Veteran former president Ali Abdullah Saleh was killed in a shooting on Monday after switching sides in Yemen’s civil war, abandoning his Iran-aligned Houthi allies in favor of a Saudi-led Continue Reading
The Houthi rebel group in Yemen has threatened to start attacking oil tankers and warships sailing under enemy flag if the Gulf coalition fighting it in the country does not Continue Reading
Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi said his rebel alliance would begin attacking Saudi oil tankers should the Kingdom begin an offensive against the key Yemeni port of Hodeidah, according to a Continue Reading
The Saudi Arabia-led coalition and the Yemeni government blocked four oil tankers from entering the Hudaidah port on the Red Sea, in a move that will likely worsen the health Continue Reading
The Bab al-Mandan strait, which facilitates the transfer of 4 million barrels of oil to Middle Eastern markets everyday, has become increasingly contentious over the past few weeks as an Continue Reading
An oil tanker passing through the Red Sea near Yemen suffered an attack on Wednesday perpetrated by unknown agents , according to the European Union’s naval forces. The assailants used Continue Reading
Yemen has roughly three months supply of wheat left to draw from, leaving the country exposed to serious disruption as a central bank crisis cuts food imports and starvation deepens, Continue Reading
Forces of the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthi rebels in Yemen and the rebel group are fighting in the southwestern Yemeni region of Bab el-Mandeb, a vital passage for around Continue Reading
Shi’ite Houthi militia forces from Yemen claim to have taken control of villages across the border in Saudi Arabia, Houthi-run news agencies report , citing unnamed military sources. Several villages Continue Reading
Despite a brief halt to the fighting, the security situation in Yemen is too volatile to return to production, Austrian energy company OMV said. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Continue Reading
Yemen’s Houthi movement launched a ballistic missile deep into Saudi Arabia and may have also fired on a U.S. warship, two days after an apparent Saudi-led air strike killed 140 Continue Reading
Authorities in a port controlled by Yemen’s Houthi movement have seized two oil tankers from international traders in a payment dispute, according to the ships’ owners, an incident which could Continue Reading
Saudi-Yemen war Yemeni Shiite Houthi rebels have reportedly fired missiles targeting Saudi Aramco, allegedly damaging the oil giant’s facilities in southwestern Saudi Arabia on Friday, according to local Houthi-affiliated media Continue Reading
Yemen’s Saba said missile caused extensive damage at Aramco Saudi says projectile caused fire at a power relay facility Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil company said all of its oil, gas Continue Reading
Air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen are responsible for the largest part of the 3,799 civilians killed so far and it has committed other violations that may contravene Continue Reading
A hospital associated with Doctors Without Borders. A school. A potato chip factory. Under international law, those facilities in Yemen are not legitimate military targets. Yet all were bombed in Continue Reading
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have launched a missile over the border into Saudi Arabia for the first time in weeks in the latest violation of a shaky truce between the insurgents Continue Reading
People inspect damage at a site hit by Saudi-led air strikes in the al Qaeda-held port of Mukalla city in southern Yemen April 24, 2016. Yemeni government forces and their Continue Reading
Yemen’s Shiite rebels backed out of U.N.-brokered peace talks just hours before the negotiations were to start Monday in Kuwait, demanding the Saudi-led coalition abide by the weeklong cease-fire and Continue Reading
A Saudi-led military coalition on Monday said it had completed a prisoner swap in Yemen, exchanging nine Saudi prisoners for 109 Yemeni nationals ahead of a planned truce and peace Continue Reading
A cease-fire will take hold across Yemen on April 10, and fresh peace talks with begin April 18 in Kuwait, Special Envoy of the U.N. Secretary-General for Yemen Ismail Ould Continue Reading
Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdulmalik al-Mekhlafi said March 22 that he was 99 percent sure that U.N-backed peace talks to end Yemen’s civil war would take place in Kuwait by the Continue Reading
Image caption Thousands of civilians have been killed or injured in the conflict The UN human rights chief has accused the Saudi-led coalition of causing twice as many civilian casualties Continue Reading
Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative in Geneva says his country sent letters to the U.N. humanitarian agency chief calling on aid groups to “be careful” to avoid damage from air strikes Continue Reading
An airstrike by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia hit a cement factory north of Sana, Yemen ’s capital, on Wednesday evening, killing at least 15 people, including civilian Continue Reading
Saudi Arabia on Sunday announced the formation of an independent group to investigate claims of airstrikes that have led to civilian deaths in Yemen , where the kingdom has led Continue Reading
The United States on Tuesday sponsored a United Nations Security Council session intended to draw attention to the dire consequences of the war in Yemen , but the meeting also Continue Reading
Yemeni peace talks in Switzerland were halted Friday after the country’s Shia Houthi rebel delegation suspended all meetings with the internationally recognized government in protest at its cease-fire violations, members Continue Reading
Saudi and Emirati authorities say two senior officers from a Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognized government have been killed near the city of Taiz. The official Saudi Press Agency Continue Reading
The U.S. State Department has approved the sale of $1.29 billion in smart bombs to Saudi Arabia to help replenish supplies used in its battle against insurgents in Yemen and air strikes against Islamic State in Syria, the Pentagon said on Monday. The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), which facilitates foreign arms sales, notified lawmakers on Friday that the sales had been approved, it said in a statement. The lawmakers now have 30 days to block the sale, although such action is rare since deals are carefully vetted before any formal notification. The sales reflect President Barack Obama’s pledge to bolster U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia and other Sunni allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council after his administration brokered a nuclear deal with their Shiite rival Iran. The agency said the sale would help the Royal Saudi Air Force’s (RSAF) replenish weapons supplies that are becoming depleted […]
Fighters loyal to Yemen’s government celebrate after receiving three armored personnel carriers from the United Arab Emirates in the southwestern city of Taiz. (Reuters) BEIRUT — Eight months after launching a war in Yemen, Saudi Arabia appears trapped in a protracted and devastating conflict that is straining relations with its allies, intensifying internal power struggles and emboldening its regional rival, Iran, analysts say. Since March, the key U.S. ally has led a coalition of mostly Gulf Arab countries and Yemeni fighters in a military campaign to drive out Iranian-aligned rebels who seized the capital, Sanaa, and swaths of the Arabian Peninsula country. But the coalition appears increasingly hobbled by divisions and unable to find a face-saving way to end the costly conflict. The rebels, known as Houthis, still control much of Yemen’s north. And in southern areas where the coalition has driven them out, lawlessness has spread as attacks […]
. View gallery The UN said up to 44,000 people had already been displaced by Tropical Cyclone Chapala Geneva (AFP) – The UN weather agency warned Friday that another rare cyclone was heading towards war-ravaged Yemen which would bring more rain to areas already badly battered by cyclone Chapala. The new storm, named Megh, is brewing in the Arabian Sea and is expected to intensify into "a severe cyclonic storm" over the next 24 hours, with wind speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said. Megh is not as powerful a Chapala, which killed eight people in southeastern Yemen this week, but is expected to slam into or pass close to the country’s already badly hit Arabian Sea island of Socotra on Sunday, WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis told AFP. From Socotra, the storm is expected to weaken into a low pressure […]
GENEVA — As Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies pressed their military offensive against Houthi rebels in Yemen , Saudi diplomats were waging their own battle to fend off calls in the United Nations Human Rights Council for an international inquiry into abuses by all parties to the Yemeni conflict. Those calls came in a council resolution submitted Thursday by the Netherlands , with support from a group of mainly Western countries, that requests the United Nations high commissioner for human rights send a mission to Yemen. The Dutch resolution draws on deepening international alarm over the civilian toll inflicted by both sides in the conflict and the effect of a blockade imposed by the Saudi-led coalition that has delayed delivery of humanitarian aid, including medicine and the fuel needed to keep the dwindling number of hospitals operating. At least 1,527 civilians were killed and an additional 3,548 injured […]
Supporters of the Houthi rebel movement at a rally to protest a military offensive by the Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s ousted president, Aug. 24, 2015, in Sanaa. Mohammed Huwais / AFP / Getty Images ADEN, Yemen — When young garage mechanic Aidaroos Saleh heard the familiar ping of his smartphone, he could never have imagined the journey on which the incoming message would take him. In a matter of weeks, Saleh, 22, went from fixing cars in his adopted country of Saudi Arabia to the battle front of his southern Yemen homeland. The message was an official communication, a call to arms for Yemenis in Saudi Arabia to join a fighting force that would “defend Aden” — the southern Yemeni city that descended into civil war in mid-March. Four months after he responded to the message in April, the young fighter sat cradling an AK-47 assault rifle between his […]
A Saudi-led alliance launched more air strikes on Yemen’s capital and more foreign troops were reported to be moving into the country as the campaign to rout Houthi forces intensified. The Houthi-run state news agency Saba said that 15 citizens were killed and 77 were wounded in the attacks by warplanes on Sanaa. Medical sources said at least 15 civilians were killed in similar attacks on Monday. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the figures. The alliance, made up mainly of Gulf Arab countries, has increased air strikes on Sanaa and other parts of the country since Friday, when a Houthi missile attack killed at least 60 Saudi, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates soldiers at a military camp east of Sanaa. They were part of a force preparing to assault the capital, which the Iranian-allied Houthis seized last September. Friday’s attack was the deadliest yet for Gulf […]
The city Sana’a in Yemen Gulf Arab nations are expanding the ground war in Yemen, pouring more troops into the country to defeat Houthi rebels they say are backed by regional rival Iran. About 1,000 troops from Qatar entered the country on Sunday from the Wadia post on Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen, the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera television reported. The soldiers, backed by armored vehicles, missiles and missile launchers, were headed to the oil-rich central Marib province, Al Jazeera said, citing its corresponding at the border. The reinforcements arrived after 45 troops from the United Arab Emirates and 10 Saudi soldiers were killed in Marib on Friday in the worst setback for the coalition since the Saudi-led military campaign started in March. Bahrain, another member of the coalition, said five of its soldiers were also killed defending Saudi Arabia’s southern border. Expanding the ground war carries a “huge risk […]
AP Photo/Hani Mohammed SANAA, Yemen (AP) — The Saudi-led coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen doubled its near-daily airstrikes Monday in the central province of Marib and the adjacent border area of Jawf, in order to allow allies on the ground to push north toward insurgent strongholds, authorities said. Marib’s pro-government forces also received major reinforcements, including hundreds of Saudi-trained troops, ambulances and armored personnel carriers manned by Saudi and Emirati soldiers, pro-government officials said. The forces aim to take Saada, the main northern stronghold of the Houthi rebels, they added. Yemen’s conflict pits the Iran-allied Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against an array of forces including southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants as well as troops loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Pro-government forces recently pushed the Houthis out of several key southern areas. Meanwhile, in Yemen’s third-largest city, […]
In Their Own Words Children are terrified by noises. Finding food is a challenge. There’s rarely power. Many people in Yemen and beyond dream of an end to the fighting. The Many Miseries of Yemeni Families MARCH 1, 2015 MAHRA, Yemen — Dozens of fighters belonging to Al Qaeda ’s Yemeni affiliate briefly tried to seize control of a military base and the presidential palace in the port city of Aden before suddenly withdrawing on Sunday, according to local fighters and a senior military official in the city. By Sunday afternoon, there were no signs of Qaeda militants in Tawahi, the neighborhood surrounding the palace. But their appearance, however fleeting, was an embarrassing setback for the exiled government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which had described its success in securing Aden as a major victory in its war with the Houthi rebels. The government, which is backed by […]
More than 21 million people in Yemen are in need of help, according to the UN Months of conflict in Yemen has pushed the country to the brink of famine, according to a top United Nations official. Ertharin Cousin, head of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), said markets in the country do not have enough food to feed the population. Aid agencies are also unable to reach areas of need because of the ongoing violence, she added. The WFP estimates that nearly 13 million people urgently require help. The conflict has involved Houthi rebel fighters clashing in many places with forces loyal to the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and its allies. ‘Perfect storm’ Ms Cousin, who was speaking in Cairo after a three-day trip to Yemen, said fighting around the major ports is stalling deliveries of aid. She said Yemen faced the "perfect storm" because those people most in […]
Jets from a Saudi-led coalition targeted rebel Houthi positions in Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodeida early on Tuesday, port officials said, destroying cranes and warehouses at a main import hub for critical aid supplies to the country’s north. There were also clashes further south overnight in Yemen’s third city, Taiz, Arab television stations reported, as local groups opposed to the Houthis attempted to consolidate recent advances to take the city. As well as retaining a foothold in Taiz, the Houthis and allied army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh control the northern highlands and Red Sea coastal plain as far south as Ibb, where coalition-backed forces advanced last week. Ibb is around 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Taiz and 200 kilometers southeast of Hodeida. The port, which lies almost due west of the capital Sanaa, has become a focal point of Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, which […]
OPEN Map Map: Saudi-Backed Forces Gain Momentum AMMAN, Jordan — A pledge by Saudi Arabia to halt its military operations in Yemen failed to stop ferocious fighting across the country on Monday as a humanitarian aid group warned that more than six million people were facing starvation because of the war. Saudi Arabia, which leads an Arab military coalition that has been fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels since March, said Saturday that it would pause its military operations for five days to allow for the delivery of humanitarian relief supplies. But there was no sign of a letup in the violence on Monday, dashing hopes that the Saudi declaration would lead even briefly to a broader truce. The Houthis and their allies fought to advance in several provinces, shelling the southern port city of Aden and firing rockets across the Saudi border, according to local military officials and Houthi media […]
A Saudi soldier stands guard as servicemen on a Saudi military cargo plane prepare to unload aid at the international airport of Yemen’s southern port city of Aden July 24, 2015. A Saudi-led airstrike on Yemen’s Taiz killed at least 55 people and left tens injured, Houthi-controlled news agency Saba said on Saturday. A coalition of Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, has been bombarding Iran-allied Houthi forces in Yemen since late March in a bid to reinstate President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh. The Saba agency quoted a local source in Taiz as saying that the bombing targeted the Mokha area inhabited mostly by engineers and workers of a power station and some displaced families. The number of casualties is expected to rise as rescue services are still working in the area and several of those injured and transferred to nearby hospitals are in serious […]
Military vehicles of the Southern Resistance fighters move during clashes with Houthi fighters on a street in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden July 17, 2015. Local fighters and army forces in Yemen have wrested two military bases from Houthi forces overnight, residents and officials said, building on a week of gains against the country’s dominant faction. The advances come a day after Yemen’s government in exile declared the key southern city of Aden "liberated," in their biggest victory yet in a Saudi-led air campaign and civil war that has raged almost four months and killed more than 3,500 people. Saudi-backed Yemeni forces backed up by air strikes seized the Labuza army base in Lahj province north of the port city and the headquarters of the 117th armored division in eastern Shabwa province some 230km (145 miles) away. Officials in the anti-Houthi forces say the offensive was planned for […]
CAIRO — The exiled prime minister of Yemen said early Friday that Saudi-backed forces in Aden had “completely liberated” the southern city from the Houthi rebels who have been fighting to control it for nearly four months. The prime minister, Khaled Bahah, writing on Facebook, called it a “historic moment” and said his government would turn its attention to repairing the devastation in Aden and driving the Houthis from other areas of Yemen. Security officials and witnesses in Aden said that clashes were continuing in several areas on Friday, and that the Houthis retained at least partial control of at least one district. The rapid advances by the Saudi-backed forces in the city over the past few days appeared hard to reverse, however, signaling the first significant defeat for the Houthis and their allies. Mr. Bahah’s government, led by President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, fled to Saudi Arabia in […]
Aden: Fuel shortages in war-torn Yemen could cause more deaths than the continuing conflict, which rages on three days after the start of a UN-brokered humanitarian truce, an international aid agency said on Tuesday. The lack of fuel, caused by fighting and restrictions on imports, has affected food deliveries, water supplies and health services for most of Yemen’s population, according to Oxfam. A Saudi-led Arab coalition has been bombarding the Iranian-allied Al Houthi rebel movement — Yemen’s dominant force — since late March in a bid to reinstate exiled President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh. A week-long pause in the fighting was meant to have started on Saturday to allow aid deliveries, but the Saudi-led alliance said it had not been asked by President Hadi, in whose name it is acting, to stop its raids. “In Yemen, fuel is critical,” Oxfam country director for Yemen […]
An attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels on an oil refinery in the port city of Aden has sparked a fire at a storage tank that may spread, threatening supplies, said Continue Reading
Saudi-led air raids killed 21 civilians in Yemen’s capital Sanaa on Monday morning, relatives of the victims and medics told Reuters, two days after the start of a United Nations-brokered humanitarian truce that Riyadh does not recognize. "Three missiles targeted the neighborhood, destroying 15 houses and killing 21 people and wounding 45 others," said a resident. A Saudi-led Arab coalition has been bombing the Houthi militia and army forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh since March 26, aiming to push them back from southern and central areas and restore the country’s exiled government. The Houthis, who are allied to Riyadh’s main regional rival Iran, advanced from their northern stronghold a year ago, capturing the capital Sanaa in September and then pushing south early this year, prompting the Saudi-led airstrikes. More than 3,000 people have been killed in the fighting and air strikes so far, amplifying an existing […]
Saudi-led air strikes and heavy shelling between warring factions shook several cities in Yemen on Saturday, residents said, violating a United Nations humanitarian truce which took effect just before midnight. The U.N.-brokered pause in the fighting was meant to last a week to allow aid deliveries to the country’s 21 million people who have endured over three months of bombing and civil war. A coalition of Arab states has been bombing the Iranian-allied Houthi rebel movement – Yemen’s dominant force – since late March in a bid to restore to power President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh. Air raids pounded Houthi and Yemeni army units in the capital Sanaa and in the embattled southern cities of Taiz and Aden, where residents also reported intense artillery exchanges between the fighters and local militiamen. In Aden, one of the country’s most deprived and war-torn areas, witnesses said Houthi […]
Two deadly car bombs hit the capital Sanaa and a southern city in Yemen on Tuesday, state news agency Saba reported, a day after air strike and clashes killed almost 200 people nationwide. Islamic State in Yemen claimed responsibility in a statement posted online for the Sanaa attack, latest in a string of recent actions by the hardline Sunni Muslim group against Shi’ite Houthis who run the capital. One of the explosives-laden cars detonated near a hospital in downtown Sanaa, which the news agency controlled by Yemen’s dominant Houthi group said killed and injured "numerous" people, while another killed around 10 people in al-Bayda, capital of a province in the country’s battle-weary south. Saudi-led coalition air strikes and clashes killed at least 176 fighters and civilians in Yemen on Monday, residents and media run by the Houthi movement said, the highest daily toll since the Arab air offensive began […]
Photo Yemenis waited to buy food and water in Taiz on Friday. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has appealed for a two-week humanitarian truce in honor of Ramadan, which began this week. Credit European Pressphoto Agency UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations mediator for Yemen peace talks said on Friday that four days of discussions had ended with no agreement for even a brief pause in fighting, but that he remained “optimistic,” as aid agencies warned that the humanitarian crisis enveloping the country had worsened. “We feel it requires further consultation and we can achieve it pretty soon,” said the mediator, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed , a Mauritanian diplomat, at a news conference in Geneva, broadcast on the United Nations website. “I remain optimistic.” Yemen has been pummeled by Saudi-led airstrikes since late March, after Houthi rebels from the north drove the sitting president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour […]
