Houthi: Saudi Arabia plots to open new front in north Yemen

By: Elena White

May 7, 2012

Amid a new flare up in violence in the northern provinces of Yemen, al-Houthis, a group of Shia rebel the Yemeni government has fought for years as it accused it of advocating a return to the ancestral rule of the Imam, warned that Saudi Arabia had a plot to open a new front into Yemen’s Northern borders in a bid to attack the country’s Shiite population through its “hirelings and mercenaries”.

Saudi Arabia, which shares borders with the rebels’ areas, fought the Houthis in Sa’ada in 2009 after they seized Saudi territory.

The group which has used the breakdown in security to its advantage by seizing more territories, having now three provinces under its control- Hajjah, al-Jawf and Sa’ada- is embroiled in a sectarian conflict with Salafis, puritanical Sunnis who classify the Shia rebels as “heretics”.

In a statement released on Sunday by the group’s media office, al-Houthi underlined that the Saudi plot was aimed at an aggression of al-Hajjah province, distancing the Yemeni people from their revolution and stirring sectarian strife in the country.

“We emphasize that these aggressive measures aim to set fire on al-Hajjah province and distance the Yemeni nation from their revolution, especially because of their opposition to foreign and regional intervention in Yemen, including the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) initiative,” said the statement, adding, “Another goal pursued by this measure (the plot for aggression) is nurturing sectarian conflicts in Yemen.”

He said that Saudi Arabia’s attempts to spark a civil war in Yemen through using the political and economic conditions of the country is an “immoral and irreligious act that contradicts the interests of both the Saudi and Yemeni nations”.

Al-Houthi blamed Saudi Arabia for all calamities and backwardness of Yemen, saying, “We remind the Yemen nation that the Saudi regime’s financial backup for civil wars and its moves for sparking sectarian strife in recent decades are the main reason for all calamities of this nation and these measures have deterred Yemen from progress and prosperity the same way that it [Saudi Arabia] is confronting the Yemeni nation’s revolution in a bid to prevent them from achieving freedom and justice,” the statement said.

Earlier this year, al-Houthi leader claimed he wanted to set up his own political faction as to participate in Yemen’s political life and have his ideas duly represented. The move was actually welcomed by the government as it understood the move as a form of peace offering, moving the arguments away from the battlefields and onto the political arena.

Officials: Al-Qaida militants kill 20 soldiers, capture 25 in surprise attack in south Yemen

May 7, 2012

SANAA, Yemen - Yemeni military officials say al-Qaida militants have killed 20 soldiers and captured 25 in a surprise attack on an army base in the southern Abyan province.

The officials say Monday's pre-dawn assault was staged by militants who managed to reach the army base both from the sea and by land. It came a day after a top al-Qaida leader on the FBI's most wanted list was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Yemen.

The officials say government forces later shelled militant positions elsewhere in Abyan, killing 16 militants. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Yemen's fighting has concentrated near Abyan's provincial capital of Zinjibar, which has been held by al-Qaida militants for a year.

Liaison Committee of national dialogue formed

SANA'A, May 06 (Saba) – The presidential decree No.(13) for 2012 was issued on Sunday forming a Liaison Committee and is hereby read as follows:

After the perusal of Yemeni constitution and according to the Gulf initiative and its executive mechanism signed on November 23, 2011and which stipulated to start procedures to hold the national dialogue conference with the beginning of the second transitional period, it is decided to:

• Article No.(1/a) : For involving all parties in the dialogue process, the liaison committee was formed and consisting the followed eight members :

1. Abdul Kareem Ali al-Eriani.

2. Abdul Wahab Ahmed al-Anisi.

3. Yasin Saeed No'man.

4. J'afar Saeed Ba Saleh.

5. Brigadier/ Hussain Mohammed Arab.

6. Brigadier/ Abdul Qahder Ali Hilal.

7. Lawyer/ Raqiah Abdul Qahder Homaidan.

8. Nadiah Abdul Aziz al-Saqaf.

• (1/b) :The committee members would elect a chairman for the this committee.

• Article No.(2) : The committee can take recourse of those who are regarded as useful to success the negotiation process and all parties have to cooperate in facilitating the committee's tasks in order to accelerate the formation of the national dialogue's preparatory committee for a period not exceeding June 30, 2012.

Article No.(3) : stipulated that the decree shall be effective from its issuance date and to be published in the official gazette.

Al-Qaeda leader killed in Yemen

By Fatik al-Rodaini

SANA'A, May 6, 2012- Ansar al-Sharea, an Islamic group linked to al-Qaeda militants in the Arabian Peninsula confirmed on Sunday in a statement posted on the Internet the death of top al-Qaeda leader in the Yemeni city of Shabwa.

The militants reported that al-Qaeda leader Fahd Al-Quso was killed in an airstrike in the eastern Yemeni province of Shabwa.

American airstrike took-out a vehicle believed to be carrying al-Qaeda leader in Rafdha valley of Shabwa, killing al-Quso and one his bodyguards.

Witnesses said the vehicle turned into a charred skeleton along with its passengers.

Al-Quso, 37, was on the FBI's most wanted list, with a $US5 million ($4.9 million) reward for information leading to his capture. He was indicted in the US for his role in the 2000 bombing in the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen, in which 17 American sailors were killed and 39 injured.

He served more than five years in a Yemeni prison for his role in the attack and was released in 2007.

Al-Quso was also one of the most senior al-Qaeda leaders publicly linked to the 2009 Christmas airliner attack. He has allegedly met with the suspected bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, in Yemen before he left on his way to execute his failed bombing over Detroit.

In December 2010, al-Quso was designated a global terrorist by the State Department, an indication that his role in al-Qaeda's Yemen branch had grown more prominent.

More children dying from landmine explosions in Yemen

By Noora Faraj

Al Arabiya with Agencies

The United Nations Children’s Fund has recently reported that more children in Yemen are becoming victims of landmine explosions and other explosive devices in the country.

Children mistake the explosives for toys, not knowing the fatal purpose of the contraption.

UNICEF has connected the issue to the country’s uprising which began last year, leaving Yemen to experience a surge of violence. The organization reported 13 child deaths and 12 others who were severely injured in the first three months of 2012. In addition, 28 children were killed last year.

The majority of casualties were in the areas of Aden, Hajjah, and Saada.

Mansour M. Al-Azi, general director and program manager of the Yemen Executive Mine Action Center, also known as YEMAC, said that the plantation of mines has continued in recent years, and the minefields which have been identified, cover 923 square kilometers.

A survey by YEMAC shows the center has cleared the country of 280,000 landmines so far, but a large amount still remains in underground areas.

Ahmed Kharshi, chairman of SEYAJ Organization for Childhood Protection said that despite the mines being buried in sparsely populated areas, they are those areas that children go to, to play.

He said that mines no longer exist in military offensive areas, but can be found in school and residential areas. It was also reported that landmines were placed in dead bodies, exploding as the corpse was being transported for burial.

Yemen is contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnances from conflicts dating back to the early 1960s, according to the Landmine and Cluster Munitions Monitor. Most mines were placed along borders between the north and south of the country before its unification in 1990.

9 Yemeni soldiers wounded in al-Qaeda attack in Abyan

By Fatik al-Rodaini

SANA'A, May 5, 2012- At least 9 Yemeni soldiers were wounded, on Saturday night, most of them in critical condition, in an attack by al-Qaeda militants in Yemen's southern province of Abyan.

A tribal figure reported that al-Qaeda militants fired three mortar shells on a base of the Yemeni army forces, east of Zinjabar city of Abyan province, wounding 9 soldiers.

Security and military officials said that Yemeni airstrikes killed five militants in the south. Residents in the scene mentioned that 4 Yemeni airstrikes hit al-Qaeda hideouts in Jabal Yesoof district, in the Yemeni city of Abay, killing five and wounding scores of them.

The residents said the airstrikes targeted a training camp for the militants in the district of jabal Yesoof in the southern province of Abyan destroying military equipments and vehicles.

Witnesses in Um Aen stated that they saw al-Qaeda militants fled the scene of the clashes carrying at least 8 bodies of their fighters.

Hundreds of soldiers and Ansar al-Sharea have been killed since last month in Lawder and Modiya towns in Abyan during ongoing battles between the Yemeni army and al-Qaeda militants.

More than 250 people have been killed since government forces intensified a crackdown on the militants who the authorities accused of attacking a military camp near Lawdar last month.

President Abdu Raboo Mansour Hadi, who took office promising to fight al-Qaeda, is also facing challenges from Shi'ite Muslim rebels in the north and secessionists in the south.

Yemen's president Hadi calls to stop media incitement campaigns

By Fatik al-Rodaini

SANA'A, May 5, 2012- Yemen's President Abdu Raboo Mansour Hadi called on Saturday the local media to stop the media incitement campaigns and to adopt the policy of the state and the government's policy.

In his a speech during the graduation ceremony of training courses in the Supreme Military Academy president Hadi urged the official of the local media to launch a policy based on the GCC proposal.

''The first step expected from the Gulf initiative' signatories is to stop the media incitement campaigns, and to launch media policy based on the consensus stipulated by the initiative to calm the crisis to begin the dialogue,'' president Hadi said.

Hadi stressed on the role of media to help to enroot the values of national unity and assist in detecting corruption if there is sufficient evidence.

President Hadi vowed to continue battles against al-Qaeda militants in Yemen's southern cities and return displaced people to their homes. "The battle has not started yet and will not end until cleansing all villages, then the displaced people can return homes,'' he said.

Hadi said his government would battle al-Qaeda and encourage "elements of the terror organization to give up their weapons and their ideas that are in contradiction to Islam".

The president also vowed to unify the Yemeni army, which was divided last year to pro-Saleh and anti Saleh units, saying that he will work to unify the divided army."I reiterate here that, by virtue of my authority and backed by the popular legitimacy of the constitution and laws, I will not allow the split in the armed forces to continue," Hadi stated.

President Abdu Raboo Mansour Hadi, who took office promising to fight al-Qaeda, is also facing challenges from Shi'ite Muslim rebels in the north and secessionists in the south.