At least five people have been killed in an explosion in north-western Yemen, according to news reports. Local officials said they do not yet know what caused the explosion, which happened at a post office. But the blast is reported to have hit the province of Saada, which has seen sporadic fighting between Shia rebels and government forces.

Al-Jazeera, land mine

At least five people have been killed in an explosion in the town of Saada in northwest Yemen, a witness said. The blast, which local sources said was caused by a landmine, occured near Saada’s post office on Saturday. Witnesses said that a number of other people had been injured in the incident. Security forces sealed off the site and rescue workers took away the casualties.

Sources said that the landmine was being carried out by a person, believed to be from the al-Huthi group, Shia rebels who have been fighting the government since 2004.

Other reports indicate that Colonel Mohsen Tabaza, Deputy Commander of Operations in The First Infantry led by Ali Mohsen Al Ahmar half brother of Ali Saleh was killed by a sniper in a different location.

Mareb Press reports News Yemen reports a 14 year old suicide bomber….

Security source said that a 14-year-old young man exploded himself near to the governmental complex and the post office in Sa’ada governorate.

The source told the independent News Yemen website that about two people were killed and six other were injured. Rescue services evacuated the casualties as security forces sealed off the site.

Abdul Malek al-Houthi threatened in an interview with Lebanese al-Akhbar newspaper to expand the cycle of war outside Sa’ada province. He said, “The real war has not started yet.”

He added the war against his group is funded by Saudi Arabia and supported by America. He denied receiving any support from Iran describing the Iranian position as “negative”.

“Striking the capital Sana’a by Katusha missiles is a possible choice.”

SANA’A, July 2 — Parliament last Tuesday approved suspending discussion on a project to amend a law regarding the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum in order to achieve political agreement between Yemen’s main parties within the formation of such committee.

The government proposed a project last November to amend the election law to stipulate that committee members be judges, which caused reservations within the Joint Meeting Parties, who demanded the committee be comprised of politicians, based upon party-agreed principles. However, the ruling General People’s Congress suggests the committee be formed in accordance with the number of voters in the April 2003 parliamentary elections.

The state-run Saba News Agency reports that the Yemeni Parliament – in which the GPC holds 229 out of 301 seats – approved suspending discussion of the project to amend the public election law “out of its belief regarding the importance of political agreement and achieving the nation’s supreme interests, as the involved parties and political organizations continue the process of political dialog.”

It also pointed out that Parliament expressed its sorrow at the absence of JMP parliamentary bloc members from Parliament sessions, claiming they changed their decision regarding boycotting Parliament.

JMP parliamentary bloc members have been boycotting such sessions since June 9 in protest against the amendment project’s placement on Parliament’s schedule.

Al Qaida threatens to turn Yemen into ’second Iraq’
, 03 Jul 2008 12:55:28 +0300 12 PM / Mareb Press–By Nasser Arrabyee, Correspondent

An alleged Al Qaida leader threatened on Wednesday to make Yemen like Iraq if the Yemeni government did not release Al Qaida men and stop hunting them down.

The Yemeni government arrested about 50 young men, including students from Quran memorisation schools, during last June, said an official in the alleged military wing of Al Qaida in Yemen.

“If you want to make Abu Ghraib in the prison of the political security [intelligence], then we will make Yemen second Iraq,” threatened the man, who was identified as Abu Yahya, in a statement published by the interdependent Al Wasat weekly.

Abu Yahya said that the military wing of Al Qaida in Yemen will reply in the appropriate time to such “irresponsible actions and arbitrary detentions”.

The threatening statement came after a failed attack claimed by Al Qaida on oil installations in Mareb, east of the country in the lats week of June, 2008.

YemenOnline-July 2,2008- Judge. Hamoud Al-Hitar, Minister of Endowment and Guidance, confirmed to YemenOnline that Yemen intends to provide appropriate circumstances to receive the 106 Yemeni prisoners of Guantanamo who are expected to come back home soon.

He declared that Yemen Government, aiming at incorporating those prisoners into the community, plans to intellectually rehabilitate them and eliminate the extremist concepts influenced by Al-Qaeda.The British and American Governments intend to have Mr. Al-Hitar’s assistance in this regard as he had had previous successful experiences of intellectually rehabilitating over 420 persons influenced by the extremist ideas of Al-Qaeda during the period 2001 to 2005.

SANA’A, NewsYemen

The United States said it would not like to keep detainees in the US Guantanamo Bay, including Yemenis, anymore.

The official of Detainees File at the US Department of State Tony Rech, who is on a special visit to Yemen for the issue of Yemeni detainees in Gitmo along with other delegates, said in an interview with the independent al-Nida weekly published on Wednesday that detainees in Gitmo are being assessed individually as “some detainees are more dangerous than some others”.

We are serious about closing Guantanamo Bay, but what we are looking forward is to get warrantees that limit the danger some detainees may represent, said the US officials.

The visiting US official said the US delegation met with Yemeni officials on Yemeni detainees and discussed with them the Yemeni program for rehabilitating Gitmo returnees and that the US side will evaluate if the program can control the danger of returnees in future. He said that the US authorities are assessing how Yemen is dealing with previously extradited detainees.

The US official said the US does not ask the countries to re-imprison the detainees but demand that the countries limit their dangers, pointing that the existence of anti-terror laws will enable the governments to deal with those who may join terrorist acts in future.

The US official concluded his interview by hailing the role that the Judge Hamoud al-Hitar, Minister of Endowments and Religious Guidance and head of the Committee of Theological Dialogue with Militants, played to convince many militants to give up extremist ideas.

Minister al-Hitar discussed with the delegation of the US State Department and Department of Defense on Tuesday ongoing arrangements to transfer the Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo to Yemen.

The two sides also discussed Yemen’s dialogue program to rehabilitate the returnees.

Saba

[04 July 2008]

SANA’A, July 04 (Saba)- A recent study has showed a quarter of Yemeni women have been subjected to circumcision and 71.4% of the Yemeni women favored female circumcision while 48% of the Yemeni men support continuing the process of the circumcision.

Among five provinces of the county, Hodeidah and Hadramout provinces were ranked first in the number of the circumcised women by 97.3%, while the prevalence of female genital mutilation in the provinces of Aden and Maharah reached 96.5% in each and in the capital Sana’a has hit 45.5%, according to the study.

The study was conducted by the Centre of Gender Studies and Research in University of Sana’a, UNICEF and Yemen Women Union.

Sanaa, 26 June (AKI) - The authorities in Yemen have arrested 10 suspected al-Qaeda terrorists in two different police operations conducted in the capital Sanaa and in the desert area of Hadramawt, in the south of the country.

According to a report in London-based Arabic-language daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, among those arrested was one of al-Qaeda in Yemen’s top leaders, Haytham Bin Saad.

Bin Saad was detained with four other extremists in Hadramawt on Wednesday, while five others were arrested in the capital.

Bin Saad was sent to the prison in Sayun pending his transfer to Sanaa.

Meanwhile also on Wednesday, leaflets containing Jihadi propaganda were distributed in the southern province of Ibb.

The leaflets accused the secretary of the Socialist Party, Yahya Mansour Abu Asba of being a “unbeliever” and a “Communist”.

Asba has been assigned a police escort as there is concern that al-Qaeda terrorists could try to kill him.

In recent months, the al-Qaeda organisation in Yemen has resurfaced, claiming responsibility for an the 18 March missile attack on the American embassy in Sanaa.

At a press conference on Tuesday, deputy prime minister Abdel Rabboh Mansur Hadi said the authorities in Yemen have over the past three years expelled 61,000 foreigners considered to be close to Islamic extremism.

Almotamar.net - Medical sources have said Friday that Ali Atif, director of the General People’s Congress (GPC) ’s Secretary General Abdulqader Bajammal’s Office died Friday of wounds he received after he came under gunfire attack by gunmen in the capital Sana’a on Thursday evening.

The sources said that that Ali Atif died before reaching the Saudi German Hospital that he was taken after gunfire he came under hitting him in parts close to the heart. In an incident of shooting fire at the area of Hada in the capital. With him in the incident was Industry and Trade Undersecretary Salem Salman, who occupies also the post of the Deputy Head of External Relations Office at the GPC. Mr Salman is still at the hospital under treatment of his wounds.

Eyewitnesses present at the hospital said the Minister of Industry and Trade Dr Abdulkarim Rasie visited the hospital Friday to ask about the health condition of Salem Salman.

The brother of Salem Salman earlier accused bodyguards of Sheikh Hamid al-Ahmar of opening fire in the incident that caused the wounding of his brother and the death of the director of Bajammal office. Security sources that exchange of fire led to the injury of two of sheikh al-Ahmar bodyguards.

The statement added that in the light the responsibility dictated o the state apparatuses for keeping of the social peace and non-aggression on public and private property and commercial activities and for securing continuation of development movement in the city, as well as to stave off what hose illegal gatherings might cause of riot acts, the committee decided to prevent any gatherings or demonstrations having no official license. The committee also decided prevention of any groups or persons from outside the governor rate of holding any activities that disturb public peace and comfort of the city’s inhabitants. It has also warned and held responsible for any results all those who violate the law.

Peacekeepers to disengage the warring sides is another one, but that won’t get any traction.

Sahwa Net- The United States has expressed its concern over human consequences caused by the conflict in Saada . American officials in Sana’a urged infighting sides, Houthi rebels and the government to let food, fuel and other necessities arrive to civilians.

An American official affirmed the authenticity of reports saying that the U.S. refused to designate al-Houthis among terrorist movements, pointing out that the designating is a complicated process based on strong evidence that an individual or a group is involved in terrorist acts.

As for the Yemen-U.S. relations crisis, the U.S. official said that U.S. believes that Jmal al-Badawi , the mastermind of the 2000 bombing of USS Cole bombing that killed 17 American sailors and has t Jaber Elbaneh , a Yemeni-American convicted of planning attacks on oil installations in Yemen, have to be extradited to U.S.

Update: Like Christian Bibles, apparently 12er books are illegal in Yemen: (Ithna Ashari is the official religion of Iran that Saleh recently desribed as racist . Twelvers constitute ninety percent of the modern population of Iran and fifty-five to sixty percent of the population of Iraq. Twelver Shiites are the majority in Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan and also have substantial populations in Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, India, Afghanistan and Bahrain.)

Yemen Observer:
A group of 8 Yemeni men accused of supporting the al-Huthi tribe’s armed rebellion against the Yemeni Government has been held in the southern harbor of Aden, official sources said on Thursday.

“The 8-member cell was running a printing press for printing and distributing leaflets promoting the dark, backward, and terrorist ideas of al-Huthi,” A spokesman for the ministry of interior said in a statement. The printing press was seized by the authorities, the spokesman added.

The men were running the printing press with the purpose of distributing publications promoting extreme, marginal Shiite ideology called Ethna Ashari, which says rulers of Islamic nations must be decedents of the prophet Mohammed.

The 8 men were among those wanted by the security authorities, whose pictures and names were given out to security checkpoints on charges of supporting the al-Huthi armed rebellion in Sa’adah.

Late last June, also 8 leading rebellion supporters were arrested in Al-Jawaf, Sana’a, and Amran provinces as part of the crack-down by the government on supporters of rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi.

Meanwhile, the US embassy in Sana’a refused to classify the al-Houthi rebels as terrorists, saying that classification of terrorist groups is a very complicated process which needs to based on hard evidence. “Until now, such evidence does not exist in this issue,” said an embassy statement published in Al-Sahwa newspaper on Thursday.

The embassy also expressed in that statement its concerns over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Sa’adah because of the armed conflict between rebels and government troops. It urged the two warring parties to secure the food, water, and fuel necessary for the civilians being affected by the war.

CBS News

President Saleh sent a message to the Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of the militant Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, urging him to intervene to put an end to the fighting with the rebel Huthi followers in Saada in northern Yemen, according to a report posted on a Yemeni Internet forum by the Yemeni Shiiter group Ansar al Haq. The group also posted several videos that showed aftermath pictures of an airstrike by Yemeni warplanes on a village in Saada. One video showed what the group said were parachute drops of food and supplies for Yemeni forces stranded in the Meran area.

Arresting people who are printing books? It could be the normal mainstream Zaidi teachings, its unclear.

Sahwa Net – Yemeni security forces could seize on Thursday a cell in Aden relating to Houthi rebels which printed books of the Imamate rule.

A source told 26 September newspaper that the cell includes 8 persons that promoted to Houthi ideologies. On the other hand, confrontations are still underway in Saada governorate between rebels headed by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi and Yemen’s army.