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You are here: Home / Archives for Sanaa

Deadly blasts hit Yemen mosque during Eid prayers

September 24, 2015 by Nasheman

At least 25 dead, dozens wounded as two suspected suicide bombers attack Shia mosque in Yemen’s capital Sanaa.

The capital is controlled by Shia Houthis who have driven out Yemen's government [Khaled Abdullah/Reuters]

The capital is controlled by Shia Houthis who have driven out Yemen’s government [Khaled Abdullah/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Suicide bombers have struck a mosque in Yemen’s capital in an attack targeting Shia worshippers that killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens, medics and witnesses said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Sanaa has been shaken by a string of bombings by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in recent months targeting Shia Muslims.

لحظة انفجار عبوة ناسفة في مسجد البليلي صنعاء: http://t.co/dak5l1tWEg via @YouTube

— Ahmed Fawzi #اليمن (@AhmedFawzi_1) September 24, 2015

Thursday’s blast ripped through the Balili mosque where Houthi Shia rebels who control Sanaa go to pray, according to witnesses. It came as worshippers marked Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar.

Photo of MOSQUE attacked during Eid prayer in #Yemen capital Sanaa killing and injuring dozens. #اليمن pic.twitter.com/U2aNmVnUJE — Yemen Post Newspaper (@YemenPostNews) September 24, 2015

Witnesses reported that after a first blast inside the mosque, a second suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt at the entrance as worshippers rushed outside.

ISIL, a Sunni Muslim group which controls swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, considers Shias to be heretics.

ISIL bomb attacks targeting several Shia mosques in Sanaa on March 21 killed 142 people. The group has also claimed attacks on mosques in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The capital of Sunni-majority Yemen has been under the control of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels for the past year. The Houthis have also expanded their grip to other parts of the country.

Extremists exploit chaos

Pro-government forces backed by air strikes and troops provided by a Saudi-led Arab coalition have recently managed to wrest back some southern provinces, including the second city of Aden.

After six months in exile in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi returned to Aden on Tuesday with a vow to liberate the country from the Houthis.

The Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against the rebels on March 26, and began a ground operation in July.

Hadi loyalists began an all-out offensive against the Houthis in the oil-rich Marib province east of Sanaa earlier this month, aiming to retake the capital.

The United Nations says around 5,000 people have been killed and 25,000 wounded, many of them civilians, since late March in Yemen.

Yemen has descended into chaos since the 2012 ouster of longtime strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, and security has broken down since Houthi militiamen swept unopposed into the capital a year ago.

ISIL and the Yemen-based branch of its rival Al-Qaeda have exploited the turmoil to boost their activities in the impoverished country on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

Al-Qaeda has long been a dominant force in Yemen, located next to oil-flush Saudi Arabia and key shipping lanes, but experts say ISIL is seeking to supplant its rival.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) controls parts of the vast southeastern province of Hadramawt, including the provincial capital Mukalla, which it is seized in April.

It has distanced itself from ISIL’s tactics, saying that it avoids targeting mosques to protect “innocent Muslims”.

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Eid-ul-Adha, Sanaa, Shias, Yemen

Saudi coalition airstrike hits Sana’a orphanage

September 5, 2015 by Nasheman

sanaa_yemen

by dpa GmbH

An airstrike launched by the Saudi-led alliance in Yemen appears to have struck an orphanage Saturday morning in Sana’a’s al-Nahda neighbourhood, killing and injuring an unknown number of people, local medical sources told dpa.

There have been contradicting reports about the casualties, and whether they include children or not. No further details were immediately available.

Separately, a residential building was bombarded by an airstrike earlier in the day in the Hadda area, also in Sana’a, killing three and injuring five civilians, local sources said.

Meanwhile, sources at the Health Ministry said a state of emergency was announced due to the rising number of casualties from mistaken strikes upon civilian sites since Friday.

“Due to the ongoing airstrikes, there is no way to make an exact estimation of the number of the dead and injured at this stage, but they are dozens,” a source at the ministry told dpa.

Airstrikes against Houthi-held military sites in Sana’a and other parts of Yemen have intensified since Friday, but that has increased the possibility of them mistakenly targeting civilian areas.

Saudi Arabia and fellow Sunni partners have mounted since March an air campaign in Yemen against Shiite Houthi rebels, who still control large parts of the country.

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Sanaa, Saudi Arabia, Yemen

Yemen hospitals facing closures as fighting rages

August 31, 2015 by Nasheman

Major hospitals in Sanaa and Taiz facing closure due supply shortages as fighting rages, NGOs say.

More than 15.2 million people are lacking access to basic healthcare across Yemen, according to Save the Children [EPA]

More than 15.2 million people are lacking access to basic healthcare across Yemen, according to Save the Children [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Major hospitals in Yemen have been struggling to function due to a supply shortages caused by the increased fighting between Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The main hospital in rebel-held capital, Sanaa, is on the verge of shutting down due to limited access to basic medicines and equipments caused by blockade imposed by pro-Hadi fighters, while hospitals in Taiz were under siege by Houthi rebels.

Save the Children said Al-Sabeen Hospital – that caters to children and pregnant women in Sanaa – could shut its doors on Tuesday over critical fuel shortages and a lack of medical supplies.

The hospital, reliant on the Red Sea port of Hodeida for 90 percent of its imports, serves an estimated three million people, the organisation said in a statement.

“The hospital has entirely run out of IV fluid, anaesthetic, blood transfusion tests, Valium to treat seizures and ready-prepared therapeutic food for severely malnourished children,” the statement said citing the hospital’s deputy manager Halel al-Bahri.

Basic healthcare

In Taiz, Yemen’s third city, two major hospitals have already closed due to a supply shortage caused by a blockade imposed by Houthi fighters, Médecins Sans Frontières or Doctors without Borders (MSF) said.

“Yemen International Hospital and the military hospital, the biggest in Taiz, have shut their doors because the rebels refused to allow us to deliver drugs and medical supplies,” Salah Ibrahim Dongu’du, a project coordinator at MSF, told Al Jazeera over phone.

“Safwa Hospital is closing today, and Rawda hospital can only accept emergency cases,” he said. “The medical situation in Taiz is not good. It is catastrophic.”

Dongu’du said that there are more than 1,400 people in need of immediate medical help in the besieged city.

The Saudi-led coalition has mounted an air campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels late March in support of the exiled President Hadi.

Across Yemen, 15.2 million people are lacking access to basic healthcare, an increase of 40 percent since March, Save the Children warned.

More than half a million children are expected to suffer severe acute malnutrition this year, and there has been a 150 percent increase in hospital admissions for malnutrition since March, it said.

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Sanaa, Taiz, Yemen

Yemen: missile site hit by Saudi strike causes huge explosion in Sanaa

April 20, 2015 by Nasheman

Saudi Arabia and its partners have carried out some 2,300 airstrikes on Houthi targets across Yemen since launching the air campaign more than three weeks ago. (AFP/File)

Saudi Arabia and its partners have carried out some 2,300 airstrikes on Houthi targets across Yemen since launching the air campaign more than three weeks ago. (AFP/File)

by Al Bawaba

One of the largest Yemen explosions in weeks occurred in the capital Sanaa Monday afternoon when the Saudi airstrike hit a Scud missile base and blew out windows in surrounding homes, residents told Reuters.

The number of casualties caused by the blow was not immediately available, but residents told the news agency the blast was the largest they’d seen from the coalition since it began more than three weeks ago. Thick smoke rose into the air, and homes around the base were left with shattered windows from the force.

The base is located on the Faj Attan mountain beside Sanaa’s Hadda district, where it shares space with the presidential palace and several embassies. It’s been the site of heavy fire by Saudi-led air campaign, whose forces have targeted it and similar military and airport areas across Yemen since March 25.

Saudi Arabia says it’s carried out some 2,300 airstrikes across the country since then, targeting the Shiite rebel group known as the Houthis, who took over the capital last September and are now allied with Iran.

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Houthis, Sanaa, Saudi Arabia, Yemen

Yemen President, Houthis reach agreement as tensions remain high

January 22, 2015 by Nasheman

A file picture taken on April 2, 2013 shows Yemeni President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi speaking with his Russia's counterpart Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Putin's Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow. AFP/Natalia Kolesnikova

A file picture taken on April 2, 2013 shows Yemeni President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi speaking with his Russia’s counterpart Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Putin’s Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow. AFP/Natalia Kolesnikova

by Al-Akhbar

A senior official of Yemen’s Houthi movement said on Thursday that a statement by President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi aimed at defusing a political crisis was acceptable because it confirmed the terms of a power-sharing agreement signed in September.

Witnesses said Houthi fighters remained in position outside the presidential palace and Hadi’s private residence, where the head of state actually lives. Hadi in his statement said the Houthis had agreed to remove their men from those places.

“The latest agreement is a series of timed measures to implement the peace and partnership accord, which shows that Ansarullah were not planning to undermine the political process,” Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi politburo, told Reuters, referring to an accord signed in September. Ansarullah is the Houthi group’s official name.

“The agreement is satisfactory because it confirms what is most important in the partnership agreement,” he added.

However, Hadi’s abducted chief of staff Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak remained in the hands of the Houthi militiamen.

Under a nine-point deal reached late on Wednesday, the militia pledged to withdraw from government buildings they seized this week during two days of violence that left at least 35 people dead and dozens wounded.

In return for concessions over a disputed draft constitution, they agreed to vacate the presidential palace, free bin Mubarak, withdraw from areas surrounding the residences of Hadi and Prime Minister Khalid Bahah, and abandon checkpoints across the capital.

However, by early Thursday the terms of the agreement had yet to be implemented.

“The Houthis were expected to release (bin) Mubarak by now but he has not been freed yet,” a presidency official said.

The Houthis agreed with Hadi to “normalize” the situation in Sanaa, calling for people to return to work and schools to reopen.

Shops in Sanaa reopened on Thursday and people were back on the streets. But tensions remained high and Sanaa University remained shut.

“Sanaa is over,” said Mohammed al-Usaimi, a 45-year-old construction worker who lives near Hadi’s residence.

“There’s no more security and no more work regardless of what they say about the return of life back to normal. This will not happen.”

Hundreds protested outside Sanaa University calling for a “new revolt” and chanting: “No to coups!”

Insecurity and political turmoil have mounted in Yemen since 2011 protests ousted former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh is thought to be backing the Houthis.

The northern-based Houthis established themselves as power brokers in Yemen in September by capturing Sanaa against scant resistance from Hadi’s administration, who appears not to have a full grip on the country’s fractious military.

The Houthi insurrection is one of several security challenges in Yemen, which borders oil exporter Saudi Arabia and is struggling with a secessionist movement in the south and the spread of an al-Qaeda insurgency.

The Houthis, who belong to the Zaydi sect of Shia Islam, have been involved in a decade-long conflict with the government.

Prior to the emergence of the Houthis as Yemen’s de facto top power in September, Houthi protesters blocked the main road to the capital’s airport and held sit-ins at ministries calling for the ousting of the government and the restoration of subsidies cut by the state in July as part of economic reforms.

The expansion of Houthis since September has angered al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which views Shias as heretics and Houthis as pawns of both the US and Iran.

In a statement, Hadi, an ally of Saudi Arabia, the West and staunch supporter of US drone attacks on AQAP — which claimed a series of deadly attacks in and outside Yemen including the January 7 attack in Paris on a French satirical journal — said Houthis had a right to serve in posts in all state institutions, and a draft constitution that has been a source of disagreement between him and the Houthis was open to amendment.

“The draft constitution is subject to amendments, deletions, streamlining and additions,” said the statement. All sides agreed government and state institutions, schools and universities should rapidly return to work, it added.

In the first sign that the government was returning to work, officials in the southern city of Aden said the air and seaports had resumed work after a one day suspension due to the crisis in Sanaa.

US and Yemen’s Gulf neighbors

The instability in Yemen has raised fears that the country, next to oil-rich Saudi Arabia and key shipping routes from the Suez Canal to the Gulf, could become a failed state along the lines of Somalia, as it struggles to recover following the ousting of Saleh.

On Wednesday, Gulf neighbors denounced what they described as a coup in Yemen.

A source close to the president said Hadi had met a Houthi official and denied the head of state was under house arrest inside his residence.

Yemen is a key US ally in the fight against AQAP, allowing Washington to conduct a longstanding drone war against the group on its territory.

However, US drone attacks in the impoverished Gulf country have also killed many civilians unaffiliated with al-Qaeda.

Top US diplomat John Kerry said Wednesday that Hadi was “going to accept if not all, most of, the objections that the Houthis had,” as news of the deal emerged in Sanaa.

“The Houthis had… violent objections to the refusal of the Hadi government to accept all of their demands with respect to the peace and partnership agreement and its implementation,” Kerry said after talks with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

“That had led to violence and “some of the institutions had broken down, and they’re in trouble,” Kerry said.

He stressed the powerful rebels had declared that Hadi was still president, and US officials were waiting to hold another meeting with the beleaguered Yemeni leader.

“Things are quiet in Yemen as of a little while ago. Our personnel are well-protected, we have strong and multiple personnel there,” he said.

Earlier, US officials said Washington was closely monitoring the crisis as officials revealed a US diplomatic vehicle was attacked late Tuesday.

The US military is ready to evacuate American diplomats and other personnel from Yemen, defense officials told AFP, but the State Department has so far not ordered the embassy to close.

Power-sharing

Speaking hours after his fighters’ display of force on Tuesday, Houthi Leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi warned Hadi that he had to implement a partnership agreement that would ensure all Yemeni factions have a fair governmental representation.

The Houthis, rebels from the north drawn from a large Shia minority that ruled a 1,000-year kingdom in Yemen until 1962, stormed into the capital in September but had mostly held back from directly challenging Hadi until last week.

They accuse the president of seeking to bypass a power-sharing deal signed when they seized Sanaa in September, and say they are also working to protect state institutions from corrupt civil servants and officers trying to plunder state property.

The Houthi-backed power-sharing deal gives the group a role in all military and civil state bodies. The Houthis, who say the accord has not been implemented fast enough, also demand changes to the divisions of regional power in a draft constitution.

Abdel-Malek’s speech left little doubt however that his movement was now in effective control of the country, as Al-Masdar newspaper referred to him as “the president’s president.”

(Reuters, AFP, Al-Akhbar)

Filed Under: Muslim World Tagged With: Abdel Malik al-Houthi, Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, Ansarullah, Houthis, Sanaa, USA, Yemen

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