DUBAI Eleven headless bodies have been dumped in a nature reserve in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, a local news website reported on Wednesday. The Aden al-Ghad news website quoted a security source in the city as saying that the male bodies were found on Tuesday evening in the al-Hiswa reserve, west of Aden. It was not immediately clear who killed the men and why, […]
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has deepened its rift with its Gulf allies over the ongoing conflict in Yemen, blocking a transfer of precision munitions to Saudi Arabia because of concerns about civilian casualties that administration officials attribute to poor targeting. Administration officials said on Tuesday that the White House had made the decision to block the sale by Raytheon of about 16,000 guided munitions kits, which […]
DUBAI Many disasters loom over one of the poorest countries in the Middle East as it suffers through nearly two years of war, among them a colossal pile of waste outside Yemen’s capital leeching toxic waste into its diminishing water supply. Hardly a paragon of waste management before the war, Sanaa was at least able to separate out the most dangerous materials from the 10-million-ton hill thanks […]
Britain’s exit from the European Union will mean it can forge free trade deals with Gulf Arab allies, foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Friday in a speech also heralding closer defence ties to the conservative monarchies. Johnson was speaking at a conference in Bahrain a day after footage was published of him accusing Saudi Arabia, an important ally for Britain, and Iran of stoking proxy wars […]
ADEN: Forty-eight Yemeni soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing claimed by the Daesh group in the southern port city of Aden, officials said Sunday in an updated casualty toll.“We have 48 dead and 29 wounded,” all soldiers, Abdel Nasser Al-Wali, health department chief for Aden, told AFP, revising an earlier toll of 35 dead.The bomber detonated his explosives belt as hundreds of troops had gathered to […]
Britain plans to deepen security cooperation with Gulf Arab countries and work with them to counter Iranian actions in the region, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday. Addressing a meeting on the sidelines of the Gulf Cooperation Summit in Bahrain, May said Britain would invest more than 3 billion pounds in defence spending in the region over the next decade. “Gulf security is our security,” May […]
AL MUKALLA, Yemen — A ship carrying almost 60 people off the coast of Yemen is believed to have capsized in high seas, a Yemeni official said on Tuesday. “Four passengers have been rescued by Spanish and Yemeni commercial ships that we were sailing in the area, and we are still looking for survivors,” said the official, Fahd Kafayen, the minister of fisheries. The boat set sail […]
DUBAI An investigative body set up by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Tuesday it should apologise for a deadly attack on a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital in August that the group said killed 11 people. But the Joint Group to Assess Incidents found the coalition was not responsible for or had legitimately targeted fighters in four other incidents that rights groups blamed on […]
ABU DHABI // The president of Yemen visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and the newly opened Wahat Al Karama memorial on Sunday. Abdrabu Mansur Hadi visited the Abu Dhabi landmarks as part of his official visit to the UAE. He visited the memorial, which was inaugurated last Wednesday for Commemoration Day, to honour killed UAE heroes and their sacrifices in defending their country. Mr Hadi toured […]
SANA, Yemen — The Houthi movement and its allies formed a new government in Yemen on Monday, a surprise that angered their Saudi-backed rivals and complicated United Nations efforts to end a conflict that has ravaged the Arab world’s poorest country for much of the past two years. The announcement of the new government, reported by the Houthi-run state television and Saba news agency, said it was […]
BEIJING China’s Foreign Ministry has expressed concern after Yemen’s armed Houthi movement and its political allies formed a new government, in what appeared a blow to U.N.-backed efforts to end 20 months of war in the country. Diplomats had hoped the Houthis, who control the capital Sanaa, would hold off on putting together a cabinet of their loyalists and instead form a unity government with their Yemeni […]
By Katharine Houreld | NAIROBI NAIROBI When Western navies raided three dhows in the Arabian Sea this year, some of the weapons they found matched arms taken from Houthi rebels in Yemen, a report said, suggesting links between Iranian suppliers and the Yemeni war. Two of the dhows, all of which were unregistered and therefore stateless, were manufactured by Al Mansoor, an Iranian shipbuilder whose yard is next […]
DUBAI Iran may seek to set up naval bases in Yemen or Syria in the future, as distant footholds might be more valuable militarily than nuclear technology, the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces said in remarks published on Sunday. “We need distant bases, and it may become possible one day to have bases on the shores of Yemen or Syria, or bases on islands […]
“We have lost everything, our infrastructure, and we have nothing left to lose,” he said. “Now it is a long war of attrition.” Photo A nonfunctioning cement factory in Amran, Yemen, that was bombed twice by the Saudi-led coalition. Credit Tyler Hicks/The New York Times The Houthis’ control of such key territory has made them essential to international efforts to end the conflict, leaving policy makers and […]
As mourners carried the coffin of a slain Hezbollah commander, they moved quickly to wipe away blood still dripping from his body — it had been washed in haste as it was rushed from the battlefields of Aleppo to its final resting place in Lebanon. While Russian war planes and bombs have dominated headlines about outside intervention in Syria’s five-year conflict, thousands of those fighting on the […]
A two-day ceasefire after nearly two years of war in Yemen expired at midday (0900 GMT) on Monday and would not be renewed, a spokesman for a Saudi-led military coalition told al-Arabiya TV, with each side blaming the other for violations. The 48-hour truce, announced unilaterally by the Saudi coalition on Friday, failed to halt fighting across the country between the Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi-led forces, which […]
RIYADH: The 48-hour cease-fire in Yemen, which ended on Monday, will not be extended because of repeated violations by the Houthi militias and their supporters, said the spokesman of the Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting terrorism.“The conditions and requirements to extend the truce were not met, and cease-fire rules were repeatedly violated by the Houthi militias and their allies, therefore it was called off,” Maj. Gen. Ahmed Al-Asiri […]
JEDDAH: Sporadic fighting shook parts of Yemen on Sunday as the Saudi-led Arab coalition battling Iran-backed Houthis warned that a fragile US-brokered cease-fire would not be extended unless violations ended. The 48-hour cease-fire, which began on Saturday, came at President Hadi’s request. An AFP correspondent in Sanaa said there had been no coalition airstrikes in the Houthi-occupied capital since the truce took effect.Coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Ahmad […]
A Saudi-led military coalition will start a 48 hour ceasefire in Yemen’s war at 1pm (0900 GMT) on Saturday, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. The truce will be extended if Yemen’s Houthi movement shows commitment to it and if the group allows humanitarian aid into areas under siege, the news agency reported. The coalition has been fighting Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former president […]
RIYADH: A 48-hour cease-fire announced by the Saudi-led Arab coalition on Saturday was violated many times by the Iranian-backed Houthi militias. Maj. Gen. Ahmed Al-Asiri, spokesman for the Arab coalition forces, told Arab News that the Houthis had violated the truce inside Yemen as well as along the border with Saudi Arabia. “Yes, they violated the truce by firing inside Yemen and on the border with Saudi […]
1979: A threatening revolution Saudi Arabia, a young country pieced together only in the 1930s, has built its legitimacy on religion. By promoting its stewardship of the holy sites at Mecca and Medina, it could justify its royal family’s grip on power. Continue reading the main story Iran’s revolution, in 1979, threatened that legitimacy. Iranians toppled their authoritarian government, installing Islamists who claimed to represent “a revolution […]
DUBAI: Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel Malek Al-Mekhlafi said on Tuesday his government was not interested in a cease-fire and unity government announcement by US Secretary of State John Kerry.Speaking after talks in Oman, which is close to the Houthis, and in the UAE, a key member of the Saudi-led coalition, Kerry said he had presented Houthi delegates with a document outlining a cease-fire and peace deal.He said […]
During an interview in his office here, Mr. Omgy acknowledged that his company had provided financial services to Al Qaeda. “We had no other option but to comply with them,” he said. “They were the rulers of the city.” Continue reading the main story But he denied the Treasury Department’s charge that he was a Qaeda member, describing his ties to the group as a business relationship […]
The Economic Wreckage The destruction in Yemen could cripple its economy long into the future, and it is unclear how the country will rebuild. Continue reading the main story “They have hit many factories on the basis of suspicion, but we never get the real reasons,” said Abdul-Hakeem Al Manj, a lawyer at the Sana Chamber of Commerce and Industry who is helping businesses document the strikes […]
