The United Nations has upgraded the humanitarian crisis in Yemen to a Level 3 emergency, the most dire possible scenario on the UN scale. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is calling for an immediate ceasefire to allow for food, water, and medicine to enter the nation, as more than 80% of the population is entirely dependent on foreign aid to live.
Yemen’s pro-Houthi military proudly announced that it had launched a Scud missile at a base in Saudi Arabia, reports Yemeni state-run news outlet Saba.
Nearly 80% of Yemen’s civilian population is dependent on humanitarian aid for food and water, while six million are believed to be suffering “severe” hunger, and up to 8,000 people may have contracted Dengue fever. This is the dire portrait of a war-torn nation the United Nations presented this week, as fighting between Shiite Houthi rebels and supporters of Sunni President Hadi and Saudi Arabia continue to struggle for power.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), a Sunni group, has claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack in Yemen’s capital Sanaa near the Qiba al-Mahdi mosque used by Shiite Houthi rebels, reports Reuters, citing witnesses and a security source.
UN-organized peace talks between the competing Sunni and Shiite sides of the growing Yemeni civil war ended explosively after a journalist threw a shoe at a Houthi leader, prompting a melee between multiple parties at the resulting press conference. United Nations mediators nonetheless stated they were optimistic the two sides would resolve to end violence.
Contents: Fistfight breaks out at Yemen peace talks in Geneva; Report: Iran’s Supreme Leader has fired Qassam Soleimani in Syria; Emergency Eurogroup summit called for Monday to deal with likely Greece default
Car bombs killed or injured at least 50 people near mosques and the headquarters of Yemen’s dominant Houthi group in Sanaa on Wednesday, in coordinated attacks claimed by Islamic State. The four blasts rocked the capital as Saudi-led forces conducted
A 22-year-old Yemeni rapper, who has become the first high-profile female artist of her kind in the troubled Arab nation, is receiving threats. Amani Yahya fled to Saudi Arabia due to the civil war engulfing Yemen and has dedicated her artistic career to shining a light on the suffering of Yemeni women and defying cultural norms for women in the devout Muslim nation.
Contents: Saudi Arabia shoots down Scud missile from Houthis in Yemen; Who’s causing the humanitarian crisis in Yemen?; Europeans rescue 3,000 migrants on Saturday, fear hundreds of thousands more
Al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria and Yemen are benefiting from the global focus on the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), quietly capturing territory and expanding their influence amid the turmoil in the war-ravaged countries, reports The Washington Post.
(Reuters) Saudi-led air strikes killed a group of around 20 Houthi fighters outside the southern Yemeni port city of Aden on Wednesday and also shook the capital Sanaa in the north, militiamen opposed to the Houthis said.
According to the Yemeni government-in-exile, United States diplomats are in discussions with Yemen’s Houthis, a Shiite rebel group which seized control of the Gulf country earlier this year.
The Houthis, Iran-backed rebels who overthrew the government of Yemen, have released one of four Americans held captive, according to CNN, relaying a report from Oman’s official news agency.
“Saudi-led airstrikes killed at least 80 people near Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia and in the capital Sanaa Wednesday, residents said, the deadliest day of bombing in over two months of war in Yemen,” writes Reuters.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday that the nation had already begun sending “humanitarian aid” relief packages to refugees fleeing the war-torn nation of Yemen, and that it was preparing to continue sending food and medicine to the region. It marks the first Turkish presence in a war in which Iran and Saudi Arabia are both backing opposite sides of a civil war.
Reuters reports that Sunni militia units have driven Iran-backed Shiite Houthi insurgents from the southern Yemeni city of Dalea, dealing the Houthis their “first significant setback” in two months of hot civil war.
CNN reports that Houthi insurgents in Yemen claim to have shot down a Saudi fighter jet near the capital city of Sanaa. The Saudis have refused to comment on the report, while the Yemeni government has flatly denied it.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif gave a genial interview to Der Spiegel this week, with the German magazine describing him as “relaxed and cheerful” throughout. In his relaxed and cheerful way, Zarif continued Iran’s practice of making the Obama administration look foolish, rewriting the so-called “nuclear deal” on the fly and scoffing at the administration’s talking points.
A showdown at sea between the U.S. and Iran is brewing off the coast of Yemen.
Fighter jets belonging to a Saudi-led coalition launched strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen on Tuesday, just one day after a five-day truce between the two parties expired.
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels and their allies were reportedly targeted by Saudi-led airstrikes after a five-day humanitarian cease-fire expired on Sunday night.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The five-day cease-fire in Yemen, which appeared to be holding up despite some violations, has facilitated the delivery of some humanitarian assistance for the residents of the war-ravaged nation, a U.S. State Department spokesman said on Thursday.
Iran has deployed a “humanitarian aid” ship carrying 2,500 tons of unknown supplies to Yemen, setting up a situation where Tehran is attempting to openly defy a U.S. order not to dock its ships in the country’s ports.
SANAA, Yemen (AP)– Islamic militant websites say four leading members of Yemen’s Al-Qaeda branch have been killed in a suspected U.S.drone strike the previous day in an eastern Yemen province.
Saudis and Houthis escalate Yemen war further, prior to ‘ceasefire’; EU seeks approval of military action in Libya against migrant traffickers
Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen reportedly said on Sunday that they had accepted a five-day cease-fire proposed by Saudi Arabia earlier last week.
Rohingya ‘death camps’ and ‘slave camps’ found in southern Thailand; Yemen war sharply intensifies, as ‘truce’ is offered.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pushed for a suspension of hostilities in Yemen as he arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, citing an escalating humanitarian crisis.
The emergence of a mysterious new pro-government Arab force in the Yemeni port city of Aden is fueling speculation that ground troops from the Saudi Arabia-led coalition have been deployed to combat the Iran-backed Shiite rebels and their allies, according to some news outlets.
The Saudi-led air campaign and escalating battles on the ground in Yemen have left many Yemenis without access to food and fuel needed to power water pumps and generators for hospitals, reports The New York Times (NYT).
Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has come under fire after a tweet appeared on his official account in which he promised to gift a Bentley vehicle to every Saudi pilot conducting airstrikes against Shiite Houthi targets in Yemen. The tweet was swiftly deleted, and Saudi media claimed it was the product of a “hack.”
Saudi officials announced Tuesday that their U.S.-backed, Sunni coalition is implementing the next phase of its plan to restore Yemen’s recognized president to power.
The movement of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier accompanied by the USS Normandy, a guided missile cruiser from the Persian Gulf region, to a position off the coast of Yemen could change the dynamics of the Yemen sectarian civil war.
Saudi Arabia appears headed for a quagmire in Yemen; US escalates conflict by sending warships to Yemen to confront Iran; ECB examines a possible ‘second currency’ for Greece – government IOUs
The Pentagon has stated that a U.S. aircraft carrier is “repositioning” for a security operation, contrary to prior reports that the warship was tasked with intercepting an Iranian fleet in off the coast of Yemen.
The “Escape From Yemen” story has become a tense subgenre of international journalism, as Americans left to fend for themselves by the Obama Administration seek flights to safety on foreign ships and planes. The spectacle of desperate Americans frantically looking for berths on Indian and Russian ships, while Team Obama spreads its hands and looks helpless, will not soon be forgotten.
According to a report by al-Jazeera, several American generals are skeptical that Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen will succeed.
(Reuters) – At least five merchant vessels carrying food are stuck off Yemen, shipping data showed on Wednesday, as warships from a Saudi-led coalition search them for weapons bound for Iran-allied Houthi rebel forces, with delays adding to a humanitarian crisis.
Desperate Kenya demands closure of refugee camp after Garissa school attack; Pakistan hits back at UAE over Yemen war military support issue
If you are an American trapped in Yemen, waiting for help from the State Department is plain suicide. It is no exaggeration to say you are far better off appealing to the Chinese or Indian governments for help–in fact, that is precisely what the State Department itself recommends.