Schwerpunkte / Key aspects
Klassifizierung / Classification
Am wichtigsten / Most important
Allgemein / General
Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
Südjemen und “Resistance” / Southern Yemen and “Resistance”
Saudi-Arabien und Iran / Saudi Arabia and Iran
Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
USA
Großbritannien / Great Britain
Russland / Russia
China
Flüchtlinge / Refugees
Terrorismus / Terrorism
Journalismus / Journalism
Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
Klassifizierung / Classification
***
**
*
(Kein Stern / No star)
A = Aktuell / Current news
B = Hintergrund / Background
C = Chronik / Chronicle
D = Details
E = Wirtschaft / Economy
H = Humanitäre Fragen / Humanitarian questions
K = Krieg / War
P = Politik / Politics
PH = Pro-Houthi
PS = Pro-Saudi
T = Terrorismus / Terrorism
Am wichtigsten / Most important
22.1.2016 – Huffington Post (** B H)
Bombing Of Blind School Shows Cruel Toll Of Yemen's War
An airstrike hit the only school for kids with visual disabilities earlier this month
[on this event, see earler Yemen Press Readers. This article again reports the bombing, the fact that the Houthis had endangered this facility by placing militants there, and then refers to the situation of disabled in this war]
Even before the war, the estimated 3 million people who have disabilities in Yemen faced huge challenges.
Now, they are particularly vulnerable to the war raging around them.
Some people who depend on wheelchairs have been unable to flee to safe areas, the United Nations says. It's harder to access medical treatment as Yemen's fragile health care system struggles to cope with thousands of wounded amidst shortages of medicine and supplies and war damage to around 100 health facilities. Hundreds of organizations helping people with disabilities had to close because of the fighting last year, the U.N. said.
Since the airstrike, the al-Noor Center has joined this list of closed organizations, at least temporarily, after decades as a lifeline to people with visual disabilities.
While the Houthis moved into the complex last May, the al-Noor Center had been providing education and support to people with visual disabilities since 1967. It currently has around 250 students, from ages 6 to 30, who come from all over Yemen, manager al-Himyari told The WorldPost.
"There are not many centers like this in Yemen, and this is the only one in Sanaa," he said. "We don't have much funding, but we teach most subjects, including Braille."
For now, the al-Noor students are waiting to see when they can go back to their school.
Many of the students and staff are staying in a nearby hotel, and they hope to hold classes there while the building is repaired, al-Himyari said. There is a lot of damage, but he is optimistic it will be repaired in the next few months.
"The children are going through a state of trauma because of the bombing," al-Himyari said. "We hope that once the center is rebuilt and they are able to return, they will be able to recover." – by Charlotte Alfred and Rowaida Abdelaziz
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/yemen-war-blind-school-airstrike_us_569d094ee4b0778f46fa0c84
22.1.2016 – The Platform (** B K P)
Britain and Saudi: The Shame of £2.8bn of Arms Sales
The profitability of the war in Yemen has kept Britain and Saudi on exceptionally close terms
The UK, for instance, has fully supported and cooperated with the destruction. At Prime Minister’s Questions earlier this week, the SNP’s Westminster leader, Angus Robertson, made the point that the UK has been an active participant in the conflict, and it’s easy to see why. Right from the start, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond pledged to “support the Saudis in every practical way short of engaging in combat”. Since the conflict began the UK has licensed £2.8 billion of arms to the Saudi government. UK military personnel have helped Saudi authorities to identify targets and, according to Defence News, UK bombs earmarked for the RAF have been transferred to Saudi Arabia to aid the bombing.
Of course, the issue of UK support extends far beyond the actions of this particular Conservative government. Over the last 40 years, various UK governments have built a special military relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The last time there was any real scrutiny of the UK weapons trade with Saudi was in 2004, when the Serious Fraud Office began looking into corruption relating to arms sales to the regime. The investigation threatened to unearth a litany of embarrassing details, but, after a concerted lobbying effort, including interventions by Tony Blair and the attorney general, it was dropped. Shortly after, a deal was signed to sell billions of pounds worth of fighter jets to the regime.
Another outcome of this cooperation has been the high level of integration of UK and Saudi military programmes. About 240 civil servants and military personnel from the UK’s Ministry of Defence currently work to support military contracts through the Ministry of Defence Saudi Armed Forces Programme and the Saudi Arabia National Guard Communications Project.
Over recent months, serious allegations emerged that Britain helped lobby behind the scenes to secure Saudi Arabia’s election to the UN Human Rights Council; a membership which would be laughable if the on-going consequences weren’t so serious. Furthermore, it is, perhaps, no surprise that Saudi was the only major death penalty state to be omitted from the UK’s anti-death penalty strategy. Perhaps none of this hypocrisy is surprising when the Foreign Office has admitted that human rights are no longer a “top priority” for the government.
The consistently uncritical political and military support that Britain offers to Saudi Arabia is not just immoral – it may well be illegal. A recent legal opinion from Matrix Chambers, commissioned by Safer World and Amnesty International found that the UK government is breaking national, EU and international law and policy by supplying weapons for use in Yemen.
Fawning political and business support of governments like the UK serves to fuel the Saudi regime and makes the chances of long-term peace in the region even more remote. Saudi is not just buying weapons – it’s also buying this western endorsement of its actions. The result is that Britain is both ignoring the abuses taking place and helping to facilitate them.
The bottom line is that as long as the Saudi government enjoys the political and military support of some of the most powerful western nations, oppression and destruction will continue. Violence will be the norm, and innocent Saudi and Yemeni citizens will continue to pay the price – by Andrew Smith, spokesperson for Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).
http://www.the-platform.org.uk/2016/01/22/britain-and-saudi-the-shame-of-2-8bn-of-arms-sales/
22.1.2016 – Junge Welt (** B T)
Die Geburtshelfer des IS
USA und EU haben durch Destabilisierung von Staaten und Militärinterventionen Wachstum und Ausbreitung des islamistischen Terrorismus gefördert
Seit bald 15 Jahren führen die USA und ihre Verbündeten »Krieg gegen den Terror«. In dieser Zeit haben sie es geschafft, das Problem, das sie angeblich bekämpfen wollen, über große Teile der Welt zu verbreiten. Die Gegner, gegen die bis zu 200.000 NATO-Soldaten im Einsatz waren, sind um ein Vielfaches zahlreicher und stärker geworden. Bewaffnete islamistische Organisationen verfügen heute über schwer angreifbare Rückzugsgebiete im Irak, in Syrien, auf der ägyptischen Sinaihalbinsel, in Libyen und anderen Staaten der Region, im Jemen und in Nigeria einschließlich seiner Nachbarländer. Hunderte Anhänger des »Islamischen Staates« (IS) operieren auch in Somalia und Afghanistan.
Im Jemen profitiert der IS – ähnlich wie Al-Qaida, aber in sehr viel geringerem Umfang – von dem Machtvakuum, das durch das militärische Eingreifen Saudi-Arabiens in den Bürgerkrieg seit Ende März 2015 entstanden ist. Al-Qaida verfügt über ein ausgedehntes Territorium im Südjemen mit der bedeutenden Hafenstadt Mukalla. Örtliche Gegner scheint die Organisation nicht zu haben, mit der starken Separatistenbewegung in diesem Gebiet arbeitet sie möglicherweise punktuell zusammen. Das »Reich« von Al-Qaida bleibt von Angriffen der saudischen Luftwaffe verschont, Mukalla ist von der ansonsten sehr wirkungsvollen Seeblockade der Saudis ausgenommen. In jüngster Zeit soll die Organisation Kämpfer aus dem Süden weiter nach Norden verlegt haben, um sich am Krieg der saudisch geführten Koalition gegen die Schiiten und die mit ihnen verbündeten Teile der regulären jemenitischen Streitkräfte zu beteiligen – von Knuth Mellenthin
Dagegen ist die Zahl der IS-Angehörigen, überwiegend wohl frühere Al-Qaida-Leute, vorläufig gering. Ihre Haupttätigkeit sind Bombenanschläge auf schiitische Moscheen im Jemen selbst, aber auch in Saudi-Arabien. Der IS verfolgt dabei die gleiche Strategie, mit der er auch im Irak erfolgreich war: das Provozieren schiitischer Reaktionen mit den selben Mitteln und das Entfesseln eines »Religionskriegs« zwischen den Bevölkerungsgruppen.
https://www.jungewelt.de/2016/01-22/052.php
Allgemein / General
22.1.2016 – Before it’s News (A K)
Yemen update 1/22/2016.. “Heinous Massacre” Of Civilians, Rescue Workers By Saudi Warplanes
Films, an article by Martin Berger from NEO again
22.1.2016 – Zeit Online (B K)
Der vergessene Krieg
Auch im Jemen kämpften die Jungen einst für einen Wandel. Dann kamen die Scharfschützen, Bomben und Massaker. Flüchtlinge berichten von einer gestohlenen Revolution.
http://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2016-01/jemen-krieg-revolution-protokolle
Kommentar: Man erfährt weniger über den Krieg als über die Befindlichkeiten und Hoffnungen eines uns im Westen geistig nahestehenden jungen Mannes, der wegen der schlimmen politischen Verhältnisse das Land verlassen musste.
21.1.2016 – Legal Centre for Rights and Development (*B K)
The outcome of 30 days. Statistics of casualities and damages (Infograph)
Comment: This is from the Legal Centre for Rights and Development who have kept careful records of all strikes on a daily basis. You can visit their Facebook page to see each day's toll. This is on the 300th day of aerial bombardment by the Saudi led coalition. And though much of Yemen is destroyed, not much has changed. Despite claims to the contrary the government under Hadi controls very little. Most of Yemen is controlled by militias, although the Houthis have been moved from much of the southwest of Yemen they still control most of the old North, they are still contesting Taiz, and other militias such as AL Qaeda control much of the rest of Yemen, including the old South Yemen, which is now clamouring for independence. There is something of a struggle going on between the extremist Sunni militias and the Yemen army in Aden, which seems to be getting worse rather than better.
https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1090052041147286
21.1.2016 – Before it’s news (A K)
Yemen update 1/21/2016..Caught on Camera, Saudi double-tap strikes on Dhahian Saada killed rescuers
[Various films; Text relating on a film about the Saudi royal family]
Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
Siehe auch “Am wichtigsten” / Also look at “Most important”
22.1.2016 – Mint Press News (* B H)
Media Silent As US-Backed Saudi Forces Starve Half Million Yemeni Children
The United Nations warned that 8,000 children could suffer from severe malnutrition in 2016. And that’s just in one southern Yemeni city.
While the media was flooded with images of the starving children of Syria, the thousands of children suffering from Saudi Arabia’s U.S.-backed onslaught on Yemen made far fewer headlines.
UNICEF reported in October that 537,000 Yemeni children were at risk of severe malnutrition nationwide, while Alexi O’Brien, reporting for Al-Jazeera in September, noted that the United Nations warned that 96,000 children were “starving and close to death” in the port city of al-Hodeidah, and an additional 8,000 children faced starvation in Aden in 2016.
The situation was so dire nationwide that, in June, the U.N. reported “that at least six million people in Yemen are in urgent need of emergency food and life-saving assistance, a new United Nations (UN) investigation has found … 10 out of Yemen’s 22 governorates are facing an ‘emergency level’ food security situation amid the ongoing conflict, including major areas like Aden, Taiz, Saa’da and Al Baida.” In July, Oxfam reported that the number of starving people in Yemen had topped 6 million — nearly half the country’s population of 13 million. Aid workers are struggling to reach the needy, with the World Food Programme reporting that it had served 3.5 million Yemenis by August.
While the suffering of the residents of Madaya is heart-wrenching, some critics have questioned the motives behind the media’s focus on this single town rather than suffering in Yemen or even elsewhere in Syria
On Monday, Ben Norton, politics staff writer for Salon, cited the siege of Yemen, as well as Israel’s decade-long blockade of Gaza, when he questioned why some atrocities are condemned and others are “barely even acknowledged.” He wrote:
“All sieges are of course tragic, because they harm civilians. There should be outrage at the siege on Madaya, but there should be proportionate outrage. All of the other ongoing sieges — and the much larger blockades — that happened to be supported by the West should not conveniently be ignored.
Americans, in particular, should be concerned about the millions upon millions of people being starved in policies backed by their ostensibly democratic government, right at this very moment.”
http://www.mintpressnews.com/213003-2/213003/
Comment: Again throwing light on the double-standards of western media.
21.1.2016 – Government of the United Arab Emirates (B H)
Lubna Al Qasimi: Yemen humanitarian crisis a challenge to international community
Her Excellency highlighted the UAE's efforts in response to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, which included the provision of various types of aid, benefiting over 1.8 million Yemeni people. HE explained that the UAE offered a sum of 1.64 billion dirhams ($447 million) in 2015 as humanitarian aid, with a special focus on infrastructure rehabilitation efforts in the Yemeni governorates of Aden, Taiz, Lahj, Dalea, Shabwa, Abyan, Hadramaut, Mahara, and Marib, in addition to the island of Socotra. The UAE also helped in the rehabilitation of Aden airport and sea port, as well as many of the power stations, a total of 11 hospitals, and a medical center. The UAE also helped in the maintenance and rehabilitation of 154 schools, with 123 schools already handed over to the Yemeni government in time for the school term. Al Qasimi also highlighted that the UAE assisted in various other developmental projects, while continuing the provision of food aid.
Comment: Destroy at first, buld up again at second. You could do better.
21.1.2016 – International Organisation for Migration (* A H)
Yemen Crisis Regional Response
To date, 583,296 IDPs and conflict-affected persons (244,984 women, 262,483 men, 40,831 girls and 34,998 boys) in Abyan, Aden, Al Dhale'e, Al Jawf, Hadhramaut, Ibb, Lahj, Sana'a and Shabwah governorates have benefitted from IOM’s WASH activities Since March 2015, IOM has provided shelter and NFI support to 44,434 IDPs in Aden, Abyan, Lahj, Hadhramaut, Shabwah, Al Dhale’e, Sa’ada, Taizz and Socotra governorates Since April, 2015, around 73,896 IDPs and other conflict-affected populations in Abyan, Aden, Al Dhale’e, Hajjah, and Al Hudaydah, Sana’a, Shabwah and recently in Ibb and Sa’adah have been provided with emergency and primary health care health assistance, including treatment of diseases and injuries, reproductive health services, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), health awareness-raising sessions, and management of acute malnutrition.
To date, IOM has assisted 2,060 migrants, including 90 resettlement cases to Sweden and France to leave Yemen by air, and has also organized 12 boat rotations evacuating a total of 2,257 migrants by sea. Furthermore, throughout the current crisis, IOM continues to provide primary, secondary and tertiary health care to vulnerable migrants coming from the Horn of Africa. Since April 2015, 9,972 vulnerable migrants have benefited from IOM’s health assistance in Aden, Al Hudaydah and Sana’a.
21.1.2016 – IRIN (* B H)
Smuggling Oxygene on a Camel
Breaking the siege: Yemen’s new aid-smuggling industry
[This report is from Taiz]
Mohammed Diab, a trader from Taiz, said he rents a donkey to smuggle in foodstuffs to sell in his shop.
Some businessmen buy goods from Houthi-controlled areas, where some traders prefer the ease of motorised travel. But Diab sees the treacherous mountain paths as more secure, because Hadi’s backers lord over them. “Those roads are not safe, and sometimes the Houthis seize [the goods],” he told IRIN.
Camel-owning smugglers are doing especially well from the trade: 41-year-old Noaman Zaid makes YR5000 (23$) for carrying an oxygen canister, and his animal can tote two at a time. It’s dangerous – there’s always the risk of explosion – but transporting the risky cargo carries a healthy premium.
"I used to transfer firewood on my camel from the valley to different villages in Saber Mountain, and I hardly made YR2000 ($9) per day,” he told IRIN.
But the cash isn’t the only reason he’s in the smuggling game. “I’m very happy with my work not because of money, but because I help the patients in the hospitals,” Zaid added.
Indeed, smuggling has become a charitable racket. Doctors meet the animals and their owners to ensure that the oxygen goes straight to the hospitals where it is used for life-saving procedures.
Some of the smugglers are even supported by local non-profits. Esam Albdulhamid A-Batra runs a campaign called “Hand in Hand,” which collects money from individuals and charities to buy oxygen cylinders in Aden, and send them to Taiz – by Nasser Al-Sakkaf
http://newirin.irinnews.org/smuggling-oxygen-on-a-camel/ = http://www.albawaba.com/news/breaking-siege-yemen%E2%80%99s-new-aid-smuggling-industry-796026
4.1.2016 – Doctors Without Borders (* A H)
Three familiar sounds
[Reporting from his time at the MSF facility at Taiz, then bombed by the Saudi coalition]
Several airstrikes in the morning, only 2km from our mobile clinic, had shaken our staff, so MSF had called the coalition to remind them again of our mobile clinic activity, just to be on the safe side. We had set the clinic up in a large white tent that sported a huge MSF flag spread flat on its roof. The bright red MSF logo was easily visible from the sky, the coalition was told multiple times about the mobile clinic and its location and yet, because of this Saudi-led coalition airstrike, several people in the clinic were injured and one is now dead.
This is the second MSF facility in Yemen to be hit by airstrikes from the Saudi-led coalition, which is supported by the United States, United Kingdom, Jordan, and other major players. The other, an MSF-supported hospital in Haydan, was turned into a pile of rubble in late October by a series of airstrikes.
While this airstrike affected our activities in the Houthi-controlled area of Taiz, the Houthis have continued to block MSF from delivering life-saving medical supplies to hospitals across the frontline in the besieged city centre, an enclave controlled by a variety of groups opposed to the Houthis, where hospitals have been hit multiple times by indiscriminate shelling. Back in October, MSF spoke out about our inability to provide this urgent medical support.
One after-effect of this airstrike is a temporary reduction of staff in Taiz. I, among others, was relocated to the capital, Sana’a.
http://blogs.msf.org/en/staff/blogs/msf-in-yemen/three-familiar-sounds
16.11.2016 – Safer World (not rated B H)
Federalism, conflict and fragmentation in Yemen
In this transcript and audio recording of a Saferworld discussion event, Yemen experts Peter Salisbury (Associate Fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House), and Baraa Shiban (Yemen Project Coordinator at Reprieve), discuss the country’s conflict, as well as the political landscape it is rooted in. Peter Salisbury presents the main findings of his recent Saferworld reportFederalism, conflict and fragmentation in Yemen, and Baraa Shiban presents some of his experiences working on the future of the Yemeni state within Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference. The event is chaired by Leonie Northedge, Middle East and North Africa Programme Manager at Saferworld.
Nine months since the beginning of a protracted and increasingly bloody conflict in Yemen, some 5,500 people have been killed and over 26,000 injured. The humanitarian impact of the conflict has been catastrophic, and there is no imminent end in sight to the fighting. In autumn 2015, a consultation process was launched by the Yemen Health Network (Musāhamatna) to gather views on likely forward trajectories for the health system in Yemen and to discuss ways of supporting health system rehabilitation there after conflict. This involved a small telephone consultation with diaspora Yemenis, and a workshop convened as part of Medact’s Health through Peace conference in London in November 2015 to discuss possible trajectories for the health system in Yemen under various different scenarios to 2020, and begin to identify some priority actions to support health system rehabilitation under each scenario. This report summarises key findings from the consultation process to date, and outlines next steps in an ongoing project on health system rehabilitation and reconstruction in Yemen.
11.2016 – Safer World (not rated B C P)
Federalism, conflict and fragmentation in Yemen
The current crisis unfolding in Yemen has roots in a political culture that promoted corruption and patronage among the country's political elites at the expense of the country's wider population, which experienced shortages in basic services, including water, healthcare, education, security and justice. The 2011 uprising made it clear that the way the country was run was no longer acceptable to the majority of the populace.
During the subsequent 2013–14 National Dialogue Conference, a contentious proposal was pushed through by President Hadi for a six-region federal model. As a governance model, federalism has become a popular tool for policymakers working on peacebuilding processes in post-conflict states because it ostensibly provides voice to all parties to conflict, and can promote more accountable and inclusive governance. However, federalism is also a complex process fraught with difficulty, and one that is often extremely politicised.
In this report, Peter Salisbury argues that the focus on federalism as a solution to Yemen’s many problems was emblematic of the wasted opportunity of Yemen’s transitional period. Diplomats, foreign advisers and Yemeni politicians devoted more energy to selling utopian long-term solutions than to addressing a deteriorating political, economic, security and humanitarian environment. Unless future administrations prioritise much-needed basic services for the entire population, no governance model can provide a peaceful future for the country. Failure to address these concerns will continue to lead those disillusioned with the transitional process to give up on the state and turn to non-state actors – by Peter Salisbury
Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
22.1.2016 – Art Crime Blogspot (* A K)
Before/After images of Bar'an Temple (Moon Temple), Ma'rib, Yemen
From the capital of Sana'a to Ma'rib, Aden, Dhale, Hajjah, Hodayda, Sa'ada, Shabwa, and Ta'iz: Mohannad al-Sayani, the Director of Yemen's General Organization of Antiquities and Museums has stated that at least 23 sites and monuments have been severely damaged or destroyed since beginning of the conflict in Yemen.
ARCA, Archaeology in Yemen and Archaeology in Syria Network are trying to document all of them.
Bar'an Temple, Ma'rib Governorate, Yemen
Information on social media first reported that Yemen's Bar'an Temple, located next to Ma‘bid ash Shams in Ma'rib Governorate was damaged as a result of the ongoing conflict on or around January 14, 2016.
Yemen journalists and eye witnesses state that Saudi forces damaged parts of the temple's main pillars as well as epigraphic remains that contain writing in the Old Line Sabaean as the result of shelling in Sirwah area of Marib province.
Research on this location produced a lengthy group of names. Known as the Bar'an Temple, the Almaqah Temple, The Moon Temple, the Al-Amaid, and also as Arsh Bilquis, (the Arabic name for the Queen of Sheba) and the Throne of Bilquis the site is located about 85 miles east of the capital, Sana`a and two miles southeast of Ma'rib at 15.4032200 (latitude in decimal degrees), 45.3430900 (longitude in decimal degrees).
The temple is believed to have been built by Mukarrib Yada`'il Dharih in between the 7th and 5th century BCE and was dedicated to the worship of the moon god Ilmaqah, although the names of two other Sabaean deities, Hawbas and Athtar also appear in some of the site's engravings.
The Sanaa Branch of the Deutches Archaeologisches Institut (DAI), headquartered in Berlin, initiated the excavation of the Bar'an temple in 1988 as part of a larger project centered in the Marib province. Excavation of the temple was completed in 1997, however conservation work continued for another four seasons. The site was formally opened to the public on November 18, 2000.
http://art-crime.blogspot.de/2016/01/beforeafter-images-of-baran-temple-moon.html
Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
21.1.2016 – NBC News (A P)
Film: Yemeni Women and Children Protest Carnage Caused by Airstrikes
5,000 woman and children marched on the U.N. offices in Sanaa, Yemen, to call for an end to Saudi-led coalition airstrikes on Houthi rebels.
Comment: This is not a political protest but one out of desperation. https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1090051794480644
Südjemen und “Resistance” / Southern Yemen and “Resistance”
3.1.2016 – The National UAE (A P)
Yemeni resistance commander gives insider story of Taez fight against rebels
The leader of the city’s 15,000-strong popular resistance, Hamoud Al Mikhlafi, said the fighting had become bogged down as his fighters battled the rebels street by street.
But Mr Al Mikhlafi said that while his forces had driven the rebels from much of Taez city, they were engaged in urban warfare against several thousand fighters loyal to former president Saleh and armed by Iran. Mr Saleh, now in alliance with the Houthi rebels from the north, had kept troops stationed at several bases in Taez, the city where protests against his three decades rule began in 2011.
To finally defeat Mr Saleh’s forces Al Mikhlafi said he needs “everything”.
“Taez needs medical supplies, Taez needs basic commodities, in addition to the ammunition and heavy arms,” he said.
Mr Al Mikhlafi said he had no shortage of volunteers from Taez, many who have suffered from what the United Nations has described as the indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas by the rebels and Saleh loyalists.
The commander has been flooded with thousands of volunteers wanting to join the fight, which is focused on two fronts inside the city and said his forces included 150 women.
He said that Iran’s revolutionary guards had supplied arms to the Houthis and Mr Saleh’s troops but that he had not seen any Iranian forces on the ground in Taez.
Heading the Popular Resistance has come at great personal cost. He said while the coalition had covered 20 per cent of the costs in Taez, many fighters were now going unpaid and he had taken on debt to fund the battle.
Mr Al Mikhlafi, said a political solution to the conflict was “a problem” when dealing with these two parties [Houthi, Saleh].
“There is a UN resolution, and we are demanding a direct implementation of this resolution,” he said referring to a UN plan calling for the Houthis to handover their arms and withdraw from occupied territory.
“The matter of Yemen in general can only be solved by force.”
Comment: Mikhlafi is head of the Islah party at Taiz. Off course a nice piece of propaganda. How Iranian arms came into Yemen, he does not explain. There were little opportunities for that and none since March 2015.
Saudi-Arabien und Iran / Saudi-Arabia and Iran
22.1.2016 – Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik (A P)
Der Konflikt zwischen Iran und Saudi-Arabien
Welche Gründe und Folgen hat die Rivalität?
Was bedeutet die Eskalation zwischen den beiden Regionalmächten für die Krisenregionen im Nahen Osten? Wieviel Einfluss hat der Westen, und wie positioniert er sich zwischen der neuen Annäherung an Iran und dem „Business as Usual“ mit den Saudis? Die DGAP-Experten Ali Fathollah-Nejad und Sebastian Sons im Gespräch über die Instrumentalisierung von Konfessionen, geopolitische Ziele und Machtkonsolidierung.
Fünf Fragen an Ali Fathollah-Nejad, Sebastian Sons
21.1.2016 – The New York Times (A P)
Islamic Nations Disagree at Meeting on Saudi-Iran Crisis
The world's largest body of Islamic nations strongly denounced Iran on Thursday, fully siding with Saudi Arabia over its diplomatic fallout with its regional Shiite rival.
The 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation released a final communique condemning Iran following an emergency meeting attended by 24 foreign ministers from across the Muslim world, including Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan and Indonesia, to discuss the worsening relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The OIC said in its statement that it condemned the aggression against the Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran, and "rejects and condemns Iran's inflammatory statements" on the execution on the cleric.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/01/21/world/middleeast/ap-ml-saudi-iran-oic.html
Comment: Cleary taking side, OIC completely seems to be under Saudi control.
Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
22.1.2016 – Youtube (B P)
Questions to a former US Ambassador in Congress on Saudi Arabia, Wahabism, Isis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIp_UlpKFIY&feature=youtu.be
22.1.2016 – BBC News (* B P)
Saudi Arabia's King Salman marks year of change
Wars in Yemen and Syria, a deadly stampede at the Hajj, mass executions, bombings in mosques, and plunging oil prices - King Salman's first year on the throne in Saudi Arabia has been anything but quiet. So how has he fared and what challenges does his country now face?
Power politics – Stalemate in Yemen – Syria peace talks – Iran Feud – Oil price war – Security v freedom – Succession question
Various journalists and commentators have long predicted the imminent fall of the House of Saud and been proved wrong. But whoever becomes the next king of Saudi Arabia is likely to face some of the most challenging years in this nation's short history – by Frank Gardner
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35370801?SThisFB
Comment by Judith Brown: This is a fair analysis of the first year of the reign of King Salman of Saudi Arabia. The succession is briefly mentioned but not commented upon, but deserves a mention as it is one of the most dramatic changes of his tumultuous year. Normally after a death of a monarch the royal family - usually very quickly - decides on the next ruler. Salman changed that and has already appointed crown princes - of his family line, not that of his brothers. This is highly significant as it is thought to be one of the reasons why he started what he thought would be a short and decisive war in Yemen - to win popular support. But it has turned out to be an expensive quagmire and he is having to sell of the family silver to pay for his war - and the pointless Saudi policy of keeping the oil price low by flooding the market with oil - not only bad for the environment and climate change but also the consequences are likely to be huge for the Saudi monarchy, as if they cannot keep their subjects docile with high living standards there will be unrest despite the repressive nature of the regime.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154049952263641
21.1.2016 – The Real News (* B P)
Who is Really Ruling Saudi Arabia?
Bilal Ahmed of Souciant.com says the rivalry results from the fact that the King's nephew Mohammad bin Nayef is currently the minister of interior and also the crown prince.
It seems to be the case that his [King Salman] son, who is Prince Salman, who is the deputy crown prince, has a great deal of power, in addition to Mohammad bin Nayef, who is his nephew and the grandson of King Abdul Aziz, who is the founder of Saudi Arabia. So it seems that the current king isn't exactly in control of most segments of state affairs. His son controls Aramco, and much of the defense ministry, and his nephew controls much of the other [stuff] that's going on.
But also in terms of Saudi allies, in the rest of the Persian Gulf, this is more or less because of the war in Yemen, which the deputy crown prince, who as you recall is King Salman's son, he seemed to indicate, at least in his statements and at least in his diplomacy with the rest of the GCC, the Gulf monarchies, that this war wouldn't actually be taking this long and that it wouldn't necessarily result in the increased death count for many of these kingdoms, as is coming to pass. And we have to remember that these kingdoms have never actually fought a war like this before. The only other time that I can recall that the GCC has formally intervened anywhere has been, was in Bahrain. And Bahrain wasn't actually a war, Bahrain was an attempt to crush a democratic protest movement.
So you have, suddenly, Qatari or Emirati soldiers dying in Yemen for a war that is ill-defined, but they are also dying at the behest of a coalition that was assembled by Saudi Arabia, and it was assembled by King Salman's family and the interests of his nephew, as far as the future and stability of Saudi Arabia are concerned. So as a result of all that you have suddenly a need to take more drastic action to stabilize the regime both domestically, as well as stabilize its international ties. And this could be a power play aimed at ensuring that Saudi Arabia has these options and has these allegiances going forward .
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=15455
21.1.2016 – Al Monitor (* B P)
How long can Saudi Arabia afford Yemen war?
The war in Yemen may prove just as dangerously costly for Saudi Arabia, where an economic downturn threatens its political system, as for Yemen, whose economy can only start to be revived when it ends.
Yemen has not been able to absorb the shock of the mass return of Yemeni workers from Saudi Arabia even two decades after the change took place, and suffered an uprising fueled by anger at economic failure. The Saudi economy is trying to absorb 2015's sticker shock but cannot continue to run such a huge deficit even with the introduction of economic and political reforms. More political freedom without sound economic policy will leave more room for the people to question economic policies that seem to only benefit the upper class, for officials will have to show more accountability and citizens will have more space to express their disapproval of official policies.
The war on Yemen revealed to the Saudis that spending cannot be solely financed by oil revenue. As they introduce revenue-collecting mechanisms, they should also reform mechanisms of capital transfer to the public to minimize the gap between the rich and the poor, as it is known that the poor are the most affected by tighter revenue-collecting policies. Otherwise, the Saudi war on Yemen will mark the beginning of an economic downturn that will surely spill over onto its political system in the long run.
On the other hand, Yemen’s shattered economy would need thorough restructuring for the country to be able to lead its people into a better future. But before any planning for restructuring can take place, the ongoing war must stop. The economic inclusion of Yemen will be decisive in paving the way toward a less turbulent relationship between the two countries – by Amal Nasser
USA
21.1.2016 – Lobelog (* B P)
Neocons Echo Kirkpatrick, Defend Saudi Arabia
Amid growing questions about the costs and benefits of the West’s longstanding support for the House of Saud—see Eldar Mamedov’s post at this site on the debate in Europe—the Journal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist (and hardcore Likudist) Bret Stephens apparently felt obliged to pen a special op-ed in Wednesday’s print edition devoted to “Why the U.S. Should Stand by the Saudis Against Iran.”
Although he issues an initial disclaimer reminding his readers that “[t]here is so much to detest about Saudi Arabia,” Stephens argues that it would be a “bad—make that very bad—idea for the U.S. to abandon the House of Saud, especially when it is under increasing economic strain from falling oil prices and feels acutely threatened by a resurgent Iran.” He goes on, predictably, to blame Riyadh’s current acting out on—guess who?—Obama, insisting that “[i]f the administration is now unhappy about the Saudi war in Yemen or its execution of Shiite radicals, it has only itself to blame.” It’s just like when Jimmy Carter “lost Iran” because of his ambivalence about the Shah.
Stephens continues by citing all the terrible things that could happen if we don’t provide the kind of fulsome embrace that Jeane Kirkpatrick advised the U.S. to offer to “friendly authoritarians,” like the Shah of Iran or all the right-wing regimes, that dominated and oppressed much of Latin America in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He deploys the same arguments as Kirkpatrick more than 40 years ago: if the U.S. distances itself, they’ll go to the “Russians or Chinese” (not the Soviet Union) or support “Sunni extremists” to counter Iran. And, of course, if the Saudis lose power, something worse will take their place (and grab hold all of that “advanced Western military equipment” we’ve sold to them)
As to our problems with Saudi foreign policy, particularly in Yemen and elsewhere: All of this means that the right U.S. policy toward the Saudis is to hold them close and demonstrate serious support, lest they be tempted to continue freelancing their foreign policy in ways we might not like.
After all, as one wise commentator recently noted: Any country that believes it will never be made to pay the price for the risks it takes will take ever-greater risks.
You might ask who was that astute observer?
Why, it was Bret Stephens in his weekly column published in the Journal’s Tuesday’s edition, entitled “Normalizing Iran: Why are liberals campaigning to make this most illiberal regime acceptable?”
Illiberal regimes? Jeez, sometimes the ideological contortions of neoconservatism are just too much –by Jim Lobe
http://lobelog.com/neocons-echo-kirkpatrick-defend-saudi-arabia/
Großbritannien / Great Britain
Siehe auch “Am wichtigsten” / Also look at “Most important”
22.1.2016 – The Guardian (* B P)
Two key defence questions facing Britain: Trident and the Middle East
Ministers should be subjected to hard, specific questions on the future of Trident and Britain’s role in the destruction of Yemen – by Richard Norton-Taylor.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/defence-and-security-blog/2016/jan/20/two-key-defence-questions-facing-britain-trident-and-the-middle-east = http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news/trident-and-yemen-two-key-questions-facing-britain
Comment: Again an overview on how much and ruthless Britain is involved in the Yemen war. But, as you can see, not only on behalf of abroad, this government favours arms trade and military.
22.1.2016 – Vocativ (* B K P)
How The US And UK Empowered The Saudis To Kill Civilians
New government figures show that British companies sold $1.5 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia in just three months
On the whole, British defense companies have sold nearly $8 billion in arms, fighter jets and other military equipment to Riyadh since Cameron took office in 2010, Campaign Against the Arms Trade reports. The U.S. State Department approved more than twice that amount in arms sales to the Saudis in the last ten months, when the kingdom’s war in Yemen began, according to figures compiled by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which is part of the U.S. Department of Defense – by Shane Dixon Kavanaugh
http://www.vocativ.com/news/273766/how-the-us-and-uk-empowered-the-saudis-to-kill-civilians
Comment: A good overview again.
22.1.2016 – New Eastern Outlook (*B K P)
Who is Responsible for the Suffering of Yemen?
The Guardian notes that Saferworld and Amnesty released a legal opinion from Professor Philippe Sands QC and a number of other lawyers, according to which the sales of British arms to Saudi Arabia in the light of its military intervention and bombing of Yemen violate both the national, European and international laws. The lawyers are pointing out that in the period of 9 months before July 2015 the UK supplied 9 million pounds worth of rockets and bombs, while in the next three months this number hit the staggering one billion pounds. Additionally, there’s clear evidence that those weapons were used against hospitals, schools, markets, warehouses, ports, and camps for displaced persons, turning Yemen into a nightmare. The Saferworld human rights organization is convinced that there’s a direct link between the increase in sales of ammunition and bombings in Yemen.
Many British observers, including those from The Guardian, have been pointing out that days after David Cameron’s statements about his attempt to “initiate a political process in Yemen,” and remarks that “there could be no military solution in Yemen,” the data released by the government showed that UK officials approved the sale of a billion pounds worth of bombs to Saudi Arabia.
Under these circumstances the only natural question is: Will international human rights organizations and the international community as a whole, all those who failed to say a resounding “NO” to Western military interventions in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, that were only profitable for arms sellers, carry on watching silently the destruction of Yemen? How many of Yemens do we need to start solving conflict situations within a political framework? How many lives should be spared? Do we ever bring to justice those responsible for such massacres? Or will we rather allow politicians, the likes of Cameron, to call for peace, while selling huge amounts of deadly weapons behind their backs with impunity?
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2016/01/22/who-is-responsible-for-the-suffering-of-yemen/ – by Martin Berger
http://journal-neo.org/2016/01/22/who-is-responsible-for-the-suffering-of-yemen/
21.1.2016 – Huffington Post (* B P)
Why Campaigners Are Threatening Legal Action to Stop UK Arms Exports to Saudi
The UK has supported the bombing in Yemen since day one. The Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, made this clear at the time, when he pledged to "support the Saudis in every practical way short of engaging in combat." Unfortunately he has been true to his word. UK fighter jets and bombs have been central to the destruction, and the government has licensed over £2.8 billion of arms to Saudi since the bombing began last March. Last week it was revealed that UK military personnel are working with their Saudi counterparts to coordinate bombing raids and choose targets.
Last month Philippe Sands QC of Matrix Chambers provided a legal opinion for Amnesty International and Saferworld that accused the UK of breaking the Arms Trade Treaty as well as EU and UK arms export policy by continuing to license arms to Saudi for use in Yemen.
The problem is less to do with legislation and more to do with a lack of political will. On paper the UK's licensing criteria is very clear. It says that licences should be revoked when there is a "clear risk" that equipment "might" be used in violation of international humanitarian law. This risk must be assessed at the time the licensing decision is made and monitored throughout the lifespan of a licence. By any reasonable interpretation this should necessitate the revoking of all current licences and prohibit all future arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Campaign Against Arms Trade and our lawyers at Leigh Day are threatening the UK government with legal action. We have called on the department of Business, Innovation & Skills to suspend all licences for arms exports to Saudi that can be used in Yemen and to hold a full review as to whether the export of military equipment is compatible with EU arms control legislation. If it doesn't, then we will be taking legal action.
When countries like the UK sell weapons it doesn't just facilitate the attacks they are used in, it also sends a message of support to the governments that carry them out. Countries like Saudi Arabia aren't just buying UK arms, they are also buying political support and very often silence about the human rights abuses they preside over. Changing this will take more than the cancellation of a few licences. It will need a complete overhaul of government foreign policy and an end to the hypocrisy at the heart of it – by Andrew Smith, spokesperson for Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT)
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/andrew-smith/saudi-arabia-arms-exports_b_9039764.html
Rußland / Russia
22.1.2016 – Middle East Monitor (* B P)
Russia’s role in the Yemen conflict
Russia’s policy on Yemen has not changed much since the start of the Arab Spring. While openly backing one party in Syria, in Yemen Moscow prefers to take a lighter approach, by ensuring good relations with whoever is in power at the time. When Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi became president in 2012, there was no resistance from Moscow. In fact, he was recognised as someone who was educated by the Soviet Union.
When it came to the start of the Saudi-led coalition air strikes against Saleh’s forces and the Houthis, Russia’s official stance was in line with its general anti-Saudi rhetoric. Speaking to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Putin slammed the Saudi move and called for the “immediate cessation of military activities in Yemen.” Although the Russians have not expressed covert public support for any warring Yemeni side, their language suggests that they are not as impartial as they like to portray themselves to be.
So why isn’t Russia showing the support for one side or another that they are showing for Assad, despite its obvious sympathy for the Houthis? At this stage, it is clear that Russia is unable to do so simply because of the way that Moscow was dragged into the Syria conflict. If the Kremlin was to expand its military operation in the Middle East overtly, it would be over-stretching its capabilities at a time when Assad is relies completely on Russian and Iranian military and diplomatic backing.
This will also undermine Russia’s policy to make peace with whichever government comes into power in Yemen.
The Kremlin is also showing signs of mirroring Iranian policy.
It’s clear that Russia is going to remain cautious about presenting its position in Yemen, but its bias is very apparent. It is unlikely that the Russians will seek to support Saleh openly, despite his recent attempts to convince them to do so. Their involvement in Yemen has been subtle and, at this point in time, there are no indications that they plan to change this approach – by Diana Alghoul
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/23475-russias-role-in-the-yemen-conflict
Comment: Giving interesting informations, this report anyway is a piece of ordinary western anti-russian propaganda, also off course hitting Iran. Russia is blamed for not taking the western viewpoint, and even more, not the western wording on Yemen. And off course the Houthi-Iran connection, which is of little military importance, has to be stressed up to the point that one of the Houthi leaders is buried at the same graveyard as the son of the Hizbolah leader. That is just odd. The story of Iranian military support for the Houthis is warmed up again, there has been a critical article on that linked at an earlier Yemen Press Reader. And even if – what that would have been compared to American, British, French, German, Brasilian, Chinese, Bulgarian, Italian, Ukrainian, Swedish, Belgian, Swiss, Netherlands, Canadian, South African arms sold to the Saudis?? This is even more odd here.
Comment by Judith Brown: Russia's role is to sit on the fence in this war- indeed there is no country supporting The Saleh- Houthi alliance I. Yemen - they are doing this war thing on their own.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154050630788641
China
22.1.2016 – Iran German Radio (A P)
China: Saudi-Arabien muss die Angriffe gegen Jemen einstellen
Der Sprecher des chinesischen Außenministeriums,Hong Li, hat seine Besorgnis über die katastrophale Lage in Jemen geäußert, und ein Ende der saudischen Angriffe gefordert.
Hong Li sagte gestern in diesem Zusammenhang: China unterstützt die Interessen des jemenitischen Volkes und fordert Friedensgespräche für den Nahen Osten.
Flüchtlinge / Refugees
01.2016 – Ethno Traveler (D H)
You Can’t Go Home Again
A Yemeni American struggles to settle into life in a new country
In March of 2015, Ibrahim crammed his wife and nine kids, along with a few belongings, into a car and raced out of the Yemeni city of al-Dhale as it crumbled around them. Fighting in the region between forces loyal to the former president (Ali Abdullah Saleh) and those loyal to the sitting president (Abed Rabbuh Mansur Hadi) had spilled into the city streets. At one point, Ibrahim was forced to drive through the center of a gun battle. Bullets zipped around the car as his wife and children huddled as low as possible – by Rachel Pie Jones
http://www.ethnotraveler.com/2016/01/you-cant-go-home-again/
Terrorismus / Terrorism
Siehe auch “Am wichtigsten” und "Kriegsereignisse" / Also look at “Most important” and "Theater of War"
Journalismus / Journalism
22.1.2016 – The Peninsula Qatar (A K)
Yemen loyalists accuse rebels of kidnapping journalists
The Popular Resistance militia charged that Shiite Huthi rebels and their allies were behind the kidnapping of the three men.
Comment: Up to now, not more tan propaganda. Al Qaida, allied with this “resistance”, is very active in this area.
22.1.2016 – Aljazeera (A K)
Al Jazeera team in Yemen missing in Taiz
Three Al Jazeera crew members who were last seen on Monday are believed to have been kidnapped, the network says.
The Al Jazeera Media Network has called for the immediate release of an Al Jazeera Arabic news team who are believed to have been kidnapped in the city of Taiz in southern Yemen.
Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent, Hamdi Al-Bokari and his crew, Abdulaziz Al-Sabri and Moneer Al-Sabai, were last seen on Monday night.
"We call for the immediate release of our colleagues Hamdi Al-Bokari, Abdulaziz Al-Sabri and Moneer Al-Sabai," Dr Mostefa Souag, acting Director General of Al Jazeera Media Network, said.
"They were covering events in the besieged city of Taiz reporting on the human cost to the conflict. Our colleagues were simply doing their job of reporting the story and informing the world on what is taking place in Yemen."
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/al-jazeera-journalist-missing-yemen-taiz-160121121029490.html
Saudischer Luftkrieg / Saudi Aerial War
22.1.2016 – AP (A K)
Dozens Killed in Yemen Airstrikes by Saudi-Led Coalition
The Saudi-led military coalition carried out a series of airstrikes across Yemen Friday, killing dozens and striking an ambulance for a hospital supported by the international medical charity Doctors Without Borders, according Yemeni officials, rebel media and a statement by the charity.
The charity, also known by its French acronym MSF, said the ambulance driver was killed in an airstrike on the northern town of Dahyan on Thursday. Dahyan is part of Saada province, the stronghold of Shiite rebels. The rebels, known as Houthis, announced that airstrikes in Dahyan killed 26 people.
In Sanaa, officials said that 22 people were killed in strikes that targeted the mountain of Nahdeen believed to house weapon caches. In Dhamar, Taiz, and Jawf, similar airstrikes targeted gatherings of Houthis and allied army units. In the port city of Hodeida, at least 10 civilians were killed when airstrikes targeted trucks carrying smuggled oil from the port, according to officials.
The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press – by Ahmed Al-Haj
Comment: Really astonishing to see how western agencies just repeat Saudi propaganda and wording. Let’s start: Why the Houthis always are labeled as “rebels” as they rule half of the country since 1 ½ years? “believed to house weapon caches” means nobody knows exactly. And, it they want to target “weapon caches”, why they hit residential houses? Well, that is not an exemption but the normal case as it always happens. In Dhamar they “targeted gatherings of Houthis and allied army units”? Wherefrom do you take that?? The films doe not show any weapons, uniforms or any hints of “army”. Most of the killed were rescuers who came after the first strike and were hit by the second, so what? Saudis seem to declare everybody a “Houthi” whom they have hit, or even the whole population of a certain area. So, this naming of those who have been hit just is “bullshit”. And what about “smuggled oil”? Smugglers do “smuggle”, who else? By using this wording, you acknowledge the Saudi blockade of Houthi hold Yemen to be legal and adequate, following that bringing anything to a Houthi held Yemen port by avoiding the blockade would be “smuggling”. That is just disgusting what a clumsy propaganda AP is foisting on us by such “news”.
22.1.2016 – Reuters / Süddeutsche Zeitung / FAZ / Zeit / Bild (* A K)
Film: Zahlreiche Tote bei saudi-arabischem geführten Luftangriff
Airstrike at Yemen oil port kills at least 9
Ziel des Angriffs war eine von den Huthi-Rebellen betriebene Ölverwertungsanlage.
An air strike by a Saudi-led coalition at an oil facility in Yemen has killed at least nine people. Yiming Woo reports
http://mobile.reuters.com/video/2016/01/22/aistrike-at-yemen-oil-port-kills-at-leas?videoId=367130673 (Reuters) =
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/allianz-sunnitischer-staaten-zahlreiche-tote-bei-luftangriff-im-jemen-14028037.html = http://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/jemen-zahlreiche-tote-bei-saudi-arabischem-gefuehrten-luftangriff-1.2829517 = http://www.zeit.de/video/2016-01/4716037132001/jemen-tote-bei-saudi-arabisch-gefuehrtem-luftangriff-auf-oelverwertungsanlage =
Kommentar: Der Film ist 18+, Nichts für Sensible, Graphic. „Von den Huthis betriebene“: ist dümmliches Propagandasprech, die Anlage liegt oder lag halt auf Huthi-Gebiet und wird kaum von den Huthis betrieben.
Fotos auch bei / Photos also at: http://newsofyemen.net/2016/01/watch-aftermath-of-saudi-uae-led-co-strikes-on-ras-isa-oil-terminal-in-hodeidah-west-yemen/ und https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1090034167815740 (18+!)
Comments by Jamila Hanan: Listen how main stream media report war crimes in #Yemen (Houthi group, allied with Iran, Yemeni president, etc). .. corrections to @Reuters oil plant was run by oil workers not 'a Houthi group';there's little to do with Iran;there's no #Yemen president
https://twitter.com/JamilaHanan/status/690446101212700672 and https://twitter.com/JamilaHanan/status/690448745608167424
My comment: Well, she is right that western media often just repeat the wording of Saudi propaganda.
22.1.2016 – RT (* A K)
Jemen: MSF-Rettungssanitäter und zivile Ersthelfer getötet durch Luftangriff der Saudis (18 +; Film; Fotos)
Fast zwei Dutzend Menschen, darunter zivile Rettungskräfte und ein Ambulanzfahrer aus einem Krankenhaus, das zur Organisation 'Ärzte ohne Grenzen' (MSF) gehört, sollen getötet worden sein, nachdem die Saudi-geführte Koalition wiederholte Luftangriffe auf das gleiche Ziel in der Sa'ada Provinz in Jemen durchgeführt hat.
MSF bestätigt die tödlichen Luftangriffe in Sa'ada, und sagten die "Flugzeuge flogen zurück um weitere Bomben auf Bereiche abzuwerfen, die bereits getroffen waren."
"Ein Ambulanzfahrer aus einem MSF-Krankenhaus [wurde] getötet", schrieb die NGO auf Twitter. Sie erklären, dass die Ersthelfer am Unfallort versucht hatten, den Verwundeten der ersten Runde des Luftangriffs zu helfen.
Der Krankenwagen hatte gerade die Opfer abgeholt, als ein direkter Schlag jeden darin tötete, sagte der Direktor des Jumhuriya-Krankenhauses in der Sa'ada Provinz.
Berichten zufolge wurden mindestens 20 Menschen getötet und 35 verwundet bei dem Angriff, den die Sanitäter als vorsätzliche bezeichnen. Nach dem ersten Luftangriff im Dhahyan-Bezirk von Sa'ada eilten Ersthelfer zum Ort, um sich um die Verwundeten zu kümmern. Aber die Flugzeuge kehrten bald zurück, um erneut anzugreifen, in dem Versuch "das wenige verbleibende medizinische Personal in der Provinz vollständig zu beseitigen", sagte Dr. Attab.
https://deutsch.rt.com/der-nahe-osten/36432-jemen-msf-rettungssanitater-und-ziviler/
21.1.2016 – RT (*A K; Nichts für Sensible; Graphic, 18+!!)
MSF paramedic, civilian first responders killed in Saudi double-tap airstrike in Yemen (GRAPHIC; Films, Photos)
Almost two dozen people, including civilian rescuers and an ambulance driver from an MSF-affiliated hospital, have reportedly been killed after Saudi-led coalition planes carried out repeated airstrikes on the same target in Sa’ada province, Yemen.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) confirmed the fatal air raids in Sa’ada, saying the “planes went back to bomb areas already hit.”
“An ambulance driver from an MSF hospital [was] killed,” the NGO wrote, explaining that the first responders at the scene had been trying to help those wounded in the first round of strikes.
The ambulance had just picked up the victims when a direct strike killed everyone inside it, said the director of the Jumhuriya Hospital in Sa’ada province, according to the New York Times.
Yemen’s Health Ministry has strongly condemned the coalition’s actions as a “heinous massacre” that first targeted a residential building in Sa’ada, Saba news agency reports, citing ministry spokesperson Dr. Nashwan Attab.
According to reports, at least 20 people were killed and another 35 wounded, in what the medics claim was a deliberate attack. Following the initial air raid in the Dhahyan district of Sa’ada, first responders rushed to the scene to care for the wounded. But the planes soon returned to strike again in an attempt to “completely eliminate the few remaining medical staff in the province,” Dr. Attab said.
https://www.rt.com/news/329770-yemen-double-tap-airstrikes-responders/ and (Film, report in English at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjGzVD0QSQ4
Comment: Here from a television channel with Houthi sympathies is an amateur film of the aftermath of bombs in the northwest of Yemen. If you don't mind the gruesome details, then look at it until the end; you see the second tap, to kill the rescuers helping those hit in the first strike. You can see how destroyed the home are after this hit - just rubble. You can see that Yemenis have no fire brigades or heavy equipment to rescue any survivors; and the double tap means that a higher proportion of men are killed. The speaker says eight children killed, and at least 19 killed in all. For those Western television channels and media outlets that say that they can't get news out of Yemen - and especially from the northwest of Yemen - this home made movie proves they are not trying hard enough and who knows why that it so. I just can't sleep tonight having seen so much evidence of terrible bombing in Yemen today. 300 days of this. How much more.
https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1090039641148526
22.1.2016 – Ärzte ohne Grenzen (* A K)
Jemen: Luftangriff auf Krankenwagen im Norden des Landes
In der Stadt Dhayan in der Provinz Saada erfolgten an derselben Stelle insgesamt drei aufeinanderfolgende Luftschläge. Nach dem ersten Angriff sammelten sich mehrere Menschen an der Stelle, um den Verletzten Hilfe zu leisten. Daraufhin fand der zweite Angriff statt. Der Krankenwagen wurde bei einem dritten Luftschlag gegen 16 Uhr getroffen. Er war gerade eingetroffen, um Verletzte in das von Ärzte ohne Grenzen/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) unterstützte Al-Gomhoury-Krankenhaus in der Stadt Saada zu bringen. Der Fahrer des Krankenwagens, ein Angestellter des Gesundheitsministeriums, wurde getötet.
Dhayan befindet sich etwa 20 Kilometer von der Stadt Saada entfernt und unweit des von Ärzte ohne Grenzen unterstützten Shiara-Krankenhauses in Razeh, das am 10. Januar 2016 durch ein Geschoss weitgehend zerstört wurde.
Auch die beiden Städte Baqim und Al Jawf wurden in der Nacht zu Freitag aus der Luft angegriffen. Die Zahl der Toten und Verwundeten ist bislang unbekannt.
Die Teams von Ärzte ohne Grenzen behandelten 40 Verletzte, von denen sechs verstarben.
„Der Angriff zeigt die Rücksichtslosigkeit, mit der medizinische Hilfe im Jemen unter Beschuss gerät. Die Bevölkerung ist dieser Gewalt jeden Tag ausgesetzt. Niemand wird verschont, nicht einmal Mitarbeiter des Gesundheitssystems“, sagt Teresa Sancristoval, Nothilfekoordinatorin von Ärzte ohne Grenzen.
https://www.aerzte-ohne-grenzen.at/presse/jemen-luftangriff-auf-krankenwagen-im-norden-des-landes
Kommentar: Die gemeldeten Zahlen für die Toten sind wesentlich höer, die jüngste Zahl ist 26. Schon der "bodycount" beim Ansehen der Filme dürfte mehr Tote bringen. Unsere Medien entscheiden sich dann lieber für die harmloseste Variante, ohne die anderen Zahlen auch nur zu erwähnen: http://www.zeit.de/news/2016-01/23/jemen-sechs-tote-bei-luftangriff-von-militaerallianz-in-noerdlichem-jemen-23060803 und andere mehr wie https://www.tt.com/home/11030658-91/sechs-tote-bei-luftangriff-von-milit%C3%A4rallianz-in-n%C3%B6rdlichem-jemen.csp
The same in English:
22.1.2016 – Doctors without borders (* A K)
Yemen: Saada attacks wound dozens and kill at least six, including ambulance driver
At around 4pm local time yesterday afternoon, 21 January, the ambulance service of the Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)-supported Al Gomhoury Hospital in Saada governorate, Yemen, was hit by an airstrike, killing one Ministry of Health staff member.
The incident took place in Dhayan, about 20 kilometres from the city of Saada and not far from the MSF-supported Shiara hospital, which was hit with a projectile on 10 January.
The ambulance was hit as it arrived at the site of an earlier bombing. When people gathered to assist the victims, the same site was hit again. The driver and the ambulance were then hit in a third strike.
Two other local towns, Baqim and Al Jawf, were also hit last night in airstrikes. The total number of wounded and killed is still uncertain. MSF has received 40 casualties, six of whom have sadly died.
Ministry of Health and MSF teams are working at full capacity in the Al Gomhoury hospital.
“This latest loss of a colleague is devastating, and it demonstrates the ruthlessness with which healthcare is coming under attack in Yemen,” says Teresa Sancristoval, Emergency Coordinator at MSF.
“People there are being subjected to this kind of violence on a daily basis. No one, not even healthcare workers, are being spared.”
http://www.msf.org.uk/article/yemen-saada-attacks-wound-dozens-and-kill-at-least-six-including-ambulance-driver = http://www.msf.org/article/yemen-saada-attacks-wound-dozens-and-kill-least-6-including-ambulance-driver
Comment: The latest figure of killed had risen to 26.
22.1.2016 – Middle East Eye (* A K)
Footage shows devastation in Yemen as Saudi 'double tap' strike targets rescuers (with film, photos, GRAPHIC!)
Footage emerged on Thursday night from Yemen that purported to show an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition that targeted civilian rescuers responding to an earlier bombing raid.Multiple air strikes in the town of Dhahian in the northern province of Saada killed at least 18 people, including several of the civilian rescuers and an ambulance driver working at a clinic supported by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), according to a statement by the group.
The graphic footage posted to YouTube on Thursday night, which Middle East Eye was unable to verify, claims to show the aftermath of Saudi-led coalition bombing raids in Dhahian.
The five-minute clip opens with a scene showing a sandy landscape, speckled with scorched trees, and covered in destroyed buildings. People, who appear to be civilian rescuers, are shown searching among rubble for people injured in air strikes. Women and children can be heard screaming in the background, as grey and black smoke billows across the skyline.
The rescuers, some of whom are armed, are seen to drag several injured people into the back of trucks against a backdrop of buildings and vehicles on fire.
An injured old man is seen climbing into one of the trucks as jets are heard screeching in the sky above. As the camera pans around to show a scene of devastation, people can be heard crying in the background. Then, as the jets can be heard more loudly, a bomb hits a home surrounded by rescuers and bursts into flames.
After the explosion, the cameraman drops to the ground, but continues to record the scene.After the sound of jets dies down, louder screaming can be heard from what sounds like children. The cameraman continues to lie still. Then the footage cuts to another scene with people fleeing the area, among them women and children.
The cameraman walks through rubble and burned-out cars towards the bomb site, and they can be heard to say that they are showing the aftermath of the fourth air strike in the area.
The cameraman zooms in on at least 10 bloodied and mutilated dead bodies lying on the ground. One of the bodies the cameraman zooms in on is a young boy, who appears to be no more than 13 years old, and whose head is covered in blood and is split wide open.
The footage ends with smoke seen billowing in the distance, with the sound of multiple jets still audible in the background.
Muhammed Hajr, director of the Jumhuriya Hospital in Saada, told the New York Times that an air strike in Dhayan hit an ambulance after it had picked up injured people and killed everyone inside. It is not clear if Hajr was referring to the rescuers shown in the clip posted to YouTube.Hajr said that at least 12 people were killed in air strikes as they tried to help others injured in earlier bombing raids. The tactic of striking the same area twice, as responders arrive to the scene, is commonly referred to as a “double tap” strike. -
22.1.2016 – Albawaba (A K PH)
MSF ambulance driver, civilians killed in Yemen by Saudi airstrikes
The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders says Saudi fighter jets bombed Yemen’s northern province of Sa’ada, killing the relief agency’s ambulance driver and four other civilians.
Malak Shaher, the spokeswoman for the medical charity, which is also known by its French acronym MSF, said on Friday that the kingdom’s air raids hit the villages of Dhahyan, Baqim and Jawf late Thursday in Sa’ada Province.
The air attacks hit the ambulance driver, who worked for MSF and the Jamhouri public hospital in Sa’ada, while he was on his way to one of the bombing sites, Shaher told AFP, without elaborating.
"Air strikes in three villages in Sa’ada left five dead and 35 injured. MSF & Ministry of Health ambulance driver was killed," MSF Yemen wrote on its Twitter account.
However, Yemen’s official Saba News Agency quoted a medical source as saying that the death toll from the Thursday’s air attacks on Dhahyan rose to 26 people, most of them medics, after seven people succumbed to their injuries. The source added that Yemen’s al-Masirah TV cameraman was also among the dead.
http://www.albawaba.com/news/msf-ambulance-driver-civilians-killed-yemen-saudi-airstrikes-796378
21.1.2016 – New York Times (A K)
Yemen: Airstrikes Kill 18, Including a Hospital Worker
Multiple airstrikes on a town in northern Yemen on Thursday killed at least 18 people, including civilian rescuers and an ambulance driver working at a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders, according to a statement by the group and the hospital director. At least three hospitals supported by Doctors Without Borders have been destroyed or damaged since October in the war between Houthi rebels and government forces backed by Saudi Arabia. Muhammed Hajr, the director of the Jumhuriya Hospital in Saada Province, said that the ambulance had just picked up people wounded in an airstrike in the Dhayan district when another airstrike destroyed the ambulance, killing everyone inside. Other airstrikes killed at least 12 people who arrived to help, Mr. Hajr said – by SHUAIB ALMOSAWA
Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
21.1.2016 – The National UAE (A K)
Saudi-led coalition captures Al Qaeda-controlled port in Yemen
Saudi-led battleships have captured the port in Yemen’s Al Mukallah, a southern district under the control of Al Qaeda militants.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) responded by stepping up security in Al Mukallah on Thursday, including installing new checkpoints in the streets, said Sabri Salem, a journalist based in the area.
“[The militants] consider this step by the Saudi-led coalition to be a dangerous escalation against them,” he told The National. The port at Al Mukallah is the only one in Hadramawt province.
But on Wednesday night, the coalition turned its attention to the Al Qaeda militants, sending warplanes to accompany its battleships as they entered the port at Al Mukallah, according to Salem.
Coalition forces did not dispatch ground troops, he said.
Fadhl Al Rabei, a Yemeni political analyst and head of the Madar Strategic Studies Centre in Aden, said the Houthis and allied forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh were working with AQAP against the Yemeni government.
He said it would have been logistically difficult for the Houthis and their allies to capture Al Mukallah as it is far from Sanaa, and so they sent Saleh loyalists to help AQAP take the district instead. Al Mukallah is home to both the port and Al Mukallah city, Hadramawt’s provincial capital.
While some residents saw the coalition’s capture of the port as the first step towards liberating Al Mukallah, Mr Al Rabei did not agree.
“I think that coalition forces will not launch a war against Al Qaeda in Al Mukallah as they have a more important task, which is fighting the Houthis in several provinces,” he said.
“But the coalition wants to take control of Yemen’s ports to prevent weapons being smuggled in for both the Houthis and Al Qaeda.”
Kommentar: Al Qaida regiert also weiter in Mukalla, nur der Hafen ist für sie blockiert (bzw. wird von den Saudis kontrolliert, was nicht unbedingt dasselbe ist). Was weiter geschieht, wird man sehen. Dumpfe Propaganda ist der Versuch, eine Verbindungslinie zwischen den Huthis und Al Qaida in Mukalla zu ziehen. Es ist Absicht der saudischen bzw. Regierungspropaganda, die Huthis für das Erstarken von Al Qaida im Jemen verantwortlich zu machen. Daran trägt freilich der saudische Luftkrieg gegen die Huthis die Hauptschuld, während die Saudis die Positionen von Al Qaida völlig unberührt ließen. Hauptgegner von Al Qaida im Jemen waren immer die Huthis; deren Schwächung durch die saudischen Luftangriffe musste also Al Qaida erstarken lassen. Hier wird jetzt gleich noch ein Quasi-Bündnis zwischen Huthis und Al Qaida konstruiert, bei dem gegenseitigen tödlichen Hass eine völlige Unmöglichkeit. Stattdessen haben die Saudis seit ihrem Eingreifen fast als Verbündete von Al Qaida agiert. Viele Al Qaida-Leute kämpften und kämpfen auf Seiten der Saudis und der Hadi-Regierung in der sog. „Resistance“ gegen die Huthis – wobei natürlich oft unklar ist, wer genau wo hingehört, und die Huthis gerne fast alle „Resistance“-Kämpfer mit Al Qaida in Verbindung bringen wollen. Also immer: Vorsicht Propaganda!, von der wir hier reichlich haben.
Comment by Hisham Al-Omeisy: No ground troops or control of port. Ships at safe distance from shore & jets doing flyby means "captured"!?
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/690516342001246208
Neue Artikel zum Nachlesen 1-89: / Yemen Press Reader 1-89:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose oder / or
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