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Yemen's Houthis advance towards Aden

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Senior officials dispute claims that President Hadi has fled and his military leaders are under arrest in southern city.

A TV station says Houthi fighters have seized an airbase from where US troops used to run anti-al-Qaeda campaign. Anadolu/Mohammed Hamoud.

A TV station says Houthi fighters have seized an airbase from where US troops used to run anti-al-Qaeda campaign. Anadolu/Mohammed Hamoud.

by Al Jazeera

Reports from Yemen say President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his top military commander are on the run while other military leaders, including the defence minister, are under arrest after Shia Houthi fighters entered the southern city of Aden.

However, two senior Yemeni officials including the head of national security have told Reuters news agency that Hadi remains in Aden and has no plans to leave.

Asked on Wednesday if Hadi was in Aden, Major-General Ali al-Ahmadi, chief of national security, told Reuters: “He’s here, he’s here, he’s here. I am now with him in the palace. He is in Aden.”

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the reports.

The developments came just hours after a television station said Houthi fighters and their allies had seized an airbase where US troops and Europeans helped the country in its fight against al-Qaeda.

The Al-Masirah TV station reported that the Houthis had “secured” the al-Annad airbase near the town of Lahij, and claimed the base had been looted by both al-Qaeda fighters and troops loyal to Hadi.

That airbase is only 60km  away from Aden, the port city where President Abd- Rabbu Mansour Hadi had established a temporary capital.

Witnesses said they saw a convoy of presidential vehicles leaving Hadi’s palace, located at the top of a hill in Aden overlooking the Arabian Sea, the Associated Press news agency reported.

The advance of the Houthis threatens to plunge the Arab world’s poorest country into a civil war that could draw in its Gulf neighbours. Already, Hadi has asked the UN to authorise a foreign military intervention in the country.

Saud Al Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, had previously warned that his country would take “necessary measures” if the Houthis did not resolve the crisis peacefully, without elaborating further.

Diplomatic missions of Hadi’s Arab Gulf allies, including Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait, have evacuated their diplomatic staff from Aden over the past few days, officials said.

They earlier evacuated from Sanaa and relocated to Aden to support Hadi.

Yemen sinks deeper into chaos after Daesh claims mosque bombings

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Two mosques, both located in Yemen's capital Sanaa, were hit with two suicide bombers each during midday prayers Friday in a string of attacks that was later claimed by Daesh. (AFP/File)

Two mosques, both located in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, were hit with two suicide bombers each during midday prayers Friday in a string of attacks that was later claimed by Daesh. (AFP/File)

by The Daily Star

Multiple suicide bombings claimed by ISIS killed at least 142 people and wounded around 351 others Friday at Shiite mosques in Yemen’s capital in the deadliest violence to hit the fragile war-torn nation in decades.

A group claiming to be a Yemeni branch of ISIS said it carried out the bombings and warned of an “upcoming flood” of attacks against the Houthi rebels, who have taken over the capital and much of Yemen. The claim, posted online, could not immediately be independently confirmed and offered no proof of an ISIS role.

If true, Friday’s bombing would be the first major attack by ISIS supporters in Yemen and an ominous sign that the influence of the group that holds much of Iraq and Syria has spread to the chaotic nation. The claim was posted on the same Web bulletin board where the ISIS affiliate in Libya claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s deadly attack on a museum in Tunisia.

A significant presence of ISIS supporters would add an alarming new element to the turmoil in this fragmenting nation. Yemen is already home to the most powerful branch of the Al-Qaeda network, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. AQAP militants seized control Friday of a southern provincial capital, Al-Houta, in the most dramatic grab of territory by the group in years.

Meanwhile, the Houthi rebels’ capture of the capital and a large swath of the country – at least nine of its 21 provinces – has raised fears of a civil war tinged with sectarianism. The government of the internationally backed president, Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi, has fled to the southern port city of Aden, where it battled Thursday with supporters of the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has allied with the Houthis.

AQAP has been battling for months against the Houthis in various parts of the country. But the group issued an official statement denying it carried out Friday’s bombings, pointing to earlier instructions from the terror network’s leader Ayman al-Zawahri not to strike mosques or markets.

In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the U.S. had seen no indications of an operational link between ISIS and Friday’s attacks.

He said the U.S. was investigating to see whether the ISIS branch in Yemen has the command-and-control structure in place to substantiate its claim of responsibility.

Earnest said it was plausible that ISIS was falsely claiming responsibility for the incident. “It does appear that these kinds of claims are often made for a perception that it benefits their propaganda efforts,” Earnest said.

In past months, there have been several online statements by individual Yemeni militants declaring allegiance to ISIS. The ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, formally accepted their oaths and declared a “province” of ISIS in Yemen in November. Baghdadi and his deputies in Iraq have vowed to strike against the Houthis in Yemen. That has raised questions whether direct operational links have also arisen. For example, In Libya, where ISIS also declared official “provinces,” fighters and officials are known to have been sent from the group’s core to build the local branch.

Friday’s bombings left scenes of bloody devastation in the Badr and Al-Hashoush mosques, located across town from each other in Sanaa. Both mosques are controlled by the Shiite Houthis, but they are also frequented by Sunni worshippers. Footage from the Al-Hashoush mosque, showed screaming volunteers using bloodied blankets to carry away victims, with a small child among the dead lined up on the mosque floor.

Two bombers hit each mosque during midday Friday prayers, when large crowds turn out to attend weekly sermons. Nashwan al-Atab, a member of the Health Ministry’s operations committee, told AFP 142 people were killed and at least 351 wounded.

A prominent Shiite Imam, Al-Murtada al-Mansouri, and two senior Houthi leaders were among the dead, the rebel-owned Al-Masirah TV reported.

It also reported that a fifth suicide bomb attack on another mosque was foiled in the northern city of Saada, a Houthi stronghold.

In the Badr mosque, the first bomber was caught by guards searching worshippers at the gate, where he detonated his device. In the ensuing panic, a second bomber entered the mosque and blew himself up amid the crowd, according to the official news agency SABA.

“I fell on the ground and when I regained consciousness I found myself lying in a lake of blood,” one survivor, Ahmad al-Gabri, told the AP. Two worshippers next to him were killed in the explosions, then another died when one of the mosque’s large glass chandeliers fell on him, Gabri said.

Another survivor, Sadek al-Harithi, said the explosions were like “an earthquake where I felt the ground split and swallow everyone.”

In the Al-Hashoush mosque, one witness said he was thrown two meters away by one of the blasts and found the floor strewn with body parts.

“Blood was running like a river,” Mohammed al-Ansi said.

In an online statement, a group calling itself the media office of ISIS “Sanaa Province” claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that the four Sanaa suicide bombers blew themselves up among crowds of Houthis.

“This operation is just a glimpse of an upcoming flood, God willing,” the group said in the statement. “We swear to avenge the blood of Muslims and the toppling of houses of God.”

“The soldiers of ISIS … will not rest until we have uprooted [the Houthis], repelled their aggression, and cut off the arm of the Iranian project in Yemen,” it said, referring to claims that Shiite powerhouse Iran is backing the rebels.

In a further sign of the country’s chaos, AQAP took control of the southern city of Al-Houta Friday, Yemeni security officials said. Al-Qaeda militants driving pickup trucks and flying black flags swept through the city, which is the capital of Lahj province. They took over the main security barracks, the governor’s office, and the intelligence headquarters, which houses prisons with Al-Qaeda detainees, the officials said.

Most of the security forces in the city surrendered to the militants without resistance. The militants killed 21 members of the security forces who resisted at the governor’s office, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Yemen president evacuated as airstrikes target palace

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Unidentified warplanes attack residence in southern city of Aden, forcing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee.

Anadolu/Mohammed Hamoud.

Anadolu/Mohammed Hamoud.

by Al Jazeera

Yemen’s president has been forced to flee his presidential palace after two fighter planes targeted his residence in Aden, a government official has said.

President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was evacuated on Thursday after the planes opened fire, hitting his residence in the southern city.

“President Hadi has been evacuated to a safe place but he has not left the country,” Hadi’s aide told the AFP news agency as a plane made a second pass over the palace.

The aircraft dropped a bomb or fired a missile at the compound in al-Maasheeq district of the southern port city, where Hadi is based, the official said, in a sharp escalation of Yemen’s months-long armed turmoil.

Residents said anti-aircraft guns opened fire at the planes, and smoke was seen rising from the area, but it was not immediately clear if Hadi was in the compound.

A Yemeni security source said the situation at the presidential palace “was under control and there was nothing to be worried about”.

Airport clashes

The attack on Hadi’s compound came after forces loyal to Yemen’s former president forced the closure of Aden’s international airport after clashes left at least four people dead and 13 wounded, security sources said.

A special forces unit, led by renegade General Abdel Hafez al-Saqqaf, stormed the airport grounds on Thursday before being repelled by fighters linked to the current president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

A military source told the AFP news agency that “Saqqaf’s troops were forced to retreat to their camp [north of the airport] after being subjected to heavy shelling.”

During the hours-long fighting, more than a 100 passengers who had boarded a Yemenia aircraft flight to Cairo, were ordered off a plane as machinegun fire rang out and explosions shook the terminal building.

At least two shells hit the airport’s grounds, security and aviation officials at the scene said, with at least four people killed and 13 wounded. Another 10 others were captured.

Sporadic clashes also erupted throughout Aden. Sounds of explosions periodically shook the city, and streets were largely deserted as residents hid in homes.

Meanwhile, a fighter jet attempting to target Hadi’s palace in Aden hit a nearby hill instead, leading to smoke billowing in to the sky.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from the Yemeni capital Sanaa, Hakim Al Masmari, editor in chief of the Yemen Post, said the forces who lanched the assault were still in Aden and were expected to continue attacks against Hadi.

Tensions have been building in Aden for days. Hadi loyalists dominate the city, but two army units are loyal to Saqqaf, a pro-Saleh commander, who leads a force of 3,000 special forces police.

Hadi unsuccessfully tried to remove al-Saqqaf from his post earlier this month, prompting some clashes.

Hadi insists he remains the country’s legitimate leader and enjoys much support in Aden, where he has been based since fleeing house arrest in Sanaa last month.

Deadly clashes continue in Yemen as embassies shutdown

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Clashes between Shi’ite Houthi militiamen and Sunni fighters have killed 26 people in Yemen.

The embassy closures have isolated Yemen's new rulers and lent urgency to struggling talks over internal power-sharing which the Houthis.

The embassy closures have isolated Yemen’s new rulers and lent urgency to struggling talks over internal power-sharing which the Houthis.

by Reuters

Sanaa: Clashes between Shi’ite Houthi militiamen and Sunni tribesmen fighting alongside Al Qaeda militants killed 26 people in Yemen, local officials said, as the United Arab Emirates joined Saudi Arabia and Western countries in closing its embassy in the country.

Heavy fighting was ongoing in the southern mountainous province of al-Bayda, leading to the death of 16 Houthi rebels along with 10 Sunni tribesmen and militants, security officials and tribal sources told Reuters.

The state faces collapse in Yemen two weeks after the Houthi group took formal control of the country and continued an armed push southward.

France, the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy and Saudi Arabia have closed their missions in the capital Sanaa and withdrawn staff, citing security concerns.

The United Arab Emirates announced the closure of its embassy in Sanaa on Saturday, state news agency WAM said.

It cited “the increasing deterioration of the political and security situation Yemen is witnessing and the tragic events after the Houthis undermined the legitimate authority.”

Yemen’s rich Sunni Gulf neighbors loathe the Iranian-backed rebels and have called their rise to power a “coup.”

The embassy closures have isolated Yemen’s new rulers and lent urgency to struggling talks over internal power-sharing which the Houthis are conducting with opposition parties.

Hailing their advance as a “revolution” aimed at corrupt officials and economic ruin, the Houthis dissolved parliament and set up their own ruling body earlier this month.

Opponents say the group is backed by Yemen’s former strongman president Ali Abdullah Saleh – ousted in 2011 Arab Spring protests – and is bent on seizing land and the levers of power.

The Houthi spread to Yemen’s well-armed tribal regions in the East and South has prompted locals to make common cause with militants from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, one of the deadliest arms of the global militant organization.

Months of combat and AQAP bombings directed against Houthi targets in Sanaa have stoked fears of an all-out sectarian war.

Embassies closed in Yemen as AQAP supporters pledge allegiance to ISIS

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Security forces stand guard around the US Embassy building in Sanaa, Yemen, on February 11, 2015 after the US government closed down its embassy. Anadolu/Mohammed Hamoud.

Security forces stand guard around the US Embassy building in Sanaa, Yemen, on February 11, 2015 after the US government closed down its embassy. Anadolu/Mohammed Hamoud.

Britain, the United States and France have pulled their ambassadors and other staff out of Yemen and suspended work at the embassies due to fears over the security situation, officials said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a group of Islamist militants in Yemen, which formerly had supported al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on Tuesday.

The US State Department said on Tuesday it made the decision to close its Yemen embassy “due to the deteriorating security situation in Sanaa,” just as the United Nations brokered a second day of talks aimed at resolving the crisis gripping the country.

The UK’s move came after the United States said it was closing its embassy indefinitely after the Houthi militants, who staged a political takeover on February 6 , warned against attempts to destabilize the country.

Britain’s Foreign Office in London said operations at its embassy had been suspended “temporarily.”

“The security situation in Yemen has continued to deteriorate over recent days,” Tobias Ellwood, the Foreign Office minister with responsibility for the Middle East, said.

“Regrettably we now judge that our embassy staff and premises are at increased risk.”

“We have therefore decided to withdraw diplomatic staff and temporarily suspend the operations of the British Embassy in Sanaa,” Ellwood added. “Our ambassador and diplomatic staff have left Yemen this morning and will return to the UK.”

On Wednesday, the French embassy also suspended its operations for “security reasons.”

Anti-Houthi demonstrations

Yemenis in the central city of Taiz and the capital Sanaa held the largest protests yet against a takeover by a the Houthi militia group on Wednesday after Western countries shut their embassies in Yemen over security fears.

Houthi fighters, bedecked in tribal robes and automatic rifles, were out in force manning checkpoints and guarding government buildings they control in the capital.

Houthi gunmen shot in the air and thrust daggers at hundreds of protesters opposing their rule in Sanaa.

In Taiz, which the Houthis do not control, huge crowds of thousands carried banners and chanted slogans against the militants.

Meanwhile, Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman has urged revolutionaries to use the fourth anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled ousted dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh to launch a fresh revolution against what she called the Houthi “coup.”

“This new revolutionary wave won’t stop until the army’s weaponry is restored, militias dissolved, and a modern state — that respects freedom, dignity, justice and equality — is established,” Karman said in a statement.

The Nobel laureate said that Yemen was currently at a critical juncture. “It will either be consumed by chaos and war or the youth will defeat violence through their peaceful and popular will,” she said.

Unfounded fears

On Tuesday, Houthi militia chief Abdel Malek al-Houthi said that foreign diplomats fears of instability was unfounded.

Speaking in a televised address as the UN-brokered talks carried on at a Sanaa hotel, Houthi sought to reassure diplomats after reports that some embassies in Sanaa intended to close.

“Some people are raising concerns among diplomatic missions so that they flee the country,” he said, adding that “these fears are unfounded. The security situation is stable.”

“It is in the interests of everyone, both inside and outside the country, that Yemen be stable,” Houthi stressed.

“The interests of those who bet on chaos and want to hurt the economy and security of the people will suffer,” the Houthi leader warned.

In particular, he singled out the monarchies in the Gulf, who have vowed to defend their interests in the face of what Houthis’ opponents are calling a coup.

Addressing his adversaries, Houthi proposed what he called “a partnership” under the “constitutional declaration” by which the militia seized power.

He took particular aim at the Islamist party al-Islah, one of the fiercest opponents of his militia, urging it to give up an ideology “that excludes the other.”

On February 6, matters came to a head when the Houthis said they had dissolved parliament and created a presidential council to bring the country out of crisis.

UN envoy Jamal Benomar warned that Yemen was at a “crossroads,” and urged political leaders to “take up their responsibilities and achieve consensus” as he battles for a negotiated solution.

Meanwhile, Houthis affirmed their military supremacy across the country as clashes broke out on Tuesday, leading to the militia taking control of the central al-Bayda province.

In Tuesday’s fighting, residents of the central city of Bayda said elements of the Republican Guard still loyal to the ousted dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh had supported the Houthis in the heavy combat that led to the province falling under Houthi control.

In the west of the province, 10 Houthis were killed and another six captured in fighting with local tribesmen, tribal sources revealed.

The Houthi takeover has drawn international condemnation, including from UN chief Ban Ki-moon calling for President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who has resigned, to be restored to power.

“The situation is very, very seriously deteriorating, with the Houthis taking power and making this government vacuum. There must be restoration of legitimacy of President Hadi,” Ban said.

The fall of Hadi’s government has sparked fears that impoverished Yemen — strategically located next to oil-rich Saudi Arabia and on the key shipping route from the Suez Canal to the Gulf — could plunge into chaos.

AQAP allegiance to ISIS

Meanwhile, a group of Islamist fighters in Yemen renounced their loyalty to al-Qaeda’s leader and pledged allegiance to the head of ISIS, according to a Twitter message retrieved by US-based monitoring group SITE.

The monitoring group could not immediately verify the statement distributed on Twitter purportedly from supporters of AQAP based in central Yemen.

AQAP is considered the most powerful branch of the global militant network headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri and has previously rejected the authority of ISIS, which has declared a caliphate in large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria.

“We announce the formation of armed brigades specialized in pounding the apostates in Sanaa and Dhamar,” the purported former AQAP supporters wrote, referring to two central provinces.

“We announce breaking the pledge of allegiance to the sheikh, the holy warrior and scholar Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri … We pledge to the caliph of the believers Ibrahim bin Awad al-Baghdadi to listen and obey,” they said.

Militants in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Libya have also joined ISIS, signaling a competition for loyalty among armed Islamists battling states in the Middle East and North Africa.

US drones keep flying over Yemen

The Pentagon on Tuesday acknowledged that Yemen’s political unrest was impacting its counter-terrorism capabilities but said it was still training some Yemeni forces and could still carry out operations inside the country against al-Qaeda militants.

“There’s no question as a result of the political instability in Yemen that our counter-terrorism capabilities have been … affected,” Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told a news briefing.

“As I stand here today, we continue to conduct some training. We continue to have the capability — unilaterally if need be — of conducting counter-terrorism operations inside Yemen.”

Turmoil in the wake of late January’s collapse of a US-backed Yemeni government after days of clashes in the capital Sanaa, forced the US State Department to reduce staff and operations at the US Embassy.

The turmoil has also cast doubt over the future of a key partnership for Washington in the fight against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Only last September, US President Barack Obama touted cooperation with Yemen as a model in counter-terrorism.

The crisis in the Arab world’s poorest country threatens to create a power vacuum that could allow AQAP to expand across the peninsula.

In Late January, US officials said training of Yemeni special forces had ground to a halt in the capital, though some joint activities were continuing in the south.

The US officials added that they can continue drone strikes, as demonstrated by a February 10 attack in Hadramawt province in southeastern Yemen, which killed four suspected al-Qaeda members.

The Central Intelligence Agency, which conducts the bulk of drone operations in Yemen, has no drone bases on Yemeni soil but operates from Saudi Arabia and Djibouti, US officials say.

Yemen is a key US ally in the fight against al-Qaeda, 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.

(AFP, Reuters, Anadolu, Al-Akhbar)

We dream about drones, said 13-year-old Yemeni boy before his death in a CIA strike

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Mohammed Tuaiman becomes the third member of his family to be killed by what he called ‘death machines’ in the sky months after Guardian interview

‘My father was martyred by a drone’: Yemeni teenager records life months before suffering a similar fate

‘My father was martyred by a drone’: Yemeni teenager records life months before suffering a similar fate

by Chavala Madlena, Hannah Patchett & Adel Shamsan, The Guardian

A 13-year-old boy killed in Yemen last month by a CIA drone strike had told the Guardian just months earlier that he lived in constant fear of the “death machines” in the sky that had already killed his father and brother.

“I see them every day and we are scared of them,” said Mohammed Tuaiman, speaking from al-Zur village in Marib province, where he died two weeks ago.

“A lot of the kids in this area wake up from sleeping because of nightmares from them and some now have mental problems. They turned our area into hell and continuous horror, day and night, we even dream of them in our sleep.”

Much of Mohammed’s life was spent living in fear of drone strikes. In 2011 an unmanned combat drone killed his father and teenage brother as they were out herding the family’s camels.

The drone that would kill Mohammed struck on 26 January in Hareeb, about an hour from his home. The drone hit the car carrying the teenager, his brother-in-law Abdullah Khalid al-Zindani and a third man.

“I saw all the bodies completely burned, like charcoal,” Mohammed’s older brother Maqded said. “When we arrived we couldn’t do anything. We couldn’t move the bodies so we just buried them there, near the car.”

Several anonymous US government officials told Reuters that the strike had been carried out by the CIA and had killed “three men believed to be al-Qaida militants”. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris last month.

Marib province has become a flashpoint in the struggle between the Houthi rebels –who have ousted the president after overrunning the capital – and the local tribes who reject the Shia group’s attempts to bring Marib under their control. Like the other families around al-Zur and throughout Marib province, the Tuaiman men have been involved in pushing back against the Houthis.

In a secretive programme carried out by the CIA in rural, isolated parts of Yemen, it is easy for confusion to surround the particulars of those killed in a drone strike. Affiliations with al-Qaida and anti-government tribal sympathies mesh and merge depending on who is attacking whom.

Maqdad said the family had been wrongly associated with al-Qaida, and family members strongly deny that Mohammed was involved in any al-Qaida or anti-Houthi fighting. “He wasn’t a member of al-Qaida. He was a kid.”

Speaking from al-Zur the day after his brother’s death, Meqdad said: “After our father died, al-Qaida came to us to offer support. But we are not with them. Al-Qaida may have claimed Mohammed now but we will do anything – go to court, whatever – in order to prove that he was not with al-Qaida.”

When the Guardian interviewed Mohammed last September, he spoke of his anger towards the US government for killing his father. “They tell us that these drones come from bases in Saudi Arabia and also from bases in the Yemeni seas and America sends them to kill terrorists, but they always kill innocent people. But we don’t know why they are killing us.

“In their eyes, we don’t deserve to live like people in the rest of the world and we don’t have feelings or emotions or cry or feel pain like all the other humans around the world.”

Mohammed’s father, Saleh Tuaiman, was killed in 2011 in a drone strike that also killed Mohammed’s teenage brother, Jalil. Saleh Tuaiman left behind three wives and 27 children.

The CIA and Pentagon were both asked to comment on whether the teenager had been confirmed as an al-Qaida militant. Both declined to comment.

Mohammed’s 27 siblings have now lost three family members in US drone strikes and may grow up with the same sense of confusion and injustice Mohammed expressed shortly before his death.

“The elders told us that it’s criminal to kill the civilians without distinguishing between terrorists and innocents and they kill just on suspicion, without hesitation.”

For Meqdad, Mohammed’s death has reignited his determination to seek out justice for his family. “We live in injustice and we want the United States to recognise these crimes against my father and my brothers. They were innocent people, we are weak, poor people, and we don’t have anything to do with this.”

However, he added: “Don’t blame us because we sympathise with al-Qaida, because they were the only people who showed their faces to us, the government ignored us, the US ignored us and didn’t compensate us. And we will go to court to prove this is wrong.”

Additional reporting by Iyad al-Qaisi in Jordan

Yemen: Houthi rebels announce takeover of country

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Houthis issue “constitutional declaration” amid continuing unrest

Houthi rebels announced they were assuming country of Yemen on Friday. (Image: Google maps)

Houthi rebels announced they were assuming country of Yemen on Friday. (Image: Google maps)

by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams

Unrest continues in Yemen on Friday as Shiite Houthi rebels announced a “constitutional declaration” and that they were assuming control of the country.

The group issued the statement in a televised address from the Sunni majority country’s capital of Sana’a.

A 551-member Transitional National Council would be formed to replace the parliament, and that body would appoint a 5-member council to assume the presidential role during a “transitional period,” according to their statement.

President Abed Mansour Hadi, Prime Minister Khaled Bahah, and members of the Yemeni cabinet resigned last month after the rebels had reportedly seized the presidential palace.

The Houthis’ announcement follows a Wednesday deadline set by the rebels for political parties to “to reach a solution and fill the vacuum.”

That power vacuum, however, did not appear to prevent U.S. drone strikeson the impoverished country.

From the New York Times:

“The revolutionary movement has always been quick, it won’t take that long,” said Ali al-Imad, a member of the Houthi political bureau. “It’s not important when, so much as it is that we now have a political road map.”

Independent journalist Iona Craig, who was based in Yemen or four years until December, tweeted Friday that the Houthi’s action was essentially formalizing a coup:

The Houthis have been described in media reports as being backed by Iran, but Vijay Prashad, George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies at Trinity College, dismisses this claim. As Inter Press Service reported last month:

On the one side, [Prashad] said, the government of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and then Hadi, suggested to the U.S. [the Houthis] were anti al-Qaeda.

But, on the other hand, they used the fact of al-Qaeda to go after their adversaries, including the Zaydis (Houthis).

“This double game was well known to the Americans. They went along with it. It is what allowed AQAP to take Jar and other regions of Yemen and hold them with some ease,” Prashad said.

He dismissed as “ridiculous” the allegation the Zaydis are “proxies of Iran”. He said they are a tribal confederacy that has faced the edge of the Saleh-Hadi sword.

Journalist and co-founder of the The Intercept Jeremy Scahill has stated that U.S.-backed former President Ali Abdullah Saleh “is sort of the not-so-hidden hand behind some of the power grab efforts of the Houthis.”

Meanwhile, a humanitarian crisis continues to grip the lives of many Yemenis.

Anti-poverty organization Oxfam warned last month that over half the population was in need of aid, and that millions of Yemenis did not have enough to eat or have clean drinking water or basic healthcare services.

“It is simply unacceptable that the real story of 16 million Yemenis in need of help keeps going unnoticed,” Grace Ommer, Oxfam’s Country Director in Yemen said. “Despite the challenges, we continue to deliver desperately needed aid to Yemenis in some of the poorest areas outside the capital. But if the international community continues to stand by and watch while Yemen risks going from a fragile to a failed state we will find it even harder to maintain this lifesaving support.”

Yemeni President, PM resign following political turmoil

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A Houthi fighter wearing uniform confiscated from the Yemeni army sits on a government tank in the area around the house of the country's president in the capital Sanaa, on January 22, 2015. AFP/Mohammed Huwais

A Houthi fighter wearing uniform confiscated from the Yemeni army sits on a government tank in the area around the house of the country’s president in the capital Sanaa, on January 22, 2015. AFP/Mohammed Huwais

Two powerful explosions struck Friday near the houses of two Houthi leaders in the group’s main stronghold in capital Sanaa, eyewitnesses said.

Loud sounds of explosions were heard in northern Sanaa’s al-Garaf district.

The houses of the two leaders sustained major damage but left no casualties, eyewitnesses told Anadolu news agency.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack thus far. However, similar attacks targeting Houthis in Yemen have been claimed by Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

The news comes after Yemeni President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi offered to resign following a standoff with the Houthi movement, throwing his country deeper into political turmoil.

In his letter of resignation on Thursday, Hadi, a key US and Saudi ally, said he could no longer stay in office as the country was in “total deadlock.”

“I believe that I have not been able to achieve the goals for which I took up my duties,” he said, adding that Yemen’s political leaders had failed “to lead the country to calmer waters.”

Prime Minister Khalid Bahah also tendered his resignation, saying he didn’t want to be part of the collapse of the country.

“We do not want to be a party to what is happening and what is about to happen,” Bahah said in his letter of resignation, adding that the government refused “to take responsibility for the actions of others.”

A senior official told AFP that Yemen’s parliament had rejected Hadi’s resignation.

“Parliament… refused to accept the president’s resignation and decided to call an extraordinary session for Friday morning,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The shock announcements came after Houthi fighters tightened their grip on Sanaa this week after seizing almost full control of the capital in September.

They had maintained fighters around key buildings on Thursday and continued holding a top presidential aide they kidnapped on Saturday, despite a deal to end what authorities called a coup attempt.

The potential fall of Hadi’s Western-backed government will raise serious concerns of strategically important but impoverished Yemen collapsing into complete chaos.

Al-Qaeda power base

The country is an important power base for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the Yemeni and Saudi branch of the international jihadist network.

AQAP is considered al-Qaeda’s most dangerous affiliate and claimed responsibility for this month’s deadly attack on French satirical weeklyCharlie Hebdo, as well as numerous deadly attacks in Yemen.

Yemen has allowed the United States to carry out repeated drone attacks on al-Qaeda militants in its territory.

It is important to note that US drone attacks in the impoverished Gulf country have also killed many civilians unaffiliated with al-Qaeda.

Hadi is from Yemen’s formerly independent south and in recent days southern officials have taken steps to back his rule, including closing the air and sea ports in the main city of Aden.

The security and military committee for four of south Yemen’s provinces, including its main city Aden, said in a statement late Thursday it would not take orders from Sanaa following Hadi’s resignation and would defy all military orders from Sanaa if Hadi resigned.

The committee in charge of military and security affairs for Aden, Abyan, Lahej and Daleh, which is loyal to Hadi, said it had taken the decision after the president submitted his resignation letter to the parliament.

The committee condemned the “tragic events in Sanaa and the totally unacceptable demands made by the Houthis.”

It placed police and troops on alert across the four provinces, and instructed them to take orders only from the provincial governors and the fourth military region command in Aden, whose officers are Hadi loyalists.

The formerly independent south has three other provinces further east — Shabwa, Hadramawt and Mahra.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was “seriously concerned” by the developments and called on all sides “to exercise maximum restraint and maintain peace and stability,” his spokesman said in a statement.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the United States was assessing the fast-moving events.

“We continue to support a peaceful transition. We’ve urged all parties and continue to urge all parties to abide by… the peace and national partnership agreement,” Psaki told reporters.

A senior State Department official said staffing at the US embassy, already thin after most of the diplomatic personnel were ordered to leave in September, would be further reduced.

After heavy fighting between government forces and the Houthis this week that killed at least 35 people, the UN Security Council and Yemen’s Gulf Arab neighbors had all voiced support for Hadi’s continued rule.

The Houthis swept into Sanaa last year from their stronghold in the far north, demanding a greater say in the country’s affairs, and refused to abandon the capital despite a UN-negotiated deal.

The situation escalated on Saturday when the militiamen seized top presidential aide Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak in an apparent bid to extract changes to a draft constitution, which the Houthis oppose because it would divide Yemen into six federal regions, splitting the country into rich and poor areas.

Bin Mubarak is the secretary general of the national dialogue on a political transition following the 2012 resignation of veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh after a bloody year-long uprising.

The senior politician was “driven away to an unknown location,” an official from the national dialogue secretariat told AFP on Saturday, adding that the abductors “are suspected of being Houthi militiamen.”

Mubarak’s kidnapping came just before a meeting of the national dialogue secretariat to present a draft constitution dividing Yemen into a six-region federation.

In the ensuing days pitched battles erupted, with the Houthis eventually seizing Hadi’s offices in the presidential palace, attacking his residence and surrounding the home of the prime minister Bahah.

There had been hope the crisis would be resolved after the nine-point deal was struck late on Wednesday.

“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.

The withdrawal of the gunmen, and the release of bin Mubarak could happen in the next three days if the authorities committed to implementing the agreement fully, Bukhaiti added. Bin Mubarak remains in the hands of the Houthi fighters.

Indeed, a source close to the presidency said Thursday the Houthis have “gradually” begun to withdraw from Hadi’s private residence. “Presidential security will be redeployed to their positions in the next two days,” the source told Reuters.

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.

(AFP, Anadolu, Al-Akhbar)

Yemen President, Houthis reach agreement as tensions remain high

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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)

Houthis take over Yemen presidential palace

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UN discusses power struggle as Shia fighters, overcoming resistance from president’s loyalists, tighten grip on Sanaa.

Houthi fighters ride in a truck outside a Presidential Guards barracks they took over on a mountain overlooking the Presidential Palace in Sanaa Jan. 20, 2015. (Reuters)

Houthi fighters ride in a truck outside a Presidential Guards barracks they took over on a mountain overlooking the Presidential Palace in Sanaa Jan. 20, 2015. (Reuters)

by Al Jazeera

Houthi fighters have taken full control of Yemen’s presidential palace in the capital Sanaa after a brief clash with the compound’s security guards, witnesses and security sources say.

The development came a day after the parties in the ongoing conflict in the Arabian Peninsula country said at two separate times they had agreed to a ceasefire.

The ceasefires were intended to pave the way for negotiations on Tuesday between the opposing parties: the internationally backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Ansarallah, the military wing of the Houthi movement.

Guards at the presidential palace housing the main office of Hadi said they handed over the compound to Houthi fighters after a brief clash on Tuesday.

Abdul Malik al-Houthi, for years the chief negotiator for Ansarallah, later delivered a speech, reeling off a long list of grievances against the Hadi government.

He is the scion of the Zaidi Shia Houthi family from northwestern Yemen that the movement was named after.

He held Hadi responsible for the instability in Yemen and for failing to implement a peace deal reached in September, the Peace and National Partnership Agreement (PNPA).

“Had the president acted responsibly, … we the Yemeni people … would have witnessed a positive reality,” Houthi said.

The Yemeni government has previously blamed the Houthis for first reneging on the peace deal.

Khaled al-Hammadi, Al Jazeera’s producer in Sanaa, said Houthi fighters had “taken over and controlled completely the presidential palace”.

The commander of the presidential guard forces surrendered “the Third Brigade of presidential guards to Houthi fighters without resistance and left the presidential palace”, he said.

This brigade, he said, boasts at least 280 Russian late-model tanks.

Sniper attack

Separately, Al Jazeera’s Omar Al Saleh, reporting from the southern city of Aden, said he had received reports that presidential guards outside Hadi’s residence elsewhere in Sanaa had also come under attack from snipers.

He reported, quoting sources, that Hadi was safe but his residence was surrounded by Houthi fighters. It also appeared that Hadi was no longer in control and had run out of options, he said.

The UN Security Council also held closed-door consultations on Tuesday on the worsening crisis in Yemen.

Jamal Benomar, the UN special envoy to Yemen, enroute to Yemen reported to the Security Council on the latest developments.

Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said that the UN security council had tried almost all options at its disposal in Yemen, apart from military intervention, which member states were overwhelmingly against.

Mark Lyall Grant, the British ambassador to the UN told Al Jazeera that the goal of the meeting was to release a statement affirming support for Hadi, and “making it clear that the international community will not tolerate the spoilers of the transitional government”.

The council later released a statement condemning the violence and expressing concern over the “worsening political and security crisis”.

It recognised President Hadi as the “legitimate authority” and called for a return to a full implementation of the PNPA agreement. The council also called for “all parties to rapidly engage in finalising the constitution in a constructive manner”.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, called for an immediate halt to the fighting.

He implored all sides to “exercise maximum restraint and take the necessary steps to restore full authority to the legitimate government institutions”, a UN spokesperson said.

Ferea al-Muslimi, a Sanaa-based political analyst, told Al Jazeera Hadi had been slow to implement reforms since coming to power, and now he was completely “paralysed”.

Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, who has reported extensively from the country, said that the Houthis appeared to be giving Hadi a final opportunity to come to a political settlement.

Yemen has been wracked by unrest for months. The Houthi fighters seized large parts of Sanaa in September and repeatedly clashed with troops loyal to Hadi, culminating in Tuesday’s takeover of the presidential palace.

Siege of palace

Earlier on Tuesday, Nadia Sakkaf, Yemen’s information minister, described on Twitter the assault on the presidential palace despite negotiations between the government and the Houthis.

Witnesses in Sanaa cited by Reuters news agency said there was a brief clash between a Houthi unit and palace guards.

Witnesses also said they saw the Houthis seize armoured vehicles that had been guarding the entrances to the palace.

Al Jazeera’s Al Saleh said Ali Abdullah Saleh, the long-serving president toppled after mass protests in 2012, still commands a lot of influence in Yemen.

Ex-president Saleh wields clout in the military and among different tribes, he has cobbled together an alliance with the well-organised and well-armed Houthis – said to be backed by Iran – to strike at their common enemies, he said.

It has since been confirmed that only the presidential guard loyal to Hadi had fought against the Houthis in this latest round of fighting while the military and other forces stayed put.

Tuesday’s developments came a day after some of the fiercest fighting in Sanaa in recent years, with the Houthis engaging in artillery battles with the army near the presidential palace and surrounding the prime minister’s residence.

Nine people were killed and another 90 wounded before a shaky ceasefire came into force on Monday evening.

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