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Thursday 22 October 2009
Yemen rebels fight Saudi forces
Rebels in northern Yemen say they have clashed with Saudi forces at the site of building work for a fence along the border between the two countries.
A statement on the rebels' website said there were a number of deaths and injuries on both sides.
There was no immediate response from Saudi authorities.
The rebels, known as Houthis, say they are fighting discrimination in Yemen and accuse Saudi Arabia of supporting the Yemeni government.
The group accused Saudi forces of firing on them in the same area on Monday in support of a Yemeni government offensive.
A Yemeni government official told AP news agency that the claim of Saudi involvement in the ongoing conflict was a lie.
The rebels condemned the building of the barrier on the Saudi border: "Residents of the area reject any fence which would have a negative economic impact on them and cut them off from their brethren on the other side," the statement said.
New wave
Yemeni officials accuse the rebels in the north of the country of wanting to re-establish Shia clerical rule, and of receiving support from Iran.
Houthi rebels say they want greater autonomy and a greater role for their version of Shia Islam. They complain that their community is discriminated against.
Earlier in the week, 10 rebels captured in 2008 were sentenced to death.
The Zaidi Shia community are a minority in Yemen but make up the majority in the north of the country.
The insurgents first took up arms against the government in 2004.
The government launched a fresh offensive in August 2009 which has precipitated a new wave of intense fighting.
Aid agencies say tens of thousands of people have been displaced.
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Wednesday 4 November 2009
Yemen rebels seize Saudi area
Rebels from Yemen have fought their way across the border into Saudi Arabia, where they are now holding out against the military.
The rebels have killed a Saudi officer and injured 11 others, the Saudi authorities confirmed on Wednesday.
The rebels said they had taken "full control" of a mountainous section of the border region of Jabal al-Dukhan.
The Yemen government has been waging a campaign against the Zaidi Shia rebels, also known as Houthis, since 2004.
The Houthis have long accused Riyadh of supporting the Yemeni government in attacks against them.
In October there were clashes between Houthis and Saudi security forces near the border.
Yemen is one of the world's poorest countries and analysts question the ability of the government to assert control over the country.
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Friday 13 November 2009
Saudis renew bombing Yemen
An estimated 150,000 people have been displaced by the conflict since 2004
Saudi troops are enforcing a buffer zone in north Yemen
Shia rebels in northern Yemen say Saudi Arabia has carried out more bombing raids, targeting several villages along the border.
The rebels say Saudi planes also struck a mountainous area more than 10km inside Yemeni territory.
There's been no word on any casualties from the recent raids.
Earlier this week, the Saudi authorities said they would keep bombing northern Yemen until the rebels had pulled back from the border.
The rebels, known as the Houthis, say their grievance is with the Yemeni government, and that Saudi Arabia should stay out of the conflict.
Saudi Arabia has evacuated 240 villages because of the fighting according to a statement by UN children's fund, Unicef.
The UN body also said more than 50 schools had been closed because of the fighting and that there was a "deep concern about the escalation of the conflict".
'Fresh offensive'
A Saudi government official said on Thursday that Saudi forces were using air power and artillery to enforce a 10km-deep buffer zone inside northern Yemen to keep the rebels away from the border.
Riyadh had previously claimed troops were only attacking the rebels inside Saudi territory.
The Houthi rebels are drawn from the Zaidi Shia community, who are a minority in Yemen but make up the majority in the north of the country.
They first took up arms against the government in 2004, saying they wanted greater autonomy and a greater role for their version of Shia Islam. They complain that their community is discriminated against.
The Yemeni government launched a fresh offensive against the Houthis in August 2009, which has precipitated a new wave of intense fighting.
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Sunday 29 November 2009
Saudi Forces clear key area of Yemeni rebels
Saudi forces have been carrying out air and artillery strikes on Yemen
Saudi Arabia says it has captured a strategic mountain area near its border with Yemen from Yemeni Shia rebels.
Saudi forces detained about 150 Ethiopians and Somalis as prisoners of war as they cleared the area, Saudi Arabia's deputy defence minister said.
The Houthi rebels denied that the area, which is known as Jabal al-Dood or Jabal Mudood, had been taken.
They also said they had no connection with the Somalis and Ethiopians who had been taken prisoner.
Saudi forces have been carrying out air and artillery strikes on Yemen for several weeks, after the rebels killed a border guard in a raid.
"The armed forces completely control al-Dood mountain, one of the most strategic regions," deputy defence minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan was quoted as saying as he inspected troops just within Saudi territory.
He also said Saudi forces had "cleaned up every inch of Saudi territory," adding that "any person who infiltrates or sniping will end up either surrendering or dead".
The rebels said Saudi Arabia had carried out further air attacks - but they said there had been no clashes on the ground, and that Saudi troops were not in control of the area.
They said it was the Saudis who relied on foreigners to protect themselves.
Difficult terrain
The Saudi minister's comments come days after rebels said this week that they had captured nine Saudi soldiers.
They have also published video clips suggesting that they have seized large quantities of weapons from Saudi troops.
All this leaves Saudi Arabia facing questions about the effectiveness of its expensively-armed forces, says BBC Arab affairs analyst Bob Trevelyan.
The rebels, seeking autonomy in northern Yemen, appear to be well-motivated and have the advantage of better local knowledge of the difficult terrain, he says.
The rebels accuse Riyadh of supporting the Yemeni armed forces by letting them launch attacks from its territory.
The Houthi rebels, named after the family of their leader, say they are trying to reverse the political, economic and religious marginalisation of the Zaydi Shia community.
The Zaydi community are a minority in Yemen, but make up the majority in the north of the country.
The insurgents have been fighting the government since 2004.
The government launched a fresh offensive in August 2009, which precipitated a new wave of intense fighting.
It accuses the Houthis of wanting to re-establish Zaydi clerical rule, which ended in 1962.
Aid agencies say tens of thousands of people have been displaced.
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Tuesday 16 December 2003
Yemen's new anti-terror strategy
Yemen says its troops have recently killed dozens of militants
Yemeni special forces have recently carried a number of raids across the country
Yemen is tight-lipped about its military co-operation with America
Yemen's controversial new strategy for defeating al-Qaeda cells.
In the mountains of Yemen we were taken to a secret training base, where US special forces train Yemen's counter-terrorist troops to hunt down al-Qaeda.
Even most of the Yemeni Government does not know where it is.
This military co-operation with America is highly sensitive here.
They told us no journalist has seen it before.
Yemen has a problem with Al-Qaeda terror cells, but it is dealing with it.
The Yemeni special forces have already carried out surveillance, dawn raids and arrests.
They now have the skills to catch al-Qaeda suspects.
Controversial strategy
But the authorities here have recently developed a new and much more subtle approach.
They invited me to the justice ministry to see their new methods in action.
Inside, I found a devout Muslim judge sitting with alleged former al-Qaeda supporters.
They have just been released from prison on bail, after apparently renouncing violence.
I was hoping they would tell me about how al-Qaeda is recruiting here, but they were nervous - as policemen were listening.
'Message of peace'
I talked to Rashaad, who fought in Afghanistan.
Imprisoned for two years without trial, he said he did nothing wrong.
But the government insists he was an influential extremist who called for attacks on non-Muslims.
Yet his message was one of peace.
"The duty of a Muslim in general is not killing or bloodshed. Islam is a religion that promotes peace and tolerance, and it is against killing," Rashaad said.
His friends agreed. They said dialogue was the way forward.
"We deal with people with reason and dialogue. Weapons and machine-guns are the last resort in defending my country," said one of them.
Death threats
But when I asked who was using those weapons, the judge intervened.
"That's not what we're here to discuss," Judge Humoud Hattar said.
He has been called a government stooge, and received death threats.
But he has been so successful at converting extremists that the British Foreign Office has invited him to lecture in London.
"The results depend on convincing people through the Koran and Islamic texts. Young people should accept those texts and comply with them," the judge said.
New footage
Out on the streets of the capital, Sana'a, the Yemenis have recently put their dialogue programme to work.
A former al-Qaeda member turned informer led the authorities to Mohammed al-Ahdal - an alleged al-Qaeda financier and the most wanted man in Yemen.
In a covert operation last month, the Yemeni counter-terrorist troops surrounded him at his own wedding.
They are now interrogating him, passing selected intelligence to the Americans.
And they have been busy elsewhere too.
Yemen has recently released a footage showing the government troops storming a remote al-Qaeda stronghold this summer.
The government says it killed or captured dozens of militants.
But Yemen knows it cannot defeat al-Qaeda with bullets alone.
That's why its so keen on dialogue, to cut the pipeline that feeds extremism.
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Thursday 17 September 2009
Cold War roots of Yemen conflict
The roots of Yemen's current civil conflict, in which the government is trying to put down a localised but potent rebellion, lie in the Cold War regional politics of the 1960s.
Then, Egyptian-backed army officers brought an end to Yemen's 1,000-year Shia Imamate and established the modern Yemeni republic.
Republican troops seized control of Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in 1962, while the imam fled to the northern mountains, where he mounted a spirited counter-offensive from the same territory where the fighting is happening today.
Then, as now, a well-equipped army in Sanaa deployed air power and superior military hardware against the rebels in the Saada region but for five years republican forces failed to defeat the mountain guerrillas.
Thursday's reported aerial bombardments of civilians, reports that the Saada rebels are holding Yemeni soldiers as prisoners of war and preparations by aid agencies to deliver humanitarian relief across the border from Saudi Arabia echo familiar patterns of conflict from the 1960s.
Then, as now, regional dynamics inflamed local tensions inside Yemen, with Saudi Arabia and Jordan backing Yemen's imam against thousands of Egyptian troops barracked in Sanaa.
War 'over'
The 21st Century geopolitical context has undeniably changed, but regional tensions continue to stoke the conflict in Yemen.
Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia is nervous about a Shia uprising on its southern borders.
Shia Iran stands accused of supporting the Saada rebels, despite the fact that Yemen's Zaydi Shias - who take their name from the fifth imam, Zayd Ibn Ali - are doctrinally distinct from Iran's Twelver Shias.
At times, the insurgents in Saada have also been accused of accepting support from Libya, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda, as well as Yemen's local Jewish minority.
Such inconsistent allegations are certainly exploited for shifting and expedient political reasons.
Perceptions of external interference in Yemen serve to distract attention from multiple internal factors driving this brutal stop-start war, which began in 2004 when the rebels condemned Yemen's government for allying with the West on counter-terrorism and called for freedom to worship according to their own traditions.
Yemen's government has since brokered several failed ceasefire agreements with the rebels, and in July 2008 President Ali Abdullah Saleh abruptly declared the Saada war "over" during celebrations for his 30th anniversary in power.
Religious balance
However, the underlying grievances have not been resolved and resentments keep escalating during each cycle of conflict, drawing local tribes into the fight.
Yemen is a Sunni majority country, but President Saleh has Zaydi Shia heritage. Crucially, he is not a sayyid - a descendant of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hussein and Hassan.
Yemen's ruling imams historically derived their legitimacy partly from their sayyid status and the charismatic Houthi family who now lead the Saada rebellion are also sayyid - although, the Houthis deny allegations that they intend to reinstate the imam's rule.
While there is a sectarian element to this war, it lies in the delicate local religious balance between Zaydi Shia and Sunni Salafi teaching institutes in the Saada region.
The rebels accuse President Saleh of playing divide-and-rule politics by promoting Sunni Salafi institutes while restricting the activities of a Zaydi Shia revivalist movement, known as the Believing Youth.
However, many contributing factors to the Saada war are much more profane.
A recent report from the International Crisis Group (ICG) noted that the "conflict has become self-perpetuating, giving rise to a war economy".
Looting, drug smuggling, gunrunning, people trafficking, tribal feuds and an unresolved hostage crisis, involving a kidnapped Briton, have also contributed to the lawless reputation of the Saada region.
Resources strained
The United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) claims Yemen's "humanitarian emergency" has been "largely neglected" by the international community and a $23m (£14m) flash appeal to help 150,000 internally displaced people fleeing the fighting in Saada has not yet received any funds.
At a national level, Yemen is oil dependent but oil production is declining and the weak central government has less and less money at its disposal.
In addition to the war in Saada, the government confronts a southern separatist movement and resurgent terrorist networks.
Increasing numbers of Somali refugees and a rapidly growing domestic population place escalating strain on Yemen's fragile resources.
The fear that Yemen could eventually fragment now preoccupies Yemen's neighbours and its Western allies.
The scenario of state collapse in Yemen would create even greater potential for external interference in this strategic Arabian Peninsula state.
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Tuesday 10 November 2009
Iran warning over Yemen conflict
"Those people should be assured that the smoke and the fire they have ignited will entangle them themselves", Manouchehr Mottaki, Iranian Foreign Minister
The Yemeni government launched a fresh offensive in August 2009
Saudi Arabia says its troops are ready to defend the border areas
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has warned against foreign intervention in the conflict between the Yemeni government and rebels.
Unidentified parties were adding fuel to the crisis, and attempts to help or to take military action would have negative consequences, Mr Mottaki said.
Correspondents say his comments appear to have been intended for Saudi Arabia.
Shortly afterwards, Riyadh promised it would continue air strikes until the rebels moved back from its border.
"We are not going to stop the bombing until [they] retreat tens of kilometres inside [the Yemeni] border," Deputy Defence Minister Prince Khaled Bin Sultan said, according to the AFP news agency.
Saudi forces launched a ground and air offensive on the rebels, known as the Houthis, after a security officer was killed in a cross-border raid by the group in its south-western Jizan region.
The Houthis meanwhile said on their website that Saudi fighter jets had bombed villages on the Yemeni side of the frontier on Tuesday, killing two women and wounding a child.
Strikes also targeted a government building in the village of Shida, they said.
'Be careful'
In Tehran on Tuesday, Mr Mottaki was asked about Yemeni allegations that Iranian religious and media organisations were backing the rebels, who want more autonomy and a greater role for their version of Shia Islam, Zaydism.
Last month, officials in Sanaa said security forces had seized a ship carrying weapons destined for the Houthis at a port in Haja province, and detained its crew. Iranian officials dismissed the story as a fabrication.
"A country which seeks a role to establish peace and stability in all countries in the region... cannot have a role in creating tensions," Mr Mottaki said.
"We strongly warn the regional countries to be careful, to be vigilant," he added.
"Monetary aid, providing arms to extremist and terrorist groups or actually taking action against them and crushing those groups or the people and embarking on military operations - these all will have negative consequences."
In an apparent reference to Saudi Arabia, with whom Tehran has had hostile relations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Mr Mottaki said there were "certain people who add fuel to some crises".
"Those people should be assured that the smoke and the fire they have ignited will entangle them themselves," he added.
The minister said regional powers should instead try to restore stability in Yemen.
"Any kind of instability in Yemen, any kind of instability in Iraq, in Afghanistan or in Pakistan, they will have their own impact on the whole region," he warned.
Later, a commander of the militant group, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, purportedly urged Sunnis to confront the Houthis.
In an audio recording posted on the internet, Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Rashid, denounced what he called the Yemeni rebels' aspirations and incursions against Sunnis.
He said the Shia community and Iran were trying to take over Muslim countries, and that "their threat to Islam and its people is much bigger than that from Jews and Christians".
The Houthis, named after the family of their leader, say they are trying to reverse political, economic and religious marginalisation of their community.
They also accuse Saudi Arabia of supporting the Yemeni armed forces by allowing them to launch attacks from its territory, a charge both countries deny.
The Yemeni government accuses the rebels of wanting to re-establish Zaydi clerical rule, which ended in 1962, and of receiving support from abroad.
The Zaydi community are a minority in Yemen, but make up the majority in the north of the country.
The insurgents first took up arms against the government in 2004, after which government forces killed or captured much of the Houthi leadership.
The government launched a fresh offensive in August 2009, which has precipitated a new wave of intense fighting.
Aid agencies say tens of thousands of people have been displaced.
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Thursday 5 November 2009
Saudi jets attack Yemen rebels
"After what happened yesterday, it is clear they have lost track of reality and it has got to a point where there is no other way. They have got to be finished", Saudi government adviser
Saudi Arabia has deployed troops along the border with Yemen
The Saudi air force has attacked rebels in northern Yemen following Wednesday's killing of a Saudi security officer in a border area, reports have said.
Saudi F-15 and Tornado jets targeted strongholds of the Houthi rebels on the Yemeni side of border, spokesmen for the group and Arab media said.
The attacks came after a Saudi officer was killed and 11 were wounded in a raid by the rebels on the Jizan region.
The Houthis said on Wednesday that they had taken "full control" of a mountainous section of the border region of Jabal al-Dukhan.
'Successive air strikes'
In a statement on its website on Wednesday, the group said Saudi warplanes and helicopters had dropped phosphorus bombs on its fighters in the areas of al-Malahaid, Jabal al-Mamdud, al-Husama and al-Mujdaa.
On Thursday, a rebel spokesman based in Europe, Yehya Badr al-Din al-Houthi, told the BBC Arabic service that the attacks had continued.
"Yesterday, the Saudi aircraft attacked villages in the Ghamr district. They destroyed homes and killed and wounded 10 people, mainly women and children," he said.
"Today, the Saudi aircraft continued striking the village of Hasama and other villages near the Malaheez area."
Another spokesman for the group said civilians had been killed when bombs were dropped on a local market in Saada province, and that one rebel location had been hit by about 100 missiles in one hour.
A Saudi government adviser said the air force had targeted rebels who had seized Saudi parts of Jabal al-Dukhan, which they said had now been recaptured by troops.
The official said at least 40 rebels had been killed in the fighting.
"As of yesterday late afternoon, Saudi air strikes began on their positions in northern Yemen," the unnamed adviser told Reuters.
"There have been successive air strikes, very heavy bombardment of their positions, not just on the border, but on their main positions around Saada," he added.
A Yemeni defence ministry spokesman would only deny "the rebels' allegations of Saudi air raids against Yemeni villages", the AFP news agency said.
The London-based Arabic newspaper Elaph meanwhile reported that Saudi ground forces were also moving towards the Yemeni border.
The deployment was later confirmed by Arab diplomats, who told the Associated Press that army units and special forces were amassing in the area, and that several nearby Saudi towns and villages had been evacuated.
Saudi reconnaissance teams believed there were between 4,000 and 5,000 Houthis based in the mountainous border region, Elaph said.
The Saudi government adviser said no decision had yet been taken to send troops across the border, but made it clear that Riyadh was no longer prepared to tolerate the Yemeni rebels, Reuters reported.
"After what happened yesterday, it is clear they have lost track of reality and it has got to a point where there is no other way. They have got to be finished," he said.
Displaced people
The Houthis, named after the family of their leader, say they want greater autonomy and a greater role for their version of Shia Islam. They complain that their community is discriminated against.
They also accuse Saudi Arabia of supporting the Yemeni armed forces by allowing them to launch attacks from its territory, a charge which both countries deny.
The Yemeni government accuses the rebels of wanting to re-establish Zaydi Shia clerical rule, and of receiving support from Iran.
Earlier in the week, 10 rebels captured in 2008 were sentenced to death.
The Zaidi Shia community are a minority in Yemen, but make up the majority in the north of the country.
The insurgents first took up arms against the government in 2004, after which government forces killed or captured much of the Houthi leadership.
The government launched a fresh offensive in August 2009 which has precipitated a new wave of intense fighting.
Aid agencies say tens of thousands of people have been displaced.
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Friday, 6 November 2009
Saudi planes 'not bombing Yemen'
Saudi Arabia has insisted its forces only attacked Yemeni rebel positions on Saudi territory, according to the state news agency.
This directly contradicts a number of separate reports on Thursday that air strikes had taken place on on rebel strongholds in northern Yemen.
The government said it would continue fighting to drive out all the rebels who had infiltrated across the border.
The rebels say that Saudi airplanes are bombing northern Yemeni villages.
A spokesman for the rebels, who are known as Houthis, alleged on Thursday that a Saudi air strike hit a market in Saada in north Yemen, killing a group of civilians.
The Saudi government has said that its conflict with the rebels began when a Saudi border official was killed and rebels later captured an area of mountainous territory in the Saudi province of Jizan.
The rebels had claimed there were minor clashes with Saudi forces along the border before then.
Intense fighting
The Houthis have been engaged in an intense wave of fighting with the Yemeni army since the government launched a major new offensive in August 2009.
They have long alleged that Saudi Arabia has been giving support to the Yemeni regime, a claim both governments denied, but in recent weeks Saudi forces have been overtly drawn into the fighting.
The Houthis, named after the family of their leader, say they want greater autonomy and a greater role for their version of Shia Islam. They complain that their community is discriminated against.
The Yemeni government accuses the rebels of wanting to re-establish Zaidi Shia clerical rule, and of receiving support from Iran.
The Zaidi Shia community are a minority in Yemen, but make up the majority in the north of the country.
The insurgents first took up arms against the government in 2004, after which government forces killed or captured much of the Houthi leadership.
Aid agencies say tens of thousands of people have been displaced in the latest round of fighting.
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Thursday 19 November 2009
Yemen troops kill Houthi rebel leader
Yemeni government forces fighting Houthi rebels in the country's north have killed a leader and forced his supporters into retreat, officials say.
A government website quoted security sources as saying that Ali al-Qatwani was killed when troops took control of the al-Mahaleet area of Saada province.
Two other Houthi commanders were killed in fighting on Wednesday, it reported.
A Saudi soldier was shot dead the day before in clashes with the rebels on the border with Yemen, Saudi media say.
Issa Madkhali was killed in the mountainous Jabal al-Dukhan area, which straddles the frontier, al-Hayat reported.
Riyadh launched an offensive against the Houthis this month after they occupied villages inside Saudi territory and killed a border guard.
Strongholds
It has warned that air strikes and shelling inside Yemen will continue until the rebels withdraw tens of kilometres from the border.
Yemeni government forces have also intensified their assault on rebel strongholds, and commanders say they are getting close to regaining full control of several key strategic locations in Saada.
Abbas Aid, head of a rebel combat unit, and Abu Haidar, another senior figure, were killed on Wednesday, security sources said. Youssef al-Madani, the son-in-law of Hussein al-Houthi, founder of the rebel group, was allegedly wounded.
On Thursday, the armed forces and local authorities in Saada called on rebel fighters to hand themselves in.
"Give yourself up... and we will not do you harm," a statement said.
On their website, the rebels said their fighters had destroyed three Yemeni army vehicles and disabled two tanks near Harf Sufian.
They also accused the Saudi military of bombing homes, government buildings and a market in al-Mahalit and Amran provinces.
Clerical rule
The Houthis, named after the family of their leader, say they are trying to reverse the political, economic and religious marginalisation of the Zaydi Shia community.
They also accuse Saudi Arabia of supporting the Yemeni armed forces by allowing them to launch attacks from its territory, a charge both countries deny.
The Yemeni government accuses the Houthis of wanting to re-establish Zaydi clerical rule, which ended in 1962.
The Zaydi community are a minority in Yemen, but make up the majority in the north of the country.
The insurgents first took up arms against the government in 2004, after which government forces killed or captured much of the Houthi leadership.
The government launched a fresh offensive in August 2009, which has precipitated a new wave of intense fighting.
Aid agencies say tens of thousands of people have been displaced.
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