Category: Yemen

ADEN, Yemen — The crows and their haunting screams are pervasive. They scavenge through mountains of rubbish lining the streets and tear at rotting bodies lying in the no man’s land separating the two warring sides in a conflict that has decimated this once bustling seaport. Yemen’s southern port city of Aden was, until recently, a popular if slightly dilapidated holiday retreat for throngs of Yemenis. Amid rising tension on March 19, Houthi militiamen, along with renegade military units loyal to the country’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, launched an assault in the city that quickly escalated into civil war. The widespread destruction caused by months of relentless fighting has torn the heart out of Aden, including the historic old town known as Crater that nestles in the dramatic backdrop of a dormant volcano. The most densely populated area of Aden is now ghostly quiet, save for the crows […]

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SANA, Yemen — A branch of the Islamic State in Yemen claimed responsibility for a series of car bombings here in the capital that killed at least 30 people on Wednesday, adding a new layer of peril to a city terrorized for months by airstrikes as well as by antiaircraft fire that has fallen on civilian homes. The bombings, outside mosques where many Shiite Muslims worship and a headquarters of the Houthi rebels, were the deadliest attacks claimed by the Sunni extremist group since March, when suicide bombers killed more than 130 people at two Shiite mosques here. The March attacks helped accelerate the country’s slide toward civil war, sharpening sectarian tensions and aggravating the confrontation between the Shiite Houthi rebels, who are from the country’s north, and supporters of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was ousted by the Houthis. Saudi Arabia entered the war days later, beginning […]

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United Nations-sponsored consultations on the Yemen crisis have started in Geneva, with the aim of ending the bloody conflict in the country. Representatives from Yemen’s exiled government, the Houthi rebels, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s General Peoples’ Congress and other opposition groups were expected to attend the talks in Switzerland, which began on Monday morning. It was not immediately clear, however, if all of the parties were in attendance when the talks started. Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, was in attendance at the opening session of the talks, posing for photographs with a number of representatives of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Yemen faces humanitarian emergency Announcing the start of "preliminary inclusive consultations" in the Swiss city, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN’s peace envoy for Yemen, issued a statement before the talks calling on "Yemen’s political actors to participate in these consultations in good faith and without preconditions, and in […]

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SANAA Saudi-led air strikes killed at least 44 people during an air raid on the main headquarters of the Yemeni army in central Sanaa on Sunday, the Houthi-run state news agency Saba said. The agency said that more than 100 people, including civilians, were also wounded in the attack which also destroyed private houses in Tahrir district in central Sanaa. Residents had earlier said that four explosions shook the compound, where soldiers allied with the Iranian-backed Houthi group that dominates Yemen had gathered since Saturday evening to get their pay checks. "More than 44 citizens were martyred and 100 others including women and children, according to preliminary figures," the agency said. The agency quoted a source at the Health Ministry as saying that rescue teams where working to find people believed to be still under the rubble of houses destroyed by the raids. The escalation of the violence came […]

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Photo Yemenis were taken to a hospital after they were wounded during shelling Wednesday in Taez. Credit Abdel Rahman Abdallah/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images SANA, Yemen — Airstrikes by a Saudi-led military coalition were said to have killed at least 80 people in Yemen on Wednesday, and the World Health Organization warned that roughly one-third of the country’s population was in urgent need of medical care. The airstrikes hit a military base in a densely populated neighborhood here in the capital and areas near the Saudi border. Health officials said those killed included dozens of civilians, as well as fighters loyal to the Houthi rebel movement. The death toll, which could not be independently confirmed, appeared to be one of the highest in a single day since Saudi Arabia launched its air war against the Houthis in late March, with the stated goal of returning Yemen’s exiled government to […]

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AP Photo/Shohdi Alsofi Latest News Buy AP Photo Reprints SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A United Nations-sponsored peace conference that was to take place at the end of the month has been indefinitely postponed, senior Yemeni politicians said. The latest setback came as jets from the Saudi-led coalition on Monday pounded Shiite rebel positions in the capital and across the country. The talks were to take place in Geneva on May 28 and aimed at a political settlement to end the armed conflict between Shiite rebels known as Houthis and the internationally recognized government now exiled in Saudi Arabia. Three officials from the Houthi, socialist and unionist parties said late Sunday they were notified the talks had been postponed and that no new date had been set. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists Houthis backed the talks and said […]

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* Several ships waiting clearance to deliver goods * Aid groups say hunger growing LONDON, May 22 (Reuters) – A trickle of aid, medicine and commercial food cargoes is reaching Yemen yet the process remains slow as more ships await clearance to discharge at ports and logistical chains buckle due to fuel shortages and war. Before Saudi Arabia launched air strikes in Yemen in March, the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country imported more than 90 percent of its food – most of it by sea. It faces increasing problems as many shipping companies have pulled out and those still willing to bring cargoes endure a long wait for clearance from Saudi-led warships trying to prevent arms supplies reaching Iran-allied Houthi fighters. In recent days over 130,000 tonnes of wheat has reached Yemen in commercial ships as well as other supplies including sugar and fuel, partly helped by a five-day truce […]

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Photo People fleeing in Sana on Sunday after airstrikes hit the home of Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s former president. Credit Mohamed Al-Sayaghi/Reuters SANA, Yemen — Houthi rebels here said on Sunday that they had agreed to a five-day cease-fire proposed by Saudi Arabia that would allow humanitarian relief supplies to be delivered to the country, according to statements carried by a Houthi news agency. Yet as the Houthis accepted the limited truce, the Saudi-led military coalition bombed the residential compound of Ali Abdullah Saleh , Yemen ’s former president and the Houthis’ most important ally in the war. The residence, in Sana, the Yemeni capital, was struck at least seven times early Sunday, witnesses said. Mr. Saleh, who survived, made a defiant statement on television afterward, standing amid the rubble of his compound. The cease-fire would begin at 11 p.m. Tuesday. Since proposing a halt in the hostilities last […]

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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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ENLARGE Saudi soldiers on watch from behind sandbag barricade at the border with Yemen in Jazan, Saudi Arabia this past week. Photo: Hasan Jamali/Associated Press NAJRAN, Saudi Arabia—Yemen’s Houthi militias have no ability to confront the Saudi jets that pound them with deadly airstrikes. But on the ground, they are a much more formidable foe, exacting revenge in Saudi casualties with a string of border attacks. The 870-mile-long frontier stretches from the craggy mountains in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea province of Jizan, where deadly fighting with the Houthis tested the mettle of Saudi troops in 2009, and through the sandy deserts and basalt hills in the province of Najran, farther inland, where most of the recent Houthi attacks concentrate. These parts of Saudi Arabia were incorporated into the kingdom only after a war with Yemen in 1934, and, like many Yemenis, the Houthis—whose stronghold of Saada lies just an […]

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ADEN (Reuters) – Fighting between Yemen’s warring factions raged in southern and central parts of the country and air strikes hit Houthi militia forces in Aden on Friday, but there were no fresh moves toward dialogue. Saudi Arabia says it is winding down its month-old bombing operation against the Iran-allied Houthis and forces loyal to Yemen’s former president. But Riyadh pounded targets with at least 20 airstrikes across Yemen on Thursday and 10 more on Friday. The civilian death toll from the fighting and airstrikes since the bombing started on March 26 has reached an estimated 551 people, the United Nations said on Friday. Its children’s agency UNICEF said at least 115 children were among the dead. Washington and other Western countries backing the Saudi-led aerial campaign have grown increasingly worried about the humanitarian crisis on the ground and also about the risk of Sunni Muslim jihadist groups taking […]

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U.S. military ships deploy to Yemeni waterways to ensure security in and around key crude oil shipping lanes. File photo courtesy the U.S. Navy WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) — Conflict in Yemen may drag on the global crude oil market, not because of production, but because of strategic waterways, U.S. analysis said Thursday. Saudi Arabia this week announced an end to a pan-Arab air campaign in Yemen dubbed "Decisive Storm." The offensive was meant to ensure political stability in a Yemen under threat from the Houthi rebel group, which has backing from the Shiite government in Iran. Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi fled the country to Saudi Arabia. Riyadh through its official news agency announced it was transitioning to a counter-terrorism and political effort called "Restore Hope." Norwegian energy company DNO stopped work in Yemen last month because of the tense security situation in the country. Prior to […]

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Fresh airstrikes were reported in San’a and Taiz less than two days after Saudi Arabia said it would scale back air operations in Yemen. WSJ’s Asa Fitch has the story. Photo: Getty An Iranian flotilla suspected of carrying weapons bound for rebels in Yemen reversed course and appeared to be heading home, averting a potential confrontation in the Gulf of Aden, U.S. defense officials said Thursday. The cargo ships, accompanied by two Iranian warships, shifted course as a U.S. aircraft carrier moved within 200 nautical miles of the flotilla and Saudi Arabian officials said their sailors would attempt to search the ships if they tried to dock in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies have been carrying out airstrikes on Houthi rebels for nearly a month. The fighters have overrun much of Yemen in the past eight months, capturing the capital San’a and the government, and seeking to […]

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Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Lloyd’s List Intelligence, Suez Canal Transit Authority, Eurostat, and Global Trade Atlas, using EIA conversion factors While Yemen is not a major oil-producing country, its coast borders the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a narrow chokepoint between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. This strait is a strategic route for Persian Gulf oil, natural gas, and petroleum product shipments to Europe and North America, as well as European and North African oil exports to Asia. Although the strait is 18 miles wide at its narrowest point, tankers passing through must use two 2-mile-wide shipping channels. Trade in crude oil and petroleum products transiting the Bab el-Mandeb has increased steadily in recent years, growing from 2.7 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2010 to almost 4.7 million bbl/d in 2014. From 2013 to 2014, trade grew by more than 20%, with an increase […]

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DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday it was ending a month-long campaign of air strikes against the Houthi rebels who seized large areas of Yemen and said it would back a political solution to bring peace to its war-ravaged neighbor. Iran, which has supported the fellow Shi’ite Houthis, welcomed the ceasefire, which followed months of factional fighting between the militant group and forces loyal to the government, which was driven out of the capital Sanaa. "Operation Decisive Storm has achieved its goals…(including) removing the threat to Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries, especially in terms of heavy weapons," said a statement carried by Saudi state news agency SPA. It said a new phase called "Operation Restoring Hope" was beginning. It would combine political, diplomatic and military action but would focus on "the political process that will lead to a stable and secure future for Yemen." Saudi spokesman Brigadier […]

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DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday it was ending a month-long campaign of air strikes against the Houthi rebels who seized large areas of Yemen and said it would back a political solution to bring peace to its war-ravaged neighbor. Iran, which has supported the fellow Shi’ite Houthis, welcomed the ceasefire, which followed months of factional fighting between the militant group and forces loyal to the government, which was driven out of the capital Sanaa. "Operation Decisive Storm has achieved its goals…(including) removing the threat to Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries, especially in terms of heavy weapons," said a statement carried by Saudi state news agency SPA. It said a new phase called "Operation Restoring Hope" was beginning. It would combine political, diplomatic and military action but would focus on "the political process that will lead to a stable and secure future for Yemen." Saudi spokesman Brigadier […]

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ENLARGE The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, shown in a U.S. Navy handout photo in the Gulf of Oman on April 13, is heading to the Gulf of Aden as a deterrent to any Iranian attempts to funnel weapons and supplies to Houthi rebels. Photo: Reuters WASHINGTON—The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the Yemeni coast to join a growing fleet of ships keeping watch on an Iranian flotilla American defense officials suspect may be carrying arms for Houthi fighters in Yemen. The USS Theodore Roosevelt is heading to the Gulf of Aden as a deterrent to any Iranian attempts to funnel weapons and supplies to Houthi rebels in Yemen who have been the focus of Saudi Arabia airstrikes for the past three weeks, American defense officials said Monday. U.S. military officials said they are keeping an eye on as many as nine Iranian ships suspected of […]

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ENLARGE Houthi commander Abdel Malik Al Houthi delivers a televised speech on the Al Masirah television station in San’a, Yemen, on Sunday. Photo: yahya arhab/European Pressphoto Agency Abdul Malik Al Houthi, leader of Yemen’s ruling Houthi militants under siege from a Saudi-led effort to unseat him, vowed Sunday he would continue to resist an air campaign and naval blockade that has deepened turmoil in his country. “Our fighters will not evacuate from the main cities or the government institutions,” Mr. Houthi said in a speech, broadcast by the Houthi-run Al Masirah TV channel. “Anyone who thinks we will surrender is dreaming.” The Saudi-led strikes aim to restore to power Yemen’s exiled president , Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Mr. Hadi was forced to flee last month as Houthi militants bore down on the southern port city of Aden, where he had been based. He is now in Saudi Arabia, which […]

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MELBOURNE, Apr. 17 Sydney and Port Moresby-based Oil Search Ltd. has decided on a complete exit from its acreage in Yemen. The company has sold its 34% interest in the onshore Block 7 Al Barqa permit, which lies in the Shabwa basin about 340 km east of the capital Sana’a, to fellow joint venture partner Petsec Energy Ltd. The terms of the purchase were not disclosed, but Petsec joined the permit group last year by purchasing 21.25% from AWE and 8.5% from Mitsui for a total of about $1.5 million (Aus.). The purchase of Oil Search’s interest means Petsec now has a 63.75% interest in Block 7 and the company will take over as operator. The block contains the Al Meashar oil discovery made in 2010, however the political unrest in Yemen prompted Oil Search to declare a force majeure in 2011 and no work on the find, or […]

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Photo An airstrike hit the presidential palace, also known as the Republican Palace, in the southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen. The United Nations said 18 out of the country’s 22 provinces have been hit by airstrikes. Credit Reuters GENEVA — International aid agencies expressed rising alarm Friday over the humanitarian disaster consuming Yemen , as airstrikes and street fighting have intensified and nearly paralyzed essential services. Air assaults by the Saudi-led coalition struck Sana, Yemen’s capital, on Thursday night and Friday, said Cedric Schweizer, head of delegation for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Sana. According to the United Nations, 18 of Yemen’s 22 provinces now have been hit by airstrikes, in which an American-backed alliance of Arab states led by the Saudis has been bombing the Houthis, a northern Yemen militia organization supported by Iran . The Houthis and their allies in Yemen’s armed forces have […]

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Photo People salvaged items from a government bank that was hit by an airstrike Thursday in the northern Yemeni province of Saada. Credit Reuters DOWAAN, Yemen — Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen took control of a major airport and an oil export terminal in the southern part of the country on Thursday, expanding the resurgent militant group’s reach just two weeks after it seized the nearby city of Al Mukalla and emptied its bank and prison. Local officials said that fighters belonging to the group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula , also known as AQAP, took control of the Riyan Airport and a nearby military base outside Al Mukalla, the fifth-largest city in Yemen . The group also seized the Dhabah oil terminal on the Arabian Sea coast, which the group had tried to capture before, according to Yemeni officials. Al Qaeda is capitalizing on the expanding multisided […]

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LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Worsening violence in Yemen has made almost half the country’s population "food insecure", with flour shortages, closed shops and disrupted supply routes driving up food prices, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday. The agency says someone is food insecure if they lack "all-time access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life". It estimates 12 million Yemenis are in this category today, up from 10.6 million last year. The United Nations says the conflict in Yemen has killed 600 people, wounded 2,200 and displaced 100,000 since Houthi rebels allied with Iran seized the capital Sanaa in September. The rebels now control most of Yemen and their advance toward the southern port of Aden triggered air strikes by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia to try to drive them back. People face a shortage of wheat flour, […]

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WASHINGTON—Yemen’s civil conflict and the U.S.’s emerging nuclear deal with Iran are sowing divisions among the Obama administration’s key Arab allies and placing the White House in the cross hairs. The strains flared publicly on Wednesday when the Shiite leader of Iraq, a U.S. ally, accused another American ally, Sunni Saudi Arabia, of threatening a regional sectarian war by launching airstrikes against Iranian-backed insurgents in Yemen. In Washington on Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the Saudi airstrikes made no sense and urged world leaders to quickly forge a cease-fire in Yemen, where the United Nations has voiced concerns about a growing humanitarian crisis. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Washington on Tuesday. “To me, there is no logic to the operation at all in the first place,” Mr. Abadi said during his first official visit to the U.S. since taking office in September. “What is the aim? […]

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Violence in Yemen forces liquified natural gas company to halt operations at facility at industrial port city of Balhaf. File Photo by Anees Mahyoub/UPI. SANAA, Yemen, April 14 (UPI) — Declining security in Yemen means it’s time to halt all production and start evacuating personnel, a Yemeni liquefied natural gas company said Tuesday. "Due to further degradation of the security situation in the vicinity of [the industrial port town of] Balhaf, Yemen LNG has decided to stop all LNG producing and exporting operations and start evacuation of the site personnel," the company said in a statement. The company has headquarters in the capital, Sanaa, which was seized by the Houthi rebel group earlier this year. Yemen’s recent crises stem in part from the political upheavals that grew out of the Arab Spring movements that gripped much of the Middle East and North African in 2011. A Saudi-led operation, Decisive […]

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ADEN/DUBAI (Reuters) – Three weeks of fighting across Yemen may be pushing a country where Sunnis and Shi’ites have prayed in the same mosques for centuries toward a sectarian war. Most combatants deny they are motivated by religion in the conflict. Iran-allied Shi’ite Houthi rebels say they are leading a just revolution and Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia contends it has been bombing the Houthis to protect the Yemeni state. Militiamen from the south cite defence of their homeland. But there are signs that the sectarian hatred that has engulfed the Middle East since the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 is creeping into Yemen’s war, fueled by a rivalry between regional powers Saudi Arabia and Iran. Conflict and power struggles are not new to Yemen, one of the most heavily armed societies in the world. But the sectarian trend was captured on a video shared by Yemeni Facebook users. A teenager sits […]

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BAGHDAD — Under pressure from American officials here, Iraq has withdrawn Shiite militiamen from the Ramadi area in Anbar Province, and the American-led coalition immediately responded by stepping up bombing raids to support Iraqi forces battling extremists of the Islamic State there, according to Iraqi officials involved in the decision. The American ambassador, Stuart E. Jones, met Saturday with Anbar tribal leaders and provincial officials and expressed his dissatisfaction that Shiite militiamen were in the thick of a local offensive against the Islamic State near the Anbar provincial capital, according to two participants in the meeting, interviewed Sunday. He warned that unless the militias were withdrawn, the United States would not be able to launch airstrikes to support the Iraqi forces there. Anbar Province is a Sunni area, and the tribes who live there have largely opposed the use of Shiite militias in the area, a position the United […]

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LONDON (Reuters) – International shipping lines are being forced to scale back or suspend port calls to Yemen as the conflict gets worse, putting pressure on supplies of food as prices rise in local markets. Yemen imports more than 90 percent of its food, including most of its wheat and all its rice, to feed a population of 25 million. Much of its needs had been serviced by foreign ships. Saudi Arabia and Arab allies have launched air strikes against the Iran-allied Houthi movement, which has taken most of the country and forced President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee to Riyadh. The coalition has deployed naval vessels to intercept ships carrying arms to the rebels, although merchant ships are meant to have free passage. Most ports appear to be under Houthi control or are disputed by combatants. Many shipping companies are now unwilling to risk their vessels, industry sources […]

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Photo The rubble of a house destroyed by an airstrike in Bait Rejal, a village west of the capital, Sana. Credit Khaled Abdullah/Reuters CAIRO — The United States said on Tuesday that it was expediting deliveries of weapons to Saudi Arabia , a sign of the Obama administration’s deepening involvement in the Saudi military offensive against the Houthi movement in Yemen . Speaking to reporters in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, Antony J. Blinken, the deputy secretary of state, said the United States had also increased its intelligence sharing and established a “joint coordination planning cell” with the Saudi government to help its war effort, according to the Reuters news agency. The show of support by the United States came two weeks after the Saudi military launched an air war against the Houthis, members of a rebel movement from northern Yemen that has seized territory and steadily expanded its influence […]

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AL MUKALLA, Yemen — Militants from Al Qaeda ’s affiliate in Yemen tightened their grip on this coastal city in the country’s south on Friday, driving soldiers away with mortar fire so that the city was left undefended, witnesses said. The Qaeda fighters first entered Al Mukalla on Thursday and seized crucial government buildings, including a presidential palace. On Friday, residents fled to the outskirts of the city, as military commanders and their troops abandoned their bases, leaving behind American-made Humvee vehicles and other equipment to be seized by looters or the advancing fighters from the affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The storming of Al Mukalla, Yemen’s fifth-largest city, was the group’s boldest attack since the start of a military offensive led by Saudi Arabia against the Houthis 10 days ago. The relative ease with which the militants captured large parts of the city raised fears of […]

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(Bloomberg) — Yemen’s Houthis seized an army base overlooking a key shipping lane in the Red Sea, while Saudi Arabia said its bombing campaign has contained the rebel advance toward the port of Aden. The Houthis on Tuesday took over the Bab al-Mandab base, near the strait of the same name that’s a major commercial waterway, according to Mahfouz Ahmed, a soldier at the facility. He said brigade commanders ordered troops to hand weapons to the Houthis, who started setting up anti-aircraft artillery around the base. Saudi Arabia has assembled a coalition of Sunni Muslim countries to carry out airstrikes against the Houthis and restore President Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi to power. Hadi was driven out of the capital, Sana’a, by the Shiite rebels last month, and then fled his last stronghold in Aden as the Houthis continued to advance. Yemen’s Transport Minister Badr Basalmah said on Tuesday that Hadi, […]

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ADEN (Reuters) – Air raids by a Saudi-led coalition again hit Houthi militia targets across Yemen on Monday night, striking the group’s northern stronghold of Saadeh, the capital, Sanaa, and the central town of Yarim, residents and media said. "There were huge blazes in the mountains outside Sanaa. It looks like they hit a missile depot and it was on fire for half an hour or so. Then there was anti-aircraft fire until dawn," a Sanaa resident said. The strikes, which began on Thursday, are aimed at stopping the Houthis from taking more territory and pressing them and former president Ali Abdullah Saleh to negotiate a power-sharing deal with President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The Houthis are from a Yemeni Shi’ite sect and are allied to Iran, Saudi Arabia’s main regional rival. The Saudis and other Sunni Muslim countries in the region fear the advance of the Houthis will ultimately […]

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ADEN (Reuters) – Yemeni fighters loyal to the Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi clashed with Iranian-allied Houthi fighters on Sunday in downtown Aden, the absent leader’s last major foothold in the country. Hadi loyalists in the southern port city reported a gun battle in the central Crater district in which three people were killed, and said they recaptured the airport, which has changed hands several times in the last five days of fighting. The Health Ministry, loyal to the Houthi fighters who control the capital, said Saudi-led air strikes had killed 35 people and wounded 88 overnight. The figures could not be independently confirmed. The Houthi fighters, representing a Shi’ite minority that makes up around a third of Yemen’s population, emerged as the most powerful force in the Arab world’s poorest country last year when they captured the capital Sanaa. Saudi Arabia has rallied Sunni Muslim Arab countries in […]

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RIYADH (Reuters) – Air strikes in Yemen led by Saudi Arabia will continue until Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who left the country on Thursday, is able to rule, a Saudi military spokesman said on Sunday. Riyadh announced early on Thursday that it and nine other Sunni Muslim countries had commenced air strikes against the Shi’ite Houthi militia, who are allied to the kingdom’s main regional foe Iran. Iran, which denies helping the Houthis, has strongly condemned the offensive. "We will set the conditions necessary to allow the president and his government to run the country," said Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, spokesman for the coalition. "The Yemeni army was almost dismantled (by internal fractures after a 2011 uprising) … one of the conditions is for them to take over. We will continue to attack the militias, we will keep them under pressure, until the conditions become very favorable for […]

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ADEN (Reuters) – Iran-allied Houthi militiamen pushed into the northeastern outskirts of the Yemeni port city of Aden on Monday amid heavy clashes with loyalists of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, sources on both sides said. Artillery and rocket fire struck the area on the approaches to the city, Hadi’s fighters said, after the Houthis made a fresh advance from the east along an Arabian Sea coast road. Aden is Hadi’s last bastion of control in Yemen and remains besieged despite a fifth day of Saudi-led air strikes aimed at checking the Houthi gains. North of Aden, residents in the city of Dhalea said Houthi fighters backed by allied army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh shelled militia opponents with tanks and artillery. Five civilians were killed in heavy street fighting, they said. Saudi Arabia, backed by regional Sunni Muslim allies, launched an air campaign to support Hadi […]

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ADEN (Reuters) – Yemen’s Houthi rebels made broad gains in the country’s south and east on Friday despite a second day of Saudi-led air strikes meant to check the Iranian-backed militia’s efforts to overthrow President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Shi’ite Muslim Houthi fighters and allied army units gained their first foothold on Yemen’s Arabian Sea coast by seizing the port of Shaqra 100km (60 miles) east of Aden, residents told Reuters. Explosions and crackles of small gunfire rang out across Aden late on Friday as Houthis made a push on the southern port city’s airport, a witness said. The advances threaten Hadi’s last refuge in Yemen and potentially undermine the air campaign to support him. The spokesman for the Saudi-led operation, Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, told a news conference in Riyadh that defending the Aden government was the campaign’s "main objective". "The operation will continue as long as there is […]

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Houthi fighters in Sana’a protest against Saudi air strikes Shia Houthi rebels clashed with Saudi military units on Yemen ’s northern border on Friday. The rebels vowed to intensify their campaign for control of the country after a second night of air strikes by a coalition of regional Sunni states led by Saudi Arabia. Houthi fighters also clashed with rival militias in the south of the country. As the fighting intensified, president Abd-Rabbu Hadi, who this week fled the southern port city of Aden in the face of the Houthi advance, travelled to Egypt to attend a summit of Arab leaders in Sharm el-Sheikh. The president vowed to call for an Arab ”Marshall Plan” to rebuild his country once the Houthis have been ousted. Tensions grew on Friday as Saudi and Egyptian warships deployed to the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait in an effort to stop Houthis taking control of […]

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Saudi Arabia leads airstrikes in Yemen View Photos The campaign, with a coalition of Arab nations, is an effort to dislodge Houthi rebels sweeping through Yemen. BEIRUT — The meltdown in Yemen is pushing the Middle East dangerously closer toward the wider regional conflagration many long have feared would arise from the chaos unleashed by the Arab Spring revolts. What began as a peaceful struggle to unseat a Tunisian dictatorfour years ago and then mutated into civil strife now risks spiraling into a full-blown war between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran over a country that lies at the choke point of one of the world’s major oil supply routes. With negotiators chasing a Tuesday deadline for the framework of a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program, it seems unlikely that Iran would immediately respond militarily to this week’s Saudi airstrikes in Yemen, analysts say. But the confrontation has […]

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ENLARGE People gather at the site of an airstrike on a residential area near San’a airport on Thursday. Photo: Reuters The conflict in Yemen is quickly devolving into a wider regional conflagration, pitting Shiite Iran and an allied militant group against Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab states that came together to launch airstrikes on those militants. The coordinated Arab attacks led by Saudi Arabia began early Thursday morning and targeted the Shiite-linked Houthi militant group in Yemen. They followed weeks of talks on forging a joint military force to combat what some nations see as regional threats from Iran coupled with a U.S. reluctance to intervene. Saudi Arabia, Shiite Iran’s main rival for power in the Middle East, conducted the first round of strikes against the Houthis. In the early hours of Friday, residents of the capital San’a reported an intense barrage of explosions as a second round […]

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