Editorial Note: The
following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may
also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology.
Comments are in parentheses.
3 Saudi Military Brigades Destroyed in a Yemeni
Offensive in Najran, Thousands Taken Prisoners.
September 29, 2019
Yemeni Army spokesman, Yahya Saree, announcing results of
operation inside Saudi Arabia, September 28, 2019 yextra
Pro-Saudi Yemeni Foreign Minister, Mohammed al-Hadhrami,
speaking before UNGA, September 28, 2019
A malnutritioned Yemeni
child, as a result of the Saudi-led war, file, September 2019
Site of a Saudi air strike
on Yemen, file, September 26, 2019
Houthis Release Shocking Videos Of Operation Victory From
God
South Front Org, September 29, 2019
On September 29, the Houthis’ media wing released shocking
videos of the first phase of “Operation
Victory From God,” which took place south of Saudi
Arabia’s Najran earlier in September.
The videos were showcased during a press conference of the
Yemen group’s spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Sari, who revealed
new details about the operation.
According to Brig. Gen. Sari, the operation was planned for
months and involved the Missile Force, the Air Force and the
Air-Defense Forces.
The Yemeni Missile Force launched ten Badir-1 rockets at
Jizan airport, while the Air Force carried out 21 operations
against military targets throughout the Kingdom. These
attacks took place over several months before the operation
to distract the Saudi-led coalition air forces and hinder
their operations.
During the operation, the Yemeni Air Defense Forces targeted
the coalition’s attack helicopters, preventing them from
provide close air support to trapped Saudi troops south of
Najran.
Brig. Gen. Sari summarized the results of Operation Victory
from God, as the following:
Houthi fighters
captured 350 km2 south of Najran, including dozens of
key positions.
More than 500 Saudi
service members and Saudi-backed Yemen fighters were
killed.
More than 2,000
personnel of the Saudi-led coalition were captured,
including Saudi officers.
Hundreds of pick-up
trucks, armored vehicles, armored personnel carriers
(APCs) and engineering vehicles were captured. At least
15 other vehicles were destroyed.
The Houthis’ spokesman also revealed that Saudi warplanes
carried out at least 300 airstrikes in a desperate attempt
to foil the operation, targeting even its own soldiers and
proxies.
At least 200 coalition personnel were killed in such
“friendly” airstrikes.
“Our forces attempted to provide first aid to the
enemy’s personnel who were wounded as a result of the
airstrikes, but the continued sorties increased their
losses,” Brig. Gen. Sari.
The videos released by the media wing confirmed most of the
information revealed by Brig. Gen. Sari, who promised that
more videos will be released in the upcoming few days.
The Houthis’ spokesman noted that Operation Victory of God
is still ongoing, calling on Saudi-backed Yemeni fighters to
leave the front lines and return to their homes.
The Saudi-led coalition has not yet commented on the
shocking footage. The heavy losses could force the Kingdom
to reassessed its policy in Yemen.
In his address to the UN General Assembly on Saturday, Yemen's
Foreign Minister said, "The Iran-backed coupist militia of Houthis
ruined in a handful of years the dream of all Yemenis in freedom, equal
citizenship and dignified life."
Mohammed al-Hadhrami was
referring to the Houthi coup of September 2014 that sabotaged a
historical political transition in the country and triggered in 2015 the
armed conflict continuing to now.
"The dream of Yemen and Yemenis
was about to materialize, by the virtue of the GCC Initiative and the
outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference," he continued, "but
despite what happened the Yemeni people will not give way to lassitude."
"In the same way they toppled the (pre-1962) myth of God-given reign …
they are going to topple the worse version of that theocracy."
"I
stand before you today broken-hearted for how situations ended up in my
country of deeply rooted history and civilizations . My country is
severely wounded because of the war imposed by an armed religious
militia that habitually tortures, excludes and murders oppositionists,"
he said naming Iran, Houthis backer, as "the first sponsor of terrorism
in the world."
He called on the UN Security Council to shoulder
its responsibility in forcing the militia to honor the Stockholm
Agreement; withdraw from Hodeidah port, release all prisoners and lift
the years-long on Yemen's third largest city of Taiz.
Addressing
the new turbulence in the south, he said that after the liberation of
Aden port from Houthis in 2015, the government struggled and continued
to do its best in mitigating the impact and ensuring recovery for the
nation politically and economically. "Things went on like that until the
Southern Transitional Council rebelled and seized public offices in the
interim capital with financial, military and logistical backing from the
UAE."
He said the armed forces, trying later to retake Aden and
two other cities lost to the STC, came under direct airstrikes "launched
by the UAE warplanes in violation of the international law…and in
deviation from the stated mission of the Arab Coalition."
He
appreciated the Saudi efforts to address the rebellion and "these
misconducts of the UAE in the liberated territories" in what unifies
efforts in Yemen against the Houthi coup in the north.
He also
thanked donors who provided Yemen with humanitarian aid in particular
Saudi Arabia for helping alleviate the impact of the humanitarian crisis
in the country.
15 civilians injured in Houthi shelling targeting
neighborhoods and market south of Hodeidah
Fifteen civilians were injured, seven of them
seriously, as a result of shelling by Houthi militias on Saturday on a
market and residential neighborhoods in Al-Tahita district in southern
Yemen.
Local sources told Al-Masdar Online that Houthi militias shelled
after people left prayers this afternoon in al-Tur market on the asphalt
line west of the Tahita district, and the shelling injured 10 civilians,
including four seriously injured.
Al-Houthi militias also shelled the residential neighborhoods of
Al-Tahita on Saturday evening, injuring five family members, three of
whom were critically injured. At the same time, Houthi militias
shelled with artillery and medium machine guns, today, a number of
residential neighborhoods and joint forces positions east of the city of
Hodeidah and in the districts of Al-Drihimi and Hays in the south of the
province.
Houthis say coalition fighters carried out 229 raids in Yemen
in a week
Houthi group military spokesman Yahya Suray’a
said that Saudi-led Arab coalition fighters carried out 229 airstrikes
on positions in Yemen in one week. On his official Twitter account,
Suray’a posted statistics on coalition raids, mostly focused on the
provinces of Sa'da and Hajjah.
According to the Houthi spokesman, the raids included the provinces
of Amran, Sanaa and Al-Dhale’a, some of which targeted communications
towers and farms. The raids come nearly a week after the head of the
Houthi political council announced an initiative to stop the
Iranian-backed group's attacks against Saudi Arabia after they adopted
attacks on two Aramco plants on November 14.
The increasing number of raids is indicative of a pragmatic Saudi
response to the Houthi initiative.
A coalition raid last week targeted the home of a civilian in the
Qa’taba area of Al-Dhale’a, killing 15, mostof them women and children.
The Houthis announced on November 23rd the death of the leader, Major
General Mohammed Ali Da’bash, who leads one of the main fighting
factions in the armed group.
The Wall Street Journal reported last Thursday that Saudi stowed and
halted raids in four Yemeni regions, including Sanaa. Neither the
Saudi-led coalition nor the Houthis could comment on the report.
On Saturday, the Houthi military spokesman issued a statement on
fighting with Saudi-backed government forces in the border areas with
the kingdom, in the Kataf district of Sa'da governorate, at the end of
August.
Al-Houthi said they have Saudi prisoners, while a military source in
the national army says that the majority of the prisoners killed during
the operation belong to the "Al-Fatth Brigade " led by Salafist preacher
Radad al-Hashimi.
The battle itself left a large number of al-Fatah members dead and
captured, as well as the commander of the axis of the Houthi militia,
his deputy, and dozens of fighters in the fighting that lasted nearly a
week.
Saudi brigades destroyed, scores of paid fighters seized in
Najran offensive: Yemeni official
On Sep 29, 2019, YemenExtra, Y.A
The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces said that three Saudi military
brigades were completely destroyed after Yemeni Army forces mounted a
large-scale military offensive in the kingdom’s southern border region
of Najran.
Speaking at a press conference in the capital Sana’a on Saturday
evening, Brigadier General Yahya Saree described the major and efficient
operation, dubbed God’s Victory, as the biggest-ever since Saudi Arabia
and some of its allies embarked an atrocious military campaign on Yemen
more than four years ago, noting that the offensive lasted several
months and inflicted dramatic losses – both in terms of military
hardware and personnel – upon the enemy, the media bureau of Yemen’s
Houthi Ansarullah movement said in a statement
Sarie confirmed that thousands of the enemy forces, most of them
traitors and deceived, were taken prisoners, while hundreds others were
killed and injured, including large numbers of commanders, officers and
soldiers of the Saudi army during the operation.
“After the surrender of thousands of the enemy troops, the Yemeni
army and popular committees worked on securing them from retaliatory
airstrikes of the aggression coalition warplanes that targeted the
captives with dozens of raids,” the spokesman said.
Hundreds of square kilometers of land were liberated during the
operation, he added.
The high-profile Yemeni military official highlighted that Saudi
commanders, officers and soldiers are among those captured by Yemeni
forces and Popular Committees fighters.
“Only 72 hours after the start of the operation, our forces laid full
siege to enemy troops. Three brigades of traitors with units of the
Saudi army were completely destroyed, and scores of people taken
hostage,” Saree said.
He added, “Under the directives of the leadership [of Ansarullah
movement, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi], all prisoners were treated according
to the principles of Islam, Yemen’s customs and traditions as well as
human ethics. Our forces worked to protect thousands of surrendered
enemy forces against retaliatory raids by the coalition of aggression.”
In March 2015, the US -backed –Saudi-led coalition started a
war against Yemen with the declared aim of crushing the Houthi
Ansarullah movement, who had taken over from the staunch Riyadh ally and
fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, while also seeking to
secure the Saudi border with its southern neighbor. Three years and over
600,000 dead and injured Yemeni people and prevented the patients from
travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into
the war-torn country, the war has yielded little to that effect.
Despite the coalition claims that it is bombing the positions of the
Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and
civilian infrastructures.
More than 2,200 others have died of cholera, and the crisis has
triggered what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst
humanitarian disaster.
Amnesty International : US, France, and UK kill civilians in
Yemen
On Sep 26, 2019, YemenExtra, Y.A
Since the start of the Saudi-led coalition, backed by the US, air
strikes in March 2015, Amnesty has investigated dozens of attacks and
repeatedly found and identified remnants of US-manufactured munitions.
A bomb manufactured by a US corporation was used in a Saudi-led
attack on a residential home in Yemen, killing six civilians including
three children, according to a new report by
Amnesty International.
The air strike, carried out by the Saudi and Emirati-led coalition,
took place on 28 June and targeted the non-military site in the Ta’iz
governorate, located in the southwest of the country.
It has been revealed that the laser-guided bomb was manufactured by
US company
Raytheon and is the latest evidence in allegations pointing to US
involvement in the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen and serious violations of
international humanitarian law.
The rights group analyzed photographs of the remnants of the weapon
dug out from the site of the strike by family members, concluding that
the bomb that hit a residential building was a US-made 500 pound (230kg)
GBU-12 Paveway II.
“It is unfathomable and unconscionable that the USA continues to feed
the conveyor belt of arms flowing into Yemen’s devastating conflict,”
said Rasha Mohamed, Amnesty’s Yemen researcher.
Mohamed lashed out at the US, the UK and France for supplying arms to
the Saudi-led coalition, holding them accountable for “human rights
violations” and “war crimes” in Yemen.
In March 2015, the US -backed –Saudi-led coalition started a
war against Yemen with the declared aim of crushing the Houthi
Ansarullah movement, who had taken over from the staunch Riyadh ally and
fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, while also seeking to
secure the Saudi border with its southern neighbor. Three years and over
600,000 dead and injured Yemeni people and prevented the patients from
travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into
the war-torn country, the war has yielded little to that effect.
Despite the coalition claims that it is bombing the positions of the
Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and
civilian infrastructures.
More than 2,200 others have died of cholera, and the crisis has
triggered what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst
humanitarian disaster.
UN Report: the Saudi-led coalition pushes 79% of Yemeni
People below Poverty Line
On Sep 29, 2019, YemenExtra, Y.A
Yemen will become the poorest country in the world if its conflict
goes on through 2022, a new report by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) projects. Since 2014, war has driven poverty in Yemen
from 47 percent of the population to a projected 75 percent by the end
of 2019. If fighting continues through 2022, Yemen will rank as the
poorest country in the world, with 79 percent of the population living
under the poverty line and 65 percent classified as extremely poor, the
report.
The report said that in the absence of conflict Yemen could have made
progress toward achieving the SDGs, the global anti-poverty framework
agreed in 2015 with a target date of 2030. But more than four years of
fighting has set back human development by 21 years—and Yemen would be
unlikely to achieve any of the SDGs even if the war were to stop today.
Using cutting-edge data modeling and open-source information, the report
finds that Yemen’s war will have more than tripled the proportion of the
population living in extreme poverty if fighting persists. It will
skyrocket from 19 percent of the population in 2014 to a projected 65
percent in 2022.
In the absence of conflict, Yemen could have made progress towards
achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, the global framework for
combating poverty agreed in 2015 with the target date of 2030, the
report said.
“But more than four years of fighting have hampered human development
for 21 years, and Yemen is unlikely to achieve any of the SDGs even if
the war stops today,” the report added.
The report predicted that by 2022 Yemen would suffer from the largest
poverty gap in the world (the distance between the average income and
the poverty line).
UNDP’s report attributed the high poverty rate in Yemen to factors
related to the ongoing war, including the collapse of the economy in
which the country has lost $ 89 billion of its economic activity since
2015.
“This report is a reminder that Yemen cannot afford to wait. We must
act now,” Ambassador Jürgen Schulz, Deputy Permanent Representative of
Germany to the United Nations, said. “Without a political solution, we
will see Yemen disappear right before our eyes. That’s why there is no
alternative to the efforts of Special Envoy Martin Griffiths to advance
an inclusive political process.”
More than 80 percent of Yemen’s roughly 30 million people now require
humanitarian assistance and protection. The report launched today argues
that if Yemen remains at war through 2030, the costs will be borne by
generations to come, with poverty seeding ever more deeply, institutions
decimated, and Yemen more vulnerable to an ongoing and vicious cycle of
conflict and suffering.
In March 2015, the US -backed –Saudi-led coalition started a
war against Yemen with the declared aim of crushing the Houthi
Ansarullah movement, who had taken over from the staunch Riyadh ally and
fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, while also seeking to
secure the Saudi border with its southern neighbor. Three years and over
600,000 dead and injured Yemeni people and prevented the patients from
travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into
the war-torn country, the war has yielded little to that effect.
Despite the coalition claims that it is bombing the positions of the
Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and
civilian infrastructures.
More than 2,200 others have died of cholera, and the crisis has
triggered what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst
humanitarian disaster.
Saudi-led coalition worsens the disaster in southern Yemen
On Sep 27, 2019
YemenExtra, Y.A
Islah party paid fighers on Friday imposed a suffocating siege on the
towns of Ahwar and Loder in the occupied province of Abyan.
Sources in Abyan told YemenExtra that Islah military force from
Shabwa arrived in the city of Ahwar and imposed a suffocating siege on
the city of Loder in the occupied province of Abyan.
The sources added that the situation is tense now after the security
belt paid fighters loyal to the occupation of the United Arab Emirates
refused tribal mediation to hand over points under their control in the
city of Lauder.
In March 2015, the US -backed –Saudi-led coalition started a
war against Yemen with the declared aim of crushing the Houthi
Ansarullah movement, who had taken over from the staunch Riyadh ally and
fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, while also seeking to
secure the Saudi border with its southern neighbor. Three years and over
600,000 dead and injured Yemeni people and prevented the patients from
travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into
the war-torn country, the war has yielded little to that effect.
Despite the coalition claims that it is bombing the positions of the
Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and
civilian infrastructures.
More than 2,200 others have died of cholera, and the crisis has
triggered what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst
humanitarian disaster.
Saudi-led coalition doesn’t want peace in Yemen
On Sep 27, 2019
YemenExtra, Y.A
24 citizens were killed and 16 others injured by the Saudi-led
coalition, backed by the US, airstrikes after a peace initiative
declared by the Supermen Political Council, according to a Health
Ministry Spokesman statement on Thursday.
The spokesman denounced the international community’s silence towards
the coalition’s crimes in response to the peace initiative blessed by
the European Union and the United Nations.
In March 2015, the US -backed –Saudi-led coalition started a
war against Yemen with the declared aim of crushing the Houthi
Ansarullah movement, who had taken over from the staunch Riyadh ally and
fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, while also seeking to
secure the Saudi border with its southern neighbor. Three years and over
600,000 dead and injured Yemeni people and prevented the patients from
travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into
the war-torn country, the war has yielded little to that effect.
Despite the coalition claims that it is bombing the positions of the
Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and
civilian infrastructures.
More than 2,200 others have died of cholera, and the crisis has
triggered what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst
humanitarian disaster.
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