Armies of Liberation

This is from two days ago and got stuck in drafts. “The routine task” was likely bombing civilian targets. The story is correct though in that the whole thing in Arhab started in march when the tribesmen prevented the Republican Guard from leaving the base to reinforce the state forces in Sanaa following the Sana’a massacre.

NYT
SANA, Yemen — Rebel tribesmen in a mountainous region just north of the capital brought down a military aircraft on Wednesday, Yemen’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. (Read on …)

Saleh rarely varies his routine, it was the same pattern with the Southern Movement and the Saada War as it is now: lies, propaganda, empty promises, fake dialog, violence which he blames on the victims and then he accuses everybody of being al Qaeda. Saleh said in 2004, “Democracy is the rescue ship of all regimes,” and then he cracked down on the media. Every statement, I mean every statement on all topics, since then has been propaganda. The Saada War broke out six times because the regime kept violating its own cease fire terms. There’s not one promise he’s kept, including not running for office in 2006, for the third time (1993, 1999 & 2006.) Just like reneging on the GCC plan four times and all his BS about supporting US CT ops and goals.

Taipei Times: The president has repeatedly refused to sign a power transfer deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council according to which he would hand power to Yemeni Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi in return for immunity from prosecution. However, he said on Sunday he had authorized Hadi to sign the deal on his behalf. (Read on …)

The US has taken no punitive action for eight months as the Sanaa regime slaughtered hundreds of protesters because “counter-terror cooperation has never been better.” However al Qaeda has only grown stronger, the streets bloodier and the nation hungrier, with the international community’s appeasement of Saleh et al.

al Sahwa:
SANAA, Yemen, Sept. 24 (UPI) — Government forces killed at least 40 protesters in Sanaa Saturday, the day after Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh returned from Saudi Arabia, activists said.

Voice of America reported the deaths occurred as Saleh’s military forces clashed with student protesters. The U.S. network said government troops inflicted many casualties when they fired live ammunition and mortar shells at a protesters’ encampment overnight.
(Read on …)

As expected. CNN reports a dozen deaths since midnight. Its going to be a long bloody night and week.

Unfortunately the Libya option is among the few remaining to safeguard millions, ie- downing the Yemeni Air Force, including the new Hueys. As Saleh refused to resign with immunity and a palace, four times, it is abundantly clear that negotiations are not going to work. Maybe its time for all those symbolic steps the US and international community failed to take until now, but its late for symbolism, half measures and statements.

Al Qaeda suicide bombers moving?

The following could be outright regime propaganda, and maybe al Fahdli never said it, I’m looking for the interview. (Here the report at the Yemen Observer the regime’s stooge paper that sometimes publishes real news.) If al Fahdli did say it, then there’s likely some real al Qaeda movement toward the capital, unless he is back in the pro-regime camp. If its true, its another despicable plot by Saleh. There’s only a remote chance the AQAP moved without approval by somebody. We must recall the long history of very good relations between Saleh and Zawaheri. But this story smells like a typical diversionary tale by Saleh to distract from the carnage. Frankly, AQAP is not that stupid, sending 50 suicide bombers to Sanaa would be the death knell for the group.

Al-Qaeda militants sent 300 insurgents to Sana’a so as to fight the regime, said Sheikh Tareq al-Fadhli in an interview with al-Omana newspaper published on Thursday.

Al-Fadhli said that the extremists fighting in Zinjubar dispatched over three hundred of their insurgents including 50 suicide bombers to Sana’a to teach the son of the president Ahmad Ali, and his nephews Amar and Yahya Mohammed Abdullah Saleh a lesson.

He added that they have developed car bombs named Osama 1, Osama 2, and Osama 3 that carry over a ton and a half of explosives so as to launch a series of [martyrdom operations] in Sana’a in retaliation for bombing what he called the Al-Shabab in Abyan.

Electricity is out in large parts of the capital again, preventing news from getting out.

The Saudis should clarify if they are supporting (and re-arming) Saleh or if they kicked him out after he refused to sign.

The last time Saleh was pushed to sign an agreement to transfer power, he locked down the diplomats with an armed mob of regime supporters at the UAE embassy for six hours. The US ambassador later laughed it off. Both Brennan and the State Dept issued statements last week that they expected the power sharing agreement to be concluded this week. Monday’s violence occurred with the UN envoy Jamal bin Omar and GCC Secretary General Abdul Latif al Zayani in Sanaa to oversee the signing. The last time UN officials were in Sanaa, the state turned the lights back on. Astoundingly the US blames the victims by urging all parties not to provoke violence.

Update: Sahwa Net- Yemen security forces killed during last three days 77protesters and wounded 780 others in Sana’a as they used live bullets and other middle weapons against peaceful protesters, medical sources at the field hospital affirmed. Director of the field hospital Tariq Noaman expected that the number of the killed would double several times as a result of critical injures, pointing out that dozens of protesters were still in intensive care units

Update 2: .Saleh loyalists still shelling protesters in Sanaa, violence continues in Taiz.

CNN:Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) — Officials from the United Nations and the Gulf Cooperation Council were in Sanaa, Yemen, on Monday, hoping to help organize a peaceful transfer of power as witnesses reported violence in the streets.

Thirty-one people were killed Monday in clashes in Yemen — 28 in Sanaa and three in Taiz, according to medical officials.

On Sunday, at least 26 protesters were killed and more than 550 were wounded — hundreds of them by gunshots — when security forces fired live bullets and tear gas at a massive demonstration in the city, a medic said. The death toll was expected to rise because some were in critical condition, witnesses said.

The U.S. Embassy in Yemen issued a statement saying the United States “regrets the deaths and injuries of many people” in the protests Sunday. “In this tense situation, we call upon all parties to exercise restraint. In particular, we call on the parties to refrain from actions that provoke further violence.” (Read on …)

Saleh meets Saudi king for the first time since June, as reports emerge of Saudi weapons and vehicle shipment to Yemen.

M&C: Cairo/Sana’a – Thousands of opposition protesters backed by military defectors late Monday seized a base of the elite Republican Guards who are loyal to President Ali Abdallah Saleh in the capital, Arab media reported.

Just hours after 32 protesters were killed by Yemeni troops, the protesters and ex-soldiers stormed the base without firing a single shot, Al Arabiya quoted witnesses as saying. The Republican guards fled the base, leaving their weapons behind, the channel said.

Ahram: Forces of Yemen’s embattled president Ali Abdullah Salih fired on unarmed demonstrators elsewhere in the capital, killing scores, wounding hundreds and sparking international condemnation.

The protesters, joined by soldiers from the renegade 1st Armored Division, stormed the base Monday without firing a single shot, according to witnesses and security officials.

Some carried sticks and rocks. They used sandbags to erect barricades to protect their comrades from the possibility of weapons fire from inside the base, but none came and the Republican Guards eventually fled, leaving their weapons behind.

Although the base was not particularly large _ the Republican Guards have bigger ones in the capital and elsewhere in Yemen _ its capture buoyed the protesters’ spirits and signaled what could be the start of the collapse of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year-old regime.

Telegraph: Artillery and automatic weapons fire broke out near the home of a prominent anti-Saleh tribal leader in the Hasaba district, the site of weeks of fighting that began in May and edged the impoverished Arab state closer to civil war.

Diplomatic sources said mediators from neighbouring powerhouse Saudi Arabia intervened to help end the street fighting, which was the fiercest in recent weeks. (Read on …)

CNN: Yemeni Prime Minister Ali Mujawar was back in Sanaa Tuesday for the first time since he was seriously injured in the presidential palace bombing last June, according to sources at the airport in the capital.

Thousands of pro-government supporters welcomed him back.

Mujawar was being treated in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He’s the first senior official to come back to Sanaa from Riyadh since more than 35 senior officials were taken to the Saudi capital for medical treatment more than two months ago.

The mutilation of tribesmens’ corpses in Arhab was one trigger for the formation of the new Alliance of Yemeni Tribes. Fourty rockets were launched against villages Friday. Operations are headed by the US allied counter-terror chief, Ahmed Saleh, head of the Republican Guard. Allegations go back and forth about al Zindani raising fighters for Arhab, his home district, from al Iman University, and Arhab was the location of the 2009 US air strike. In a statement, resident tribesmen invited international media to record the carnage and denied any affiliation with al Qaeda.

Sahwa Net- Yemeni forces launched about 40 rockets on Friday on some villages of Arhab, leaving dozens of people killed and wounded, local sources affirmed.

The sources said that many houses, framers and other properties were destroyed pointing out that the intensive bombardments provoking scare and panic among children, women and elderly men. (Read on …)

Pop quiz: Q: What was the characteristic response of the Saleh regime to power sharing demands following unity in 1990 that precipitated the 1994 civil war? A: Assassinations. Hundreds of southern political leaders were assassinated, often by veterans of the Afghan jihad who were allied with Saleh.

Five protesters wounded in Sanaa by an explosive device thrown from a car with police plates.

War planes bomb Arhab, five dead. Three houses, a mosque and many farms damaged. Clashes in Nehm, 20 km south of Arhab, eight wounded.

The Yemen Post reports Hamid Al-Qushaibi of the 310th escaped a car-bomb assassination attempt in Amran province but al Sahwa reports Major Ismail al-Ghurbani, commander of the 310th Armored Brigade of the 1st Armored Division was shot dead in an assassination in Amran

A truce between Islah and the Houthis in al Jawf will go into effect 8/17 when the JMP declares the national council; Fares Manna, UN sanctioned weapons dealer and long time associate of Saleh, will be replaced as governor by Sheikh Hussein Al-Thaneen from the Islah Party.

One person was killed and three wounded Sunday evening when a suicide car bomber detonated at a gathering of Houthis near the health center in al Jawf, News Yemen reported. The Houthis blamed the US, saying “The process shows the intense action and malicious plots by the Americans and the targeting of Yemen in general and the northern areas in particular.” Mareb Press reports dozens of injuries. Interior Ministery says 14 dead and the hallmarks of al Qaeda.

16 suspected al Qaeda were killed Sunday as clashes in the province take place in seven areas. The tribesmen (like the commander of the 25th Mechanized) say that the government is arming the al Qaeda militants and providing other support.

Yemen Post: Local tribesmen in Abyan province, fighting with government against militants, are accusing the government of helping al-Qaeda fighters stay strong by attacking tribal posts and arming the militants.

According to tribal sources in Abyan, at least 19 tribesmen have been killed by government attacks.

A senior Yemeni Defense Ministry official denies that the toll is that high, but did not deny that government raids did kill tribal fighters in accidental attacks.

Over the last month, tribes have succeeded to retake more than 60 percent of the province from the hands of suspected al-Qaeda militants after the government failed to show progress in its fight against the militants since May.

At least 1600 tribesmen are fighting al-Qaeda militants in the province.

More than 15 al-Qaeda fighters were arrested on Thursday by the tribesmen as their push to cleanse the province from the militants nears the final steps.

Update: Sultan al Barakani says Hamid al Ahmar is the prime suspect in the bombing on the presidential palace because the sims cards used in mobile phones belonged to SabaFone.

MoKhtar Al-Obaydi was abducted by the the national security while he was returning from the Change Square to his village in Arhab, north of Sanaaa, on the first of Ramadan. He teaches the religious studies at the Zaidi Sheikh Abo Nashdan’s Centere in Arhab.

Update 2: I bumped this back to the top (scroll down for new) to add the “20?” and to note that, oddly, there’s no reporting on this in the Arabic papers at all. One person says 20 were killed. (24 RG surrendered to the tribesmen in May.) There’s no doubt about the month long bombing and the 10,000 civilian refugees though. Some are living in caves per the UN. The Arhab tribe’s statement last week denouncing the RG’s murder of tribal prisoners and corpse desecration, and their threat on Sana’a airport in retaliation, was carried by many sites, so clearly the tribe is able to communicate with the media. The Yemen Post story is still up with 200 in the article title and a fatality count of 246 in the body, so its not a typo. The paper is normally reliable and has been plugged in to events in Arhab since Nehm. w/a

Update 3: Ah, maybe a bit too plugged in. The Yemen Post corrected (without explicitly noting the correction) another fatality estimate (that was off by the power of 10) in an article published Aug 3. This is what was on their site 8/3/11 as copied here: 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.

And whats on the Yemen Post site now: 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.

This doesn’t mean the entire body of the paper’s reporting should be discounted, just double checked especially on the topic of Arhab. The Yemen Post is perhaps the leading independent English language paper in Yemen, with daily updates, and unlike many, covers breaking news. Its normally quite accurate and a valuable resource. But news and reality in Yemen is best discerned by triangulating among many sources.

Media outlets often have overt bias and agendas, and usually a group or financial backer to defend and praise. The system where each political party has its own paper, and is half propaganda, often bleeds out to the independent outlets as well. The trick is discovering which particular topics each outlet is most likely to spin and comparing many reports. But even papers that strive for independence sometimes have bad sources or a lack of experience on how to issue corrections. (Look at today’s contradictory and ever changing reporting on the terrible helicopter crash in Afghanistan from the top level US media.)

The very real threat to journalists of state retaliation in Yemen has led to “red lines” and under-reporting on the Saada War, the southern independence movement and corruption, also giving a distorted western picture of Yemen. Advertisers can also impact reporting.

Adding to the confusion, the Saleh regime has been engaged in a truly massive propaganda campaign for a decade on topics from “reform” to “al Qaeda.” It may be typical of many dictators, but Saleh takes it to new heights. For a minor example the US Embassy had to issue a press release denying the regimes total fabrication of the US position laid out at a meeting. The regime also normally restricts journalists’ access (by beatings, arrests and road blocks) to conflict zones. Lastly, the lack of infrastructure (electricity, roads, rails, wireless) is a significant impediment to accurate reporting, when reporters can’t reach the scene or talk to witnesses.

Original: There are state atrocities in nearly all governorates on a daily basis. The ongoing shelling in Arhab that killed the soldiers targets not only the military base but villages, wells, mosques and other civilian infrastructure. Over ten thousand civilians are displaced due to the shelling. Hadramout is also spiking as the security forces use violence to repress protests over the death of a citizen. Update: Republican Guard shelling 1st Armored Division in the capital, Sanaa, clashes breaking out.

Yemen Air Force kills at least 200 of Its Own Forces in Arhab District Yemen Post: A senior security official in Arhab district, 40 kilometer northeast of the capital Sana’a, said that governmental warplanes attacked governmental soldiers who refused to fight pro revolution tribes in the district.

The official said that more than 240 republican guard forces in Sama’e region of Arhab refused to attack tribes with heavy artillery and were negotiating with them on surrendering the Sama’e military base of the republican guards.

In retaliation, government air forces attacked the gates of the camp killing more than 200 republican guards and at least three-dozen fighters.

“The government did not stand quiet when the guards refused orders to clash with tribes and officials in the republican guards felt it was necessary that those who disobey orders are killed,” the official said.

“The guards who surrendered did not want to attack their own people. They were killed for giving the blood of Yemenis value,” he concluded.

Eyewitnesses in Arhab confirmed the incident and the attack but gave higher death tolls on the tribes and guards lines.

This seems quite reasonable:

Marebpress translated by NYR: A preliminary statistics revealed that the war between the Republican Guard forces and Arhab tribes killed 40 people (civilians) and injured at least 120 over 4 months of bloody clashes.

The villages of Ahrab directorate were bombed by 30 air strikes by 7 brigades of the Republican Guard and the Air Defense using various types of heavy weaponry.

The survey revealed that 18 villages had been shelled since fighting broke out on March 30, and the death toll is 40 civilians, most of whom were killed at the checkpoint of the Republican Guard 62 brigade. A total of 120 number of wounded during the bombing while they are in their homes. In addition to 13 civilians abducted by the Republican Guard brigades.

More than 1500 families (each family about nine people-ed) were displaced from their homes and lived in the caves the mountain caves seeking refuge after more than 95 houses were destroyed by the bombardment. In addition 150 houses were partially destroyed and 28 citizens cars.

16 wells of water and 10 farm valleys were also destroyed in Arhab in addition to 4 mosques bombed by the Republican Guards.

The Republican Guard had been preparing and repositioning for the offensive over the last days. The tribesmen fortified their positions. A spokesman for the al Ahmars said they are sticking to the ceasefire agreement. Update: Defense Ministry denies the short lived clashes even occurred in Sanaa. Six protesting lack of electricity were shot dead in Hodiedah. Two killed in Aden after military accidentally opens fire.

Yemen Post: Two huge explosions were heard and clashes started in Hasaba zone of the capital Sana’a between tribes and republican guards, numerous eyewitnesses said. Residents in Hasabah said that hundreds of gunshots were heard starting at 5pm in the area and have been spreading to the neighborhoods of Mazda, Giraf, and Airport road of the capital. (Read on …)

What a sad story. Power cuts resumed after the UN envoy left Yemen. Read the full story at Yemen Rights Monitor: Four children died and a fifth child was injured on Monday evening due to a fire breaking out in a house in Safya district in Sana’a casued by a candle that was used by the family as a result of the continuous power cuts in the various cities of Yemen.

Protesters hold General Ali Ahmed Ali Al-Ahwal (and his band of thugs) who works in the security services responsible for the Sanaa massacre on Al-Karama (dignity) Friday, March 18 2011 during which snipers killed more than 52 martyrs and 200 wounded. His absence from court is the reason the families of the slain are boycotting the trial.

He is son of the governor of Mahweet. Both are members of the GPC. His uncle Mohamed Ali Mohsen (Mohammed al-Ahwal) is the Yemeni ambassador to Saudi Arabia who sided with the protesters on March 21. The family is from Shabwa. At the time of the massacre, reports noted the snipers were shooting from the rooftop of the governor of Mahweet’s home.

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 …)

Hood said in a statement that it formed the new teams as a result of the tragic events that accelerated in areas of Abyan, Arhab and other flashpoints, and the resulting humanitarian situation and deteriorating conditions of the civilian population especially the vulnerable groups of society including women, children and the infirm, as Hood has received reports of executions of prisoners en masse and the repeated use of weapons in the bombing of civilian areas and military and mosques.

Ahmed Saleh, head of the RG and counter-terror chief, commanded Yemen’s military forces during the 6th Saada War during which many crimes against humanity were committed including bombing refugee camps and a hospital, denial of food, medical care and international aid, and over 300,000 internal refugees were largely left without support. Bombing civilian areas in Yemen since the rev includes Ibb, Taiz, Arhab and Nehm in Sanaa, and others around the country.

The conflict in Arhab, Sanaa began after the Taiz massacre in May when the tribesmen locked down the Republican Guard base near Nehm to prevent further civilian slaughter. The Salehs responded by shelling villages and its been ongoing ever since. The state’s bombing of villages in Arhab is occurring at the same time as long term, near continual bombing in Radfan, ongoing clashes in al Jawf between the Houthis and Islahis, a long stretch of violence in Zinjibar, Abyan and increasing violence in Taiz including indiscriminate bombing. Violence against protesters in the squares is common, and ten were injured in Hodeidah yesterday.

These escalating cycles of violence across the country bear the same characteristics as the Saada War and the targeting of the Southern Movement: indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, blatant propaganda along with increased attacks on journalists, and collective punishment including denial of medical treatment. For more on the earlier conflicts, and how the state’s random violence bolstered the insurgencies, see my Sept.2010 article at Gloria.

SANA, Yemen (AP) — Fighting between Yemeni soldiers and armed tribesmen in a mountainous region north of Sana, the capital, killed at least 40 people on Thursday, a military official said.

The clashes in the Arhab region were part of a wider collapse in security across Yemen since the outbreak of an uprising six months ago that seeks to topple President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Armed tribesmen are battling security forces in Arhab, the southern city of Taiz and elsewhere, while militants believed to be linked to Al Qaeda have overrun towns in the country’s south.

The fighting on Thursday began when tribesmen attacked a base belonging to the Republican Guard, said Sheik Hamid Assem of the Arhab tribe. The military responded by shelling and bombing tribal positions, Mr. Assem said. A military official in Arhab said 17 soldiers had been killed in the fighting and that troops had seen the bodies of at least 23 dead tribesmen.

This all began months ago when the villagers locked down the RG camp as forces were deploying to attack some protesters. The villagers also captured and burned three helicopters in Nehm. The Saleh forces began randomly bombing residential areas and infrastructure in retaliation, a standard tactic. Arhab was also the site of the December 2009 US air strike and al Zindani is around there somewhere.

Yemen Post: A citizen was killed and three others injured when the republican guard continued shelling the district of Arhab on the outskirts of Yemen’s capital Sana’a on Saturday.

Local sources said the republican guard brigade 61 heavily shelled the village of Al-Obowa with artilleries and Katyusha rockets leading to the casualties and destroying homes and properties. (Read on …)

Statement by ITCHR and HOOD dated 7/4

Despite the presence of the United Nations Mission Taiz live nights terrifying artillery shelling

Civic organizations condemn the continuation of bombings in the province of Taiz and demands quickly stop the cycle of violence and terror daily (Read on …)