Category: Yemen

CAIRO Saudi-led forces conducted several airstrikes on Thursday against the Yemeni province of Saada, a stronghold of the Iranian-allied Houthi movement, the state news agency SPA said on Friday. The strikes targeted two Houthi control centers in Bani Maaz, destroyed a mine factory in the old quarter of the city of Saada and a communications center in the Mothalath area, the agency said. Two Houthi command centers in the province were also destroyed. Residents of Saada said the strikes had damaged the tomb of the founder of the Houthi movement, Hussein al-Houthi. There was also heavy shelling in the west of the province, on the border area between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and 13 villagers were killed in strikes on Hajja province, also near the border, locals said. The figures could not be independently verified. A Saudi-led coalition began strikes against the Houthis on March 26, aimed at pushing […]

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RIYADH/CAIRO (Reuters) – Saudi-led forces said on Thursday they would respond harshly against Yemen’s Houthi rebels following attacks on citizens in border areas, hours after the kingdom offered a five-day humanitarian truce if the Shi’ite militia stopped fighting. Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said the Houthis had changed the situation by targeting cities in recent days, and vowed that the coalition would go after leaders of the rebel group. "The Houthis are now targeting the borders of the kingdom and the situation is that we will defend our citizens," Asseri told Reuters, adding that 15 people were wounded in Houthi shelling on the city of Najran on Thursday evening. "Coalition forces will deliver a harsh response starting this moment, so that those who carried out this operation will pay the price," he said earlier on Saudi state television. Asseri said Saudi-led forces would keep all […]

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The Angolan heavier crude complex is facing reduced buying interest due to higher outright prices, high offer levels and seasonality factors, according to traders. Most of the heavier Angolan grades like Pazflor and Dalia are experiencing a lack of demand adding up to six available cargoes or 66.6% of the unplaced parcels remaining in the country’s June program, according to data collated by Platts. "Dalia and Pazflor are looking very expensive on the offer side, which pushes away potential buying interest," a Chinese buyer said. "It’s not the peak season for WAF heavier grades at this period." Furthermore, buyers will either purchase lighter grades for better yields or buy heavier grades for lower differentials, traders said. Article continues below… For over 100 years Platts has been at the forefront of pricing and news in the energy markets. Today, we publish the essential information that you need to navigate the […]

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MUKALLA, Yemen — Yemeni fighters who are believed to have received training and weapons in the Persian Gulf entered combat around the southern city of Aden on Sunday, joining with militiamen who are battling Houthi rebels, according to local militia fighters in Aden.   The new troops arrived by sea in the last few days, they said. They all appeared to be Yemenis from the south who had trained in Saudi Arabia and possibly other Persian Gulf states, according to a senior local commander, a fighter and an allied resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss troop actions. Their claims could not be independently verified. If confirmed, the influx would represent one of the first major deployments of ground troops trained by the Saudi-led coalition, and would shift the makeup of a military operation that has largely relied on airstrikes through its first weeks. The reinforcements, […]

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Photo Children who have taken refuge with their families in a water tunnel in Sana, Yemen. Credit Mohammed Huwais/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images CAIRO — In one of Yemen’s largest cities, residents have been reduced to a diet of rice. In another, they sleep overnight in lines waiting for gasoline. Hospitals may soon be forced to close, bombs and shells are raining down ever more thickly and randomly, and in places snipers target anyone brave or desperate enough to walk the streets. Five weeks after the start of a Saudi-led bombing campaign, more than 1,000 Yemenis have died in the fighting, and the United Nations says that at least 300,000 people have been displaced, forced to hunt for food and fuel in a country bereft of both. Fierce fighting in the port city of Aden has killed dozens of people in the last few days, left neighborhoods in flames […]

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SANA, Yemen — A Saudi-led military coalition carried out at least seven airstrikes on the international airport here on Tuesday, possibly crippling the airport in order to prevent an Iranian airplane from landing, according to Saudi and Yemeni officials. The airstrikes hit the main runway, endangering one of Yemen ’s last usable airports and a major transit point for global aid shipments. An airport official said the damage had made it impossible to use the runway. The bombings demonstrated the extent to which Yemen has become trapped in the escalating regional proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran . Saudi Arabia began its bombing campaign against the Houthi rebel movement in Yemen last month in large part to counter what Saudi officials saw as the influence of Iran, which has supported the Houthis. Saudi accusations that the Houthis were acting as an instrument of Iranian power were viewed by […]

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ADEN (Reuters) – The humanitarian situation in Yemen has become catastrophic, relief officials said on Monday, as Saudi-led aircraft pounded Iran-allied Houthi militiamen and rebel army units for a second day, dashing hopes for a pause in fighting to let aid in. Residents said warplanes flew between 15 and 20 sorties against groups of Houthi fighters and arms depots in the al-Dhalea provincial capital, Dhalea, and the nearby city of Qa’ataba, between dawn and 0900 local time (0600 GMT), setting off a chain of explosions that lasted for two more hours. Fighting intensified on Sunday, after a lull following an announcement by Riyadh last week that it was ending its nearly five-week-old bombing campaign except in places where the Houthis were advancing, to allow access for food and medicine. A coalition of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia, rattled by what they saw as expanding Iranian influence in the […]

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ENLARGE A Houthi militant walks past a house destroyed by an airstrike in the capital San’a on Sunday. Photo: khaled abdullah/Reuters UNITED NATIONS—Yemen’s warring political factions were on the verge of a power-sharing deal when Saudi-led airstrikes began a month ago, derailing negotiations for a national unity government, the United Nations mediator said. Jamal Benomar, the U.N. envoy who spearheaded those negotiations until he resigned last week, told The Wall Street Journal the bombing campaign against the Iran-linked Houthi rebels has hardened positions on a key point—the composition of an executive body to lead Yemen’s stalled transition from dictatorship to democracy. This will complicate new attempts to reach a solution, he said. “When this campaign started, one thing that was significant but went unnoticed is that the Yemenis were close to a deal that would institute power-sharing with all sides, including the Houthis,” said Mr. Benomar, a Moroccan diplomat. […]

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WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials on Friday credited the deployment of an American aircraft carrier group in waters off the coast of Yemen for a decision by Iran to turn back a naval convoy suspected of carrying weapons bound for Shiite rebels. Although it was unusual to dispatch such a large American naval force to the Arabian Sea on an interdiction and deterrence mission, Pentagon officials said the deployment — and Iran’s apparent response — had lowered tensions in the continuing regional proxy war between Tehran and Saudi Arabia. The nine-ship Iranian convoy had turned north and east near the coast of Oman, in the direction of Iran, Defense Department officials said. Col. Steven H. Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said, “We do not know their future intentions,” but added that “it’s fair to say that, yes, this appears to be a de-escalation of some of the tensions.” Earlier this week, […]

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