Armies of Liberation

There has to be some neutral supervision of the cease-fire implementation.

Update: Khaleej Times: Houthis free 200 captured soldiers from the 72nd Regiment of the army’s Republican Guards (commanded by Prince Ahmed).

Gulf Times: Shia rebels took control of a strategic army post in north Yemen yesterday and captured some 70 soldiers, in the latest clash to endanger an increasingly fragile truce, army and tribal sources said. “Houthi (rebels) took control of a military position in Al Zaala and captured all remaining soldiers,” a tribal source said. “Violent clashes erupted since the early morning hours.” A local military official said the rebels captured some 70 soldiers. (Read on …)

I had thought the peace convoy from Taiz had more of a lasting effect. Also its the anniversary of the clashes in Zanzibar which killed 17 and wounded more than 20 “because they raised their voices demanding the restoration of the state and still the occupation regime committed massacres and crimes against our brothers in the south, but today Dali is surrounded and encircled from all sides that the area of the city of Dali five square kilometers There are five military brigades and more than twenty military barracks to prevent food and medicine from our brothers in Dali.”

Ali Nasser Mohammed President of the PDRY “vehemently denied published allegations that he and other opposition leaders in exile were consulted before signing of the Framework agreement between the GPC and the JMP, Naba News reported. Nasser described the claims as “a slander with only one goal, to smear, with no basis in reality, adding that he would love it so much if the ruling party as well as the opposition parties could start solving the big problems rather than get trapped in small ones.” Southern leaders within Yemen are unanimous in their denunciation of the accord, calling it a conspiracy. More on the agreement below the fold.

Daily Star: SANAA: Shiite rebels Monday came out in support of an agreement between the ruling party and the opposition to embark on a national dialogue between Yemen’s numerous rivals. “We express our satisfaction and support for the agreement between the Common Forum and the [ruling] General People’s Congress,” the rebels said in a statement. (Read on …)

Its a powder keg waiting to go off. Its unclear if its a tribal clash or a military one since the Houthis are fighting with “Army backed tribes.”

SANAA — Fighting in mountainous north Yemen between Shiite rebels and army-backed tribes over the past four days have left at least 49 people dead, threatening a fragile truce, tribal and rebel sources said on Wednesday.
(Read on …)

Two entirely unrelated stories, 1) US freezes Anwar Awlaki’s assets and criminalizes providing material support to him; 2) After February truce agreement and May’s amnesty announcement, there’s still over 400 rebels in jail and dozens of southerners. In theory, Saleh agreed to release them but we’ve heard it dozens of times before. He uses the prisoners as a bargaining chip against the opposition and the general public.

Gulf Times: Yemen’s government has agreed to free more than 400 people, mostly northern rebels, as the Arab state tries to launch a dialogue with opposition groups, an opposition leader said yesterday.

An opposition coalition and the ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) party signed an agreement yesterday to set up a joint body for a national dialogue, state media reported.

The government is trying to halt conflict in the northern province of Saada with Shia rebels as well as with secessionists in the south.

“As demanded by the opposition in order to sign the agreement, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has issued a directive to free 27 from the southern movement and 400 with links to the fighting in Saada,” the opposition figure, who declined to be named, told Reuters. (Read on …)

170,000 migrants from Somalia and 330,000 internally displaced by the Saada Wars, Yemen Times:

Head of the UNHCR Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme, Ambassador Peter Woolcott, visited Yemen from July 5 to July 10 to observe the situation of refugees and internally displaced persons in the country, an especially important visit since the UN refugee agency is in the midst of a funding crisis…“We are dealing with something like 170 thousand refugees and 330 thousand IDPs,” he said. “These are very large numbers from any standpoint.” (—) But he believes that for many, resettlement is only a dream because of the small number of refugees who are able to start new lives in countries outside Somalia.

“Some one thousand are resettled from Yemen each year, but the number of refugees is 130,000,” he said. “They are very dependent on essentially the handouts and generosity of the donor community and UNHCR.” (—) UNHCR Yemen appealed in February 2010 for USD 39.1 million. Afterwards, this figure was revised to USD 52.1 million to cover the needs of both refugees and internally displaced persons in 2010. So far the Yemen Appeal remains funded at just 44 percent of overall needs.

Doha agreement reactivated and Qatar will attempt to mediate in the south, but with who? I hope it works out but during the Doha ceasefire, the regime could not manage to uphold its end of the agreement.

Earthtimes: Sana’a, Yemen – Qatar is initiating efforts to mediate between the Yemeni government and its southern opponents amid escalating separatist violence in the south of the Arab country, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani said on Tuesday.

“We will be happy to participate in finding any solution that helps preserve the Yemeni unity,” the Qatari Emir told reporters after talks with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sana’a. “We are always with our brothers in Yemen to help in there problems,” he said…. The Qatari government will also resume its mediation efforts to cement a fragile truce between Shiite rebels and the government in northern Yemen, the Yemeni president said.

Saleh said the Qatari efforts would be based on a 2007 Qatari-brokered peace agreement signed by representatives of the Yemeni government and the rebels in Doha.

“We agreed to reactivate the Doha agreement,” Saleh told reporters after the meeting at the Presidential Palace in Sana’a. Yemeni officials declared the collapse of the Qatari mediation in August 2009, accusing the rebels were unwilling to abide by its terms.

TAJ sent the following letter to the UN and a variety of Yemen’s donors and international organizations highlighting the war crimes and destruction the Yemeni government wrought on its own citizens in the last week. The document includes the names of the homeowners whose property was destroyed, giving us some kind of estimate on the newly displaced in South Yemen. With 78 homes destroyed and an average of ten to twenty living in each dwelling, Yemenis are big on extended family, then there are between 700 to 1500 citizens homeless, displaced, as a result of the latest assault. As we recall from the state’s campaigns in Sa’ada, Yemen has a tendency toward collective punishment of the civilian population in areas of conflict including the withholding of food as a tactic of war, random bombing of residential areas and the denial of access to medical services to injured persons. The US deems the whole bloody mess an internal affair, giving Sana’a the green light to crush various sectors of the population, in the misguided hope that Saleh will turn his attention to al Qaeda once things get quiet again. But things may never get quiet again. Either way, the US narrative of civilian immunity loses all legitimacy and the al Qaeda narrative of a US double standard on human rights gains credibility.

Your Excellency,
We would like to put you in the form of what is happening from the painful events and sufferings that are happening to the people in Juhav directorate in the province of Lahj in the south (South Arabia), as consequences of the crimes committed by the Yemeni occupation forces in its military campaign since Monday 21/06/2010 until today.

The situation is getting worse because of the siege at the Directorate, where residents, pacifists and houses were bombed with various types of heavy and light weapons, tanks, rocket launchers, artillery guns and Huns, which led to the destruction of houses on the heads of women and children, the infirm, the destruction and ways of life and infrastructure, including electricity and water services and the imposition of a state of emergency on movement of people, hampering patients chronic diseases such as kidney failure and heart disease, diabetes and pregnant women from going to the hospitals and stopping the students from going to perform their yearly exams, paralyzing life, making the citizen’s life hell for unendurable as was the case of violation of human rights and we have provided an example of the citizen Mohammed Mohsen who was kidnapped from (Ibb hospital) by the Yemeni forces who tortured him to death and thrown his body on the side of the road near his village in Sweida and found many traces of torture on his body and neck due to hanging.

On the other hand, there are many private properties and premises that were demolished and destroyed particularly in the following town ; AlQarna; Aluzla; Alsuaida; Aaniem; Alnujid; Blass; shaggo; Taqmur; Aladania and Alquraiat .

The names of owners of these destroyed houses in appendix no. 1 (Read on …)

The US is deeply troubled now? What a load of hooey. There was five months straight of carpet bombing of civilians and there was nada, nothing, zip from the US except a blatant disregard for civilian slaughter- in the north and the south. The US is troubled by the violence now only because the resumption of war will mean that Saleh will remain distracted from a dedicated counter-terror posture against al-Qa’ida. However, thats the point. The regime is structurally reliant on corruption, repression and detante with al-Qaeda. This is pathetic.

Peoples Daily: The United States is “deeply troubled” by violence in the northern Yemen and calls for a comprehensive dialogue between all opposition parties and the government, said the White House on Thursday.

“We are deeply troubled by reports of fresh outbreaks of fighting in Sa’ada, and urge full compliance with the ceasefire agreement announced in February, and an end to the violence,” said a White House statement, referring to recent violent conflicts in the northern Yemeni province of Sa’ada.

“The United States calls for a comprehensive and inclusive national dialogue between all opposition groups and the ruling party. Such a dialogue needs to be undertaken in good faith and with haste by all parties to address legitimate grievances and increase stability in Yemen,” said the statement. (Read on …)

The tribal paramilitary hasn’t been paid, violence ensues. I believe this happened in the last wars as well, likely the money got pocketed if it was paid at all.

Yemen Post: An army officer has been killed and three soldiers and unidentified number of tribesmen injured in the clashes that are still continuing between the army and tribes in Al-Ashah district in Amran Province. (Read on …)

The state’s failure to release the prisoners as required by the truce itself, not to mention the May 22 amnesty announcement, was predictable. It happened in every cease fire since 2005. Similarly, little reconstruction occurred over the last five years despite all the funds donated and numerous announcements. Of the 3000 political prisoners, the breakdown is roughly 1000 entirely innocent (arrested for suspected sympathy with the rebels), 1000 rebels and 1000 southerners arrested during protests or during night raids on activists’ homes. Also several journalists. There’s still about 2200 in jail and its a continuing source of friction and a bargaining chip against the larger populace, but as the RAND report correctly notes, the truces are a tactic of war, not a method of peace.

SANAA, 24 June 2010 (IRIN) – Abdulmalik al-Houthi, leader of the Shia rebels in the northern governorate of Saada, has accused the government of reneging on amnesty promises made by President Ali Abdullah Saleh on 22 May.

Saleh had announced an amnesty for all imprisoned southern separatists and Houthi rebels in the north during a speech to commemorate unification in 1990.

“Instead of releasing our fellow citizens in line with President Saleh’s amnesty, security authorities in the government are launching new arrest campaigns against our men,” al-Houthi said in a statement on 22 June.

According to local media reports, fewer than 800 of the more than 3,000 prisoners believed to be covered by the amnesty have been released.

Asked why the government had not released all of the prisoners under the amnesty, Interior Ministry official Lutfi Nisari said only: “This is a presidential affair.” (Read on …)

Also new battles leave many dead, wounded and missing.

Yemen Post: Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi has urged the Yemeni authority on the release of Houthi detainees and to convert what he called the declaration of May 22 to the ground.

According to a press release issued by Houthis Information Bureau, the power is still waffling on the release of the detainees so far, reported media sources, have got a copy of the statement. (Read on …)

An article covering the press conference is available here at the National.

SEYAJ Organization for Childhood Protection
Summary of press conference on victims of mines and explosive remnants of war
Child land mine victims urgently need medical treatment

May 31, 2010

SEYAJ detailed the horrendous apathy toward children and women who are victims of land mines and explosives in the northwestern province of Saada. Desperate their desperate medical condition, these victims are neglected and lack of access to medical care, even in the minimum standard by provided by hospitals and health centers.

The director of SEYAJ said at a press conference in Sana’a on Monday, May 31, 2010 that the injured had been expelled from the hospitals. The mattresses were pulled from beneath them and they were asked for money for their stay although they received no medicines. The shrapnel was not extracted from their bodies, despite that their injuries were received more than two months in most cases.

The victims of land mines live in harsh humanitarian conditions in the capital Sana’a, where they were not admitted to government hospitals, contrary to the directions of the president and the decision of the Minister of Public Health and Population that required treatment for all victims of war at the expense of the state. (Read on …)

With the Sa’ada War formally under a cease fire, flare-ups like this portend the possibility of a seventh war. The Yemeni government deploys deniable proxies in many areas and against many opponents. Much of the ruling family’s authority in peace time is deployed through indirect tribal means, the politicization of the civil service and manipulation of the state budget. What are called ungoverned areas are more correctly termed indirectly governed. Regime affiliated tribesmen fought for the regime during six wars with an appalling lack of discipline and command and control. Reports of looting and arbitrary violence against non-combatants are a characteristic of all the wars. And the state is trying to spin this latest conflict as a random tribal clash when it is symptomatic of the continuing power struggle between the Houthi rebels and the state. The issue of who is in control of the schools is not about buildings but about religious freedom.

update: Saudi Gazette: 10 dead 14 wounded

update: Houthi press releases calls it an ambush:

May 31, A source at the Information Bureau of the Houthi that the elements of the Authority in Beni Aouir province of Saada, the last night ambushed a group of supporters and led the ambush killed one person and wounding two others, the source said those elements paid by the authority aimed at stirring up trouble and strife when calmed down things back to normal, saying, when you want power to make things quiet you can do that, that we have observed by Holiday unit until now, when you want to spark things can ignite a crisis at the touch of magic through to instruct its members to carry out hostile acts, either ambushed or cut through.

June1, Crowd of thousands of supporters of Houthi era to this day in the city of Dahyan for the funeral of the bodies of their dead in ambushes yesterday and said our source is that the crowd was still growing. One of those killed in an ambush yesterday is a senior leader of the group and is known as Abu Haidar, his / Ahmed Hussein Salem. Our source said that a senior commander said the group has been the assumption by many posts in several areas in Sa’ada and Sufian, and it is one of the experienced military leaders, which fought the fiercest confrontations and battles during the past years. The source said the death toll at 5 and they would put their bodies to the cemetery of martyrs in the city Dahyan.

SANAA, June 1 (Reuters) – : Six people were killed in clashes between Shi’ite rebels and government-allied tribesmen in north Yemen, rebel and tribal sources said on Tuesday, in violence that could undermine the region’s uneasy four-month truce. (Read on …)

A war against children, fought by children on both sides.

the Naitonal Annual study also finds young soldiers fighting on both sides
(Read on …)

Another communication supposedly from the Houthi rebels exposes an al Qaeda in Yemen training manual sent to terrorists in Gaza about how to build a small plane for a terror attack. This story line is among the most bizarre coming out of Yemen, and that’s saying a lot, but there are specifics and it does highlight a new tactic that may be deployed. Several of the AQIY Sada al Malahim magazine issues spoke about defending Gaza. But while Wahishi and al Reimi and al Qaeda in Yemen do pose a threat, there are several other al Qaeda groupings and individuals operating in Yemen, associated with external cells, that are not media hounds like AQIY and operate under the radar. Its also true that the Houthi rebels ideology is diametrically opposed to al Qaeda, and Jewish people lived in Sa’ada alongside the Zaidis for centuries without incident. Wahabbi extremists were responsible for the recent targeting of Yemen’s Jews and the murder of the Rabbi.

Haaretz: Yemen Al-Qaida training Gaza groups to attack Israel

Documents sent to Haaretz by Shi’ite separatists in Yemen that opposes Al-Qaida points to regular, direct contact between Al-Qaida and Gaza Strip supporters.

The Yemen-based arm of Al-Qaida recently sent members of the organization in the Gaza Strip a training manual with instructions for building a light aircraft and using it against Israeli targets near the border with the Strip. The plane is powered by a car engine and can be used to launch explosives into Israel.

Documents sent to Haaretz by a group of Shi’ite separatists in Yemen that opposes Al-Qaida points to regular, direct contact between the Al-Qaida organization in that country and supporters in the Gaza Strip. Some of the latter are active in Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad, which has carried out terror attacks against resorts in Sinai.

The Shi’ite rebels who passed the latest communication, and several previous ones, to Haaretz, are demanding Yemeni government recognition of their civil rights. They are keen to distinguish themselves from Al-Qaida. (Read on …)

Dammaj??? Why would the Houthis want to hold a rally in Dammaj? A ceremony for the families of the war dead. (I guess Dammaj wasn’t bombed during the war, and the Yemeni and Saudi air forces only made terrible bombing “mistakes” on pro-rebel villages.) The article aptly describes Dammaj as a pro-government stronghold. It also among the main Salafi strongholds in Yemen and includes the world renounced Dammaj Islamic Institute, headquarters of the Dar al Hadieth chain of schools. Dammaj has faced allegations for years of recruiting some or maybe a few of its students for al Qaeda.

Seven were killed in the clash between the rebels and the “pro-government tribal fighters.” Much of Yemen’s pro-government tribal fighters were trained or include known al Qaeda figures. For example, Ammar al Waeli is there now, although the government says he is dead. In the fifth war, 2005, it was Khalid Abdul Nabi who, oddly enough, the government reported as dead in 2004. This is really an odd development.

Update: It was in the context of a week long series of rallies to highlight the thousands of orphans and widows who need support.

WaPo: SANAA (Reuters) – A gunfight between Yemeni Shi’ite rebels and pro-government fighters killed seven people in the deadliest clash since a February truce calmed a northern war, officials said Thursday.

The clash broke out after dozens of armed rebels descended on a village — said to be a pro-government stronghold — for a rally in support of families of rebels killed in the war that raged on and off since 2004, a local official said.

The tribal fighters, who fought alongside the state in the war, tried to stop the rebel rally, and a melee erupted.

“The Houthis wanted to hold a rally in Damaj but the locals prevented them. They engaged in a quarrel, which escalated to an armed clash in which three tribesmen and four Houthis were killed,” a local official said, referring to the rebels by the clan name of their leader, Abdel Malek al-Houthi. A rebel official confirmed a clash had occurred.

Ali Ibrahim al-Rahman was arrested when he went to visit his brother in jail in 2007, and later charged with involvement in the fifth war’s battle at Bani Hushaish, although he was in jail since the fourth war. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to three years in May 2009. In February, Ali was eligible for release counting time served, but he is back in the PSO prison and remains among hundreds of other innocents jailed in regard to the Sa’ada Wars.

Al Esheraki- Ali Ibrahim al-Rahman (21 years old) students and a Yemeni national who lives in the area Shoveler – the Yemeni capital Sanaa

2- تم اعتقاله قبِل ثلاث سنوات وتحديدا بتاريخ 14ابريل 2007م أثناء زيارته لأخيه عبد الخالق اِلسياني في اِلسجن المركزي بصنعاء بدون أي مسوغ قانوني ولا يوجد عليه أي تهمة 2 – he was arrested three years ago, specifically on April 14, 2007 during a visit to his brother, Abd al-Khaliq al-Saiani in the central prison in Sana’a, without any legal justification and there was no charge

3- تم سجنه في الأمن السياسي ومن ثم السجن المركزي لمدة عام تقريبا 3 – was imprisoned in the Political Security Central Prison and then for almost a year (Read on …)

Southern Protests Threaten Stability a report from IRIN: Aidarous al-Naqeeb, a member of parliament from the opposition Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP), told IRIN up to 150 protesters had been killed and more than 500 injured since the SM emerged in 2006.

Reuters Three people were wounded in a north Yemen city market as rebels exchanged fire with pro-government tribes who then cut the road between the northern rebel stronghold and the capital, officials said on Tuesday… The pro-government tribe cut the road in revenge for rebels killing a tribe member four days earlier, officials said.

Rebels said “government elements” opened fire on shoppers in a market on Monday and later cut off the main road to Sanaa. “They put the province under blockade conditions, showing that they are getting outside support in order to stir anxiety and chaos once more,” a statement on the rebels’ website said.

The donated tents are being diverted into the black market for smugglers to use as tarps on their shipments while thousand in an unofficial refugee camp are near death from starvation and disease.

HOOD: After preventing a Qatari aids :Five thousand displaced persons face death in Haradh,

Translated by:Nisreen Shadad

More than five thousand displaced persons (IDPs) face death in al-Qufl camp; unofficial camp, as a result of the lack of humanitarian aids.

The number of the IDPs is increasing and so their pitiful situation worsens. The Heavy rains affected IDPS’ health because of the contaminated and stagnant water, which is infectious diseases.

Moreover, the high temperature and living in a terbal (a type of tent or cover made of plastic) let their lives unbearable.

“The Local Council prevented a Qatari aid to provide them with tents,” said one the HOOD authentic sources. “There are a big number of international aids, that are smuggled to the black-market and used to cover the traders’ goods,” the sources added.

The IDPs demanded the humanitarian organizations to rescue their lives, otherwise they will die out of hunger
(Read on …)

Update: Saudi Ambassador, four were kidnapped by a tribe not the Houthis and released, Yemen Post

There is just so much of the Yemeni regime’s propaganda coming out of Reuters lately. I wonder how much it costs to buy a wire service. In this case, the Saudi government says it has no knowledge of a Saudi citizen kidnapped by the Houthi rebels as Reuters earlier reported. Saudi Gazette

SANA’A – A Saudi diplomatic source at the Kingdom’s embassy in Yemen said that he has no information about reports that Saudi citizens were kidnapped and then released by Houthi rebels near Amran Province 30 km north of the Yemeni capital.

The source emphasized that the embassy has been following up these reports with the responsible authorities at the Yemeni Ministry of Interior in an attempt to verify them.

This is such a bizarre story, not readily believable. The Houthi rebels intercepted communications from al Qaeda in Yemen to an anti-Hamas Salafi group in Gaza and they sent it to Haaretz. Al Qaeda in Yemen is planning to send Somalis from Yemen to Gaza for attacks and also to attack Jews in Yemen and launch a rocket from Saudi Arabia on a nuclear reactor in Israel. The Houthis, in sending the letters, are trying to demonstrate the difference between their ideology and al Qaeda’s in a bid to elicit US support for their cause, which they say is an end to discrimination by the Yemeni government.

Haaretz

The Yemen-based arm of Al-Qaida is examining the possibility of infiltrating terrorists into Israel disguised as Somali refugees crossing the border from Egypt or even as new immigrants from Ethiopia.

Shi’ite rebels yesterday sent another letter to Haaretz, the latest of several, in which they quote from a letter sent by Al-Qaida to members of a Salafist group in the Gaza Strip that is opposed to Hamas. (Read on …)

Peace with Dignity in Yemen, Can the Cycle of Endless War be Broken?

Each of the six Sa’ada wars in Yemen was a photo copy of the one before, except the bombs got bigger, the children more frail and the jails more crowded. The Yemeni government systematically denied food, medicine and international aid to civilians in the northern Sa’ada province as a tactic of war since the first in 2004. Indiscriminate government bombing in the second round of war in 2005 displaced over 50,000 civilians. By the end of the fifth war, 120,000 were refugees. In the sixth war that began in August 2009, a joint Yemeni-Saudi bombing campaign flattened over 9000 structures including mosques, schools, and entire villages. With the state’s Pyrrhic victory in February 2010, the number of internal refugees had swelled to a quarter of a million. Human Rights Watch is calling for an investigation into potential war crimes.

In February, the Houthi rebels released 178 civilian and military men in their custody and returned the bodies of several Saudi soldiers. Yemen announced the release of 161 Houthi detainees. However the Yemeni Organization for the Defense of Rights and Freedoms (HOOD) said only 32 detainees were released out of a total of 2,000.

The failure of the state to release imprisoned rebels signals the eventuality of a seventh war Dr. Abdullah al Faqih, political science professor at Sana’a University, explained. “The fact that the regime is still holding the Houthi prisoners means that hardliners within the regime are still planning a new round of war. With the Houthi joining the Preparatory Committee for National Dialogue, the prospects of a new war seem greater,” he said.

Opposition politician Hassan Zaid estimated that about 1000 prisoners are still in jail with an additional 500 disappeared, “Most of the arrested are innocent…They were taken simply because they are belonging to the Hashimite or Zaidi sects,” Mr. Zaid said. Other estimates go as high as 3000.

A History of Broken Promises

Some rebel fighters and innocent bystanders have been in jail for years, although the Sana’a regime repeatedly announced their release. After mediation in May 2005, President Ali Abdullah Saleh promised to release approximately 600 persons imprisoned without charge. He issued an unnumbered pardon decree on 25 September 2005. On March 3, 2006, Yemen’s state-run media announced the release of 630 prisoners after 80 parliamentarians visited Sa’ada.

On March 22, 2006, The Arab Sisters Forum reported, “Most of the relatives told us that only about 150 detainees had been released so far.” In April 2006, rebel leader Abdelmalik Al-Houthi said many of his followers were arrested as they returned home following the general amnesty. He said no more than 80 of his followers had been released. The rest of the freed prisoners were victims of arbitrary arrest who had no connection to the rebel forces.

A prisoner exchange was also part of the peace agreement negotiated by Qatar ending the fourth war in June 2007. The rebels released 96 prisoners of war during Ramadan in September. On September 20, despite the president’s written instructions to release 500, only 67 rebel fighters were freed along with several arbitrarily arrested citizens.

In 2008, the Yemeni government repeatedly announced that 380 more prisoners were released, but many of the prisoners named actually were freed a year earlier and were not rebels. A government appointed fact finding committee was jailed after reporting that the state failed to implement several terms of the 2007 cease fire including the release of rebel prisoners.

Arbitrary arrests

Beyond capturing and often torturing rebel fighters, the state engaged in “preventive arrests” based on religious identity, geographical location or family associations. Human Rights Watch broadly categorized the civilian prisoners as state hostages, Hashemites, or Zaidis traveling in hot zones or suspected of sympathizing with the rebels. Journalists who reported on the war were also arrested.

The Yemen Times reported in May 2005, “Government and security forces would assault villages looking for Houthi suspects and demanded that all males are to come out and give themselves up…The prisons are packed in Sa’ada with hundreds – some say thousands of suspected Houthis, most of whom do not have any clear charges against them or even have any links with the Houthis.” The pattern continued through 2009.

For example, in September 2007, the Dignity Organization for Human Rights appealed for the release of 47 including juveniles detained for over a year in al-Noseirya central prison in Hajjah. The Geneva-based organization said Yemen’s Political Security Organization (PSO) had randomly rounded up innocent Zaidis. The Hajjah prisoners made the news when they refused to break their Ramadan fast at the same time as the prison guards, five minutes earlier than Shia dictates allow, and were shackled in leg irons and beaten.

Six members of the Tamy family who disappeared over three years ago along with five from the Moid family were recently discovered in the PSO prison in Hajjah. Another 28 men found there were arrested without charge within the last year, including some after the peace announcement in February 2010. Several sources have said that arbitrary arrests in Sa’ada are continuing despite the latest peace deal.

The children of some of the detainees appealed to President Saleh last week, presenting drawings of their missing fathers. The event, organized by the Women’s Media Forum and HOOD in Sana’a, was entitled, “I have the right to live with my father.” Ali al-Dailami, director of the event, said some of the children hadn’t seen their fathers in years. Arbitrary and incommunicado imprisonment of innocent citizens throughout Yemen diminishes the legitimacy of the state and stokes social tensions.

Many children are also in jail and subject to routine torture. In 2007, Ahmed Saif Hashid, an independent Member of Parliament, conducted a survey of prisons and found 16 juveniles, aged 10 to 16, in the PSO prison in al-Hodeida. The children were arbitrarily arrested in connection to the Sa’ada War.

In one interview, 12 year old Nabil old said he was taken from his class room to prison. “We have been beaten by the soldiers and officers, we have been beaten with sticks while we were handcuffed. They beat us and lay us faces down”. Hussein, 13, told Mr. Hashid, “We have been beaten, handcuffed. They beat us as soon as we arrived before even interrogating us. I saw Qasem fainted while his head was bleeding. Some of us have been made naked and they took off all our clothes.”

Starvation in Peacetime

The children in prison are not the only Yemeni kids in mortal jeopardy. Tens of thousands of children in Sa’ada are on the verge of starvation including two year old Hassan. The toddler lives in a cave with his pregnant mother, her grandmother and several other family members. Their house was destroyed in the fifth war. On a good day, Hassan eats a little bread and drinks dirty water.

When the boy hears an airplane, he falls to the ground and covers his head. A UN Children’s Fund survey in 2008, before the expansive sixth war, found that 92% of Sa’ada children had been exposed to armed conflict. Most exhibited symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, on a level at par with traumatized populations in Palestine and Nepal.

In the sixth war, dozens of children were killed in their own homes, in markets and in refugee camps by Saudi and Yemeni bombs.. Many starved to death and many more will. Of the 250,000 internally displaced, only about 30,000 are in the abysmal UN refugee camps.

The UN is short about $40 million it needs to continue distributing life saving food rations in Sa’ada beyond June. Nationally, over two million rely on UN food aid. The US announced a grant of $4.8 million in food and cooking oil for Yemen, and an intended donation to Yemen’s Special Forces of a $39 million dollar military transport aircraft. Yemen’s other donors have not contributed to the UN fund. In years past, corrupt officials embezzled millions of dollars in international aid.

A third of Yemenis are malnourished and a seventh war would exacerbate the crisis. Yemen’s performance in several ceasefires since 2004 is a tale of failed expectations: no reconstruction occurred, the military failed to pull back, and disengagement was never completed. The state needs to enact confidence building measures with the rebels to sustain the fragile peace, a vital priority for the nation. However hundreds if not thousands of rebel prisoners and innocent civilians remain in jail, and arrests are continuing. While the Sana’a regime is propped up by warmongers with financial interests in resuming the conflict and hard liners with ideological motives, western donors appear at a loss for an effective strategy in Yemen. Clearly only Yemenis themselves can avert the looming national catastrophe.

-Jane

The following list names 39 men jailed in relation to the Sa’ada War, suspected of Houthism although they were not engaged in the war at all, who remain in jail despite the February ceasefire:

1 Name Location((zone)) in the prison from..
2 1 Abd urahman Muhamme Tamy Washa/Hajjah 3 years *ago
3 2 Muhammed Abd Ulkarym Tamy Washa/Hajjah 3 years
4 3 Esma’ail Ali Tamy Washa/Hajjah 3 years
5 4 Ali Hussayn Tamy Washa/Hajjah 3 years
6 5 Mahmud Ali Hussain Tamy Washa/Hajjah 3 years
7 6 Ali Muhammed Hasan Tamy Washa/Hajjah 3 years
8 7 Muhammed Ali Al Moa’aid Washa/Hajjah 3 years
9 8 Ali Hussayn Al Moa’aid Washa/Hajjah 3 years
10 9 Aziz Hussayn Al Moa’aid Washa/Hajjah 3 years
11 10 Abd Ulhakim Al Moa’aid Washa/Hajjah 3 years
12 11 Ali Muhammed Al rukhmy Washa/Hajjah 5 months
13 12 Ahmed Nasser Al waghirah Washa/Hajjah 5 m
14 13 Abd Ullah Abd Ullah Mashyb Washa/Hajjah 7 m
15 14 Jaber Hussain Mashyb Washa/Hajjah 7 m
16 15 Tawfiq Muhammed Haddan Sa’ada 2 Years
17 16 Ali Muhammed Al Moa’aid Aflah / Hajjah 3 years
18 17 Saleh Sa’aid Al hamdany Kutaf/Sa’ada 7 m
19 18 Qassim Hussain Daqea’a Haydan/Sa’ada 7 m
20 19 Jamal Hussain Hamed Athamer/Sa’ada 7 m
21 20 Muhammed Yahya Hamed Athamer/Sa’ada 7 m
22 21 Ahmed Hussain Al ssofi Athamer/Sa’ada 7 m
23 22 Abd Ulaziz Al mahbashi Al muhabisha/Hajjah 18 m
24 23 Ahmed Ajlan Al ne’emy Al muftah/Hajjah 18 m
25 24 Abd Usalam Al ne’emy Al muhabisha/Hajjah 7 m
26 25 Abd Ullah Muhammed Al muhadwary Al muhabisha/Hajjah 7 m
27 26 Fahd Mansowr Al aqhumy Kuhlan asharf/Hajjah 1 year
28 27 Abd Urahman Khaled al ne’emy Kuhlan asharf/Hajjah 1 year
29 28 Mattary Al muqrany Haydan/Sa’ada 7 m
30 29 Hameed Yahya Al muqrany Haydan/Sa’ada 7 m
31 30 Jaber Hussain Juhayz Aferah/Sa’ada 2 m
32 31 Jaber Al hezzy Aferah/Sa’ada 2 m
33 32 Abd Ulaziz Al awathy Ibb 2 m
34 33 Jaber Hussain Jabhan Razeh/Sa’ada 2 m
35 34 Sadan Hussain Jabhan Razeh/Sa’ada 2 m
36 35 Hasan Al rahwy Kuhlan asharf/Hajjah 3 m
37 36 Esma’ail Ahmed Al madwamy Al muhabisha/Hajjah 3 m
38 37 Jubran Hussain Majash Munabeh/Sa’ada 5 m
39 38 Abd Ullah Muhammed Al tha’eny Washa/Hajjah 5 m

Its a google translation but you can get the idea. Arabic below:

In the name of God the Merciful
Saada, Yemen
2010/4/14

Brothers in / Human Rights Watch Distinguished
Greetings:

We appreciate your concern to the beginning of the safety of civilians and we thank you for your efforts you have made in this humanitarian issue, and you have some observations on what was in your latest report on the sixth war in northern Yemen.

First: that your condemnation of the Government of Yemen and Saudi Arabia does not rise to the level of horrific massacres against civilians, although we documented these crimes and we have published on the media and the testimonies of the citizens and the injured. (Read on …)

Four to trial on charges of spying for Iran:

Yemen put four Shi’ite rebel supporters on trial on Monday on charges of spying for Iran in a move that could strain a truce to end a northern war that drew in neighboring oil giant Saudi Arabia last year.

Prosecutors asked for the death penalty for the men, a prosecution official said. The four were accused of handing Shi’ite Iran photographs of security and military installations as well as ports and islands, the indictment said. (Read on …)

Until they release the photos, here’s some photos and witness testimony from 2005: click here and here and here and here and here.

Amnesty International via News Yemen The scale of the devastation caused by Yemeni and Saudi Arabian aerial bombardments of the northern Yemeni region of Sa’ada has been revealed in hundreds of images obtained by Amnesty International.

The pictures, given to Amnesty International by an independent source and taken in March 2010 in and around the town of al-Nadir, show buildings destroyed between August 2009 and February 2010 during the latest in a series of clashes between Yemeni forces and supporters of a Shi’a cleric.

Among the damaged or destroyed civilian buildings photographed are market places, mosques, petrol stations, small businesses, a primary school, a power plant, a health centre – and dozens of houses and residential buildings.

“This is a largely invisible conflict that has been waged behind closed doors. These images reveal the true scale and ferocity of the bombing and the impact it had on the civilians caught up in it,” said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa programme.

“This information has only now come to light through Yemenis who fled the conflict and have reached other parts of the country.”

International humanitarian law forbids the targeting of civilian objects, as well as indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on civilians, during conflicts. If such attacks are carried out deliberately, they are war crimes.

I really hope this is true, not only for the individuals detained but also for the chance of a lasting peace in the Sa’ada War. It would be the first evidence of learning I’ve seen yet, usually its the same mistakes over and over, and bigger and bigger. The political prisoners are a hot button issue that just creates more instability and resentment. Of course this is coming on the heels of the sentences in the south including the college professor sentenced to three years for an article. As always the same caveat, I’ll believe it when I see it. The regime announced the release of 635 Houthis several times from 2005-2008, but they were never actually released. Now they are announcing 161 prisoners were released but no one can confirm it yet. Another tangential question is, are there going to be al Qaeda mixed in, as an accommodation to the fact that some of the leadership fled to Somalia.

News Yemen: President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered the release of all detainees in connection with anti-government protests in Hadramout province over the past months including journalist Fuad Rashid.

President Saleh’s order came in response to a call by leading members of the Joint Meeting Parties, political and social figures and members of the local authority and the Shura Council for the release of all detainees, MP for Islah party Mohsen Basura told News Yemen.

The JMP’s members have urged President Saleh to release detainees in order to pave the way for a national dialogue and making peace in Hadramout, Basura said.

On Monday, President Saleh ordered the authorities in Hadramout to release journalist Awadh Kashmim who was detained for two weeks.

The authorities have also recently released 161 Houthi rebels arrested during conflict with the army in northern Sa’ada.

Last Wednesday, the opposition Joint Meeting Parties demanded that the authorities release detainees and stop pursuing political activists and journalists as one of several conditions to start a real dialogue on political and economic reforms in the country.

In Yemen, al Qaeda’s training camp in the Abu Jabara valley is no secret. It is in an old military camp between Sa’ada and al Jawf provinces, near the Saudi border, and it houses hundreds of Yemeni and foreign al Qaeda loyalists.

Acting as mercenaries for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, al Qaeda operatives fought in the Sa’ada War against the Houthi rebels. As a result, hundreds of jihaddists gained battlefield experience during the five years of brutal war. In an interview with Jane Novak, Yemeni politician Hassan Zaid, recommended the terrorists in Abu Jabara be disarmed now that the war has ended.

Corrupt al Qaeda

Despite their high flown rhetoric, Quoranic citations and photo-shopped internet magazine, al Qaeda in Yemen is just as corrupt as the Saleh regime itself. The enmeshment of al Qaeda with Yemen’s subverted military and intelligence services is a product of long standing relationships that stretch from the caves of Afghanistan to the presidential palace in Sana’a.

The sixth round of the Sa’ada War ended in February when President Saleh declared a ceasefire. Yemen’s ability to construct a durable peace is doubtful. Disengagement is moving slowly. A frank assessment of the underlying issues of exclusion, religious pluralism, development and equality never occurred.

The rebels are required to turn in their weapons as one condition of the cease fire. Opposition politician Hassan Zaid said the terrorists in the Abu Jabara al Qaeda camp should be disarmed as well. “This group sours the atmosphere of peace,” Mr. Zaid noted to al Tagheer.

Al Qaeda with Official Passports

The rebels are Zaidis, a Shiite offshoot, and claim religious discrimination by the state. Mr. Zaid leads the Zaidi oriented al Haqq opposition party and previously headed the Joint Meeting Parties, Yemen’s opposition coalition. He disputed the notion that he was the rebels “spiritual leader” as regime propaganda to the Yemen Post.

In my interview, Mr. Zaid confirmed that the al Qaeda fighters in Abu Jabara participated in the war against the Houthi rebels. “Our brothers said there are around 500-800 (al Qaeda) fighters training there under General Ali Mohsen al Ahmar’s command,” he said.

A powerful military commander, General al Ahmar is President Saleh’s half brother and, as commander of the North West region, led the war against the rebels. Al Ahmar recruited fighters for Osama bin Laden during the Afghan jihad in the 1980’s and is reputed to facilitate several al Qaeda groups in Yemen.

“They are well armed and holding authorized (official) ID which enables them to move between Yemen and Saudi Arabia,” Mr. Zaid said. “They joined the government to fight the rebels. They are well supported and financed by (sources within) Saudi Arabia, and they are better-off, richer, than other Qaeda members in Yemen.”

Foreign al Qaeda in Northern Yemen

The al Qaeda group in Sa’ada includes foreign fighters, but the presence of westerners is unclear. In March 2009, the southern weekly Attagammua reported, “Local sources in Saada confirmed that members of various Arab nationalities as well as citizens from different provinces” were in Abu Jubara. The papers sources noted “the striking emergence of Salafist groups in the city of Saada, and the effort to build a center for Yemeni al-Qaeda in Yemen.”

The independent Yemen Times reported foreign fighters in Sa’ada the same month: “Thousands of Jihadist groups, or Salafia – including Yemenis and foreigners from neighboring Arab and non-Arab countries (were) gathering against the Houthis in coordination with the army under the management of military centers and sheikhs…”

In June 2009, al Eshteraki, mouthpiece of the Yemeni Socialists Party (YSP), said that large numbers of al-Qaeda operatives and other jihadist organizations in the Abu Jabara camp had gathered to meet “the Shiite tide,” represented by the Houthi rebels.

“It was originally an official camp of the armed forces of Yemen that was abandoned,” al Eshteraki reported, noting the camp is under the stewardship of Afghan Arabs inducted into the Yemeni military after they fought for President Saleh in the 1994 civil war. Usama bin Laden supplied fighters and arms to President Saleh’s jihaddist forces as they battled southern socialists in the 1994 civil war, the New York Times reported.

In December 2009, Attagammua again reported that al Qaeda terrorists who returned to Yemen after fighting American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan were in Sa’ada, fighting for the Yemen state.

State Support

The sixth round of the Sa’ada War broke out in August. In October, with the war raging, the Houthi rebels’ website, al Menpar, published an article referencing the Abu Jabara camp that alleged a high level al Qaeda leader had sold al Qaeda’s services to the Yemeni state.

“They agreed that the government will provide them with light weapons and the Al Qaida fighters will participate in the war against the rebels. Omar Obadah and his followers who just came back from Saudi Arabia (had) received some training in Afghanistan.”

According to al Menpar, some current al Qaeda leaders in Sa’ada were previously imprisoned in Saudi Arabia and others had escaped in the infamous 2006 al Qaeda jailbreak in Yemen.

“Many sources affirm that this coalition is beneficial to both parties, the Yemeni government, and al Qaeda leaders, and the Saudi’s as well. The Saudi embraced and supported (the camp) because they consider the Houthi rebels in the north as infidels from their perspective,” the article concluded.

In January 2010, Saada Online found a similar arrangement between al Qaeda and the state. The al Qaeda camp in Abu Jabara valley is funded by Saudi sources, the investigation found. After receiving arms and ammunition from the government, the al Qaeda mercenaries “attacked the rebels from behind” the Saudi border. The al Qaeda group coordinates through intermediaries at General Ali Mohsen al Ahmar’s office, the site said, noting some al Qaeda operatives were integrated directly into the military, and the group has freedom of movement across the Saudi/Yemeni border at the al Baqea crossing.

The sixth Sa’ada War took a heavy toll. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are internal refugees. Months of extensive bombing by Yemeni and Saudi air forces targeted markets, mosques, hospitals and refugees. Over 9000 structures were damaged. The Abu Jabara camp was not. It is thought that six western hostages kidnapped in June 2009, a German family and a British engineer, may be located in Abu Jabara. The external focus of al Qaeda in Yemen is a logical outcome of its merger with Yemeni state institutions.

UN re-opening office in Sa’ada City.

Reuters: “Now the situation is better we are just planning to send the staff back again as soon as next week,” he said, adding that life is back to normal in Saada city. The office houses various U.N. relief agencies.

Humanitarian access is needed to other areas in Saada as well as al-Jawf and Amran governorates, where continued insecurity and land mines have hampered or delayed aid distribution, a U.N. statement said Friday.

“Security is the same as it was before the war … Outside Saada city we still don’t know because we have not been there.”

Lets just hope the Saleh regime has the good sense to do the same, and not- as happened numerous times previously- announce the prisoners’ release repeatedly while keeping them in jail.

SANAA — Shiite rebels in north Yemen freed on Tuesday the 178 prisoners they were holding, a mediator announced, and said they were complying with a ceasefire that ended six months of fighting on February 12. (Read on …)

News Yemen: The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has today accused the Yemeni authorities of “brutal inhumanity” in their treatment of a leading editor who has been subject to kidnapping, detention and denial of access to basic medical treatment for six months.

“The ordeal of Mohammed al Maqaleh is a scandalous story of neglect and brutal inhumanity,” said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. “We fully support our colleagues in the Yemen who demand his immediate release and an end to all the violations of his rights.” (Read on …)

News Yemen

The right party condemns the targeting of the Great Mosque in Sana’a, and holds the Minister of Awqaf the responsibility of creating sectarian conflicts (Read on …)

Nothing like a crackdown, tanks assaults, tear gas and inflammatory language to bring stability.

NYT: Yemeni forces launched an attack Thursday to recapture a government building occupied by separatists in the south of the country, setting off a gunfight that killed two people, a local official and witnesses said. (Read on …)

Of 250,000 Sa’ada War refugees only 30,000 are in the UN camps. Its too early to send them home, many have no homes to return to as cold weather and malnutrition threatens children. UN appeal is still unfunded, may cut programs for want of $16 million. A good report on
US funding notes that it overwhelmingly targets security not the population:

Congress has enacted roughly $218 million in US assistance for FY2010, of which $170 million or 78 percent has been in the security domain [Train and Equip (Section 1206), Foreign Military Financing (FMF), International Military Education and Training (IMET), Nonproliferation, Antiterrorism, Demining and Related Programs (NADR), and International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE)]. This dwarfs the development and diplomatic sums provided to Yemen and transparently communicates the American investment in President Saleh.

Libya? Faris Manna is a major weapons dealer, and was moving guns all around the region for years. He was also on the mediation committee representing the government in talks with the Houthi rebels. His brother Hassan was the governor of Sa’ada until he was fired after his brother’s arrest. When the shipment of Chinese weapons was seized, high ranking and influential Marib Sheiks blocked the road in a bid to persuade the government to release the cargo.

Sahwa Net- Al-Mithaq newspaper, the mouthpiece of Yemen’s ruling party, the General People’s Congress, has accused the former governor of Saada Hassan Mana’a of supplying weapons to the Houthi rebels in weapons… (after) he told a Yemeni newspaper, Al-Masdar, that (Deputy Minster of Interior, Mohammad) al-Quasi failed to run the battle with the Houthi in Saada.

Manna threatened to talk about who funded the purchases for the rebels, which usually results in appointment as an ambassador, a lethal raid, nasty articles and/or a government contract. (Read on …)

(ed-This poor guy was just sitting in his car when the police grabbed him, tortured him brutally for three days and then shot him in the head in a bit of drunken hilarity.)

Thousands of Southern Yemenis marched in the funeral Monday of 28 year old Fares Zaid al Tamah, who died in police custody in Aden on January 30. Mr. al Tamah was allegedly tortured to death in the latest incident of escalating government violence against activists and protesters in Yemen.

Separatist sentiment is running high in southern Yemen where 70% of residents favor dissolution of the unified state. Activists claim they have been illegally occupied since 1994’s civil war while southern oil deposits and land were looted by the tribesmen and relatives of northern President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The deceased was arrested in Abyan in his Landcruiser, his relatives said, while he was listening to an audio of the singer Aboud Khawaga, whose material often includes political themes.

Mr. al Tamah was killed following three days of torture, activists allege. He was hung from the ceiling upside down for 12 hours, burnt with cigar butts and shocked with electricity, other prisoners in the Malla police station reported. On January 30, Mr. al Tamah was found dead on the floor in a pool of blood by visitors.

Stretching for miles, the funeral march began at Aljamohria hospital in Aden and concluded at the southern martyrs cemetery Radfan, Lahj . Mr. Al Tamah was buried alongside dozens of other southerners killed by Yemeni security forces.

Protests began in 2007 calling for equal rights and political inclusion and were met by mass arrests. Dozens of unarmed protesters have been killed by police in southern Yemen, Human Rights Watch found. A pattern of wide spread and brutal abuses characterized the state’s response to the growing protests, triggering a spiral of “repression, protests, and more repression.”

A report issued by a southern activist last week detailed 147 civilians killed by Yemeni security forces in the last year.

In November, Amnesty International issued a statement noting that “torture and other ill-treatment are widespread practices in Yemen and are committed, generally with impunity, against both detainees held in connection with politically motivated acts or protests and ordinary criminal suspects. Methods of torture and other ill-treatment are reported to include beatings all over the body with sticks, rifle butts, punching, kicking, prolonged suspension by the wrists or ankles, burning with cigarettes, being stripped naked, denial of food and prompt access to medical help, as well as threats of sexual abuse.”

HOOD, a leading Yemeni civil rights advocacy group in Yemen, disclosed this week that it had obtained video evidence of prisoner torture at the Criminal Investigation Prison in Taiz province. Ammar al-Tayar, 23 years old, was in custody of the Shar’ab al-Salam Security after a family dispute on January 16, 2010. Al-Tayar alleged he was subjected to beatings, electric shock and burning at the prison by three men while he was blindfolded. The video tape revealed scars and other indications of the torture, which were on his upper region of the shoulders, back, fingers and different parts of his body.

The UN’s Committee against Torture found the “widespread practice of torture and ill-treatment” in Yemen. Yemen failed to appear as requested at the UN Committee’s examination.

Journalist Mohammed al Maqaleh described his four months of torture to a union representative in February as including severe beatings, mock executions and starvation. Amnesty International has repeatedly issued statements warning that southern editors Hasham, Hani and Mohammed Bashraheel are at risk of severe torture since their “arrest” in January.

Dawn

SANAA: One hundred and eighty-seven children have been killed since August in the conflict in north Yemen, a report by the local SEYAJ children’s rights organisation and the UN Children’s Fund said on Monday.

The report also accused both north Yemen Shiite rebels and a pro-government militia of using child soldiers. 71 per cent of the 187 were killed in the fighting, while the remainder died from lack of food or medical services, the report said.
The most recent round of a six-year conflict between the rebels, also known as Huthis, and government forces began on August 11, when the government launched an all-out offensive aiming to crush the uprising. (Read on …)

The article is refreshingly accurate (considering its the quasi-governmental Yemen Observer) in stating no reconstruction in Sa’ada was ever accomplished since the war began in 2005. But the statement comes in the context of FM al Qirby begging for money. There were several reconstruction funds established, including by Qatar, and money was spent, just not to rebuild the destroyed houses. The Yemeni government announced several times that “loyal” villages would get aid first, and some funds were spent on villages that suffered no damage.

Homes, water facilities, schools and mosques were destroyed by Yemeni government and Saudi aerial bombing. (Houthis mortars targeted mostly government buildings and military targets.) Many homes in Yemen accommodate extended families of up to 20. If there’s 7000 homes destroyed, then 140,000 of 250,000 internal refugees are unable to return home. Even once the war stops for good, there’s still nowhere to go, and some of these kids haven’t been to school for five years. The ceasefire is still holding with a total of three Saudi prisoners released by the Houthis, but the rebels have redeployed instead of abandoning their border positions to Yemeni troops.

Yemen Observer: Yemeni foreign Minister Dr. Abu Bakr al-Qirbi called on neighboring countries and international donors to contribute to the reconstruction of Sa’adah upon the conclusion of the conflict.

Initial surveys of the damages in Sa’adah governorate are estimated in the billions of dollars, with upwards of 9,072 private and public institutions in need of reconstruction and development since the latest round of conflict erupted in August 4, 2009 between al-Houthi rebels and government forces.

The Sa’adah reconstruction Fund was established by presidential decree in July 2007 and was assigned YR 10 billion. However, since the establishment of the fund, nothing has been accomplished due to the continued disturbance and unrest in Sa’adah governorate.

About YR 50 million was utilized in September 2007 as an operative expanses while agencies conducted an evaluation of the damages suffered in Sa’adah governorate suffered since the war began in June 2004.

Officials of the Sa’adah reconstruction fund have estimated the reconstruction losses to begin at $500 million, with that number expected to increase exponentially as the true extent of the damages come to light.

Food, medicine, blankets would be nice…

SANAA, 16 February 2010 (IRIN) – Government officials and aid workers are gearing up to carry out humanitarian needs’ assessments in previously inaccessible areas, thanks to an 11 February truce between Yemen’s army and Houthi rebels in the northern province of Saada which appears to be holding.

“Once security conditions allow it, a comprehensive needs’ assessment will be carried out in all war-affected districts,” Pratibha Mehta, the UN resident coordinator in Yemen, told IRIN.

“This [the ceasefire] will enable humanitarian assistance to reach civilian populations who have been cut off from services since the outbreak of the sixth round of fighting in August 2009,” she said.

Aid workers and local government officials are keen to make the most of the calm, but the track record of such ceasefires is not good, and helping the 250,000 internally displaced persons [IDPs] – scattered in several camps or staying with relatives – is difficult.

According to Saada Governor Taha Hajer, the ceasefire would help the government reconstruct Saada and allow IDPs to return to their homes. “We should put the tragic past [six months of fighting] behind us.”

The fifth round of the Sa’ada War ended Thursday when Yemeni President Saleh agreed to a cease fire with the Houthi rebels. The six point truce requires the rebels to unblock roads, withdraw from government buildings, return arms and release all prisoners including Saudi soldiers. The rebels also pledged not to attack Saudi Arabia.

However, the issue of prisoner exchanges is threatening to undermine the fragile peace in Yemen’s long simmering northern war. The Saudis issued a 48 hour ultimatum for the return of their soldiers, but the status of rebel prisoners in Saudi and Yemeni custody has not been addressed. A video posted to LiveLeak shows Saudi authorities brutally whipping the feet of prisoners, purported to be suspected Yemeni rebels. (Read on …)

This article is well worth reading but the following is certainly true:

Houthi’s Ceasefire Offer Spurned
Saada War Rages On
By RANNIE AMIRI

To understand the true motive behind the relentless bombardment, one only need return to the primary demand of the rebels: an end to the ever-increasing socioeconomic marginalization and religious discrimination of the Zaidi community in Yemen.

This war was not just to aid the fledging Saleh regime in combating an enemy far less threatening to its existence than al-Qaeda, but to send a clear message to Saudi Arabia’s own citizens who suffer the same systemic and institutionalized discrimination as do the Zaidis. Namely, Shia Muslims, Ismaili Muslims, Sufi Muslims and any who dare challenge the authority of the House of al-Saud or the doctrines of the officially-sanctioned Wahabi school of thought.

Killed while in police custody in Ma’alla

Aden News Agency:

Local sources in Aden – one the largest cities in the south of Yemen- have declared that the political prisoner ( Faris Zeid Abullkareem Tamah ) was killed by the police of Al-Malla’a city in Aden, after being kept there for days, while the circumstances of his death still unknown until this moment. (Read on …)

World Bulletin

A Yemeni provincial opposition politician thought to be active in a southern separatist movement was gunned down in south Yemen, his party and local residents said on Monday.

The Yemeni Socialist Party said Saeed Ahmed Abdullah bin Daoud was shot dead on Friday in the southern town of Zanjibar in Abyan province, adding on its website that the province was in “an unprecedented state of disorder”.

Zanjibar residents said bin Daoud, a member of the Socialist party’s leadership committee in the town, was also involved with southern separatists seeking independence from the central government.

There was no immediate word on the reasons for the killing.

Oh the Houthis “stole” 20 truckloads of weapons, and Faris failed to report it until they were well away. Lets see what happens now. No one ever goes to jail in Yemen. I had thought Faris Manna was Saleh’s partner, just like the oil smuggler Tawfiq Abdel Rahman Tawfiq Abdel Rahim. I wonder if the theft occured before or after the Defense Ministry imported a shipload of Chinese weapons destined for the rebels with forged documents. The reason Yemen keeps accusing Iran of supplying the Houthis is because without that red herring, it become clear that Yemeni officials are themselves selling weapons to the rebels. Its not just fall off, small deals and captured weapons going from the government side to the rebels. Hey, lets increase in military aid

al Arabiya: Yemen on Sunday arrested the second biggest arms dealer in the country just days after the capture of another top dealer, whose weapons depot was stolen by rebels fighting the government in the north, Al Arabiya TV reported. (Read on …)

Not only are they fighting on behalf of the regime against the Houthis but they gained entry through facilitiation by officials. Many are at Dammaj. Apparently this group was in Yemen for some time. Aden Gulf Network

Informed sources revealed that a number of Algerians took part in some battles based on Yemeni territory between the conflicting parties to the conflict there.

أضافت ذات المصادر، أن عددهم يزيد على عشرين عنصرا أغلبهم من ذوي الاتجاه السلفي، تنقلوا إلى اليمن بطرق رسمية عبر المطارات وبجوازات سفر سليمة، منهم من تنقل إلى المملكة العربية السعودية وأقاموا هناك بطريقة غير شرعية أين انقضت الفترة المحددة لتأشيراتهم، وبعدها تحوّلوا إلى الأراضي اليمنية، والبعض الآخر منهم سافر إلى سوريا وليبيا ليتنقلوا بعدها إلى اليمن. Same sources added that they are over twenty components, mainly with the Salafi trend, moved to Yemen through airports and official passports of sound, many of whom moved to Saudi Arabia and settled there illegally Where the specified period has elapsed for their visas, and then turned to the land of Yemen , and some of them traveled to Syria and Libya to move around then to Yemen. (Read on …)

More buzz on Ali Mohsen from al Wahdawi below the fold. This investigative report from “Saadaonline” is not too surprising:

Ali Mohsen coordinating with al Qaeda in Sa’ada
Salafi leaders integrated directly into the military
Tribal militias and other groups armed by the military
Zaidi mosques handed over to Salafis
Kidnappers were unable to relocate the hostages initally because of Houthi control of many areas and were forced to leave the bodies inside the military controlled Al Jbarah valley
Yemeni government behind the recent declaration of jihad if western troops enter Yemen

Hidden roles between Sanaa regime and al-Qaeda

Special News Saada
20/1/2010

we talk about Saada previously and the hijacking of doctors in
Saada province on the role of a hidden secret and to coordinate with the secret coordination with pro Government:

Especially in the area of Wadi (Valley) Al-Abu Jebara
we talked previously about the history of this valley and where Al Qaedeh fighters training.

Funds, which pumps by Saudi princes and their relationship with Osama bin Laden through private sources, News Saada inside the corridors of military bases and political situation in Saada

During the latest sadah War mostly at Abu Ali font , we got field information that confirm that :ABADAH and TAYS group and other groups from WADY- Valley- Al JBAREH had met with local officials of Sadah and received ammunition and weapons to confront Al Hoothy from behind, and that what really happened .

Those days we got secret and confidential information when news focused on Qaeda in Yemen. The information said that there is currently coordination between military commanders/ eaders loyal to Ali Mohsen Al Ahmar through his office in Saddah, the aim of this coordination is bolstering and unify their actions against Al Hoothy. (Read on …)

True. By paying money directly to the sheiks, the Saudis divorce the sheiks’ relationship with and accountability to both state and their constituencies, the tribe. Victoria Clark at the Independent

Saudi aid in the security field is already reckoned to be around double the $140m to be offered to Yemen by the US this year, and there is more – harder to quantify precisely – in the form of mosque-building, charity and religious education. But the hardest Saudi aid to quantify is the cash flowing straight out of a Saudi “Special Office” to the sheikhs of many Yemeni tribes, especially ones located anywhere near the Saudi border.

A Yemeni civil rights activist laments the Saudis’ financial clout, portraying it as one of the chief banes of Yemen’s existence: “Although Yemenis hate Saudis,” he explains, “the Saudis know how to spread their influence by their wealth and they have corrupted everything in Yemen.” He claims that two thirds – in other words, 6,000 of Yemen’s approximately 9,000 tribal sheikhs – benefit from Saudi handouts, the most powerful of them to the tune of $3.5m a month.

The Saudis’ apparent reluctance to invest in the long-term development and improvement of the country and help educate its people is what makes Yemenis baulk at the now frequently voiced Western opinion that Yemen’s rich neighbours, rather than any Western countries, should be taking the lead in supplying aid to Yemen.

Faris is also the brother of the governor of Sa’ada. Faris Manna was one of Yemen’s primary weapons traders for some years before he was appointed to the government mediation committee tasked with negotiating with the Houthi rebels. Apparently what he negotiated was a weapons deal.

When some aspect of the Defense Ministry imported a ship load of Chinese weapons, destined for the Houthi rebels, Faris was placed on a black list of arms dealers. Does the arrest demonstrate Western pressure having an effect or is it another ploy by the Saleh regime? I have never yet seen a high ranking Yemeni official held accountable for any crimes.

al Masdar Online: After surrounding his home in Sana’a
الأمن يعتقل رئيس لجنة الوساطة بصعدة الشيخ فارس مناع Security arrested the Chairman of the Mediation Committee Saada Sheikh Faris Manna
المصدر أونلاين- خاص Source Online – Special

علم “المصدر أونلاين” من مصادر مؤكدة إن الشيخ فارس مناع شقيق محافظ صعدة ورئيس لجنة الوساطة السابق بين السلطة والحوثيين قد اعتقل اليوم الخميس من منزلـه في أمانة العاصمـة. Aware of “online source” from confirmed sources that Sheikh Faris Manna brother of the governor of Saada, Chairman of the Mediation Committee between the Authority and the former Huthi was arrested on Thursday from his home in the capital. (Read on …)

Well, I’d like to see their proof. There’s a lot of talk but not many documents, details or witnesses.

Press TV: Yemen’s Houthi fighters accuse the Sana’a government of fueling violence in the country in a bid to attract financial backing from the United States.

The Shia resistance fighters charged the central government with forging an al-Qaeda cell in Yemen, adding that the abduction of foreigners in the country is another part of the scheme planned by Sana’a.

The Houthis insisted that they have evidence showing that the Yemeni government supplies arms to and finances militants throughout the country.

Amnesty International:

YEMEN ANNOUNCES IT IS HOLDING JOURNALIST

Yemen’s Minister of Information has announced that the Yemeni authorities are holding journalist Muhammad al-Maqalih. However, the authorities are still refusing to give any information about him, including his whereabouts. He is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.

Muhammad al-Maqalih was abducted on 17 September, by men in civilian clothes, believed to be from the security forces. Eyewitnesses told his family that he was taken by a group of men who arrived in a white minibus, which had its licence plates obscured. In December 2009, the Minister of Information officially announced that the security forces are holding him. It is not clear which security force is holding him or where he is being held, and the reason for his detention is not known. (Read on …)

There we go. I think I wrote something very similar in 2005 after my head stopped exploding, but its good to see it in the New York Times. (See my Feb. 2006 article, Al Qaeda Escape in Yemen, Facts, Theories and Rumors for a comprehensive round-up of the situation then that brought us here now.)

Ali Mohsen, bin Laden recruiter, using Afgan Arabs in the Sa’ada War, and possibly training al Iman students at his military camp next door. The US funnels money pretty directly to Ali Mohsen, according to Robert Kaplan in Imperial Grunts. The US is funding a jihaddi that targets Zaidi civilians with indiscriminate bombing and deliberate starvation? The Houthis have always claimed the Sa’ada war was intent on the irradication of Zaidism itself. The strategic location of Sa’ada for al Qaeda can’t be underestimated.

NY Times: Mr. Mohsen, a general who is currently prosecuting the war against a Houthi rebellion in the north, also recruited thousands of Yemenis to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. His brigades returned victorious, and Mr. Saleh has used them since to help defeat the south in the 1994 civil war and against the Houthis. Some fighters, of course, have migrated to Al Qaeda, and there are imams here more radical than Mr. Zindani.

When north and south Yemen were united in 1990, Sheik Zindani accepted Mr. Saleh’s rule and was granted this huge area of government land on the western edge of Sana for the university — adjoining a large military base, which is Mr. Mohsen’s headquarters. There are rumors that students sometimes get military training there, which Mr. Abu Ras also denies.

Ali Mohsen’s extremist office manager in Sa’ada indoctrinates the military in Friday sermons and they hand out religious tracts to soldiers that say Houthi blood is free. This is the guy who was instigating against foreign medical workers prior to the kidnapping of the Germans.

Arab Monitor: Meanwhile sources claim that Saudi fighter planes launched two separate missile attacks against a camp for displaced persons located about 15 km north west of Saada and four attacks in the Jabal Qatabir region. Al-Houthi sources also claim they managed to repel Yemeni government forces from regaining control in the area north of Saada. Sanaa had hoped that a Saudi Arabian military intervention against the al-Houthi movement on and beyond the borders with Yemen would help back up the government in its stand-off with the separatist ambitions in the south, in an effort to ultimately liberate military capacities for the US-dictated crack-down on al-Qaeda clusters presumed to be hiding out in Yemeni territory.

Saudis claim to have “cleansed” a village. Homes and mosques bulldozed. Meanwhile, cold weather threatens the lives of the 200,000 displaced war refugees, and Yemen’s blockade on aid continues.

NY Times: Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s assistant defense minister, Prince Khaled bin Sultan, said Tuesday that Saudi forces had killed hundreds of Yemeni rebels occupying a border village, as fighting between the rebels and Yemen’s military also intensified nearby in the Yemeni city of Sadah. (Read on …)

Wow a really good article on the Sa’ada War, Saleh’s relatives commanding security forces and Ali Mohsen al Ahmar’s conduct of the Sa’ada War. It lays the facts out for the obvious conclusion about why the war just won’t end.

Globe and Mail: There have been tens of thousands of casualties and about 100,000 people in Yemen’s northwest triangle are now under siege – trapped by a combined force of the Yemeni regular army on one side, the Republican Guard on another, and Saudi military forces along the border between the two countries.

“They’re trying to starve them out,” said Abdel-Ghani Iryani, a development consultant and political analyst, who says he still can’t figure out what the war against the Huthi is all about. (Read on …)

The Yemeni government refuses to stop bombing, even for a week, to enable aid shipments to the war refugees. UN News Center

12 January 2010 – Thousands of people continue to flee as the latest round of fighting between Government and rebel forces in the Sa’ada province of northern Yemen enters its sixth month, said the United Nations refugee agency, which last month put the number of uprooted at 175,000 but now estimates that it could be higher. (Read on …)

Update: Yemen denies with the standard claim that al Fadhli is linked to al Qaeda. As usual they fail to explain why al Fadhli was a member of the Saleh government for over a decade handling the “jihaddists file” which they transfered to someone else after al Fadhli’s defection.

Original post: Wow, this is interesting stuff, and current! Its about time al Fadhli dished a little dirt.

-the January 09 meeting with Saleh and the dozens of Jihaddists was to ask them to broker a deal with al Qaeda whereby al Qaeda would leave Yemen in exchange for money. Saleh was negotiating with Wahishi through back channels and would have happily sent them to Saudi Arabia or Somalia.

- the release of the over 108 jihaddists at that time was part of the negotiations. The Yemeni government defended the release as “aged member of the Aden Abyan Islamic Army who were never charged with anything.” According to Tariq al Fadhli, they were al Qaeda members.

- Saleh requested al Fadhli assassinate four southern leaders, which was when he defected. Hundreds of southern politicians were assissinated by Saleh’s proxies in the period between unity in 1990 and the civil war in 1994.

From the Telegraph: Yemen offered to free all al-Qaeda militants held in its prisons last year if the group agreed to leave the country, a former senior government official has claimed.

Although the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country’s president, released 130 of its fighters as a goodwill gesture, al-Qaeda’s leadership in Yemen rejected the deal, according to Tariq al-Fahdli, who has since joined an outlawed group fighting for the secession of the south.

“Because we were previously with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Saleh asked us to act as a broker,” Mr Fahdli said, adding that the president had offered to pay the group money to move to Somalia, Saudi Arabia or another country.

Mr Fahdli was recruited along with fellow veterans who fought Soviet occupation in Afghanistan to form a militia against communists in south Yemen during a 1994 civil war.

He said he defected last year to a new movement fighting for southern independence after Mr Saleh asked him to kill the secessionists’ four leaders. (Read on …)

Member of Parliament and rebel spokesman Yahya al Houthi, translated by the Iranian Press TV, alleges al Qaeda infiltration into key Yemeni ministries (media and intelligence). But its not news. I’d like to add to the list the Political Security, National Security, aspects of the military as well as the certain passport and tourism offices as additional Yemeni government institutions subverted by al Qaeda.

A Yemeni Parliamentarian says al-Qaeda enjoys strong support from the government of President Ali Abdullah Salih and runs key ministries in his cabinet.

Exiled Yemeni lawmaker Yahya al-Houthi — who is the brother of the Shia leader, Abdul-Malek — accused the government of allowing hundreds of al-Qaeda militants into the country.

He said members of al-Qaeda are in charge of many key ministries in the Salih administration including ministries for media and intelligence. (Read on …)

Alert Net – Escalating fighting in northern Yemen is preventing vital supplies reaching thousands of people fleeing a war between government forces and rebels, aid groups say. (Read on …)

Watch this, click here.

From what I can gather, there’s armed combat between Dammaj students and the Houthi rebels. There’s a great influx of students to Dammaj. Some Saudi scholars traveled to the southern border and are “educating” the soldiers, which could mean a number of things.

It became 1431 on December 18. “Raafidah” is an objectionable term that I can reproducing here only to keep the text original, since I’m not hotlinking it.

Timeline of Events in Dammaaj

The following is a brief summary of recent events that have taken place in Dammaaj, one of the few strongholds of the Sunnah and its people. It is taken from a post on sahab mostly by Abu ‘Abdullaah Husayn al Kahlanee. (Read on …)

The following report is from the Yemen Observer, owned by President’s Saleh’s press secretary. In unconfirmed news, the YO reports the death of Abdul Malik al Houthi, leader of the rebel forces in the Sa’ada governorate where war raged since 2004. I wouldn’t underestimate Yousef al Madani’s capacity as a tactician and operational commander. Below the fold, various videos of the aftermath of the Saudi and Yemen bombing campaign in Sa’ada.

YEMEN – The top leader of rebels in Sa’adah, northern Yemen, Abdul Malik al-Houthi has died after he was seriously injured in an air strike two weeks ago, military and independent sources said Sunday. (Read on …)

Why is the food running out at the UN refugee camp (established for civilians fleeing the Yemeni government bombing)? Because the Yemeni government won’t establish a humanitarian corridor. There’s thousands of other internally displaced persons who haven’t gotten any support since war broke out in August.

Sahwa Net – Hundreds of the displaced of Al-Mazraq camp in the western Yemeni province of Hajjah protested on Saturday as their essential supplies of food run out. (Read on …)

Arab Monitor:

Yemen’s government farer away than ever from restoring political stability

Sanaa, 22 December – Saudi Arabian Deputy Defence Minister Khaled bin Sultan admitted that his country’s military intervention in neighbouring Yemen has so far resulted in 73 soldiers killed and 470 wounded, while 26 are missing. According to him, 12 of the missing are believed to have been killed, while the fate of the remaining 14 is still unclear. Following these announcements, the Deputy Defence Minister said his country’s armed forces are mulling an attack on the border village of al-Jabiriya, where the al-Houthi movement is still present. (Read on …)

The civilian casualties of Saudi airstrikes must number over a thousand. Saudis say operations are winding down:

(CNN) — Fighting that has spilled from Yemen into Saudi Arabia has killed 73 members of the Saudi security forces since November 3, a Saudi spokesman said Tuesday.

Another 26 Saudi soldiers have been reported missing since clashes broke out between Saudi forces and Houthi rebels from northern Yemen, said Abdul-Rahman Al-Hazza, spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Information.

The assistant Saudi minister of defense, Prince Khaled bin Sultan, announced the casualty figures Tuesday, al-Hazza said..

“Scaling back” is a good idea at this point… (Read on …)

Oh my! Someone noticed that the Yemeni government is deliberately starving tens of thousands of people in the war zone in Sa’ada:

Guardian: There is no question that civilians are increasingly victimised in conflicts and further cut off from lifesaving assistance, often deliberately,” said Christophe Fournier, the MSF international council president. “In places like Sri Lanka and Yemen, where armed conflicts raged in 2009, aid groups were either blocked from accessing those in need or forced out because they too came under fire. This unacceptable dynamic is becoming the norm.”

The press release::
Five prior unsettled wars in Yemen’s northern Saada Governorate led to a sixth in 2009, the most intense so far. The Yemeni army ratcheted up its offensive against a rebel group drawn from the dominant community in the region, and the humanitarian fallout was unprecedented. Civilians and non-military targets such as hospitals were heavily affected by fighting. Hundreds of thousands were displaced and humanitarian assistance came to a virtual halt. A malnutrition emergency was discovered among children uprooted from their homes. For the first time, a foreign neighbour, Saudi Arabia, was drawn into the conflict, further complicating the plight of civilians. (Read on …)

Yemeni local sources report that jihaddists who had earlier fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are now fighting for the Yemeni military in the Sa’ada War against the Houthi rebels. (Read on …)

Sort of like NATO for dictators? Will crush any calls for power sharing, civil rights or financial transparency…. Any attack on Saudi Arabia is an attack on all, they say, gearing up for Sa’ada intervention apparently.

KUWAIT CITY, Dec. 16 (UPI) — Members of the Gulf Cooperation Council agreed to establish a regional quick-reaction force in part due to conflict along the Yemeni border with Saudi Arabia. (Read on …)

Refouling, when civilians are not granted refuge but instead returned to the battle field.

Arab News

Saudi troops stationed at the border with Yemen reported on Saturday receiving “a large number” of Yemenis fleeing fighting between Yemeni forces and rebels in the mountains of Al-Malaheet and Razah. The Yemenis arrived at a border checkpoint in Al-Milaihi and were transferred to internally displaced refugee camps in Yemen after they were checked medically. The Yemenis were taken to the Tawwal point of entry and transferred back into Yemen.

SANAA (Reuters) – Yemeni Shi’ite Muslim rebels said Saudi air attacks on northern Yemen killed 54 people on Sunday, many of them women and children.

The rebels, who often report attacks by Yemeni and Saudi fighter planes, said on their website that the strikes destroyed five houses in the town of Razeh, in mountainous Saada province where they are based. The report could not be verified… Last Sunday, the rebels said at least 70 people were killed in a Saudi air raid on a market in Razeh. That attack could not be confirmed either.

The following video documents the recovery efforts at one house where a 30 year old man, his wife and three children, his 63 year old mother and a niece were killed in an air strike. Scalps in a bucket somewhere around 7 minutes in:

What a disaster!!! What a stupid and reckless move in such a volatile place. Did they rely on Yemeni intel sources? Could they be that stupid? Well you got duped President Obama, 14 kids are dead and Qasim al Reimi “escaped,” which in itself was entirely predictable. Saleh is brilliant tactician. He is wedded to the US now, despite the fact that he is a war criminal. (Read on …)

It was a training camp with tents, the Yemeni government says, not a traditional Bedouin village in Abyan. And they surrounded the “al Qaeda camp” and launched a ground assault after the bombing. CNN doesn’t mention the civilian casualties (broadcast on al Jazeera) or MPs statements calling for an inquiry into what appears to be a airstrike on a civilians or even former president al Beidh who predictably issued a long poetic missive in Arabic only. They, and many others, regurgitated the Yemeni government’s line in its entirety. The language barrier is the opposition’s to overcome. Love this: “Qassim Al-Raymi, the military commander for al Qaeda in Yemen and two ‘known’ accomplices were able to flee…” Unbelievable. Presumably they meant the Arhab raid, not the Abyan one, although its muddy from the reporting.

(CNN) — An airstrike in Yemen earlier this week killed a leading al Qaeda figure there, a Yemeni government official said Friday.

The official, who is not named because he is not authorized to speak to the media, told CNN that Mohammed Saleh Mohammed Ali Al-Kazemi was killed in an airstrike in the southern province of Abyan on Thursday, along with “scores of operatives.” (Read on …)

The wholesale slaughter of Yemenis by their government is well documented. Tactics include bombing, shooting in the head, and intentional starvation. The recent HRW report on the deliberate killing of protesters in Southern Yemen is augmented by their earlier reports on the withholding of aid to Sa’ada civilians, indesriminate bombing and mass arbitrary arrests. Yemeni prisons are filled with innocent people. The US can really no longer say that “Sa’ada is a mystery” or the situation in the south is confusing. Apparently the Obama adminstration is willing to trade off 22 million people for an occasional al Qaeda raid here and there. More frustrating is that Yemen’s counter-terror efforts, when they infrequently occur, are more smoke and mirrors. The bombed children and starving families and activists in jail have been sacrificed for nothing.

Saleh gets telephone call from U.S. President Barack Obama
Thursday, 17-December-2009
Almotamar.net, Saba – President Ali Abdullah Saleh received on Thursday a telephone call from U.S. President Barrack Obama. (Read on …)

Lets review. a) Qasim al Reimi manages to escape just minutes before the raid north of Sana’a in Arhab. Looks good on paper if you believe in fairy tales. b) Yemen bombs a Bedouin village in Abyan, where separatist sentiments are running high, killing over 60. The Yemeni military say the dead number 30 and were al Qaeda but the photos show women and children. The casualty lists show extremely poor Bedouin families wiped out en masse c) Obama calls Saleh and says “Good Job!” The Western media uses headlines like “Yemen Forces Strike Al Qaeda, Kill 34.” Its like deja vu all over again.

YemenOnline.Decembe 18- Three of al Qaeda members escaped from the last military attack carried out by security forces in a number of areas in Yemen yesterday.Kassim Al-Reami,Hisam Mogali and the third one is believed to be a non-Yemeni have escaped during the attack into unknown area .

al Jazeera: At least 34 people have been killed in raids on suspected al-Qaeda hide-outs and training sites in Yemen, security officials have said. (Read on …)

BBC: Somalis forced to fight for rebels under threat of execution.

And ta da, a good analysis, International Crisis Group Yemen: “Disorder on the Border”, Joost Hiltermann in Foreign Affairs:

In June 2004, the Houthis, a group of rebels in the Sa’dah governorate of northwest Yemen, began taking up arms against the Yemeni national army. They claimed, and continue to claim, to be defending their own specific branch of Shia Islam — Zaydism — from a Yemeni regime they say is too dependent on its northern neighbor, Saudi Arabia, and its partner in the war on terrorism, the United States. Yemen’s political and military leaders have labeled the Houthis a terrorist group supported by Iran. This smoldering civil war attracted little outside attention until last month, when, on November 5, Saudi Arabia sent its warplanes to bomb Houthi positions around the border, both on Saudi territory and inside Yemen. It was Saudi Arabia’s first cross-border military intervention since the Gulf War in 1991. (Read on …)

Yes, the PSO and other Yemeni security agencies are seriously compromised by al Qaeda infiltration. The Saudi intell in Sana’a are working with Prince Ahmed Saleh, who heads the Special Forces and Republican Guard. So far, in the Sa’ada War, Saudi Arabia is helping President Saleh with money, media propaganda, intell on the ground, tanks and other weaponry, fatwas, a naval blockade, arrests and deportations and air support including bombing villages. Meanwhile Saleh, with all due bluster and pomp, hotly rejects external interference or mediation. The article mentions Qamish, head of the PSO, who had the pissing match with al Qaeda cell leader Hamza al Qaiti after a trio of mortar attacks early in 2008. Al Qaiti blamed al Qamish for a double cross (or faulty equpment) when the mortars missed. Al Qaiti was killed shortly thereafter and before the September 2008 attack on the US embassy.

UPI Dec. 15 — Saudi Arabia’s intelligence service has established a station in Yemen’s capital ostensibly to help coordinate a joint campaign against northern Shiite rebels along the kingdom’s border.

But its main task is understood to be hunting down the Yemen-based operatives of a resurgent al-Qaida that threatens the Saudi monarchy, and eliminating them with extreme prejudice…The Saudi General Intelligence Presidency, the kingdom’s principal intelligence agency, set up its Sanaa operation in June following talks between King Abdallah and Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for 40 years. (Read on …)

The report is here.

SANA’A, Dec. 16 (Saba)- The state spokesman, Minister of Information Hasan al-Lawzi condemned Wednesday the incorrect information issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW) over human rights and press freedom in Yemen.

The spokesman said in remarks to Saba that these information are based on false reports on human rights and the freedom of press in the country… Al-Lawzi put responsibility on the HRW two representatives to correct the situation so as not to affect cooperation relations between Yemen and the Human Rights Watch in the future.

The last time the Houthi rebels made allegations of direct US bombing was in 2005. The current charges of US bombing are the first in this outbreak of the war and came immediately after General Patraeus said in an interview, “”We offer variety of security assistances to Yemenis as we do almost with many countries in the region, in addition to training and education programs we provide to the Yemeni military.” But thats the normal policy for years already. The US also announced the US special forces were training Yemen’s military. Maybe the rebels thought that was a new policy but its not. In November, six Yemeni military officials trained with the Marines in NC. And whenever the bombs get bigger or more precise in Sa’ada, rumors fly of US involvement. (Read on …)

KHaleej Times

11 December 2009, RIYADH – Saudi forces have detained 1,805 people so far this month on the border with its southern neighbour Yemen where it is battling Shiite rebels, the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Friday. (Read on …)

Yemen: Massive displacement continues Source: UNHCR, Alertnet Thousands of civilians continue to flee their homes in northern Yemen as the fighting between government troops and Al Houti forces enters the fifth month.

Situation in Sa’ada province remains tense and the newly arriving internally displaced people (IDPs) report clashes in Haydan, Beni Muath, Eel Ammar and Al Taleh areas. The situation in Razeh district is of particularly serious concern as civilian population there faces restrictions of movement and lack of basic services such as electricity and water. Shortages of food and other commodities have pushed the prices sharply upwards and more and more people are unable to afford their basic needs. (Read on …)

MANAMA (Reuters) - A U.S. official said on Friday he had no proof that Iran is supporting Shi’ite rebels who have seized some Saudi territory, a position at odds with a Yemeni claim that the rebellion has Iranian backing. (Read on …)

Several outlets and other sources are reporting the murder of former President Ali Nasser Mohammed’s nephew in a cold blooded assassination, story here at Aden Press. Clearly both retribution and a tactic of intimidation.

Thanks to “I dont know” in the comments, a Youtube video of the 12/7 air raid, I think.

Related: Does white smoke equal white phosphorous? I haven’t a clue.

So glad they are paying attention and that the whole statement wasn’t about al Qaeda. They actually mentioned the refugees, food and medicine!

Matoob Business WASHINGTON – The United States and its international partners must “use all appropriate measures” to keep Yemen from becoming a “failed state,” the US Senate said in a recently approved resolution. (Read on …)

As the state of Yemen “teeters on the brink of failure”, the government of Yemen is scrambling to hide the unprecedented humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Sa’ada War.

Hundreds of thousands are displaced, starving and beyond the reach of aid groups. Food, water and medicine in the region are under government blockade and at critical levels. Military bombing is indiscriminate and targets inhabited homes, villages, cities as well as rebel hideouts in the mountains.

As a result of the regime’s desperate attempts to limit news reporting, citizens through out Yemen are subject to state violence, intimidation and arbitrary arrests.

Journalists are a frequent target. The independent News Yemen website was hacked in December. “According to the sites US hosting company, the IP of the hacker traces back to the director of the Internet Department in the Ministry of Telecommunication,” a News Yemen statement read. (Read on …)

This 15 month old toddler is in the al Mazraq refugee camp, or was. The child may be dead by now. The UN is struggling to save hundreds of children like this one from dying of malnutrition in the Yemeni refugee camps. But due to lack of funding and lack of access, they are really struggling. Tens of thousands of children are outside the camps and beyond the reach of food aid, as the Yemeni government continues to deny access. If there are 200,000 (notice that number going up?) internally displaced Yemenis, than statistically at least 100,000 are under the age of 15.

Al Mazraq Camp Nov. 2009

Human Rights Watch

(New York) – Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Huthi rebel forces involved in the armed conflict in northern Yemen should take all necessary measures to spare civilians from the fighting and ensure that they receive humanitarian assistance, Human Rights Watch said today. (Read on …)

With over 150,000 internally displaced persons, Yemeni refugee camps are not only squalid but woefully understocked on water, food, medicine and tents. A shipment of high energy biscuits is a triumph. There are tens of thousands of refugees not in the camps who have recieved no support since the war broke out again in August. On the Saudi side, the tents are air conditioned, and the families receive three hot meals a day and $300/week cash payments. So if the Saudis are bombing Yemen, maybe they should send some air conditioned tents to those vicitims of their actions as well. (Read on …)

The reports of Moroccan commandos have been floating around for a few days, here’s one. So now in the Sa’ada war we have the Yemeni army and air force strongly augmented if not led by Saudi troops and air strikes. As well as reports of Jordanian and Moroccan special forces on the side of the Yemeni government. These foreign militaries previously received much US aid and training. Can’t the US get them to stop bombing civilians and enable the food and medicine to flow? There are children starving to death in the refugee camps. Once the smoke clears, there’s going to be bodies everywhere. All for the sake of propping up an irrational, brutal, anti-democratic dictator who utilizes al Qaeda when convenient. Its really a hair brained policy that is entirely counter-productive to both long term and short term US goals. Its also immoral and the kind of actions that give al Qaeda fanatics a platform. Related: Yes, the worst possible move at the present moment is Predators.

This is a follow up on our earlier report, Children in Yemen Killed by Saudi Bombs. Amnesty is asking for an investigation, just like the UN said Yemen must investigate widespread torture, and Amnesty called for an inquiry into the disappearance of Mohammed al Maqelah and the killing of 87 civilians in September in a bombing assault reported by al Maqelah. Saudi Arabia is really taking the wrong path here by bombing civilians.

Amnesty: Amnesty International has urged the Saudi Arabian authorities to investigate the reported killing of seven civilians in an air raid attack in the Sa’da region of Yemen. (Read on …)

This article is about a week old, but overall the timeline on Midi is very interesting. An earlier post has links to older posts which follow up on the fishing boats that started exploding in May. (Read on …)

In their quest to quell the Houthi rebellion in northern Yemen, (its not a civil war but may become one), the Saudis continue indiscriminately bombing deep inside Yemeni territory. Following months of bombing by the Yemeni airforce, the latest bombing raid by Saudi warplanes in Yemen occurred at noon yesterday in Mithab in the Al Ammar Distict. Three huge bombs landed, residents report. One hit a house, killing seven women and children and injuring 9 others. Medicine (as well as food) is under embargo by the Yemeni government in the war zones. International humanitarian groups including medical workers have been prohibited access to the conflict areas. It is very likely the nine severely injured women and children have nothing to treat their injuries or pain, and will endure hours and days of agony if they live that long. It is estimated that hundreds of women and children have been killed in the war effort that the Yemeni military dubbed “Operation Scorched Earth.”

Over 175,000 civilians have fled the fighting since August, but only a fraction are in UN refugee camps. The camps themselves are woefully understocked. The UN continues to have difficulty obtaining funding for its relief efforts. Access to the refugees is severely limited, and many thousands have spent months without any support whatsoever.

The Dead
Children:
1. Hassan Amir Muthanna Amir
2. Amin Muthanna Amir
3. Hassan Hadi Abdullah Amir

Women:
1. Nashra Hadi Zeid
2. Fatima Muthanna Amir
3. Ramia Ali Muthanna Amir
4. Hinah Muthanna Amir

Injured Women and Children:
1. Qirfishah Mohammed Wasil
2. Zeid Ali Muthanna Amir
3. Naifah Salih Mujammal
4. Asaad Muthanna Amir
5. Maryam Saghir Muthanna Amir
6. Hind Muthanna Amir
7. Safa Muthanna Amir
8. Omar Muthanna Amir
9. Aminah Ali Mujrim

As the holiday of Eid al-Adha approaches, our thoughts are with tens of
thousands of displaced people in northern
Yemen who will not be able to celebrate Eid
in their own homes. (Read on …)

Alert net

SANAA, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Yemeni forces and Shi’ite rebels waged pitched battles on the outskirts of Saada on Saturday after regular troops thwarted an attempt by the insurgents to enter the northern city, a Yemeni military official said. (Read on …)

Video here and another here. I wonder how much of that (and I know nothing of weapons) is of US origin. The Saudis are using F15s and Apaches.The rebels have alleged that some of the strikes hit civilians. The Saudis have forceably returned Yemeni civilians fleeing the violence across the border back to the war zone. One of the few humanitarian aid corridors established crosses the Saudi border into northern Yemen. SA reports nine soldiers missing after rebels report their capture.

The unusual thing here is the two police killed. The Yemeni government has been killing its citizens during Southern protests since 2007. Hundreds are in jail including several journalists and opposition politicians. Scores have been killed during the demonstrations. The LNG that is coming on line is in the south of Yemen and there is no hope that President Saleh will grant the region a say in the expenditures of the gas revenue or greater autonomy. There’s a limited presence of the state in the south. Formal inclusion into the central government as a largely and authentically self governing and self financing component of the nation is unlikely. Not that thats the big idea in the south now anyway, its a bit late, and with Salehs track record of all lies all the time, no one would believe it anyway.

SANAA, Nov, 25 (Xinhua) — At least five demonstrators and two policemen were killed in clashes between Yemeni security forces and protesters in southern Yemen Wednesday.

About 12 people, including four policemen, were wounded in the south during the clash, the witnesses told Xinhua.

Security forces clashed with one thousand demonstrators after their rally has turned violent at Ataq city in the southern province of Shabwah.

The protesters took to the streets to demand the release of detainees arrested in previous rallies and complained about marginalization, according to the witnesses.

This is unbelievable. Maybe if we all say it slowly: There is no military solution. The Yemen Times details reports of Somalis fighting alongside the Hotuhis and picks up reports in the Saudi media of yet another player, Jordan, on the side of the Saudis:

Saudi media sources revealed on Saturday that Jordanian commandos are backing the Saudi army in its operations against Houthis at the Dukhan Mountain.

The Eco of Najd and Hijaz newspaper said that the Jordanian commandos arrived at Saudi camps in the northern city of Tabuk a few days ago, and were then transported by planes to the southern part of the Kingdom. The newspaper revealed that those forces suffered great losses as a result of Houthi assaults against them.

Seche was right when he said both sides were exploiting the ban on journalists in Sa’ada to make up their own truths. More from the YT:

Circulated by email, the (rebels) statement continued that Houthis took over 134 military positions and eight Sa’ada districts since the sixth Sa’ada war broke out in mid-August. It accused the Saudi army of using phosphor bombs in its aerial shelling on Jabal Dukhan, Hasama and Dhahr Al-Himar areas.
Six Saudi soldiers were killed were killed in a Houthi assault on Thursday, Saudi media sources said, adding that Saudi Marines are taking control of the 64km-long coastline between Jaizan and Mausem towns to prevent potential infiltration of militants into Saudi territory. They confirmed that Saudi fighter jets destroyed two Kaytusha launch-pads, belonging to anonymous militants.

First, preening with bombs: the Saudi boys become men with the blood of Yemeni children. The following is a snippet from an article in Al Quds that addresses internal Saudi dynamics:

“(Political science professor at British universities and Saudi author Madawi) Al-Rasheed then indicated that the response to the infiltration of certain Houthi elements was only part of the story, the other part being related to the ongoing preparations to transfer the authority in Saudi Arabia to the second generation of the royal family. She said in this regard: “Saudi Arabia engaged in a war to strike the Houthis, and to ripen the battle over command in the Kingdom and allow the succession of the second generation of the ruling family. Indeed, Muhammad Bin Fahd who was the object of a failed attempted assassination a while ago, wants to assume the Interior Ministry. Today, another name was added, i.e. that of Khalid Bin Sultan, who is expected to assume the Defense Ministry. He is thus talking as though he was fighting a superpower, while in fact he is fighting a group of outlaws who are blockaded in a small area. Therefore, the war on the Houthis partially aims at resolving domestic Saudi disputes.”

Next from Mai Yameni at the Guardian makes the point that Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen is a policy failure of the first degree.

A crucially important conflict, woefully under-reported in the west, has now come to a head in the Middle East. In response to an ongoing fight that could spill out beyond the Arabian peninsula, Saudi Arabia has entered into direct war with the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen.

Saudi military intervention marks the first time in the kingdom’s history that its army has crossed its borders without an ally. Previously, the kingdom engaged only in proxy wars. The Saudis used royalist Yemenis to fight Nasser’s Egypt in the 1960s, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein to fight Iran in the 1980s, and the US to fight Iraq in the 1990s. (Read on …)

An excellent article:

Saudi Arabia’s Attack on Yemen by Rannie Amiri

The Saudi attack on northern Yemen is the epitome of military adventurism and opportunism. It allows them to use – for the first time – advanced weapons purchased from the United States against an ill-equipped band of rebels in the midst of a destitute, malnourished, and displaced population, notes Rannie Amiri.

“We are upset and saddened by the recent bombings by the Saudi army to harm the much loved Yemeni people. Saudi Arabia’s intervention does nothing but feed the useless bloodshed on its border with Yemen.” – Mahdi Akef, Chairman of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, 9 November 2009.

“How can the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques of Islam [King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia] bring himself to permit the killing of innocent Muslims in the forbidden months?” – Ali Larijani, Speaker of Iran’s Parliament, 15 November 2009 (Islam forbids waging war during four months in the lunar calendar, one of which is Dhu al-Qidah, coinciding with November of this year).

If there was any question about which country was interfering in Yemen’s civil war, Saudi Arabia provided the answer when its F-15 and Tornado fighter jets struck Zaidi rebel positions two weeks ago in the mountainous border region between the two countries, and beyond. (Read on …)