Armies of Liberation

SAADA, Yemen, Aug. 27 (UPI) — Fighting between government forces and rebels in Yemen’s northwest area has displaced thousands of people, creating humanitarian concerns, aid agencies said.

The United Nations Children’s Fund said it has been working to remove refugees from battle zones and provide critically needed supplies such as safe drinking water and medicine, CNN reported Thursday.

“The ongoing conflict in Saada has forced more than 100,000 people to flee their homes at great risks to their lives and well-being,” Ann Veneman of the Children’s Fund said. “Children and women represent the majority of the displaced.”

The Yemeni government has been blocking access to internally displaced civilians since 2005 and continues to do so. The rebels are also fighting for control of the roads.

This is the third fishing boat to explode since May. Are they smuggling explosives, fishing with explosives? It is described as a massive explosion. The location is Maydi in Hajjah, near the Saudi border, south of Sa’ada. We earlier noted Maydi (Medi) Island is a new way station for human smuggling from Sudan.

Also note the the port is under the direction of the Border Guards which fall under the Defense Ministry, not the Coast Guard. As earlier noted regarding weapons trafficking, the ports with the highest rates of arms smuggling are those under military control, not the Coast Guard. The Border Guard and the Coast Guard have been involved in several scuffles when the BG interferes in CG efforts to combat smuggling. To the extent that the US is interested in border control, the facilitation of smuggling by aspects of the Yemeni security forces is an important consideration.

al Tagheer: أفادت مصادر مطلعة عن دوي انفجار شديد في ميناء الصيد بمديرية ميدي التابعة لمحافظة حجة صباح الاثنين في حوالي الساعة الرابعة فجرا تضرر فيه ثلاثة قوارب صيد احدهم يتبع ضباط بالجيش ويدعى محمد حنيش. Informed sources said a loud blast in the fishing port MIDI Directorate in the province of argument on Monday morning at about four o’clock am the damaged fishing boats, one of three military officers followed, Mohammed Hanish. (Read on …)

WCAX

WASHINGTON (AP) – American authorities are pressuring Yemen to counter a rising internal al-Qaida threat more aggressively and improve intelligence-sharing amid growing worries that the country could become the next significant terrorist staging ground. (Read on …)

IN 2005, the Saleh regime accused Shiite individuals in Bahrain along with Kuwait with supporting the rebels. Later, during the next round, they accused Libya (which had some truth) and Iran. Qatar mediated the last official cease fire. Saudi Arabia has serious concerns of course, and Egypt is willing to act as a mediator currently. Iraqi MP’s said Iraq should host the rebels headquarters in retaliation for Yemen hosting wanted Iraqi Baathists. The US and some western allies are worried that the war is a distraction from Yemeni efforts against al Qaeda. Currently Iran and Yemen are having a media war over the Iranian media coverage of the war.

To the extent the Saleh regime keeps calling the rebels “Satanic”, as it has for years, and imposing sectarian overtones on a essentially political conflict, Sana’a risks stimulating ever wider fractures both in Yemeni society and the region.

the Media Line: Deadly clashes in Yemen between government forces and a radical Shi’ite group are fueling tensions throughout the Gulf region.

A member of the Bahraini ruling Sunni coalition is accusing Al-Wefaq, the largest opposition Shi’ite party, of supporting the Al-Houthi rebels in northern Yemen.

MP Sheikh Jassem A-Sa’idi, an independent MP from the coalition bloc, talked of “suspicious movements” Al-Wefaq was making towards the Al-Houthi rebels. A-Sa’idi argued overtures to the Al-Houthis could have a “dangerous” impact on official relations between Bahrain and Yemen.

“I have proof to confirm that prominent Al-Houthi figures from the highest ranks visited Bahrain and met exclusively with MPs from Al-Wefaq,” A-Sa’idi told the London-based A-Sharq Al-Awsat, added that the political meeting had preceded the latest round of fighting which began on August 11.

“This is a big lie,” MP Jalal Fairooz, from the Al-Wefaq party told The Media Line. “[A-Sa’idi] is very well known in Bahrain for explosive words which are groundless and have no reality.”

Egypt willing to mediate… from al Sahwa

Egypt and other Arab states would intervene to end the conflict between the Yemeni government and al-Houthi rebels in Saada, high-profile sources have revealed.

The sources disclosed that al-Houthi rebels demanded the Arab League to visit Saada, but the league refused the request and confirmed that the Yemeni government has the decision on this issue.

Update 8/30/09: Kuwaiti diplomat denies the station even asked for a license and thus Kuwait never pulled it despite Yemeni government statements to the contrary.

Original post: Yemen is trying to shut down speech that they find too illuminating everywhere- including here in the US. Did Zindani ever get his programing up and running? That initiative was welcomed by Saleh but Hamid Al Ahmar’s satellite channel was fought vigorously through diplomatic channels. There was some prior tension between Yemen and Kuwait when Sana’a set up mourning tents for Saddam.

Kuwait government’s decision of closing down Suhail TV Channel, welcomed
Tuesday, 25-August-2009
al Motamar
Almotamar.net – A Yemeni official information source on Tuesday welcomed a decision taken by the Kuwaiti government on closing down transmission of Kuwait-based Suhail Satellite TV Channel owned by Hamid al-Ahmar.

The source said that positive decision has been received with big welcome by by the yemerni people’s circles owing to what that channel was broadcasting of programmes promoting to oisons of sedition , division and delusion of the public opinion and offending the reputation of the Yemeni people.

The source has , meanwhile , praised the brotherly relations between yemen and Kuwait and that of their two political leaderships in addition to the steady development of those relations in interest of the two Yemeni and Kuwaiti peoples.

Yemen also regrets the Iranian media “provocative campaign.”

Just as the US calls for its implementation, the Yemeni government announces that the Doha agreement is history. The problem with the Doha Agreement at the time was it had no mechanism for broadly supervised disengagement. Striking the deal was not enough, it had to be incrementally implemented by both sides simultaneously. The Qatari mediators tried. And they withdrew several times to protest both sides failure to stick to the agreement. What resulted was a partial implementation, with each side picking and choosing, and waiting for the other to go first on the next step. The government listed its many steps taken in compliance with the settlement, (some real some imagined) and insists the rebels broke the agreeement by refusing to come down from the mountians. As before the rebels say they remained subject to arrest, execution and assaults, forcing them to remain encamped.

However, the war didn’t end with the Doha agreement but afterwards when President Saleh called Abdel Malik al Houthi, and they came to a private agreeement. Thats when the fighting stopped.

from the Yemen Post:

For his part, Information Minister and the Yemeni government spokesman, Hassan Al-Lawzi, said that the Doha-brokered peace deal signed by the Yemeni government and Houthis on February 1, 2008 was over, saying that the Yemeni government willingly began implementing cease-fire agreement but said Houthis did not abide by its conditions.

This came following president Saleh political consultant Abdul Karim Al-Iriani’s visit to Doha to disclose Yemen’s stance on Doha-brokered peace deal which Houthis have claimed to be a condition for the cease-fire.

However, Houthi’s rebel’s spokesman, Mohamed Abdul Slam, said that his group was abiding by the Doha cease-fire agreement, accusing the Yemeni government of avoiding a radical solution to the conflict between the two sides.

The Yemen Post among other media reports that the Houthi rebels are fighting Salafi groups in Dammaj, headquarters of the Dar al Hadeith network of schools, the Ivy League of hardcore Salafi institutes. The YP reports 16 dead.

In late April 2007, a firefight occured between rebels and the students of the Dammaj school which left one French student dead. The school at that time insisted that they were well protected by the government and not fighting the rebels.

Remarking on the current incident, Abdelmalik al Houthi insists the reporting is untrue propaganda intended to stoke sectarian tensions and frame the war in religious terms, which apparently as he sees it, it is not.

Yemen, Sa’da, 26/8/2009

There is no truth of what has appeared in some media reports of clashes in Sa’ada city between us and Salafis, and this is not true, but is an attempt which are in the attempts from some quarters to make it as a doctrinal conflict.

Press Office of Al-Sayed. / Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din

The Yemeni government insists that the goal of the rebels is to re-institute the Imamate, but the rebels’ terms of cease-fire are centered on military disengagement, some political empowerment within the central government, areas of autonomy and religious freedom.

Also included is the never ending refrain for prisoner releases- which the government promised in every mediated agreement since 2005. The families of the Sa’ada detainees have been sitting-in for about a year now, and I have a copy of Saleh’s directive ordering their release. Maybe the hundreds of prisoners died in jail and no one has the courage to admit it. Maybe they were tortured and their release would provoke an uproar. Maybe Saleh doesn’t have the authority to effect their release. But the continuity of this issue for years points to a greater disfunction or at least the failure to negotiate in good faith.

As we know the government appointed fact-finding committee found that the government failed to implement its part of the 2006 bargain, leading to the resumption of hostilities in 2007. And the committee members were promptly jailed.

A large part of the residual nature of the conflict harkens back to the Yemeni military’s lack of qualified and unified command and control, not just the soldiers harrassing the women in the markets, but also the inclusion of tribal militias. The Yemeni military/security is a series of conflicting fiefdoms which accounts in part for the failure at border control and in combating smuggling, for the shooting of the southern protesters and the deals with al Qaeda.

Marib Press also reported on the fighting: (Read on …)

For the record, the International Crisis Group and others found after research that most of the Houthi rebels’ weapons were purchased from members of the Yemeni army and local weapons dealers. The weapons trade in Yemen is rather robust and there are many Chinese weapons among other countries of origin.

Yemen – Saa’da, 23.8.2009

There is no truth to the echoes in the authority media of targeting the leadership belongs to us in Harf Sufian M\Imran or anywhere else, and this lie and a deliberate by the Authority in order to compensate for the failure field has suffered several times as it tries to crawl on the our region.

What is said of the bombing (5) stores of weapons (Iranian) there is a ridiculous.

While asking us to hand over power equipment and supplies by the military have taken, trying Only to raise concerns neighboring countries to reinforce the support and assistance received by them. We denied this statement more than once and challenge the authority to prove any relationship between us and with any destination in the world.

As usual, once saying it found Israeli arms!! Once an Iranian!!
Do not rule out a few days after to say (to find stores of Libyan weapons!!!Or Reactor Iranian nuclear!! ) We do not exclude also be accused of finding the stores belonging to any State may get them otherwise with those countries that require them to draw closer.
What we have of the military hardware and to confront and fight the aggression of authority is what we get when you seize military positions.

Press Office of AlSayed . / Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din

At least its in English, which makes life easier.

Earlier reports of finding 100 bodies strewn along the roads have been officially withdrawn, SABA: Yemen denies killing of 100 al-Houthi rebels in Harf Sufyan

SANA’A, Aug. 24 (Saba) – Well-informed sources denied on Monday the killing of 100 subversive elements of the al-Houthi rebel group at Harf Sufyan area in the northern Yemeni province of Amran.

The sources added that the security forces have patrolled Harf Sufyan area and neighboring areas and did not find any bodies.

“The local authorities and armed forces are concentrating to secure roads and evacuate them from the al-Houthi rebels as the al-Houthi followers are continuing attacking the troops, people, prosperities and displaced people”, the sources said.

Reports had claimed that more than 100 al-Houthi rebels, including two of their leaders were killed lately during a combing operation in Harf Sufyan.

While we’re on the subject of denials, Yemen denies Iranian claims of Saudi military support:

26 September net: An official source has denied allegations reported on Sunday by Iran TV channel, called alalam (www.alalam.ir) about there Saudi-Yemeni agreement on establishing joint military operations against the subversive elements of al-Houthis.

The source said it is regrettable to see that alalam TV channel site and other similar media means have recruited themselves to be the rusty trumpet of al-Houthi subversive elements and repeating such slanders and lies which are unfounded.

The source reported that the Iran’s stories had “no credibility, noting this puts Iran in a suspicious position that raises many questions about the possible ulterior motives it pursues in reporting such information.”

There’s no water in Aden, there hasn’t been for several weeks.

Demonstrations for water are turning violent. There was one casualty today. Children and the elderly are most vulnerable to dehydration and are bearing the brunt of the “water shortage.” In the current highly charged political environment, residents believe turning off the water is a deliberate targeting of citizens there in retaliation for prior civil unrest.

aha, a link: ADEN, Yemen, Aug 24 (Reuters) – At least one Yemeni was shot dead and three wounded when protesters clashed with police on Sunday in Aden in southern Yemen where several districts have gone days without water, police and witnesses said. At least two of the wounded were police, the sources said.

and a detailed background at the Yemen Times:

ADEN, Aug, 23 — Hundreds of Aden city residents protested yesterday, demanding relief from the sharp water shortage that has left three districts without water.

Seventy-five percent of the Aden water supply was re-directed to cities of Zunjubar and Ja’ar three months ago because of water crises in those cities. Now, residents of Al-Muala, Khower Makser and Alqlw’a have no running water.

Masses of people from the southern governorates of Aden, Lahj and Abyan rallied last week, demanding water and that corrupt officials be held accountable for their actions. Security officials met demonstrators with teargas and arrests.

By the Yemeni Center for Human Rights
الأحد, 16 أغسطس 2009 02:30 Sunday, August 16th, 2009 02:30

المركز اليمني لحقوق الإنسان يدين استهداف المدنيين في صعدة ويطالب باتخاذ الحلول السلمية لحل الأزمة Yemen Center for Human Rights condemns the targeting of civilians in Saada, and calls for peaceful solutions to resolve the crisis (Read on …)

Al-Marsad and Hemayah Human Rights Organizations demand release of human rights activist Sadiq Al-Sharafi in Yemen.

An important figure at a human rights organization protested that the human rights activist Sadiq Al-Sharafi is still in the prison since 14th of July when the security authority took him to the jail of the National Security before taking him to the Political jail.

” Al-Sharafi’s family members and relatives did not feel any progress in his case except changing his prison from the National to the Political” said Abdulmutaleb Al-Shami- the responsible figure for the legal affairs at Hemayah for Human Rights Organization. (Read on …)

Yemeni-Americans call for the immediate end of the war, the release of political prisoners and the trial of those government officials responsible for crimes against civilians in Sa’ada to be brought before an International Tribunal:

خليج عدن تنشر صور مرعبة لمجزرة صنعاء ضد أطفال صعدة..
عدد من المهاجرين اليمنيين في أمريكا يحذرون رموز سلطة صنعاء الإرهابية من جلبهم للمحاكم الدولية بسبب جرائمها في صعدة والجنوب

خليج عدن – خاص –

وجه عدد من اليمنيين المهاجرين في أمريكا الشمالية رسالة تحذير لمن وصفوها سلطة صنعاء الدكتاتورية الإرهابية الفاسدة لوقف الحرب والمجازر التي تمارسها في صعدة والجنوب ، وحذروا سلطات صنعاء من أنهم سيعملون على إسقاط سلطة صنعاء الإرهابية وجلب رموزها إلى محاكم جرائم الحرب الدولية كمجرمي حرب.

تحذير إلى سلطة صنعاء الإرهابية

نحن الموقعين أدناه من أمريكا الشمالية نوجه هذا التحذير إلى سلطة صنعاء الدكتاتورية الأرهابية الفاسدة أن عليها التالي:-

1-وقف أعمال الحرب والنهب وأنتهاكات حقوق الأنسان فوراً في صعده والجنوب.

2- أطلاق كافة المعتقلين في سجون سلطة صنعاء الأرهابية على ذمة أعمال الحرب في صعده والجنوب أصحاب الحراك السلمي فوراً وأطلاق الصحف ووسائل الأعلام الموقوفة والغاء محاكم الصحافة .

3 –تسليم المسئولين عن كل تلك الجرائم لأنفسهم الى الأمم المتحدة ومحاكم العدل الدولية .

(Read on …)

The Director of South Youth Forums recieved death threats here in the US.

Raed Qasim Ismail is a political activist and director of the forum and website of the South Youth of Aden, Shababshaib, editor of the Algnoub Alhur Magazine.

Mr. Ismail was threatened during telephone calls, emails and messages received from anonymous persons who ordered him to stop his journalistic activities and close down the South Youth website. The callers said “they” knew where he lived in the US, were monitoring his movements and his continued activity would result in harm to himself and his family both here and in Yemen.

Mr. Ismail said said he is accustomed to such threats, adding that there were attempts by unidentified bodies to hack the website several times.

Despite the death threats by email and telephone, Mr. Isamil confirmed that he will continue to exercise his right of free speech, adding that he is not afraid of such threats, and nor will he be deterred from continuing his career with his (Southern Yemeni) people until their independence.

Mr. Ismail is concerned by the threats that were received by his family in Yemen, noting that the Sana’a regime and his men bear the full responsibility for any harm to him or any one of his family members.

The existance of Yemeni intelligence operatives here in the US is well known, and numerous Yemeni-Americans in the US have been threatened by Yemeni operatives for engaging in their legally protected rights of assembly and speech in the US.

Acting as an undeclared agent of a foreign state is illegal.

Govt refuses to consider rebels truce offer
As before, Sadiq alAhmar pledges support (in 2007, he sent 800 fighters)
Saleh (as before) frames rebels as devilish and satanic
Bombing campaign continues today

Dueling initiatives- Saleh has six points and the rebels’ eleven.

Yemen Observer: He said that the rebels have to stick to the six conditions the government suggested before to establish peace in the region. The conditions include: lifting all road checkpoints that impede citizens’ travels, abandoning their military strongholds and coming down from the mountain peaks, handing over all civil and military equipment that they had seized, disclosing the fate of the six kidnapped foreigners, one British man and a German family, handing over the kidnapped Sa’adah citizens, and ending all interference with the local authority’s affairs and full withdrawal from all Sa’adah districts and eliminating all checkpoints from all roads.

The government refused on Thursday an initiative by some of the rebel leaders’ relatives to put an end to the war…

A group of al-Houthi relatives have submitted a message to the president on Wednesday consisting of eleven points which include the lifting of military checkpoints and the redeployment and return of military forces to their barracks, in return al-Houthis pledge to withdraw from the areas that they occupy and declare loyalty to the state, stipulating that the government should appoint directors as well as security and educational managers from al-Houthis. The memo also stated that al-Houthis should keep the Matarah and Naqah areas under their control, and that the army would withdraw its heavy military equipment from these two Houthi dominated areas and al-Houthis would return the areas back to the government within three years time. It also stipulated the release of war detainees and that al-Houthis should be free to teach their Zaidi faith…. (Read on …)

From the gov’t website, SABA, confirmation of tribal paramilitaries fighting on behalf of the state (again) in the Sa’ada War. What kind of rules of engagement exist for these non-military combatants? Is there any attempt at command and control, or are they free to wander around and engage in firefights at will? The “pro-government people” are also authorized to make arrests, according to SABA. Another SABA report in Arabic report has 50 cars arriving in Sa’ada with fruit, water and food for the army. (Meanwhile thousands of women and children who fled the bombing are spread along the roads with nothing.)

Undoubtedly, both sides are using child soldiers.

The bombing is publicly acknowledged this time, but it was a tactic used extensively in prior rounds of the war, with the same consequences- civilian casualties and mass displacement. When the regime spent one billion on new weapons from Russia in March, following a major upgrade on Yemen’s fleet of Mig29’s in October 08, it was pretty apparent that the next war would be an air war.

Lastly, the UN said tens of thousands of refugees are in remote regions inacessable by air. Why not helicopters? Yemen has choppers. But the Yemeni govt is continuing to block international organizations from humanitarian access even to refugees who are reachable. And although the rebels agreed in theory to a truce during Ramadan, the military offensive continues. (ah a link at the Yemen Observer: The government refused on Thursday an initiative by some of the rebel leaders’ relatives to put an end to the war.

SABA: Yemen’s Air Forces have landed painful blows on the elements of a rebel group in several districts of the northern Yemeni province of Saada.

Security sources said on Saturday that groups of the al-Houthi rebels have been encircled and besieged in a number of the districts of Saada and Harf Sufyan area of the neighboring province of Amran….

At the same time, the Air Force landed painful blows on a number of strongholds belonging to the al-Houthi rebels in the areas of Matrah and Naq’ah.

Meanwhile, pro-government people in Saada, Amran and Jawf provinces have been fighting the al-Houthi rebels in some areas of those governorates in order to pursue, arrest and hand them over to the concerned bodies of the government.

The sources affirmed that the rebel group has attacked a health center aiming to kidnap health staff and medical supplies as well as they bombed some buildings of citizens in al-Qabel village of al-Mahadher district in Saada.

On the other hand, 28 rebels of the al-Houthi group were arrested by citizens after escaping from the confrontations with the armed forces in Harf Sufyan area.

from News Yemen:

The United States Embassy in Sana’a said it views with deep concern the continuation of armed conflict between the Government of Yemen and Houthi rebels in the Sa’ada governorate in northern Yemen.

“We call on both parties to return to the cease fire that was established last year,” said the Embassy in a statement on Saturday.

“In the meantime, both parties should avoid any action that would endanger the civilian population in the affected area,” it said.

The Embassy also called on both parties to ensure the security of local and international relief workers in the region, and the safe passage of emergency relief supplies to camps housing internally displaced persons.

There were some supposed sightings of Izzat al Dhouri in Yemen a few years ago, and his daughter is teaching at the language facility of Sana’a University. There are some other high level Iraqi Ba’athists there (including in the Yemeni military), but one of our commenters asserts al Dhouri is in Iraq.

Commander Izzat Ibrahim al Douri is currently in the area of Lake Hamrin,Dyiala province Iraq!Where he leads the Supreme Command of Jihad & Liberation umbrella organization,in which he`s intimately involved with the largest armed wing of the Ba`ath party,(Naqshbandi army)!This is a sufi Muslim,nationalist organization that is very active in Baghdad,Al-Anbar,Saladin,Ninevah,Kirkuk,Dyiala provinces,anyone interested should check out…

Yet another excellent article from the National that points to the amiguity surrounding the Sa’ada Wars-

Rebel without a clear cause

There are two narratives of Abdul Malik al Houthi.

One portrays him as a West-hating terrorist trying to overthrow the government of Yemen and establish a Shiite theocracy with the money and blessing of Iran’s mullahs.

The second shows him as a charismatic hero defending the Zaidi minority from a ruthless, Saudi-backed regime bent on destroying the lives and ancient traditions of people in the remote Sa’ada governorate on Saudi Arabia’s border.

The truth seems as elusive as the man himself. (Read on …)

السلام عليكم،

إليكم بالتهاني القلبية بمناسبة قدوم شهر رمضان المبارك، داعين الله أن يعيده عليكم وعلى جميع المسلمين بكل خير.