...and Yemen!

[elbows]

A little more on what happened and fears that there will be more of this in the days ahead:

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/...or-more-clashes-challenging-military-reforms/

 

[elbows]

Developments:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...dc2208-e78b-11e1-9739-eef99c5fb285_story.html

​

Sixty-two officers and soldiers loyal to ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s son were charged with resisting authorities and mutiny after trying to storm the Ministry of Defense, a senior Yemeni security official said Thursday.​

High Security Committee spokesman Gen. Ali al-Ubaidi said that the 62 will be referred to a military tribunal for joining a force of 200 in the sudden attack on the Ministry two days earlier, where they fired automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at Ministry guards. The ensuing firefight left one attacker, two ministry guards and two civilians dead.​

​

Officials who spoke to the Associated Press voiced fears of possible attacks on state institutions during the four-day Eid al-Fitr holiday starting Friday, which comes at the end of Muslims’ holy month of Ramadan.
They said that authorities have beefed up security around the Presidential palace, the Foreign Ministry and several other state institutions. Meanwhile, part of Sanaa’s al-Zubair main street, where the Defense Ministry is located, has been blocked off to traffic while tanks and armored vehicles are stationed nearby.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of they are not allowed to speak to the press, accused Saleh and his family of trying to “humiliate” the new regime in Yemen by showing that the new president is unable to protect it.
Several other incidents of what officials describe as “defiance to the central government” can be easily spotted around the capital.
The Defense Ministry, for example, said in a statement Thursday that armed men looted four trucks carrying food supplies to its forces. Officials suspect that Saleh’s men paid them to attack the trucks on their way to the capital. Meanwhile, security authorities complained in another statement that armed men blocked a highway in the early hours of Thursday to create a traffic jam.

 

[elbows]

Yemen is one of those places where I'm always a bit hesitant to conclude who exactly perpetrated a particular explosion. But it was still a strange feeling to see it acknowledged in a media report.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/09/201291110328932127.html

​

A car bomb has killed at least 12 people in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in an apparent assassination attempt on the country's defence minister, officials say.​

The blast took place outside the cabinet office in Sanaa on Tuesday, the Yemeni prime minister's media office told Al Jazeera.​

Mohammed Nasser Ahmad, the defence minister, escaped unharmed, but at least seven bodyguards and five civilians were killed, the PM's office said.​

At least 14 people were wounded in the attack.​

​

​

The attack followed the confirmation last night from the Yemeni defence ministry that Saeed al-Shihri, the second-in-command of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, had been killed in eastern Yemen last week.
Hakim al-Masmari, the editor-in-chief of the Yemen Post, told Al Jazeera that Ahmad was a target due to his "leading the war against al-Qaeda" in Yemen.
"There are certain sides who could be behind this attack," Masmari said.
"One is al-Qaeda, because the defence minister is responsible for the war against al-Qaeda. Secondly, those who are against President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi , because [Ahmad] is his closest aide."

 

[elbows]

A grenade exploded in the car of an official in Sana’a today but left no causalities, which investigation officials suspected as fabricated in an attempt to attain a new car.

A criminal investigation team said that the car belonging to the Deputy Director of Electricity in Sana’a was slightly damaged when a grenade was exploded inside the car, said a security officer quoting report of the investigation team.

He said the team suspected that the official, Abdullah Saleh al-Wishah was the one who threw the grenade. “When interrogated, he [al-Wishah] immediately demanded the government he want a new car,” said the officer.

An owner of a grocery store near the blast said that while al-Wishah was outside the car the grenade went off.

http://www.yobserver.com/front-page/10022295.html

 

[klang]

http://www.yobserver.com/front-page/10022295.html

When I was in Sana'a a friend if mine told me that it was easy to spot people who were in with the government in one way or another as they were the ones in the big air conditioned 4x4's. Rewards for favours, pay-offs, etc.

The Yemen Observer, btw, went online at the time of the Prophet Mohammed cartoons. They published an aritcle stating the papers outrage, but, as an example, made the mistake of printing an extract of the cartoon. The editor-in-chief was promptly thrown into jail and the paper was forced to go out of print.

 

[elbows]

I've missed months of developments in Yemen but just saw this:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/11/us-yemen-military-idUSBRE8BA0VV20121211

The commander of Yemen's Republican Guards has refused orders from the president to hand long-range missiles over to the Defence Ministry, political sources said, raising the risk of a showdown between the country's two most powerful figures.

The standoff between Brigadier General Ahmed Saleh, son of ousted former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi could delay an overhaul of armed forces that split last year during a mass uprising, worsening disorder.

 

[elbows]

The president has issued a decree restructuring the army, nixing the republican guard and first armoured division.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/19/world/meast/yemen-military/index.html

The expansive reshuffle appears to have removed those loyal to Yemen's previous President Ali Abdullah Saleh from their powerful positions within the military, with several other generals attaining appointments to new positions.​

As part of the restructuring, the elite republican guard and the first armored division will be absorbed into the country's Defense Ministry. The republican guard has been led by Saleh's eldest son, Ahmed Ali Saleh, and Gen. Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar, who defected during the 2011 Yemeni uprising, has commanded the first armored division.​

 

[Baboonking]

Great Sean Mcallilister documentary on the Yemen revolution (The Reluctant Revolutionary), I found it both distressing and inspiring.

 

[elbows]

Too many events in the world eh, I've not been managing to keep up with it all.

Today it was only upon reading these stories about clashes near the presidential palace, and subsequent deal/ceasefire, that I realised I'd completely missed the news from last September that Houthis fighters had taken control of the capital.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middl...declare-new-ceasefire-201511914109971109.html

 

[elbows]

Well the ceasefire didnt last long, and it sounds like the current president is probably finished.

Reports are that Houthi fighters have attacked his house and taken the presidential palace. BBC articles tend to be largely devoid of context, whereas AlJazeera keep suggesting that the Houthi's are part of an alliance of fighters cobbled together by ex-president Saleh, with one possible outcome being his son as the next president. I don't know if the actual picture is that clearcut.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middl...s-amid-fresh-clashes-2015120144426713527.html

 

[teqniq]

Some more relevant stuff here.

Abdel-Malek al-Houthi: from shadow rebel leader to kingmaker

e2a this I think is the article I read back in september last year but it has been updated to include recent developments.

 

[elbows]

Ta for that. I've not even got beyond looking at the caption of the headline photograph yet and already its quotable.

A Yemeni Shiite man holds up a picture of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi during a demonstration organized by the Houthis to demand the government to rescind a decision to curb fuel subsidies on August 20, 2014

So another situation that gained momentum at least in part because of the global agenda to eliminate or seriously downscale fuel subsidies.

 

[Knotted]

Hadi forced to resign. This isn't revolution but it's going to change the political landscape in Yemen and will affect the rest of the Gulf region.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30936940

 

[teqniq]

Houthis set deadline to unravel Yemen crisis

A Shiite militia on Sunday set a three-day deadline for political parties to resolve the power vacuum in Yemen since the president and prime minister offered to resign last month.

The Houthis and their allies urged parties “to reach a solution and fill the vacuum” within three days or “the revolutionary leadership” would “take care of the situation of the state.”....

 

[teqniq]

Yemen Rebels Say They Will Dissolve Parliament

The Houthi rebels who effectively forced Yemen’s president and cabinet to step down last month announced on Friday that they intended to dissolve Parliament and take control of the country, which does not now have a functioning government.

Houthi officials said the plan would be put into effect quickly, but they conceded that the process might take weeks to complete. They said they would name a national council to replace the Parliament, which would in turn choose a committee to select a new president....

 

[klang]

Map of Houthi controlled areas:

http://www.criticalthreats.org/yeme...paramount&utm_campaign=yemen-situation-report

 

[yield]

Yemen’s collapse is a taste of things to come
Middle East Eye. Friday 20 February 2015

Yemen is on the brink of civil war. The collapse of the US-backed government in the 2,500-year-old capital city, Sanaa, and the takeover by Shiite Houthi rebels from the north, has left the country in turmoil, amidst the threat of yet another regional conflagration along sectarian lines.

Britain, the United States and France have already closed down their embassies, but less clear is how they can respond to a crisis that looks ready to spiral out of control.

The war pundits have been out in force offering all manner of stale recommendations, largely rehashed from the last decade of failed counter-terrorism policies.

We are running out of options, but the reason for this is more nuanced than some might assume.

The core drivers of state failure in Yemen are neither Islamists, al-Qaeda jihadists, nor Houthis: they are structural, systemic, and ultimately, civilisational.

Interesting if depressing article by Nafeez Ahmed

 

[Patteran]

'Pentagon loses track of $500 million in weapons, equipment given to Yemen'

Includes jeeps, drones, aircraft, & boats. I'm sure it will be fine. It's not like that enormous cache of ordnance will cause any problems or rumours in the region.

 

[teqniq]

 

[teqniq]

As if to underline the above

 

[elbows]

A bbc report on that which came a few hours later:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-31964277

Note the repeated references to Saleh in the latter portion of the article. People said he wouldn't relinquish his influence without a prolonged struggle, although I've not yet had time myself to study the alliance between him and the Houthi's that are suggested by articles.

 

[elbows]

A wWashington Post article from February that gets into quite a bit more detail about what Salehs been up to:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...ff6a9c-b124-11e4-bf39-5560f3918d4b_story.html

 

[teqniq]

Scores dead in suicide bombings at Houthi mosques in Sana'a

Scores of people have died in three suicide bombings targeting mosques used by the Shia Houthi militia in the Yemeni capital Sana’a.

A television network owned by the Houthi rebels said 137 people were killed and 345 injured, while a medical source told Reuters that 126 had died. The attacks have been claimed by an affiliate of Islamic State.

Sana’a has been under Houthi control since it was overrun in September following fierce fighting.

One bomb exploded inside Badr mosque in the south of the city, followed by another blast at the gate as worshippers fled, witnesses said.

The third explosion targeted the Al-Hashahush mosque in northern Sana’a....

 

[klang]

Scores dead in suicide bombings at Houthi mosques in Sana'a

so sad!

Karama Has No Walls, a documentary on the 18th March 2011 massacre (with subtitles):

 

[Patteran]

Breaking news - Saudi has launched military operations against Houthi targets in Yemen, with backing of the GCC. Reported extensively, example here from The Yemen Post.

Edited to add - so in the same day, the US & its allies have launched airstrikes round Tikrit in support of Iraqi & Iranian units fighting IS, and in Yemen against militias widely believed to be supported by Iran - who are also fighting IS, among others.

 

[frogwoman]

 

[J Ed]

They might be an Islamic State but they are our Islamic State

 

[Pickman's model]

i wouldn't be surprised if there were bombings in places like riyadh in the coming weeks.

 

[teqniq]

Yup all going to shit imo

 

[frogwoman]

i wouldn't be surprised if there were bombings in places like riyadh in the coming weeks.

By daesh? Or shia jihadis?