Armies of Liberation

But its not a problem for the US, UN and GCC which all strongly endorse an immunity package for the Saleh regime and consider the Yemeni public a nuisance.

Yemen Post: The Yemeni Human Rights Organization, HOOD, has affirmed that hundreds of officers, troops and protesters are being detained and brutally tortured inside military camps affiliated to the outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The body said that these soldiers were detained due their support to anti-regime protests.

Hood indicated that the Yemeni authorities have recently released 44 detainees from the Central Prison in Sana’a.

Yemen security and army services have arbitrarily detained hundreds of peaceful protesters across the country, subjecting them to torture and ill-treatment, since anti-government demonstrations began in February 2011.

“A military court has recently released four officers and troops of the Special Forces Service led by son of Saleh, Ahmed,” Hood said.”They were arrested on charges of taking part in anti-regime demonstrations.”

One of the released persons revealed that 75 protesters and 70 soldiers of the defected First Armored Division are being held inside a custody in Alsama’a military camp located in Arhab district of Sana’a governorate.

The protester told Yemeni activists that he was kidnapped from the capital in December, 2011, pointing out that he was immediately transferred to this camp.

He said he was subject to brutal forms of tortures, including electro-shock devices and beating with cables and whips, as he was blindfolded and handcuffed.

Yemenis have been demonstrating across the country demanding the release of hundreds of detainees held by Security services which are still controlled by people loyal to Saleh.

Yemeni activists had urged all international human rights organizations to press on the Yemeni regime to release all detainees who are subject to brutal torture.

The exact number of detainees being held by the authorities is unknown, but activists say that it could be as high as 1,400.

Catching up, only 18 more drafts to publish or delete. I’m leaning toward delete, maybe backdate. This is just too absurd to pass up though. A Yemeni fighter jet crashed at the al Anad AF base in Lahj and seven passengers killed were Syrian pilots.

The regime’s denial that they were brought in to attack the protests is total blather; its more likely that one of the leaders in the Syrian Baath Party like, lets say errrr, Adbel Hafidh Kaid Noaman, hooked up the Syrian pilots for Saleh. UPdate al Masdar publishes the names of the dead and injured Syrian pilots.

Yemen denies opposition claims on the military aircraft crash 27/10/2011 Yemen Online: A military source has revealed the aircraft that crashed in Lahj province south of Yemen two days ago was carrying a number of Syrian and Yemeni trainers. The crash occurred during the landing in Al-Anad air base, as a result of a technical fault and an incorrect navigational measurement by the pilot. The landing took place over an area adjacent to the base runway.

The military source said that the accident had led to the killing of eight Syrian trainers and one Yemeni passenger. Seven other Yemenis escaped unscathed from the accident, including the pilot, Colonel Mahmud Yahya Muhammad al-Armazah, along with two Syrians.

The Syrian killed in the accident work as professional aviation trainers at the Faculty of Aviation and Air Defense. They have been providing fundamental aviation training for 11 years’ the military source stressed

The military source notes that the Yemeni armed forces do not need to seek the assistance of any foreign fighter pilots, as the media run by the Joint Meeting Parties (Opposition) claimed.

Targeted assassination attempts continue:

Yemen Post: Senior Opposition Leader still in Bad Condition; Youth Blaming Government for Incident

Defected military loyal to the opposition warned on Monday that its leaders will be targets of government assassination plots.

One day after the warning, Mohammed al-Mutawakil, the secretary general of the opposition popular front (ed-PFU) party was injured in a traffic accident the opposition call as planned by the government in an effort to kill him.

He was hit by a motorcycle as he was walking down the street. Al-Mutawakil received serious injuries to the head and is now hospitalized.

Hundreds of youth and opposition leaders visited al-Mutawakil and were not happy.

“We are sure this is not an accident. His health is really bad. This is planned and he was one of the respected leaders in the eyes of the pro revolution youth,” said Abdullah Najjar, a youth activist who visited al-Mutawakil

Majority of Yemen opposition leaders have left the country knowing that Yemen is not safe for them anymore. The interior ministry denied that the incident was planned and is investigating with the motorcycle driver.

Saleh has a trail of blood behind him dating back decades. The car accident is among the most repetitive tactics. There are no moral restraints on the regime; its no surprise that the opposition is making this accusation. Its possibly true. The 1999 death of the great Yemeni activist and editor, Abdulazziz al Saqqaf is one event that generates national suspicion. Leaving a lunch with Abdubakr al Qirby (a medical doctor), Professor al Saqqaf was run over and killed by a car in a sequence that made no sense as an accident. Al Qirby later became and remains Yemen’s Foreign Minister. New information came to light in the last months about Saleh’s complicity in the death of at least one former president, prior to attaining the presidency himself. The treachery of Saleh has no bounds.

Update: The motorcycle was driven by children according to buzz. The PFU rejects the Interior Ministry’s announcements issued without conducting an investigation.

Update 2: al Mutawakil transferred to Saudi Arabia for treatement.

The Yemeni Observatory for Human Rights calls for urgent intervention to prevent Yahya Saleh from storming its head quarters in Sanaa, http://bit.ly/qaaZB2 (ar). The Sana’a regime in Yemen, getting closer to a long overdue war crimes trial in the ICC, is attacking the keepers of the evidence; HOOD’s library of human rights abuses was previously burnt to the ground. Idiot Saleh fails to realize that the state’s conduct of the Saada war in and of itself is enough to convict him of collective punishment; the repetitive lethal attacks on southern protesters (2007-2011) are also crimes against humanity. The 500+ protesters killed by state security forces since February are a third and separate range of crimes.

The YT has a good write up of the conflict in al Jawf and comes to the conclusion the Houthis are expansionist.

Yemen Times: Sunni-Shiites war in Al-Jawf

War broke out five months ago between Houthi rebels – who are Shiite Muslims – and the locals of Al-Jawf governorate – themselves Sunni Muslims – 143 km northwest of the capital city of Sana’a.

Around 470 Houthis were killed and over 85 of Al-Jawf’ s citizens lost their lives in this four-month-long war, Sheikh Arfj Bin Hadban, a local tribal leader in Al-Jawf, told the Yemen Times. (Read on …)

Are we really going to continue to place the safety of Americans in Prince Ahmed Saleh’s hands when he randomly murders Yemeni civilians? There must be reliable mid-level CT commanders. The following vid shows damage in Arhab, after extensive shelling by the Republican Guard:

Update: Regime bombing of residential areas kills seven year old.

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.

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 …)