow the Islamic sharia law.
Witnesses said each man received between 80 and 100 lashes and that both screamed in pain
The official said al-Qaida militants have been harassing residents by interfering in all aspects of their daily lives.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Qaida-lashes-10-in-Yemen-for-blasphemy-alcohol/articleshow/48712351.cms = http://news.yahoo.com/qaeda-lashes-10-yemen-blasphemy-alcohol-140344291.html
26.7.2015 – Vocativ
ISIS Claims It Set Up A Training Camp In Yemen's Aden
Photos released over the weekend show militants doing drills
ISIS released a series of images over the weekend that the terror group says show a new training base in Yemen’s coastal city of Aden. The official Islamic State media wing of a group calling itself ISIS’ Aden Province released the photos, which purportedly depict the fourth group of fighters to have participated in a training session there.
The photos were released just one week after the Islamic State said it captured and killed Houthi fighters in Aden. They claimed they moved in on the city as local Yemeni militias backed by Saudi Arabia managed to “liberate” Aden from Houthi rebels. That announcement sparked backlash on social media, with many in the country expressing concern over the group’s involvement in the region. Others said the reports that ISIS was in the city were false, while some accused the Houthis of inflating the ISIS threat for propaganda purposes.
On Sunday, some Aden residents similarly dismissed claims that ISIS was training militants in the city that has been a key battleground since Houthi rebels took control of major parts of it in late March – by ISIS released a series of images over the weekend that the terror group says show a new training base in Yemen’s coastal city of Aden. The official Islamic State media wing of a group calling itself ISIS’ Aden Province released the photos, which purportedly depict the fourth group of fighters to have participated in a training session there – by By Vladi Vovcuk and Gilad Shiloach
http://www.vocativ.com/news/215326/isis-claims-it-set-up-a-training-camp-in-yemens-aden/
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