Beseiged Military in Sa’ada, Gov’t Indifferent for 44 Days
YT: The Yemeni Socialist Party-affiliated Aleshteraki.net has quoted informed sources as saying that Houthi gunmen shot down an MI-8 helicopter at 10 a.m. Tuesday as it hovered over the 17th Military Division, which has been besieged for more than a month, in an attempt to supply its troops with food and ordinance.
The site’s sources say that members of the 17th Military Division – besieged in Mirran area for 44 days now – are angry at the government’s seeming indifference toward releasing them, so they’ve begun telephoning media outlets to complain about their harsh conditions.
The besieged troops say they lack basic living necessities such as food, water and medication, particularly as they are subjected to frequent Houthi assaults. They note that sympathetic boys in the area had been supplying them with food until Houthis discovered this and stopped them from doing so two days ago.
The besieged troops include division commander Abdulaziz Al-Shahari, whom Houthis blame for intensifying the blockade on various Mirran villages after a July 2007 ceasefire agreement reached by both sides in Doha went into effect. Houthis further accuse Al-Shahari, a Salafi extremist, of insulting Zaidi ideology.
On Sunday, Houthis shot dead Mohammed Al-Fadhli, head of the 10th Military Division’s training unit, in Al-Sama as he was surveying the area prior to a planned attack against the strongholds of Houthi leaders in Matra district.
Military commanders question strategy
YemenOnline – June 29, 2008- According to MarebPress, military officers have started to complain about how the war in Sadah is being conducted. Officers are puzzled over their commands, as they seem strategically ineffective. After many advances by the army in the Houthi stronghold, they have received orders to stop fighting. The Houthi militia in the regions of Mahadha and Maran has taken tremendous blows by the army, losing many men and control of strategic locations. Yet instead of going for the clincher, the army has been ordered to stand down.
This voluntary slowdown in their own progress has allowed for the Houthi rebels to regroup and reclaim land they had lost to the army. The army is then redeployed to regions they had previously won. This back and forth course of engagement has prolonged the war for much longer than is thought necessary by many military strategists. Some political analysts are beginning to question: are there ulterior motives behind the extension of the war?
boom boom boom, you can hear it from Sana’a
Yemeni Military forces are facing two enemies in Sa’ada.
YemenOnline-June 2,2008- The situation in Merran, Sa’ada governorate is getting more serious as some of the military camps have been cut off by the rebels since the beginning of the fifth war’ sources informed YemenOnline. Accordingly, food supplies and military reinforcements could not reach those undersiege camps.Now, hunger represents another major enemy that the military forces have to confront . At another level, in spite of what military sources have been reporting for the last three weeks that they have taken control over the whole area of Bani Hushaish, bombings, according to an eye witness, were heard once again in Bani Hushaish area last night as an indication of an uninterrupted war.
