|
| ||||||||
Rebels call for a ceasefire in six-year old war as the U.N. deals with over a quarter million refugees. Yemeni forces killed 20 Houthi rebels on Sunday, effectively rejecting a ceasefire offer two days after it was revealed that over a quarter million Yemeni civilians have been displaced by the conflict. Abdel Malik Al-Houthi, the leader of the Shia rebellion in Yemen's northern provinces, announced Saturday that his forces would accept five conditions set by the Yemeni government for a ceasefire after Yemeni national forces stopped "aggression" in the area. The leader seemed to frame his acceptance of the ceasefire as a response to the growing humanitarian crises the conflict has created. "In order to avoid the catastrophic situation in the country and to stop the genocide which civilians are exposed to, we reiterate our acceptance of the five conditions," Al-Houthi said in an online audio recording. But without responding to Al-Houthi's statement, Yemen's Ministry of Defense announced Sunday that its soldiers had killed 24 Houthi rebels in air raids throughout the northern provinces of Malahidh and Saada. The news came just two days after the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced that the number of Yemeni civilians displaced since the fighting in the north broke out in 2004 has passed the 250,000 mark. The UN Refugee Agency estimates that the number of internal refugees has more than doubled since the latest round of fighting broke out in August 2009. "These are all people displaced by the fighting in the North," Andrej Mahecic, a spokesperson with UNHCR told The Media Line. "Those who fled left almost everything they had so they are facing incredible difficulties." "What we've noticed over the past two months is that those who tried to stay cannot sustain themselves any longer so they are now heading south," he said. "The livelihood that these people had has been destroyed. There are problems with the water supply and people simply cannot sustain themselves any longer where they live." "Making ends meet is getting increasingly difficult for the displaced population as well as access to basic services such as health and education," UNHCR said in a statement. "Most of them fled leaving behind almost all of their belongings and cattle which was the pillar of their livelihoods and primary source of income." "The need for humanitarian aid has been increasing dramatically so we are appealing for funds," said Mahecic. The UN Refugee Agency welcomed the potential ceasefire. "Our biggest difficulty is access as it's very unsafe to move," Mahecic said. “From the start of the conflict secure access to the region has been a top issue for us. A minimum security environment is required to allow people to leave and to allow for the delivery of aid." Dr Ahmed Saif, a political scientist at the Yemen College of Middle Eastern Studies, argued that the ceasefire was born of international pressure and as such was likely to hold. "This is clearly an outcome of the London conference," he told The Media Line, referring to a gathering of major world powers in London last week to discuss developments in Yemen and Afghanistan. "The international community has put a great deal of pressure on all sides to reconcile so as to stabilize the country, build up security and fight Al-Qaeda." "I'm optimistic," Saif said. "The government set five conditions and the rebels accepted them. This cease-fire will be coordinated worldwide on many levels and hopefully set the stage for genuine reform in the country." The government conditions included the full withdrawal of Houthi rebels from all areas they have occupied in the course of the fighting, the return of all government and military equipment the rebels seized in the course of the fighting, the release of all detained soldiers and civilians and a commitment to abide by Yemeni national law. Dr Stephen Steinbeiser, Resident Director of the American Institute for Yemeni Studies in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, said that while it was too early to tell, the ceasefire held promise. ”Most people are skeptical when they hear of a ceasefire in the north and I heard from the Red Crescent there was still fighting through the end of last week so it's difficult to know exactly what's going on," he told The Media Line. "But it sounds like there is a ceasefire and this is definitely a new development." "It could just be a short term stop in the fighting, but the Houthis seem to be serious about it," Dr Steinbeiser said. "The government forces have been effective in preventing the rebels from regrouping and bringing in arms and seem to have won, at least temporarily, in that area of the country, so in a way I don't know what choice the rebels have at this point." | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Yemen's Displaced Reach 250,000
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Yemen won't allow foreign operations on its soil
LONDON (Reuters) - Yemen needs logistical support to help fight al Qaeda but will not allow foreign covert operations against the global militant group on its territory, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi told the BBC.
World
The government in Sanaa declared open war on al Qaeda this month, stepping up air strikes and security sweeps after a regional arm of the militant group based in Yemen said they were behind a failed December 25 bid to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner.
But in the interview, Qirbi ruled out allowing a U.S. military base on Yemeni soil or covert foreign operations in the country.
"We will undertake it ourselves. Why do we need outside soldiers to fight when we can do the fight ourselves?" said Qirbi in the interview broadcast on Tuesday.
He said the government had mistakenly allowed foreign intervention in 2002, when a U.S. missile strike killed an al Qaeda leader suspected of planning the 2000 suicide bombing of the U.S. warship Cole.
"It proved to be a terrible mistake, and this is why we don't want to repeat it. We have to do it ourselves and anybody who is interested will have to support us," Qirbi said.
U.S. defense and counter-terrorism officials say Washington has been quietly supplying military equipment, intelligence and training to Yemen to destroy suspected al Qaeda hide-outs.
Qirbi rejected any suggestion that the government had allowed al Qaeda to flourish in the country by refusing to confront militants in the past. "Yemen has always tackled al Qaeda. But it doesn't mean because there was a period of no confrontation that it hasn't been battling al Qaeda, because we've been battling it through dialogue and through many different means," he said.
He praised a Saudi programme that involves counseling and reintegrating militants into society -- an idea that Yemen pioneered, but now says it lacks the resources to pursue.
Yemen's government has previously talked of dialogue with al Qaeda on condition that militants lay down their weapons first.
(Reporting by Thomas Atkins in Riyadh; Writing by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Alistair Lyon and Noah Barkin)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Iran criticises Saudi over Yemen conflict
TEHRAN — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticised Saudi Arabia's military involvement in Yemen's conflict, calling on Riyadh to play a mediator's role rather than to bomb fellow Muslims.
"I tell Saudi Arabian officials that it was expected of them to mediate in the domestic dispute ... and make peace ... not to get themselves involved in the war and use bombs and machine-guns against Muslims," he said.
"If a part of Saudi Arabia's weapons had been used in favour of Gaza people and against the Zionists (Israel) ... today there would no trace of the Zionist regime," Ahmadinejad added in a speech broadcast live on state television.
In Riyadh, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal swiftly shot back at Ahmadinejad, accusing the Iranians of interfering in Yemen's domestic affairs.
"This accusing Saudi Arabia of making war on the Huthis, I don't know where this comes from," Saud said, calling the charge "dubious."
"This is interfering in the internal affairs of Yemen," he said.
Officials in predominantly Shiite Iran have repeatedly condemned the Saudi involvement in a Yemeni military operation launched on August 11 against the Huthi insurgents, members of the Zaidi Shiite minority, in northern Yemen.
In mid-November, Ali Larijani, Iran's parliament speaker, accused Tehran's arch-foe Washington of masterminding the Saudi bombing of the rebels across the border in Yemen.
The Saudi military undertook its largest mobilisation since the 1991 Kuwait war following a Huthi border incursion in early November, deploying fighter bombers, heavy artillery, special forces and naval vessels against the rebels.
Ahmadinejad's charge came one day after the Saudi military said 82 of its soldiers had been killed and 21 were missing in 11 weeks of fighting Huthi militants along the two countries' border.
The Saudis say they have killed or captured several hundred Huthi fighters.
Prince Saud did not elaborate on his charge of Iranian interference, but Sanaa has accused elements in Tehran of giving military support to the Huthis in the mainly Sunni country, a charge denied by Iran.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Official: 7 Qaida suspects arrested near U.S. embassy in Yemen
2010-01-11 01:36:29SANAA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni anti-terror forces have arrested seven suspected members of an al-Qaida-linked sleeper cell in a quarter, adjacent to the U.S. embassy in Sanaa, a higher-ranking security official of Interior Ministry said on Sunday.
The anti-terrorism forces on late Tuesday raided al-Houri house at Sawan quarter, and captured three members of the family Esam, Majid and Kamal al-Houri, the official said on condition of anonymity. One of al-Houri members was reportedly killed in Iraq three years ago, as he was fighting alongside al-Qaida.
The house and the U.S. embassy are all located in Sawan district in Sanaa.
A tip from an observant security officer in the area also led to the arrest of another four suspected members from the same quarter, said the official.
Yemen has recently launched a large-scale anti-terrorism campaign against al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen following the failed attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound flight which al-Qaida claimed responsibility.
The Interior Ministry announced last week that its anti-terror units captured three al-Qaida's suspected members in a security operation carried out in the Arhab district, some 40 km north to the capital.
| Editor: yan |
U.S. has no intention of sending troops to Yemen, Somalia
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/11/content_12787268.htm
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said he has no intention of sending troops to Yemen and Somalia, adding that his administration will be continuing cooperation with international partners to ensure U.S. safety.
In an interview with the People Magazine released on Sunday, Obama noted that although al-Qaida has been trying to turn Yemen and Somalia into its new haven, the group's epicenter remains in the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"I have no intention of sending U.S. boots on the ground in these regions. I have every intention of working with our international partners in lawless areas around the globe to make sure that we're keeping the American people safe," said Obama.
"I never rule out any possibility in a world that is this complex, ... In countries like Yemen, in countries like Somalia, I think working with international partners is more effective at this point," the president stressed.
Yemen and Somalia, which are viewed as weak countries without powerful central government control, have become vital battlefields in the U.S.-led war against al-Qaida and its extremist allies.
Early on Sunday, David Petraeus, Commander of U.S. Central Command told CNN that the army has no plan to put ground troops in Yemen but that the United States is considering doubling security assistance to 150 million U.S. dollars for Yemen.
Under U.S. security assistance, the Yemeni government has taken more offensive operations against al-Qaida targets in the past months.
| Editor: yan |
Sunday, January 3, 2010
UK and US close Yemen embassies amid terror threat
Page last updated at 12:53 GMT, Sunday, 3 January 2010
BBC NEWS
The US and Britain have shut their Yemen embassies after threats from an al-Qaeda offshoot linked to an alleged failed US plane bomb plot.
The UK Foreign Office told the BBC its embassy in the capital Sanaa was closed "for security reasons", hours after the US announced its mission had been shut.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown earlier said the UK and US would step up counter-terror efforts in Yemen.
There are mounting fears lawless Yemen is becoming an al-Qaeda haven.
The embassy closures follow last week's threat by a group called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, urging Muslims to help in "killing every crusader who works at their embassies or other places".
In an internet statement, the group also said it was behind an attempt to bomb a transatlantic airliner on Christmas Day.
On Saturday, President Barack Obama said the organisation appeared to have trained 23-year-old Nigerian accused Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is being held in a US prison.
It was not clear when the UK or US embassies would reopen.
In a brief statement on its website on Sunday, the US embassy said: "The US Embassy in Sanaa is closed today, January 3, 2010, in response to ongoing threats by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to attack American interests in Yemen."
The embassy also reminded US citizens in Yemen to be vigilant and aware of security.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the British embassy was closed on Sunday and a decision would be taken later on whether to open it on Monday.
Hours earlier, the British prime minister told the BBC: "This is a new type of threat and it is from a new source which is obviously Yemen, but there are many other potential sources Somalia, as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan."
The US mission in Sanaa was the target of an attack in September 2008, which was blamed on al-Qaeda, and in which 19 people died, including a young American woman.
Also on Saturday, Gen Petraeus, head of US Middle East and Central Asian operations, visited Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh to to pledge US support for its fight with al-Qaeda.
It came a day after the general announced that the US would more than double counter-terrorism aid to Yemen this year.
The US provided $67m (£41m) in training and support to Yemen last year; only Pakistan receives more, with about $112m, according to AP news agency.
Yemeni officials said on Saturday they had sent more troops to fight al-Qaeda militants in the provinces of Abyan, Baida and Shabwa.
"These measures are part of operations to hunt down elements of al-Qaeda... and tighten the noose around extremists," a Yemeni official told AFP news agency.
Analysts say the US has also provided intelligence to Yemeni forces, which carried out raids last month that reportedly left dozens of militants dead.
In his weekly address on Saturday, President Obama said militant training camps in Yemen had already "been struck, leaders eliminated, plots disrupted".
Yemen was thrust to the top of the Western security agenda in October 2000, when 17 US sailors died in an al-Qaeda suicide attack on the USS Cole destroyer in the port of Aden.
Correspondents say the Yemeni government needs economic as well as military aid.
With a fast-growing and impoverished population, the country is facing diminishing water reserves and the likelihood that its only source of income, oil, will run dry in a few years.
But security is just as big a challenge, complicated by an abundance of firearms, an insurgency in the north and a secessionist movement in the south.
While the government is weak and unpopular in much of the country, the US has little choice but to work through it to fight al-Qaeda as any overt US presence would almost certainly provoke a public backlash.
But the prospects of re-asserting central government authority over the lawless areas where al-Qaeda is based look, in the opinion of some analysts, remote - even with beefed-up American support.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Officials: U.S., Yemen reviewing targets for possible strike
A Yemeni army helicopter carries out operations against al Qaeda suspects on December 17 in the Sanaa province
By Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon Correspondent
December 29, 2009 8:27 p.m. EST
Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. and Yemen are now looking at fresh targets in Yemen for a potential retaliation strike, two senior U.S. officials told CNN Tuesday, in the aftermath of the botched Christmas Day attack on an airliner that al Qaeda in Yemen claims it organized.
The officials asked not to be not be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information. They both stressed the effort is aimed at being ready with options for the White House if President Obama orders a retaliatory strike. The effort is to see whether targets can be specifically linked to the airliner incident and its planning.
U.S. special operations forces and intelligence agencies, and their Yemeni counterparts, are working to identify potential al Qaeda targets in Yemen, one of the officials said. This is part of a new classified agreement with the Yemeni government that the two countries will work together and that the U.S. will remain publicly silent on its role in providing intelligence and weapons to conduct strikes.
Officially the U.S. has not said it conducted previous airstrikes in Yemen, but officials are privately saying the Yemeni military could not have carried out the strikes on its own.
By all accounts, the agreement would allow the U.S. to fly cruise missiles, fighter jets or unmanned armed drones against targets in Yemen with the consent of that government.
One of the officials said Yemen has not yet consented to the type of special forces helicopter-borne air assault that would put U.S. commandos on the ground with the mission of capturing suspects for further interrogation. That is also a capability the U.S. would like the Yemenis to eventually develop the official said.
At this point, the U.S. believes there may be a few hundred al Qaeda fighters in Yemen centered around a group of key network leaders. U.S. intelligence believes some key leaders were killed in recent airstrikes but is still working to confirm details.
U.S. military and intelligence officials describe to CNN an al Qaeda network with organized command and control that has evolved and grown over the past year. U.S. intelligence concludes there are several training camps similar to those established in other countries where one or two dozen fighters at a time train.
The U.S. and Yemenis are also looking into the possibility the Nigerian suspect in the airliner incident trained at one of the camps.
One of the camps was among the targets in each set of airstrikes earlier this month.