Armies of Liberation

There’s hope yet…

German newspapers are reporting that three children kidnapped in Yemen along with their parents June 13 were seen alive in a video. There’s no indication yet about the circumstances of the video or how it was obtained. The German government hasn’t confirmed or denied the reports.

The children’s parents and four other medical workers in the Sa’ada region were taken at gunpoint by unknown persons. Three young nurses were found murdered days later. Besides the children and their parents, a British engineer remains missing in Yemen. See my category “nine hostages” for full coverage since the incident.

The Yemeni government instantly blamed the Houthi rebels for the kidnapping, although there were no indications at all of who was responsible. Along with western investigators, Yemeni authorities launched a search, discovering an al Qaeda traning camp in an abandoned military outpost. Other hypothesis pointed to a power struggle among major drug dealers with the authorities.

At the time of the kidnapping, the rebels and others postulated that the Germans’ kidnapping was a precursor to another war, pointing specifically to the alleged “false flag” attack on the bin Sallem mosque that preceded the fifth Sa’ada war in northern Yemen. War resumed in August, with devastating consequences on the civilian population. (Read on …)

Yemen says every meeting with every foreign official results in lavish praise, but there’s indications of Yemen’s stone walling or at a minimum, extensive political manipulation of the issue. The nine foreigners were kidnapped June 20. Six remain missing – three toddlers, their German parents and a British engineer. Three young volunteer nurses who were with the group were found murdered immediately after the kidnapping.

SANA’A, Aug. 07 (Saba) – Yemen, United Kingdom and Germany reviewed here on Friday findings of the kidnapping crime of nine foreigners, who were kidnapped last June and of whom three female captives were killed in Saada governorate.

Deputy Prime Minister Rashad al-Alimi along with Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi held talks with the UK ambassador to Yemen Tim Torlot and the Charge D’affaires of the Germany embassy Michael Reuss on the investigation results of the kidnapping case and the efforts exerted by the concerned bodies to figure out the kidnapping circumstances and the fate of kidnapped foreigners to be released.

The meeting, which was attended by the German and Britain joint team members partaking in the search and investigation operations, dealt with the machineries to coordinate work between the Yemeni security bodies and the German and Britain joint team in the coming period.

The Britain, German diplomats and the team members hailed the cooperation and coordination level with the Yemeni security apparatuses although the sabotage acts committed by rebels in Sa’ada that were deterred investigation and search operations….

Germany believes al-Qaeda was behind the kidnapping and slayings. The German Intelligence Services has said that the abduction and killing of German nationals along with others bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda.

The foreign kidnapped all worked for World Wide Services Foundation, a Dutch international relief group that has been helping the medical sector in Saada for 30 years.

There are many possible culprits, but the dearth of information is telling in itself.

But where are they now??? According to this report, they are alive and hidden. Please God let it be true. (The parallels to the French aid workers kidnapped in Somalia by al Qaeda are interesting if only in the timing and rationale.) Sheik Haba notes yet another specific camp where the Yemeni military is training Salafi recruits in terror tactics. I think that’s the fifth location of jihaddis traning in military camps published in the recent past. A continuation of the domestic, state sponsored jihad in Yemen naturally has regional security implications.

Yemen Times, SANA’A, July 19 — News reports said that a number of battalions from Yemeni special forces as well as other military units are being deployed in Wadi Jubarah and in other areas of the Wa’ela tribes adjacent to the Saudi borders.

A tribal source told the Yemen Times that military forces were seen moving in three fronts from Mareb, Al-Jawf and Sa’ada city and that they were heading toward Wadi Jubarah and the nearby areas belonging to Wa’ela tribes. The source, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that the military forces told citizens that they were surrounding the house of the tribal sheikh who is accused of kidnapping the six foreigners.

“We are sure that the sheikh wasn’t directly involved in kidnapping the nine foreigners or the murder of three of them,” said the source. “The Salafia members that were involved in kidnapping and killing the foreigners persuaded the sheikh to hide the hostages until they can find a way to protect themselves from being held accountable for the murders. The sheikh himself didn’t participate in the kidnapping. He doesn’t belong to any Salafia groups. In addition, he doesn’t object to the existence of Christian missionary groups or any other religion in the governorate.” — Sources reported that the armed group that kidnapped the foreigners is affiliated with Wahabi Salafia extremists who are opposed to the existence of Christian missionaries who have been working at the Al-Jumhuri Hospital in the capital city of Sa’ada for 35 years. (Read on …)

The German family and British engineer kidnapped days later are still missing. So who kidnapped the 26 foreign medical workers and why? This was the original story: June 11, 2009 – Tribesmen in Saada kidnap 24 doctors and nurses with a demand that authorities should free two prisoners. The 24, most of whom were Yemenis but also included Egyptians, Indians and Filipinos are released the next day.

The numbers never match up: Sunstar: Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said they are grateful for the release of the five Filipino health workers who were abducted last June 11 with 16 other foreign nationals…

MANILA, Philippines – Five Filipino health workers who were abducted with 21 other hospital personnel in Saada, Yemen, on June 11 have been released, the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. (Read on …)

Can I get some coordinates please, a specific location? Akkk, it wouldn’t matter, would it? Many locations were recently published including the military-supported al Qaeda training camps in the mountains near Ja’ar and the one outside Sana’a with the bus route; nobody cares, not a whit. Its amazing. These religious zealots are traveling to various theaters of jihad all over (including Iraq) with government sanction and aided by instruments of the Yemeni state, and no one cares. There’s a lot of empty talk in the world today, but when “group think”, politics and personal benefit overpower individuals’ and organizations’ dedication to strategic national interest, things are looking bleak indeed.

Sahwa Net – While the uncertainty of kidnapping nine foreigners in Saada province has not disclosed, Yemen’s authorities and al-Houthi rebels are still exchanging accusations on the case.

The spokesman of al-Houth rebels accused the Yemeni authorities of supplying Salafi groups of arms and training them in al Qaeda camps.

For their part, the authorities are still looking for six Germans who were kidnapped on June 13 in Saada. Yemen’s interior ministry explained that it along with counter-terrorism units belonging to the Central Security Organization is looking for the five Germans and a Briton.

It renewed its accusations to al-Houthi rebels of killing two German nurses and a Korean last month as they were in a journey with other six foreigners who their fare is still unknown to date.

When I first read this story, I thought it was an old article that popped up on the reader until I got to the part about the kidnapped Germans. Yemeni military facilitating al Qaeda in a variety of ways is really old news.

This is really too long already, somebody must know something that they are not saying and its probably the security. The poor family needs to know what happened and where they are; I don’t know how they can live not knowing. Its over a month already.

Yemen Post: The fate of a group of seven foreigner is still unknown despite the wide campaign launched by security apparatuses and intelligence in Sa’ada and other nearby governorates.

The group, including a German couple with their three children and a Briton, are still kidnapped since June 12 and security apparatuses are incapable to locate their whereabouts. The group’s three fellow members – two German nurses and a South Korean teacher – were found dead two days following the kidnapping incident.

In related news, the parents of the German still kidnapped with his family in Sa’ada pleaded with the kidnappers to release their sons unharmed and healthy.

They told the Second German Channel that the worst thing for parents is lose one of their sons and pleaded with Yemeni and German authorities to work towards releasing their kidnapping people.

Meanwhile, President Ali Saleh received a telephone call from the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in which both sides discussed aspects of bilateral cooperation between Yemen and Germany.

The calls also touched upon the issue of the German citizens kidnapped early last month in Sa’ada and reviewed the efforts being made so far to locate their whereabouts and to hunt down the kidnappers and bring them before judiciary…He also assured the German officials that investigations are ongoing to find the German family and send them back to their homeland, maintaining the kidnappers will be caught and they will stand trial.

Yemen is a land of dueling accusations, but the Houthis insist to this day that the bombing of the bin Salem mosque that precipitated the fifth war was actually perpetrated by the authority. Similarly, both sides accuse the other of the Germans’ kidnapping. Statistically, the most systematic liar in Yemen through recent history is Saleh’s regime, by far.

Al Estraki: Flag of the Socialist Net-informed sources in Saada that the local authority staff working in the government complex Wednesday morning arrested a person who was trying to plant a roadside bomb in the building

وقال المصدر أن موظفا في المجمع الحكومي لاحظ من نافذة المبنى شخصا يحمل كرتونا ويتردد على اركان وزوايا المبنى وهو يتلفت إلى الخلف فاشتبه به فقام باخبار كل من كانوا موجودين في المجمع من موظفين ومراجعين الذين سارعوا بدورهم إلى الإحاطة بالشخص المشتبه به وإلقاء القبض عليه أمام بوابة المجمع الحكومي The source said an official at the government compound observed from the window of the building and person with a Krtuna frequented corners of the building and staff, which is the successor to the Itfatt Vachtbh the back of the news were in the pool of staff and auditors, who in turn were quick to take the person and the suspect arrested in front of the gate of the compound government

وقد تبين أن الشخص المشار إليه كان يحمل عبوة ناسفة معدة للتفجير وانه جندي يتبع اللواء الخامس عشر مدرع التابع للفرقة الأولى مدرع It was found that the person referred to was carrying a bomb primed to detonate and he was a soldier follows the fifteenth armored brigade of the First Armored Division

وقال المصدر أن الأجهزة الأمنية تسلمت الرجل وبدأت في إجراءات التحقيق معه لمعرفة من هو، وما اذا كان الحادث فردي ام ان جهة ما كلفت الجندي بهذه المهمة الإجرامية الخطيرة؟ The source said that the security services took the man and started with him in the investigation to determine who is, and whether the incident was an individual or whether the soldier was assigned to the point of this task serious criminal? وما هو الهدف الذي أرادت تحقيقه من تفجير مبنى المحافظة أثناء تواجد الموظفين!؟ What is wanted to achieve the goal of maintaining a building in the presence of the staff!?

ولا يستبعد مراقبون أن تكون الجهة التي تقف خلف هذا العمل الإجرامي الخطير الذي كان يمكن أن يودي بحياة عشرات الموظفين والمراجعين قد “استهدفت تفجير الوضع في صعدة وفي عموم اليمن” Observers do not rule out that the entity behind this serious criminal act which could have claimed the lives of dozens of staff and visitors could “blow the situation in and around Saada, Yemen” (Read on …)

WaPo
A group of foreigners were warned against going on an outing before a kidnapping which led to the killing of three of them, Yemen’s interior minister said on Saturday. (Read on …)

The rebels deny kidnapping the foreigners, say security’s announcement of “hunting” for the victims is a sham.

The government’s massive campaign to blame the rebels lacks authenticity, considering the chrages were made with no investigation or proof. The three day delay in expanding the search beyond Sa’ada is bizarre.

Earth Times: A rebel group in Yemen which denies any role in recent abductions there has charged via a statement on their website that government efforts to save the hostages are a sham. The rebels led by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi alleged that two suspects had been tortured by Yemen’s political security forces into uttering a false claim that the rebels were to blame for the June 12 abduction of nine westerners, of whom three were then murdered.

Al-Houthi’s Shiite rebels, who are based in Saada province, put the statement online Thursday evening.

They commented that the likelihood of finding the German family of five and a British engineer were low, because the abductors would fear capture. No one has claimed responsibility for the crime.

The rebels also quoted local eyewitnesses saying that there had never been a systematic search of the region where the westerners were abducted or of the valley where the bodies of three murdered women were found.

www.attagammua.net

Modern military aircraft and foreign wiping Saada and surrounding areas .. مؤشرات قوية على تورط القاعدة ورسائل للسلطة والحوثيين والسعودية Strong indications of the involvement of Al Qaeda and the letters of authority and Houthis Saudi Arabia
الثلاثاء , 23 يونيو 2009 م Tuesday, June 23, 2009 m

التجمع- خاص Assembly – a special
تجددت تحليقات الطائرات العسكرية والعمودية الحديثة على مدينة صعدة وضواحيها وأضيفت الى الطائرات التابعة للجيش اليمني طائرة عمودية حديثة وغريبة يعتقد بانها متصلة او مرتبطة بفريق التحقيقات الامني الالماني-البريطاني. Renewed flights of military aircraft and helicopters on the modern city of Saada and its suburbs were added to the aircraft of the Yemeni army helicopter modern and alien believed to be related to or linked to the investigation team, the security of Germany – the British. (Read on …)

AQAP are insisting robustly that they knew the route of the Korean investigators though intensive surveillance. Discounting of course the logical and widespread assumption that the terrorists were tipped off, ie- elements in the Yemeni security knew in advance of the plot and provided the route of the motorcade. t gets flakier- the youth wandered around Sana’a for months looking to hook up with Wahishi.

Also the other thing to note, tangentially, is the journalist Abdel-Elah Haidar noted in the article as one who interviewed Wahishi previously is now insisting that AQAP would not have carried out the kidnapping of the medical workers in Sa’ada because it is against their principles. (Killing women like the Belgiams tourists in Hadramout is apparently less of an offense than kidnapping them.) I dont think Haidar would be taking such a strong position in his analysis (which was published in News Yemen) without there being something behind it, one way or another. From Al Masdar:

Al Qaeda announces military intelligence security information on the preparation of new processes and the implementation of Hadramout and Sana’a
المصدر أون لاين – محمد العزكي Source Online – Mohammed Aezzki

كشف تنظيم القاعدة عن معلومات أمنية عسكرية جديدة حول منفذي العمليتين الانتحاريتين في حضرموت وصنعاء ضد السياح والمحققين الأمنيين الكوريين في مارس الماضي، مستهدفا سمعة الأجهزة الأمنية اليمنية وإفشال الحكومة اقتصاديا. Detection al-Qaeda military security of the information on the perpetrators of a new double suicide bombing in Hadramout and Sana’a against the security of tourists and Korean investigators last March, the reputation of the security target and the failure of the Yemeni government economically. (Read on …)

No news on the six missing westerners. Fighting reduced, army moving. US denies claims of mapping project. 1200 remain in jail despite Saleh’s order to the contrary and the truce agreement.

Yemen Times

SA’ADA, July 1 — The Sa’ada governorate has been relatively calm for the past few days, after a recent series of armed conflicts between the state and the Houthi movement. (Read on …)

The Yemen Times gets specific on the timeline, details and geography of the kidnapping and the subsequent events.

Amidst false rumors of progress in releasing kidnapped foreigners, Houthis warn of a sixth war in three days

SANA’A, June 24 – Shiekh Saleh bin Shage’ deputy chief of Waela Tribes at the Yemeni Saudi borders explained that the surrendering of two of his tribes men by his brother Rashad to the Yemeni security in Sa’ada has nothing to do with the missing six foreigners kidnapped on Friday June 12.

“It is a hideous crime that we all condemn, but the two men have nothing to do with it,” he said. “In fact, being easily surrendered to the security without any resistance proves that if they had anything to hide they would have fled.”

Mushin Al-Tam and Hassan Kazman, suspected of involvement in the killing and kidnapping of foreigners were were in the remote area of Nushoor while Yemeni security forces were hunting them. When the two heard they were sought after, they reported to their sheikh’s house, proclaiming their innocence. Waela leaders asked them to surrender to the state and they obliged willingly, according to Bin Shage’.

Most of the locals in Waela belong to the Ismaili sect, which is the second largest part of the Shiite community (Read on …)

There’s 40 rounded up today and these two who are denying any connection. Weapons dealers and drug smugglers.

News Yemen Two men suspected of kidnapping nine foreign hostages and killing three women of the group have been handed over to the security authorities in Sa’ada, a tribal source told NewsYemen.

Waela tribe leader Rashid bin Shaje said the suspected, identified as Muhsin Attam and Hassan Kazman, have denied the kidnapping and killing of foreigners but he has extradited them to the security.

“The first one was an employee in the Economic Corporation’s office in Sa’ada, but he was fired, and the other one escaped from the military service in Hadramout,” a special source told NewsYemen.

The source added that the two suspects are also charged of smuggling drugs and providing al-Houthis and the army with weapons.

The kidnappers handed over the hostages to a tribal leader in Arrozamat area which is under the control of al-Houthi field leader Abdullah Arrozami and headed for Waela tribe where they asked the protection of Sheikh Shaje, one of Waela chieftains.

The office of al-Houthi denied that hostages are in Arrozamat. “Abdullah Arrozami is now some kilometers farm from his home area,” said the source in a call with NewsYemen.

Asked whether hostages are still alive, Sheikh Shaje said he can not talk until investigations with the two suspects are completed.

Local sources said Yemeni security forces and intelligence services continue searching for the six hostages, checking up passersby and confiscating cameras and tape recorders.

Yes, I know. There are several military camps that train jihaddists. The military built a camp to train jihaddists in the mountains near Ja’ar.

The following is an important article from al Estreraki that also references the state jihaddists fighting the Saada War. Also apparently the German and British investigators aren’t getting full cooperation from Saleh’s regime, just like the Cole.

The camp in the area between the Center and the Directorate of epaulette Abu Jabara Al near the administrative border of the province of Al-Jawf

وهو في الأصل معسكر رسمي للقوات المسلحة اليمنية تم التخلي عنه ولكن ظل معظم “ضباطه وجنوده” من العائدين من أفغانستان والذين تم استيعابهم في وحدات القوات المسحة بعد حرب صيف 1994م It was originally an official camp of the armed forces of Yemen has been abandoned, but under most of the “officers and soldiers” of the returnees from Afghanistan, who have been accommodated in the units of troops after the war reflects the summer of 1994 (Read on …)

One of my favorite stories demonstrating the duplicity of Saleh’s regime involves Khaled Abdul Nabi, leader of the Abyan Aden Islamic Army. The Yemeni regime told the US in 2003 that they killed al-Nabi in a shoot-out. Yemeni officials admitted that they let al-Nabi go after he was spotted breathing. In 2005, top Yemeni officials claimed Nabi was completely rehabilitated and living the life of a peaceful farmer. Beginning in 2005 and into 2006 and 2007, local media reported Nabi and his band of fanatics were training a tribal paramilitary for the government to battle Shiite rebels in Sa’ada. In 2007, a newspaper (Al-Sharie) that covered the topic of jihaddists in Sa’ada was brought up on charges of revealing state secrets, and the editor faces the death penalty. Al Nabi was again reported spotted in Sa’ada. In 2008, the Yemeni government announced with great fanfare that they had captured the dangerous terrorist al-Nabi after an intensive five year manhunt. The tickers all said, “Yemen captures al-Qaeda terrorist after five year hunt.” In January 2009, Nabi was at the meeting in Sana’a with Saleh. In March, Nabi (who is from Yafea tribe if i recall correctly) was fighting on the side of the regime in the Ja’ar battle (or as we call it now, Ja’aristan). The April 2009 prison release of 100+ jihaddists was defended by the Yemeni embassy here, which said they were mostly aged members of the Aden Abyan Islamic Army and not real al Qaeda. Update: now Tariq al Fadhli is saying the release was a good faith offering to al Qaeda as part of a deal where President Saleh asked them to leave Yemen for Somalia or Saudi Arabia.

Wahishi is a mediahadeen and was in Shabwa, before that Marib. Al Nabi has had a gun in his hands for years and commands a jihaddist/tribal army in Sa’ada in the service of Saleh.

General Ali Mohsen al Ahmar (President Saleh’s half brother) “holds the jihaddists file” and he is a Wahabbi. Commander of the North West Region, he has been fighting a war against Shiites using extremists and bombing civilians since 2005, but the war extends beyond the battlefield into the courts and mosques. Lets recall the connection between General Ali Mohsen al Ahmar and the Aden Abyan Islamic Army going all the way back to the 1999 tourists kidnapping. In Sa’ada today, we have General Ali Mohsen al Ahmar, Khaled al Nabi and three murdered and six missing tourists in what looks like an al Qaeda operation.

There have never been any reports of Wahishi or his faction of al Qaeda in Sa’ada, and Wahishi has denounced those jihaddists who fight for Saleh. Other al Qaeda factions have made statements that Saleh asked them to fight in Sa’ada.

Sa’ada contains a lot of terrorist training camps, state allied terrorists, and extremist mosques and schools including Dammaj, the Ivy League of hard core Salafi institutes- and a media black out and no access since 2004. Sa’ada is an al Qaeda blackhole, Saad bin Laden could be there and no one would know. The fact that this al Qaeda haven is under the command of “US ally” General Ali Mohsen al Ahmar isn’t that reassuring.

If we were going to get really esoteric, we could also discuss the US intercept that includes a reference to Zawahiri sending fighters to Sa’ada for Saleh, and then a few months later there was an influx of Arab and non-Arab foreign fighters reported in Sa’ada by several media outlets.

Oh thats rich and would be funny if we weren’t talking about MURDER and SIX MISSING PEOPLE. During the last five years of war, there was the intense sectarian rhetoric coming out of the Yemeni military. The Yemeni military fatwa’ed the rebels officially. And Ali Mohsen’s preachers did in fact instigate against both the aid workers and the rebels.

YEMEN OBSERVER (owned by President Saleh’s press secretary, Faris al Sanabani) – A Houthi spokesman denied that they received any of the foreigners kidnapped on June 12 more than a week ago saying that these news are baseless.

Some tribal sources said that the six hostages are in the hands of the Houthis, said MP Osman Hussein Mujali for the constituency 262.

A tribal source said today that the six hostages, which consist of five Germans and a British are alive and they are handed over to one of the Houthi leaders.

A source told AFP that the hostages who were among the nine who were kidnapped, were handed to Abdullah al-Rizame a Houthi field leader and now they are in al-Rizmat which a Houthi dominated area in Sada.

According to the same source, the Houthis identified the kidnappers to be Muhsen al-Tam and Fuaz Murki, who is thought to be from the Houthis. Some security sources said that there is a potential and possible alliance between al-Qaeda and al-Houthi rebels as both seek the same think that is creating chaos and instability in Yemen.

Rebels response: Its a frame-up.

According to our own in the province of Saada that the named / Mohsen full
وآخر معه والذين تناولت بعض وسائل الإعلام أسمائهما كونهما And another with him and who addressed some of the media names being
مطلوبين في قضية الاختطاف قد سلم نفسه إلى الشيخ / فايز Wanted in the abduction issue has turned himself in to Sheikh / Fayez
العوجري . Alauajjri.
والتام هو أحد عناصر الشيخ / العوجري ومن المقربين إليه And full-Sheikh is one of the elements / Alauajjri is close to
كما أبدت مصادر سياسية تخوفها من أن العوجري يسعى إلى توظيف Political sources have also expressed concern that seeks to recruit Alauajjri
القضية لتصفية حسابات قديمة ، وأن ما تردد من أن التام مطلوب The case to settle old accounts, and rumors that the total required
هي مسرحية هزلية تخدم العوجري وأهدافه السياسية وحساباته Is a farce Alauajjri and serve the political objectives and its
المعروفة . Known.

Updates below the fold.

Reporter Hamoud Mansour is close to the PSO National Security and is the AFP correspondent to whom Islamic Jihad of Yemen emailed their statement after the US embassy bombing, as opposed to you know, a Yemeni and less Crusader-ish media outlet.

In this report, AFP says the rebels have the six hostages alive. And that would be such a beautiful thing, but the rebels are denying it. An anonymous tribal source and an anonymous Yemeni official are confirming the rebels have them. However, in Yemen the government lies more than it tells the truth, so its harder to assign credibility to their statements like it would with a normal, non-compulsive liar, type government. AFP

Six foreign hostages alive in Yemen: tribal source
By Hammoud Mounassar

SANAA (AFP) — Six foreign hostages kidnapped this month in a restive area of northern Yemen are alive and being held by Shiite rebels, a tribal source said on Monday, after three other hostages were found dead last week.

“The six hostages were found alive and handed over to (rebel) commander Abdullah al-Rizani,” the tribal source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“They are currently in the Ruzmat area” of Saada province, the centre of the Shiite rebellion in the mountains near the Saudi border, he added.

The source said that the rebels had identified the kidnappers as being two of their own fighters — Mohsen al-Tam and Fawaz Morqi.

A senior Yemeni security official said he too had information that the hostages were alive and in the hands of the rebels.”The rebels are refusing to hand over either the hostages or their kidnappers,” the official told AFP. (Read on …)

Oh come on now, its not a time to be coy. That’s ridiculous, why didn’t they just tell the newspaper? Earth times:

A Shiite rebel group in Yemen said Sunday it had gained “vital clues” that could help identify the kidnappers who are holding a German family and a British engineer in north-western Yemen. Muhammad Abdul-Salam, a spokesman for the al-Houthi rebel group, told the German Press Agency dpa: “We have got vital clues that will help the search for the kidnappers and the hostages.” He said the group’s leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, “would provide the information if he is asked to do so.”

Faris Manaa is a major weapons trafficker, and thats well known. I had first heard of him four years ago though in the context of drug smuggling. He is the head of the governmental committee tasked with maintaining the cease fire. Faris Manaa is also the brother of the governor of Sa’ada, Hassan Manaa.

There was some whole thing where the 26 Septemper (sic), the military’s website, quoted Faris, the head of the reconciliation committee, and the Houthi website then disputed that he had actually made those statements. Now here he is rebutting their rebuttal.

Almotamar.net – Chairman of the presidential committee assigned with establishing peace in the governorate of Saada Sheikh Faris Manaa denied on Saturday the lies reported in al-Houthi website in person of Manaa in that he had not given a statement calling al-Houthi to stop the violations and to meet to what had been agreed on.

Manaa has also mocked those leaks, describing them as abnormal means and wondering by saying,” I don’t know who has given them the right to talk on behalf of me.” He added, “I am alive and any media instrument can talk to me instead of attributing statements in a false manner.”

Sheikh Faris has moreover renewed his call on al-Houthi to stop violations and to be loyal to what has been agreed on recently for the evacuation of the district of Shada and Ghamr and the remaining of the district of Razih that has been agreed of evacuating gunmen from it and ending armed aspects in it.