Houthis take control of three positions in north Yemen, claim confiscating Saudi weapons

By: Shuaib M. al-Mosawa

Jun 4, 2012

The Houthi rebels of the Shiite group said they took over Saudi weapons in renewed battles with armed Salafis in the area of Kittaf area in the province of Sa’ada.

A spokesperson in the media office of the Houthi rebels told the Yemen Observer over the phone that their rivals attacked - on June 2nd - affiliated Houthis in Kittaf, the district boarding the rich oil country, Saudi Arabia. The Houthis accused the Salafis to be baked by Saudi Arabia.

 “Militias of the Saudi regime attacked our brothers in the Kittaf district; we were able to take three key positions and confiscate food rations as well as Saudi Arabian branded weapons.

In 2009, Saudi Arabia had briefly attacked the Houthis claiming that they entered their borderline areas. The Houthis fought killed dozens of the Saudi Patrols in that battle. 

The source said that the Salafis had planted three landmines that were later detonated at a Salafi convoy, bombing three cars. The causalities in both parties could not be confirmed.

Saudi ambulances were seen coming from the port of  al-Boq’a, which borders the Kingdom, to come rescue the injured Salafis, said the Houthi spokesperson.

The battles in Kittaf have been raging sporadically in the area for three months now, and have recently intensified. The Houthi rebels, led by Abdulmalik al-Houthi, agreed last week to engage in the National Dialogue which is part of the GCC brokered deal, aimed at putting an end to the Yemeni political crisis.

Suicide car bomb kills four in Yemen

June 4 2012

By SAPA

A suicide bomber blew up an explosives-laden car at a checkpoint in Yemen's restive southern province of Abyan on Monday, killing four pro-army gunmen, a member of a pro-army militia said.

The military, meanwhile, reported that six jihadists died in clashes with troops, elsewhere in Abyan.

 “Four of our men were killed when a suicide bomber detonated a car full of explosives at a checkpoint between Loder and Shaqra” in Abyan, a member of the Popular Resistance Committees fighting alongside the army said.

The militiamen from the Popular Resistance Committees are mainly armed local residents fighting alongside the Yemeni army against Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

The source, who declined to be named, told AFP that militiamen foiled a similar attempt by another suicide attacker who passed by a checkpoint held by the gunmen.

The bomber blew himself up after militiamen pointed their guns at him to shoot him. He was killed alone, according to the same source.

Meanwhile south of Abyan's capital Zinjibar, clashes between Al-Qaeda militants and the army left six jihadists dead and five wounded, a military official said. A soldier was also wounded in the fighting.

Yemeni forces launched an all-out offensive on May 12 aimed at reclaiming Zinjibar and other towns and cities in the province lost to Al-Qaeda over the past year.

Since the assault began, at least 397 people have been killed, according to an AFP tally compiled from official statements, including 291 Al-Qaeda fighters, 66 military personnel, 22 local militiamen and 18 civilians. - Sapa-AFP

UAE donates $136 mn urgent food aid to Yemen

June 3, 2012

(AFP)

DUBAI — The UAE on Sunday announced food aid worth 500 million dirhams ($136 million) for Yemen where aid groups say around 44 percent of the population do not have enough to eat, state news agency WAM reported.

President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahayan "has approved allocating 500 million dirhams to buy food and distribute it urgently to the brotherly Yemeni people," WAM said.

The move is to "alleviate the suffering and ensure the availability of basic needs" to enable Yemenis to achieve "better security, stability and prosperity," said the statement.

The food items include "rice, sugar, cooking oil, baby milk, canned food and other basic items of daily use," it said.

Last month, seven aid groups warned diplomats that Yemen was on the brink of a "catastrophic food crisis."

At least 10 million people, some 44 percent of the population, do not get "enough food to eat", they said, adding that one in three children was "severely malnourished."

On May 21, the European Union unblocked an extra five million euros ($6.2 million) for Yemen to help fight mounting malnutrition in what it said was a "desperate" food crisis affecting almost half of the population.

The Commission has already mobilised 20 million euros ($24.9 million) in humanitarian aid for Yemen this year, directed at increasing and improving access to clean water, supporting feeding programmes, developing cash-for-work schemes and providing cash grants for 200,000 people.

Deadly anti-regime protests swept Yemen last year, finally forcing president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down in February after 33 years in power.

The political crisis has left the country's economy in tatters and aggravated the dire security situation, with Al-Qaeda militants launching a wave of attacks in the mostly lawless south since Saleh's departure.

Yemen is the poorest country in the Arabian peninsula, with more than 40 percent of people living below the poverty line.

Troops, insurgents battle in centre of southern Yemen city

ADEN | Sun Jun 3, 2012

 (Reuters) - Yemeni troops battled insurgents in the central streets of the southern provincial capital Zinjibar on Sunday, killing six and losing two of their own men, as part of a U.S.-supported drive to recapture territory held by the al Qaeda-linked fighters.

Officials and residents also said troops killed five Islamist fighters in clashes near the western edge of Jaar, another insurgent-controlled town in Abyan province about 30 km (20 miles) from Zinjibar.

The army launched the offensive last month aimed at retaking southern towns seized by Islamists during an uprising against Yemen's long-time leader Ali Abdullah Saleh that saw the military split into warring factions last year.

The United States, which helped engineer Saleh's replacement by his deputy in February, is backing the offensive and has stepped up its campaign of drone strike assassinations of alleged al Qaeda members it says plot attacks from Yemen.

It has also sent dozens of military trainers and stepped up aid to a country it sees as being in the frontline of its war on anti-American Islamist militants.

The loss of Zinjibar would be a strategic blow to the insurgents and bolster the morale of the army, which managed to seize parts of the city outskirts last week.

In Sunday's fighting, troops killed six insurgents and wounded several others in the centre of Zinjibar after the militants attacked a position the army set up after moving into the town, a military official said. Two soldiers were killed.

Local officials and residents said troops killed five Islamist fighters near the western edge of Jaar, also held by a group calling itself Ansar al-Sharia.

Both towns fell under the control of the group last year, when some of Saleh's forces in the region were directed against mass protests calling for an end to his 33-year rule.

Ansar al-Sharia has an undefined relationship with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has plotted abortive attacks abroad from Yemen, including one that U.S. officials said targeted an airliner before it was thwarted in April.

Both have claimed responsibility for attacks on Yemeni military targets, including a suicide bombing last month that killed around 100 soldiers in the capital Sanaa.

The United States wants President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to reunify a military that split between Saleh's foes and allies, including his son and nephew, and focus it against AQAP.

Separately, the deputy governor and local commander of Central Security, which has a counter-terrorism brief, survived an assassination attempt by gunmen who attacked their car in the southern Dhaleh province, officials said.

President Hadi meets International Humanitarian delegation

By Fatik al-Rodaini

SANA'A, June 2, 2012- President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi discussed with the International Humanitarian Commission delegation the natural of the cooperation between Yemen and non-governmental humanitarian organizations.

During the meeting, President Hadi pointed to the 2011 crisis's repercussions at the security, political and economic levels, adding that crisis entered the process of the solution after singing the Gulf initiative and its Executive Mechanism and forming national collation government headed by Prime Minister Mohammed Salem Ba Saundwa, which reached to several solutions.

The President also pointed out to the security and economic problems which are remaining the difficult crisis, saying not solving that the two problems, the political crisis is still continued.

Addressing the Humanitarian delegation, "The human side in Yemen is linked to security and economic aspect."

President Hadi also touched to what Yemen has suffered from over the past years, such as the internal wars and the social, in addition to al-Qaeda terrorist operations in some provinces in the south particularly in the province of Abyan, which target the security and stability there.

The president pointed out that there is another problem concerning nearly 6 million as well as half a million of Youths who graduated from universities and higher institutes and still unemployed, saying that most of that problem in most cases may lead to terror behavior.

President Hadi stressed the need of the international community's support for Yemen throughout providing all forms of aid in order to overcome the current situation, which if it continues it would have worse affect on local level and regional and international.

The president talked about the refugee problem, saying "Along with local displaced, there is also the problem of African refugees, which Yemen can't handle them together alone without cooperation from the international community.''

He said that the economic problem represents 75 per cent of the current crisis, demanding the international community to adopt a clear strategy based on a five-year development plan aims to assist the economic and agricultural sectors in the country.

For his part, the international humanitarian delegation confirmed their international organization's readiness to support Yemen to get out of its current crisis.