Armies of Liberation

The seven AQAP killed in Azzam, Shabwa included Egyptian Ibrahim al Banna who was among 28 arrested in Hadramout in 2008. The group was put on trial in 2010 for forming an armed gang; seven of the 28 were tried in absentia and its unclear whether al Banna still was in custody or not. An article written at the time of the trial ties him to Iraqi al Qaeda. Also killed in the strike were Anwar al Awlaki’s son and cousin, the ABC article notes. A June drone strike in the same area killed Abu al Harithy Jr. of the Zarchawi cell that admitted fighting in Iraq and was tried in 2006; the court accepted their defense argument that jihad is a duty in occupied Muslim lands. Update: Tribal leaders said that Farhan al Quso also was killed in the attack. He is the brother of Fahd Mohammed al-Quso, a particularly elusive Al Qaeda fugitive who helped plan the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole attack.

WaPo: Yemeni officials familiar with the U.S. military drive against al-Qaida in Yemen said a shift of strategy by the Americans was finally yielding results, with human assets on the ground directly providing actionable intelligence to U.S. commanders rather than relying entirely on Yemen’s security agencies the Americans had long considered inefficient or even suspected of leaking word on planned operations. They said there were as many as 3,000 informers on the U.S. payroll around the country — some without even knowing it.

The terrorists targeted a pipeline in Shabwa carrying LNG from Marib to Balhaf in retaliation.

ABC The head of the media department of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been killed in a trio of US air strikes on militant outposts in Yemen, and gunmen retaliated by blowing up a gas export pipeline.

The death of Ibrahim al-Banna, an Egyptian described by Yemeni officials as high on their wanted list, is a fresh blow to the Islamist group regarded by Washington as the most serious threat to the United States, following the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki last month…The ministry confirmed al-Banna was among seven suspected Al Qaeda militants killed, adding that he was wanted “internationally” for “planning attacks both inside and outside Yemen.”

Al-Banna was “in charge of the media arm of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” and was one of the group’s “most dangerous operatives,” it added….

Residents and officials said the 322-kilometre pipeline, which links gas fields in Maarib, east of Sanaa, to a $US4.5 billion Total-led liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, was blown up soon after the raids.

Sources at Total told Reuters the pipeline was blown up in two places, stopping the gas supplies that feed the Belhaf LNG plant. Witnesses said the flames were visible from several kilometres away.

Early Saturday, a local security official told Xinhua that a pipeline carrying gas from Marib to liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Balhaf port was blown up in Shabwa province.”The targeted gas pipeline located in Rodhoum area, a few miles away from the location of the French giant TOTAL-led Yemeni LNG Company in Balhaf port in southeast province of Shabwa,” the official told Xinhua by phone.
“The bombing took place on Saturday at about 1:30 a.m. local time, just a few hours after Yemeni warplanes hit hideouts of al- Qaida militants in neighboring towns of Azzan and Rawda,” he said on condition of anonymity. The official blamed al-Qaida for the attack.

An engineer of TOTAL-led Yemeni LNG company confirmed to Xinhua the bombing of the company’s gas pipeline. “Huge fire at the hit pipeline can be seen from miles away and the company already suspended gas production,” he said.

The Yemen Post later corrected (without explicitly noting it) the following article to read: One of the airstrikes in Arhab district killed a large number of armed tribesmen fighting the government as well as republican guards. The total number of death varied, with least estimates saying that at least 35 were killed in the air raids.

Another possible discrepancy in fatalities, by the power of ten, here.

Saada War redux- Iraqi pilots bomb Yemeni civilians. The impact of Saddam’s military leadership in Yemen on both the Saada War and the Iraqi insurgency was substantial.

Sahwa Net- Yemen Air Forces have recruited Iraqi pilots and used them in bombarding some Yemeni villages in Arhab after Yemeni pilots refused orders to attack the Yemeni villages, a military source revealed.

The source affirmed that the Iraqi pilots committed brutal crimes against people of Arhab, outskirt of Sana’a governorate, pointing out that they carried out many air raids on Arhab. It also said that 400 Yemeni officers and troops who refused to attack Arhab villages were killed by the air raids, pointing out that a number of Yemeni pilots who rejected orders of bombardments are still held.

Update: gruesome, state airstrike kills 400 who refused to fight the tribesmen

YP Commander Abu Hatim said the Yemen Air Force are currently using Iraqi pilots at a time when the army is continuing operations in the two districts and that the Iraqis are committing enormous crimes against the Yemeni people.

One of the airstrikes in Arhab district after tribes were said to have seized a republican guard killed at least 400 officers and troops of those who refused to fight the tribes, he was quoted as saying by Akhbar Al-Youm newspaper.

A number of the republican guard camps in Arhab are being cleansed by the army, especially those which refuse to participate in the battles with the tribes, he said, pointing out that the army is also cleansing commanders accused of links with the opposition. (Read on …)

a) Drone attacks with civilian casualties could trigger a civil war if the previously unarmed Southern Movement believes it is being arbitrarily attacked by Saleh’s forces or Mohsen’s. Vid of some aircraft bomber in South Yemen is widely assumed to be Saleh’s air force and is provoking panic at the thought of a new bombing campaign like the one that occurred in Saada. (Update: Vid likely not US, has the wrong contrail, vid recorded yesterday and supposedly hit Abyan City. Whereas US air strike was in Shabwa and days earlier.) (Local reporting on Shibuya.)

Update: CNN reports Abu al Harithy Jr. was in Shabwa and the Yemeni government is taking credit on TV.

A U.S. military official with knowledge of the Yemen campaign told CNN that U.S. military-led air operations recently resumed after a pause of some months. He also said the United States believes it likely killed al-Harithi in an airstrike in southern Yemen in recent days. But he cautioned its “very difficult” to confirm the killing.

The official said the pause was due to the fact the United States “didn’t have faith in the information available,” to conduct targeting against individuals in Yemen during that time frame. He could not say what led to the improved intelligence picture, but the Yemeni government has been absorbed with the anti-government demonstrations raging in big cities and fighting tribal forces.

The US also pledged $26 mil in humanitarian aid today.

b) The embedded links in this section lead to contemporaneous posts on the 2006 trial of the 19 member Zarchawi cell headed by Ali Abdullah Naji Al-Harithi, nicknamed Abu Ali Al-Harithi junior. This is the cell that won its appeal to reduced charges by arguing successfully that its legal under Yemeni law to commit murder abroad in the name of jihad. They admitted traveling to Iraq as well as establishing training camps in Yemen. The cell made explosive belts because John Kerry mentioned something about Yemen during a presidential candidates’ debate, but then when he didn’t win, they claimed at trial they gave the belts to the intelligence services. Al Hairthy was killed in a recent US air strike (Friday 6/3) in Yemen per the NYTimes report below.

c) Another thing I will never understand about US CT policy is why Yemen got a total pass from 2004-2007 when literally thousands of jihaddists, Yemeni and non-Yemeni, were being trained in Yemen to kill US troops in Iraq. There is an incorrect concept that there was little AQ activity in Yemen during that time frame, however Yemen was buzzing with activity, receiving and exporting jihaddists. They would leave by the plane load openly. Its reasonable to say half of US military deaths and injuries in Iraq were perpetrated by individuals who in some way were connected with the Yemeni pipe line. That’s a mind boggling statement when Bush was always whining about Syria letting them into Iraq but never once publicly about Saleh letting them out of Yemen. Overview of Yemenis in suicide ops in Iraq as well as coordination with Baathists in Yemen here. Saddams nephew never located as far as I know.

NYT: June 8, 2011
U.S. Is Intensifying a Secret Campaign of Yemen Airstrikes, By MARK MAZZETTI

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has intensified the American covert war in Yemen, exploiting a growing power vacuum in the country to strike at militant suspects with armed drones and fighter jets, according to American officials.

The acceleration of the American campaign in recent weeks comes amid a violent conflict in Yemen that has left the government in Sana, a United States ally, struggling to cling to power. Yemeni troops that had been battling militants linked to Al Qaeda in the south have been pulled back to the capital, and American officials see the strikes as one of the few options to keep the militants from consolidating power.

On Friday, American jets killed Abu Ali al-Harithi, a midlevel Qaeda operative, and several other militant suspects in a strike in southern Yemen. According to witnesses, four civilians were also killed in the airstrike. Weeks earlier, drone aircraft fired missiles aimed at Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric who the United States government has tried to kill for more than a year. Mr. Awlaki survived. (Read on …)

Update: At the Hague, Yemen says they were internationally approved CS and CN types of riot control gasses and, “Despite of the results of this report which refutes the use of toxic gases , the Yemeni government has made a formal request to the World Health Organization to send experts from the organization to examine the cases.” That would be good. via SABA

Original: That makes sense, anybody remember the lab that was found in oh 2009 in Sanaa. The Saddamists in Sanaa have always been a negative influence, including in Saaada, where co-incidentally there were also reports of chemical weapon use. I can’t believe the international community hasn’t rushed in there to test it at the first report and that the US embassy came out with some mealy mouth statement that the US does not have the capacity to determine the ingredients and can’t help in any way on the issue. Imagine the response if it was Iran? If its homecooked, the US really should get some testing going otherwise it is going to be widely perceived as of US origin. And you would think the US would want to know if anyone in Yemen is cooking their own nerve gas for many reasons. Mohammed Qatan is a leading reformist member of Islah. France24 has more doctors disputing the possibility that tear gas caused the symptoms of some protesters.

al Baida News: The protesters called for allowing ambulances to transport the injured, and demanded from the Yemeni army forces to protect them from the special forces, security and ruling party militants, according to one of the protesters.

Medical sources said that the U.S. made gas as it is written on it in bottles

To that revealed to Muhammad Qahtan spokesman for the joint opposition bloc that “they have information that the gas in which they are beating the protesters are prepared in private rooms in the special forces led by the son of Yemeni President Ali Ahmed and Dean are being prepared by Iraqi experts.”

One escapes. Why don’t the drug dealers or tribesmen ever escape prison?

YP An Al-Qaeda suspect escaped from an Aden hospital, with reports suggesting an unknown group could have infiltrated into the hospital and helped him escape. Amin Al-Sayed was arrested along with four other terrorist suspects last week, and was hospitalized at the BaSuhaib military hospital. Last week, the authorities announced the arrest of almost ten Al-Qaeda suspects in Abyan and Hadramout, amid the continuous hunt for and large-scale operations against AQAP militants, mainly in southern, southeastern and eastern regions.

Yemen Post: A Yemeni court specialized in the cases of terrorism in Hadramout sentenced four suspected Al-Qaeda militants between three to five years in prison. (Read on …)

An interesting article today from Norway detailing the relationship and illegal arms transfers between Saddam and Saleh with Shaher Abdulhaq as intermediary. The father of the murdered Norweigan girl made an impassioned plea yesterday for Yemen to turn over Farouk Abdulhaq to stand trial in Norway, but its not likely to happen.

Google translation, Nettavisen: Farouk’s father sold aircraft parts to Saddam

The father of murder suspect Farouk played a key role in illicit weapons sales to the dictatorship, according to the CIA report….

Shaher Abdulhak also has a close relationship with the country’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and must have carried a number of shady business which has violated UN sanctions against Iraq, according to CIA documents. (Read on …)

Update: a good game but they lost!!! They play again Thursday same time. Original: Yemen playing Saudi Arabia in the opening game today, 7:30 pm Aden time, 11: 30 am EST, Watch the pre-game show and the game live, streaming now at http://www.watchfomny.com/Sport-tv-3.php or, if that goes down, click here.

(Read on …)

Earlier report on the trial. Update: note “al Banaa” translates as “construction.”

al Watan مصري درب خليفة الزرقاوي ويرأس استخبارات القاعدة يحاكم في اليمن Egypt trained Zarqawi’s successor is headed by al-Qaeda intelligence on trial in Yemen
الاثنين, 16-أغسطس-2010 Monday, 16 – August -2010
الوطن – كشفت مصادر أمنية عن معلومات جديدة بشأن المصري المقبوض عليه الأسبوع الماضي في محافظة حضرموت اليمنية، على خلفية تولّيه منصباً قيادياً في تنظيم ‘القاعدة’ في اليمن. Home – security sources disclosed new information on the Egyptian arrested last week in the Yemeni province of Hadramaut, on the background taking a leadership position in the organization of ‘bottom’ in Yemen. (Read on …)

Somebody is making big money from this. Some of these kids are very young four and five years old.

Trafficking in Persons Report 2010
YEMEN (Tier 2 Watch List)

Yemen is a country of origin and, to a much lesser extent, a transit and destination country for women and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. Yemeni children, mostly boys, migrate across the northern border with Saudi Arabia, to the Yemeni cities of Aden and Sana’a, or – to a lesser extent – to Oman, and are forced to work primarily as beggars, but also for domestic servitude or forced labor in small shops. Some of these children are subjected to commercial sexual exploitation in transit or once they arrive in Saudi Arabia by traffickers, border patrols, other security officials, and their employers. The government and local NGOs estimate that there are hundreds of thousands of children in forced labor in Yemen. (Read on …)

I have been writing about the impact of the thousands of Iraqis in Yemen, and especially former top Saddamists, for years. One area is the Sa’ada War, where Iraqi Ba’athists in the Yemeni military aided and instigated the war efforts against the Shiite Houthi rebels, prompting Ayatollah Sistani to call it “a pact of evil from Baghdad to Sana’a” in 2005. (And what an uproar there was…) Another area of influence is the facilitation of jihaddists from Yemen to Iraq to aid the “insurgency” there. In 2005, I detailed the Baathist input into the training of jihaddis in Yemen by “subverted” members of the intelligence and military.

The reasoning for the US working with former Saddamists in Yemen presented in the article is that the PSO is too incompetent and subverted. And that’s true. The Iraqis at least have some professionalism. The US must be that desperate to find anyone to partner with, and there’s even talk of forming yet another Yemeni security agency. But its hard to stomach an alliance with these particular Ba’athists when we tally the numbers of US troops killed by terrorists that came down the Yemeni rat trail. They are already alligned with al Qaeda, as are certain sections of the Yemeni security forces and the Yemeni adminstration.

Telegraph: Co-operation with the former Baathist officers, who fled Iraq in the wake of the US-led invasion and the fall of Saddam, is expected to grow further in the wake of the failed terror attack in the skies above Detroit.

Both Britain and the United States have pledged to bolster Yemeni efforts to take on al-Qaeda’s local affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP), since it claimed responsibility for a thwarted attempt to bring down an American airliner on Christmas Day.

The US-Iraqi alliance was born out of frustration over the incompetence and suspected al-Qaeda sympathies of many within Yemen’s domestic intelligence body, the Political Security Organisation, or PSO. (Read on …)

Another via email:

بيـــــــان صحــــفي
تتواصل لقاءات الدكتور موفق الربيعي الامين العام لتيار الوسط مع المواطنين حيث التقى نخبة من الوجهاء والمثقفين من ابناء مناطق (ابي غريب والعامرية والسيدية والدورة والغزالية والشرطة الخامسة) واكد خلال اللقاء على ضرورة العمل الجاد والمتواصل لحث الناخبين بالذهاب الى صناديق الاقتراع واختيار ممثليهم . (Read on …)

Considering I’ve been saying that al Douri was in Yemen since 2006, I’m not surprised. The Iraqi Baathists in Yemen are a significant factor in both the Sa’ada Wars and the insurgency in Iraq. Their presence also underpins the Yemeni regime’s relationship with Syria. Further, the Baathists and al Qaeda were colluding in Yemen to transit fighters to Iraq, with the support of the Yemeni state. Saddam and Saleh were very close as were their top leaderships.

The article also notes Yemen accused Iran and Sadr of supporting the Houthi rebels because they offered to mediate. Sadr said he hasn’t gotten a response yet from either party.

al Masdarوكان الرئيس علي عبد الله صالح اتهم اليوم السيد مقتدى الصدر وجهات إيرانية بدعم جماعة الحوثيين التي تقاتلها القوات الحكومية شمالي البلاد منذ أسابيع. President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Sunday accused Mr. Muqtada al-Sadr and Iran of supporting the views that Huthis battling government troops north of the country for weeks. وقال صالح للجزيرة القطرية إن “إيران والصدر عرضا الوساطة مع الحوثيين وهو ما يعني أن لديهما صلات معهم”. Saleh said the island country that “Iran and al-Sadr offer mediation with the Huthis, which means that they have links with them.”

من جانب آخر اتهم نائب في حزب رئيس الوزراء العراقي، اليمن بإيواء عزة الدوري النائب الأول لصدام حسين، قائلاً: “لدينا معلومات مؤكدة عن وجود عزة الدوري وجناحه في اليمن”. On the other hand accused the deputy of the party of Prime Minister of Iraq, Yemen harboring Izzat al-Duri, First Deputy Saddam Hussein, saying: “We have confirmed information about the presence of Izzat al-Duri and wing in Yemen.”

وحسب موقع صوت العراق قال النائب عن كتلة الائتلاف علي الأديب ان قيادة بلاده مثلما تملك معلومات عن مكان وجود عزة الدوري، النائب الأول للطاغية صدام حسين، فإنها تعلم مكان وجود محمد يونس الأحمد. And, according to Voice of Iraq, Coalition Bloc MP Ali al-Adeeb said the leadership of his country as having information on the whereabouts of Izzat al-Duri, First Deputy to the tyrant Saddam Hussein, they know the whereabouts of Muhammad Yunis al-Ahmad.

وقال علي الأديب النائب عن كتلة الائتلاف العراقي الموحد، في تصريح صحافي، إن «الوقت حان لإجبار سورية وغيرها، على التوقف عن تصدير الإرهاب». Ali al-Adeeb MP bloc United Iraqi Alliance, said in a statement, said that «the time has come to force Syria and others, to stop the export of terrorism».

وأضاف الأديب «مثل ما لدينا معلومات مؤكدة عن وجود عزة الدوري (النائب الأول لصدام حسين) وجناحه في اليمن، لدينا معلومات وأدلة عن وجود جماعة يونس الأحمد في سورية، وعليها تسليمهم لتلافي مواجهة المحكمة الدولية». The writer «such as what we have confirmed information about the presence of Izzat al-Duri (first deputy of Saddam Hussein) and his wing in Yemen, we have information and evidence of the existence of a group Younis al-Ahmed in Syria, and to hand them over to avoid facing an international tribunal».

First Iran is making nice-nice, denying the existance of Iranian weapons (Iranian amb) and supporting Yemen’s unity and stability in a chat between the foreign ministers:

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran believes continuous conflicts in Yemen’s Saada province which could intensify bloodshed in the country will harm Yemen. In a phone conversation with Yemeni counterpart Abubakr al-Qirbi, Mottaki said “we have always announced our support for unity, territorial integrity, security and peace in Yemen and we are sure that Yemen’s leadership can deal with the problems through political talks and peaceful approaches.”

Mottaki also added “some parties in the region want to fuel conflicts and make problems between Yemeni government and its nation, but we believe that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and government of the country will not allow them to do so.”

Second, Press TV publishes an Iraqi MP derides accusations of Iraqi support for the Houthis:

Responding to the recent accusations, several parliamentarians said the claims were an attempt to cover up Yemen’s role in hiding Ba’athist and al-Qaeda leaders and supporting their violent activities in Iraq, the local Awan daily reported.

“The claims that Yemen has fabricated are amusing because everyone knows that Iraq does not currently have the ability to support third-party opposition in some Arab country,” Independent MP Izzat Shabandar told the paper.

“Even if Yemen’s accusations about Baghdad’s support for the opposition were true, Yemen would measure far worse than Iraq on this scale, because it is still home to the Ba’athists, elements of the former regime, al Qaeda and other extremist groups,” he added.

Yemeni officials have been throwing around accusations at Iraq, Iran and several other regional countries, accusing them of aiding the Houthi rebels that are fighting back government troops in the north.

I never understood why US officials, while condemning Syria’s role in the Iraqi insurgency, gave Yemen a total pass for the last five years. But the Iraqis are still kind of cranky about it.

Many of the terror attacks in Iraq (including the bombing of the UN headquarters) were directed, financed or supported from Yemen. Substantial elements of the Ba’athist insurgency’s leadership is and has been harboring in Yemen, and the Iraqis know it. Not to mention, the jihaddists from Yemen or trained in Yemen who went to fight, murder and/or die in Iraq, estimated to be over over 1000 mostly in 2006, according to a tally early in 2007. Yahya al Houthi said in an interview that Saleh asked the Believing Youth (Houthis) to go to fight in Iraq against US troops but they refused and that precipitated the uptick in violence in 2003. It was the same year I think that Saleh held a welcome ceremony at the airport for the first group of jihaddists who returned to Yemen from Iraq. As far as al Sadr goes, the last time he stuck his nose in was 2007 when he condemned the civilian slaughter and warned the regime against the use of chemical weapons at the time that rumor was circulating about new CW, as opposed to the old CW purportedly used in 2005.

Sahwa Net- Iraqi parliamentarians have accused Shiite movements of pushing Iraq into political disputes with the Arab states, indicating that these movements receive and train al-Houthi rebels in Yemen to serve Iranian agenda against Saudi Arabia.

Iraqi political sources told Alsyasa journal that Al-Sadr movement might launch contact channels with al-Houthi rebels and train numbers of them during last years, and that they helped transfer some Yemeni rebels to Iran.

On the other hand, Iraqi sources denied any Iraqi supports to al-Houthi rebellion, accusing senior Baathists of inciting the Yemeni government against al-Houthi in an attempt to break out sedition between the Iraqi government and the Arab states.

What interesting timing… Khaleej Times

Yemen names first envoy to Iraq since 2003 (AFP)

2 September 2009 SANAA – Yemen on Wednesday named Ali Al Bujairi to be its first ambassador to Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The appointment was made in a decree reported by official Saba news agency, which gave no other details, such as when Bujairi will take up the role.

Yemen had good relations with Iraq under Saddam.

The announcement comes at a time when the Sanaa government, a US ally, is fighting a Shia rebellion in the north of the country.

I thought the Iraqi MP was joking when he first announced the Houthis should have an office in Iraq as retaliation for Yemen’s support of the Iraqi insurgency, both al Qaeda and Baathist… Hamas and Hezbollah both have offices in Sana’a.

There has been a heck of a lot of logistical, financial and moral support for the Iraqi insurgency coming from Yemen to Iraq, with the knowledge and often support of the Yemeni authorities, and its been apparent for years. (The relationship between Yemen and Syria is quite strong, making Yemen’s current flap with Iran all the more interesting.)

Its not just Yemeni fighters who train or transit Yemen en route to Iraq but a variety of nationalities. Al Douri is just one of many of top Iraqi Baathist who at one time or another was operating from Yemen to target the Iraqi government. Others include Saddams nephew (wanted by Interpol for financing and directing the fighters in Mosul and northern Iraq). And there are many former Iraqi military commanders in the Yemeni military.

At the same time, the Houthi rebellion has been in issue with Iraq’s Shiite political leaders and community with Ayatollah Sistani commenting in 2005 about the Yemeni government’s brutal massacres (as they are again) and Moqtada al Sadr condemning the Yemeni govt’s human rights violations in 2007 and warning against the use of chemical weapons. The Houthi rebellion is a domestic political conflict, with overtones that are more ethnic than sectarian. But the flagrant targeting of civilians as well as the Yemeni government’s habitual characterization of the rebels as deviants is drawing moral support for the rebels from the Shiite community internationally. Zaidis are a strain of Shiism quite distinct from that practiced in Iraq and Iran, with many subsets, the Believing Youth were an offshoot of mainstream Zaidism, and the Houthis are an off shoot of the Believing Youth and they have morphed considerably since 2004. But now the war is internationalizing fast, with nations picking sides and some internal fracturing in the region along those lines. And at the end of the day, theres still 100,000 war refugees without food.

al Watan Home – Iraqi MP said Janan al-Obeidi that the presence of the Office of the movement Houthis in the city of Najaf does not mean that supporting the Shiite insurgency in Yemen. Obeidi and expressed surprise at the call on the Yemeni government for the Iraqi Ambassador in Sanaa in protest at the Iraqi on the fighting in Saada.

نائبة عراقية.. Iraqi woman .. وجود مكتب للحوثية في النجف ليس تدخلا في شئون اليمن The presence of the Office of the Hotheip in Najaf, is not an interference in the affairs of Yemen
الأربعاء, 02-سبتمبر-2009 الأربعاء, 02 – September -2009
الوطن – قالت النائبة العراقية جنان العبيدي أن وجود مكتب للحركة الحوثية في مدينة النجف لا يعني أن المرجعية الشيعية تدعم العنف المسلح في اليمن. Home – Iraqi MP said Janan al-Obeidi that the presence of the Office of the movement Houthis in the city of Najaf does not mean that supporting the Shiite insurgency in Yemen.
وعبرت العبيدي عن دهشتها إزاء استدعاء الحكومة اليمنية للسفير العراقي في صنعاء احتجاجا على تصريحات عراقية بشأن المعارك في صعدة. Obeidi and expressed surprise at the call on the Yemeni government for the Iraqi Ambassador in Sanaa in protest at the Iraqi on the fighting in Saada. (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.

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…

As we say in Brooklyn, payback is a biayatch. al Sahwa

Sahwa Net- Head of Iraq parliament’s Foreign Committee Sheikh Hamam Hamaudi has called for establishing a headquarters for al-Houthi rebels in Baghdad as a response to providing a shelter for Ba’ath Party’s members by the Yemeni regime.

Hamaudi pointed out that there are bids to form a resistant coalition that might embrace violence against the Iraqi government.

Hamam Hamoudi, close to Iran, is a prominent leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. Political analysts considered Hamoudi’a call pressures practiced against states which harbor Iraqi oppositionists.

Yemeni security has been unable to locate Saddam’s nephew since the Interpol extradiction request was issued by Iraq to Yemen in errr 2006 or thereabouts. He is alleged to be directing and financing the terrorist acts in northern Iraq from Yemen. The substantial level of aid and support for the Iraq resistance coming from Yemen, officially and unofficially, will become more of an issue as US troops take a backseat in security measures in Iraq. There was a mass exodus of Iraqi military personnel starting in 2003, and many were given positions in the Yemeni military, a factor that later impacted the Sa’ada War and the Iraq War.

Update: Sahwa Net-

The media advisor of the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has criticized what he called Arab media prejudice to the Yemeni government against al-Houthi rebels in Saada province.

The advisor Yasin Majeed said that Yemeni government’s strikes against al-Houthi rebels remind of the stage of Ba’ath Party rule in Iraq.

Members of Iraqi parliament had threatened to launch a headquarters of al-Houthi in Baghadad. Head of Iraq parliament’s Foreign Committee Sheikh Hamam Hamaudi has called for establishing a headquarters for al-Houthi rebels in Baghdad as a response to providing a shelter for Ba’ath Party’s members by the Yemeni regime, as he said.

Only in Yemen… Protests held in South Yemen in sympathy with the nation of Kuwait on the anniversary of its invasion by Saddam.

South Arabian Times: The Day of Solidarity with Kuwait: 4 injured and dozens arrested

Today thousands of people went out in the streets of South Yemen in the day of Solidarity with Kuwait. The call has been sent by the leaders of the Southern movement,

The occupation forces opened fire on the peaceful demonstrations.

The demonstrators demand the release of the detainees and in solidarity with the newspaper “Alayyam “and Shaikh Tariq AlFadli.