organization:houthi

Exclusive: Insurer says Iran’s Guards likely to have organized tanker attacks - Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-oil-tankers-exclusive-idUSKCN1SN1P7

https://s4.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20190518&t=2&i=1388299813&w=1200&r=LYNXNPEF4G199#.jpg

LONDON/OSLO (Reuters) - Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) are “highly likely” to have facilitated attacks last Sunday on four tankers including two Saudi ships off Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, according to a Norwegian insurers’ report seen by Reuters.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Norway are investigating the attacks, which also hit a UAE- and a Norwegian-flagged vessel.

A confidential assessment issued this week by the Norwegian Shipowners’ Mutual War Risks Insurance Association (DNK) concluded that the attack was likely to have been carried out by a surface vessel operating close by that despatched underwater drones carrying 30-50 kg (65-110 lb) of high-grade explosives to detonate on impact.

The attacks took place against a backdrop of U.S.-Iranian tension following Washington’s decision this month to try to cut Tehran’s oil exports to zero and beef up its military presence in the Gulf in response to what it called Iranian threats.

The DNK based its assessment that the IRGC was likely to have orchestrated the attacks on a number of factors, including:
• A high likelihood that the IRGC had previously supplied its allies, the Houthi militia fighting a Saudi-backed government in Yemen, with explosive-laden surface drone boats capable of homing in on GPS navigational positions for accuracy.
• The similarity of shrapnel found on the Norwegian tanker to shrapnel from drone boats used off Yemen by Houthis, even though the craft previously used by the Houthis were surface boats rather than the underwater drones likely to have been deployed in Fujairah.
• The fact that Iran and particularly the IRGC had recently threatened to use military force and that, against a militarily stronger foe, they were highly likely to choose “asymmetric measures with plausible deniability”. DNK noted that the Fujairah attack had caused “relatively limited damage” and had been carried out at a time when U.S. Navy ships were still en route to the Gulf.

Both the Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker Amjad and the UAE-flagged bunker vessel A.Michel sustained damage in the area of their engine rooms, while the Saudi tanker Al Marzoqah was damaged in the aft section and the Norwegian tanker Andrea Victory suffered extensive damage to the stern, DNK said.

The DNK report said the attacks had been carried out between six and 10 nautical miles off Fujairah, which lies close to the Strait of Hormuz.

Saudi-led coalition launches air strikes on Yemen’s main port city | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security/saudi-led-coalition-launches-air-strikes-on-yemens-main-port-city-idUSKBN1K

A Saudi-led coalition launched heavy air strikes on Yemen’s main port city of Hodeidah on Friday, in an apparent resumption of military operations on the Red Sea city after the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement attacked two Saudi oil tankers.

Residents said coalition warplanes had begun their bombardment after midnight, attacking a Houthi military police camp in the city center, a plastics factory north of the city, and the districts of Zubaid and al-Tahita to the south.

#Hodeida #Yemen

Saudi Arabia suspends oil exports through Red Sea lane after Houthi attack | Reuters
▻https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-yemen-security/houthis-target-saudi-warship-off-yemen-coast-al-masirah-tv-idUKKBN1KF0WN

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it was “temporarily halting” all oil shipments through the strategic Red Sea shipping lane of #Bab_al-Mandeb after an attack on two big oil tankers by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said in a statement sent by his ministry that the Houthis had attacked two Saudi Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) in the Red Sea on Wednesday morning, one of which sustained minimal damage.

“Saudi Arabia is temporarily halting all oil shipments through Bab al-Mandeb Strait immediately until the situation becomes clearer and the maritime transit through Bab al-Mandeb is safe,” the statement said.

#Bab_el_Mandeb

World Food Programme Vessel ’VOS Theia’ Attacked Off Yemen – gCaptain
▻http://gcaptain.com/world-food-programme-vessel-vos-theia-attacked-off-yemen

http://gcaptain.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/VOS-THEIA.jpg

Unidentified forces attacked a U.N. aid vessel off the main Yemeni port of Hodeidah at the weekend and started a fire in the engine room, port authorities said on Monday.

The United Nations aid chief, Mark Lowcock, confirmed there had been an incident but said it was now over and everyone was safe, without elaborating.

The vessel used by the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) was attacked after delivering a shipment at Hodeidah, Yemen’s Red Sea Ports Corporation said. The port is held by the Iranian-aligned armed Houthi movement which has taken large parts of the country in a three-year-old war.

A WFP spokeswoman said an unidentified armed group “aboard a skiff had opened fire and attempted to take over” the vessel that was some 60 km (38 miles)) off the coast of Hodeidah.

“Both the crew and the vessel are safe, with no injuries or obvious damage to the vessel,” spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said in a statement sent to Reuters.

The ship was waiting in anchorage for permission to leave from a Saudi-led military coalition, the Ports Corporation added. The coalition is fighting the Houthis and controls the nearby Zubair island.

Saudi-led coalition foils Houthi attacks on Red Sea ships, Saudi and UAE media say | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-tanker/saudi-led-coalition-destroys-houthi-boats-targeting-tanker-in-red-sea-al-ar

A Saudi-led military coalition foiled attacks by explosives-laden speedboats deployed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement against commercial vessels, including an oil tanker, in the Red Sea, Saudi and Emirati state media said on Wednesday.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) state news agency WAM reported that UAE coalition forces had destroyed two boats “which were threatening a commercial oil tanker” in the Red Sea. Two other Houthi boats escaped, it added.

Later Saudi state news channel al-Ekhbariya said that remote-controlled speedboats rigged with explosives had tried to attack three commercial vessels being escorted by two coalition warships, but that coalition forces had foiled the attack and destroyed three speedboats.

Neither the Houthis nor a coalition spokesman could immediately be reached for comment.

Army Green Berets Secretly Help Saudis Combat Threat From Yemen Rebels - The New York Times

▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/us/politics/green-berets-saudi-yemen-border-houthi.html

By Helene Cooper, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Eric Schmitt
May 3, 2018
WASHINGTON — For years, the American military has sought to distance itself from a brutal civil war in Yemen, where Saudi-led forces are battling rebels who pose no direct threat to the United States.

But late last year, a team of about a dozen Green Berets arrived on Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen, in a continuing escalation of America’s secret wars.

With virtually no public discussion or debate, the Army commandos are helping locate and destroy caches of ballistic missiles and launch sites that Houthi rebels in Yemen are using to attack Riyadh and other Saudi cities.

Details of the Green Beret operation, which has not been previously disclosed, were provided to The New York Times by United States officials and European diplomats.
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They appear to contradict Pentagon statements that American military assistance to the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen is limited to aircraft refueling, logistics and general intelligence sharing.

There is no indication that the American commandos have crossed into Yemen as part of the secretive mission.

But sending American ground forces to the border is a marked escalation of Western assistance to target Houthi fighters who are deep in Yemen.

Beyond its years as a base for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen has been convulsed by civil strife since 2014, when the Shiite Muslim rebels from the country’s north stormed the capital, Sana. The Houthis, who are aligned with Iran, ousted the government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the Americans’ main counterterrorism partner in Yemen.

In 2015, a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia began bombing the Houthis, who have responded by firing missiles into the kingdom. Yet there is no evidence that the Houthis directly threaten the United States; they are an unsophisticated militant group with no operations outside Yemen and have not been classified by the American government as a terrorist group.

The Green Berets, the Army’s Special Forces, deployed to the border in December, weeks after a ballistic missile fired from Yemen sailed close to Riyadh, the Saudi capital. The Saudi military intercepted the missile over the city’s international airport, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman renewed a longstanding request that the United States send troops to help the kingdom combat the Houthi threat.

Yemeni officials say warships shell al Qaeda positions, U.S. denies involvement | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-shelling-idUSKBN15H26I

Warships shelled suspected al Qaeda strongholds in a mountainous region of southern Yemen on Thursday, government officials said.

The officials, who asked not to be named, said they believed U.S. forces carried out the operation, though Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis quickly denied any U.S. involvement.

The strikes come less than a week after a covert U.S. Navy SEAL raid, also in Yemen’s south, the first ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump as commander in chief.

The naval attacks appear to be part of an intensifying campaign against one of the most active branches of the Islamist militant network.

“Ships fired several missiles towards the al-Maraqisha mountains, where al Qaeda elements are based. The ships are widely believed to be Americans,” said one official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

“We have received no information on the outcome of the shelling.”

Two killed in attack on Saudi warship off Yemen | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/yemen-security-saudi-idUSL5N1FK5UC

Jan 30: Houthi militants attacked a Saudi warship with three boats off the western coast of Yemen on Monday, causing an explosion that killed two crew members and injured three others, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

“A Saudi frigate on patrol west of the port city of Hodeida was hit by a terrorist attack from three suicide boats belonging to the Houthi militias,” SPA said.

In October a Saudi-led force in Yemen said it rescued passengers from a vessel being used by the United Arab Emirates military that was attacked by Houthi fighters in a strategic Red Sea shipping lane.

J’ai mis le dernier paragraphe de la brève juste pour constater la « neutralité » du rappel des actions des vilains terroristes…

Mapping the Yemen conflict | European Council on Foreign Relations

▻http://www.ecfr.eu/mena/yemen

pas encore vu dans le détail mis prometteur. Lien signalé par l’ami Gresh en 2015 (j’ai du retard dans l’archivage...)

http://ecfr.eu/page/-/02_Yemen_Historical.jpg?v=1443096489829

Yemen’s president recently returned to the country after nearly six months in exile, but the conflict appears far from reaching a tidy conclusion, growing, if anything, more complicated by the day.

President Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced to flee the country by the Houthis - a Zaidi Shia-led rebel group targeted in six wars by the central government - and their new-found allies in the Yemeni Armed Forces, including many key backers of the country’s former leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh. This prompted an ongoing, Saudi-led military campaign aiming to restore Yemen’s internationally-recognised government to power, and now President Hadi and his Prime Minister and Vice President Khaled Bahah have returned to the port city of Aden.

Rather than being a single conflict, the unrest in Yemen is a mosaic of multifaceted regional, local and international power struggles, emanating from both recent and long-past events. The following maps aim to illustrate distinct facets of this conflict, and illuminate some rarely discussed aspects of Yemen’s ongoing civil war.

#yémen #cartographie

Yemen’s Houthis say ready to help investigate attacks on international shipping | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/yemen-security-usa-houthis-idUSL8N1CJ5IC

The Houthi group, however, said the attacks on the destroyer Mason did not come from areas under its control, and said it was concerned to protect international shipping in the area, according to Saba news agency, citing what it called a military source.

“These allegations are unfounded and the people’s committees have nothing to do with this action,” the agency, referring to the Houthi administration, reported the source as saying.

“The spokesman expressed readiness to work with any United Nations or international (body) to investigate these allegations and to punish those behind this, regardless who they may be.”

The head of the Houthi group, Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, in a speech broadcast by local media, condemned the missile strikes, saying the United States was “preparing for an aggression against (the country’s main port city of) Hodeidah.”

U.S. Bombs Were Used in Saudi-Led Attack on Market in Yemen, Rights Group Finds

ONE OF THE deadliest airstrikes in Yemen since a Saudi Arabia-led coalition began bombing the country used munitions supplied by the United States, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.

▻https://theintercept.com/2016/04/07/u-s-bombs-were-used-in-saudi-led-attack-on-market-in-yemen-rights-grou
#Yémen #armes #armement #USA #Etats-Unis #guerre

Yemen: US Bombs Used in Deadliest Market Strike | Human Rights Watch
►https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/04/07/yemen-us-bombs-used-deadliest-market-strike

Saudi Arabia-led coalition airstrikes using United States-supplied bombs killed at least 97 civilians, including 25 children, in northwestern Yemen on March 15, 2016, Human Rights Watch said today. The two strikes, on a crowded market in the village of Mastaba that may have also killed about 10 Houthi fighters, caused indiscriminate or foreseeably disproportionate loss of civilian life, in violation of the laws of war. Such unlawful attacks when carried out deliberately or recklessly are war crimes.

Human Rights Watch conducted on-site investigations on March 28, and found remnants at the market of a GBU-31 satellite-guided bomb, which consists of a US-supplied MK-84 2,000-pound bomb mated with a JDAM satellite guidance kit, also US-supplied. A team of journalists from ITV, a British news channel, visited the site on March 26, and found remnants of an MK-84 bomb paired with a Paveway laser guidance kit. Human Rights Watch reviewed the journalists’ photographs and footage of these fragments.

Blackwater boss in Yemen killed
▻http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/12/10/441071/Yemen-Blacwater-UAE-Saudi-Arabia-Taizz-Hadi-Sudan

The chief of Blackwater mercenaries in Yemen has been killed in clashes with Houthi Ansarullah fighters and allied forces in the country’s southwest, reports say.

Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah news website reported that the commander-in-chief of the private security firm in the country, a Mexican national, was slain in the al-Omari district of Ta’izz Province early on Wednesday.

According to the report, the recent fatality has brought to 15 the number of foreign forces with the Blackwater killed in clashes in Yemen since Tuesday. Some Australian, British, and French advisors and commanders — plus half a dozen Colombian soldiers — were among the dead. The mercenaries are part of the UAE forces that help Saudi Arabia in its war against the impoverished country.

Airstrikes Take Toll on Civilians in #Yemen War - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/world/middleeast/airstrikes-hit-civilians-yemen-war.html

Of the many perils Yemen’s civilians have faced during the last six months of war, with starvation looming and their cities crumbling under heavy weapons, none have been as deadly as the coalition airstrikes. What began as a Saudi-led aerial campaign against the Houthis, the rebel militia movement that forced Yemen’s government from power, has become so broad and vicious that critics accuse the coalition of collectively punishing people living in areas under Houthi control.

#crimes #Arabie_saoudite #victimes_civiles #civils

M of A - Into The Cauldron - Saudi And UAE Troops Invade #Yemen
▻http://www.moonofalabama.org/2015/08/into-the-cauldron-saudi-and-uae-troops-invade-yemen-.html

While many “western” media missed it, we reported that one brigade of regular United Arab Emirate troops invaded Yemen through the port of Aden. Videos from Yemen show large columns of French build Leclerc tanks and other modern UAE equipment. The Saudi and UAE spokesperson declared that they only brought equipment for Yemenis but that can not be true. The tanks will certainly be operated by people with the necessary extensive training on these expensive high tech vehicles, not with fresh off the street recruits with a few weeks of basic training.

After taking Aden the UAE military, some Yemeni infantry forces trained over the last months outside the country and some local southern separatist groups moved north and attacked the Al Anad airbase held by the Houthi militia and parts of the Yemeni army loyal to former president Saleh. After only a few short skirmishes the Houthi retreated and the UAE troops moved into the base. They then moved further north towards Taiz.

But the UAE military is not the only force invading Yemen.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/images4/yemen-sitmap150807.jpg

#invasion #E.A.U #Emirats_arabes_unis #Arabie_saoudite

Yemen as War of Right-Wing Billionaire Establishment in the Middle East |
By Conn Hallinan | (Foreign Policy in Focus)
Informed Comment
▻http://www.juancole.com/2015/04/billionaire-establishment-middle.html

The Saudi-led coalition intervening in Yemen has more in common with 19th-century Europe than the 21st-century Middle East.
Saudi Arabia’s recent intrusion into Yemen is ostensibly part of a bitter proxy war with Iran. But the coalition that Riyadh has assembled to intervene in Yemen’s civil war has more in common with 19th-century Europe than the 21st-century Middle East.
The 22-member Arab League came together at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt last month to draw up its plan to attack the Houthi forces currently holding Yemen’s capital. And the meeting bore an uncanny resemblance to a similar gathering of monarchies at Vienna in 1814.
The leading voice at the Egyptian resort was the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal. His historical counterpart was Prince Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian foreign minister who designed the “Concert of Europe” to ensure that no revolution would ever again threaten the monarchs who dominated the continent.
More than 200 years divides those gatherings, but their goals were much the same: to safeguard a small and powerful elite’s dominion over a vast area.
There were not only kings represented at Sharm el-Sheikh. Besides the foreign ministers for the monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Morocco, and Jordan — most of the Arab League was there, with lots of encouragement and support from Washington and London.
But Saudi Arabia was running the show, footing the bills, and flying most of the bombing raids against Houthi fighters and refugee camps.

La crise humanitaire du Yémen exacerbée par la guerre · Global Voices en Français . Traduction publiée le 3 Avril 2015
▻http://fr.globalvoicesonline.org/2015/04/03/184210

(...) La situation humanitaire désespérée s’est encore aggravée avec le conflit entre les rebelles houthistes soutenus par le Président renversé Saleh et la coalition dirigée par l’Arabie Saoudite avec le soutien des USA, des Etats du Golfe, de l’Egypte et de la Turquie. Si les frappes aériennes de la coalition ont cibé principalement les camps militaires et les dépôts d’armes (certains situés dans des zones résidentielles), elles ont aussi visé les aéroports à Sana’a, Aden, Hodeida et Sada’a.

Lundi, le camp d’Al Marzaq, un camp de déplacés internes, aurait été bombardé par la coalition à direction saoudienne, au moins 40 réfugiés internes ont été tués et 200 blessés. Le coordinateur humanitaire de l’ONU pour le Yémen Johannes Van Der Klaauw a déploré l’attaque dans un déclaration et appelé toutes les parties à respecter le droit international humanitaire.

The Geography of Chaos in #Yemen

On Thursday, Saudi Arabian jets struck targets in Yemen in a drive against the Houthi rebel group, which has taken over large portions of the country. Though it is the poorest country in the Middle East, Yemen is of outsize importance to key players like Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United States. Related Article

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Houthi militia takes over Taiz as Yemen descends into civil war - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/03/23/yeme-m23.html

Houthi militia takes over Taiz as Yemen descends into civil war
By Niles Williamson
23 March 2015

Houthi militia members seized the military airport in Taiz on Saturday without any resistance from Yemeni military forces. The capture of Taiz brings the Houthi forces within 180 kilometers of the southern port city of Aden, the hometown and stronghold of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

#yemen

Two Parties Quits #Yemen Talks as Southern Tribes Threaten to Fight #Houthis
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/23679

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Updated at 4:40 pm (GMT+2): Yemeni political factions resumed UN-brokered talks on Monday with the Houthi militia that grabbed power last week, but two groups walked out underlining the complexity of the crisis. Factions including the Houthis would take part in the talks, envoy Jamal Benomar said Sunday as the UN chief called for Western-backed President #Abed_Rabbo_Mansour_Hadi to be restored to power.

#Abdel_Malek_al-Houthi

Wave of bombings hit #Yemen's #Sanaa, kills one
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/wave-bombings-hit-yemens-sanaa-kills-one

Five bombs exploded on Tuesday in Sanaa’s old quarter, where many supporters of the Houthi movement live, killing a member of the group and wounding another person, a senior security official said. One of the bombs was placed near the home of Ismail al-Wazir, a professor at Sanaa University, state news agency Saba quoted the director general of the Sanaa police, Brigadier General Abdelrazzaq al-Mo’ayad, as saying. Wazir, who is close to the Houthi group, escaped an assassination attempt in April when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle, killing two of his security guards. read more

#AQAP #Houthis

Yemeni army kills “around 100” #Houthis: official
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/yemeni-army-kills-around-100-houthis-official

At least 120 people were killed in northern #Yemen on Monday in fighting between Houthi rebels and government forces, a Yemeni official said on Tuesday. Yemeni planes shelled positions held by Houthi fighters in Omran province and army forces clashed with the rebels, killing around 100 of them, Ahmed al-Bekry, deputy governor told Reuters. Twenty government soldiers were also killed in the fighting, he said. He said fighting ended by Monday evening after the sides agreed a ceasefire and no clashes were reported on Tuesday. read more