U.S. General Visits Saudi Amid Yemen Bombing Concerns
The head of US military operations in the Middle East wrapped up an unannounced visit to Saudi Arabia Tuesday, amid mounting friction over the kingdom’s bombing campaign in neighbouring Yemen.

The head of US military operations in the Middle East wrapped up an unannounced visit to Saudi Arabia Tuesday, amid mounting friction over the kingdom’s bombing campaign in neighbouring Yemen.

On Thursday, Reuters tapped U.S., European, and even Iranian sources to report that Iran “has stepped up weapons transfers to the Houthis, the militia fighting the Saudi-backed government in Yemen.”

Iran, considered the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, has increased its shipments of military supplies to Shiite Houthi rebels fighting a Saudi-led and U.S.-assisted coalition in Yemen, Reuters has learned from Western and Iranian officials on condition of anonymity.

Missiles believed to originate from Iran-allied Shiite Houthi rebels targeted the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Mason again in international waters off the coast of war-ravaged Yemen over the weekend.

Multiple missiles were fired Saturday at three US warships in the Red Sea, though none was hit and there were no casualties, the US military said, amid rising tensions with Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

(REUTERS) – U.S. President Barack Obama and his top foreign policy advisers are expected to meet on Friday to consider their military and other options in Syria as Syrian and Russian aircraft continue to pummel Aleppo and other targets, U.S.

JAFFA, Israel — Major security preparations are underway in Saudi Arabia, according to Arab media reports, in light of the hazy political and security situation in the region.

The situation off the coast of Yemen heated up dramatically on Thursday, as the U.S. Navy destroyed three Yemeni radar installations with cruise missiles, and Iran established its own naval presence in the area.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Mason was attacked by Iran-backed insurgents in Yemen for a second time on Wednesday, according to U.S. military officials quoted by Time magazine.

A U.S. Navy destroyer was targeted on Wednesday in a failed missile attack from territory in Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, the second such incident in four days, the U.S. military said.

One of the U.S. Navy ships stationed off the coast of Yemen, the USS Mason, has come under attack by Houthi insurgents, who have been supported and armed by Iran.

Two missiles fired from rebel-held territory in Yemen fell short of a US warship patrolling the Red Sea off the coast of the war-torn country, the US navy said Monday.

Saudi Arabia began live-fire military exercises in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz this week, triggering a stern warning from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) to stay far away from Iranian waters.

On Saturday, a rocket attack purportedly launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen struck a ship operated by the United Arab Emirates military, nearly sinking it. The U.S. Navy has now dispatched three warships to the southern coast of Yemen, raising the possibility that America could be drawn more deeply into the Yemeni civil war — and, by extension, the proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Pete Hoekstra, former chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, appeared on Breitbart News Daily Tuesday morning to discuss his Washington Examiner op-ed, “Obama Rolls Dice on Foreign Policy in Secretive Presidential Decree.”

The Houthi rebels in Yemen receive Iranian arms shipments via a “sister state” as well as two African countries, the Saudi Alwatan newspaper reported.

Yemen plans to complain to the UN Security Council over what it says are Iran’s weapon transfers to Houthi allies fighting the internationally recognized Yemeni government, the foreign minister said on Saturday.

The internationally recognized president of Yemen, while addressing world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly, accused Iran of spreading terrorism and brutality across the Middle East and vowed to “extract Yemen from the claws of Iran.”

Contents: UK politicians debate the 2011 Libya intervention; Libya and Syria illustrate the intervention dilemma for policy makers

The largest weapons manufacturer in Latin America, Brazil-based Forjas Taurus SA, has reportedly been accused by Brazilian prosecutors of selling some 8,000 handguns to a known arms trafficker from war-ravaged Yemen in violation of international sanctions.

Iran-linked Shiite Houthis and their allies, armed groups loyal to the former president of Yemen, have attacked an independent news outlet in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and apprehended its manager, Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya News Channel reports.

Contents: Fault lines: Saudi Arabia-China-Pakistan and India-U.S. continue to harden; Saudi Arabia and China sign economic and military agreements; Saudi Arabia and Pakistan discuss economic and military ties; U.S. and India sign a landmark defense agreement

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings in Yemen and Iraq Monday, killing more than 70 people.

Iran has dismissed accusations by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that it delivered missiles to Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Iran on Friday denied US accusations it has delivered missiles to Yemeni rebels, retorting it was US support for a Saudi-led coalition backing the government that had prolonged the conflict.

US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Saudi King Salman in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on Thursday ahead of wider talks mostly focusing on Yemen’s 18-month-long war and the conflict in Syria.

Hamza bin Laden, the son of the late al Qaeda leader, has urged young Saudis in a new audio message to train with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to “gain the necessary experience” to overthrow Saudi Arabia’s kingdom, a U.S. ally, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadi activity online.

Contents: Massive rally in Sanaa Yemen interrupted by Saudi warplane bombing; Generational history of Shia Houthis in Yemen; US military reduces support for Saudi coalition in Yemen

Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) — also known as Doctors Without Borders — has announced it will withdraw from northern Yemen, in the wake of an airstrike by the Saudi coalition that struck one of its hospitals on Monday, killing 19 and wounding 24.

The Obama administration on Monday evening announced the transfer of 12 Yemenis and three Afghans from the U.S. military detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), dramatically bringing down the overall prison population to 61.

Despite human rights complaints against Saudi Arabia over its military campaign in Yemen, the U.S. State Department has approved a $1.15 billion sale of military equipment to the Kingdom, including over 130 Abrams battle tanks.

JAFFA, Israel – A contingent of moderate Syrian Arab rebel reinforcements have deployed along the Jordan-Syria border, ready to launch an offensive against Bashar al Assad’s regime in the event of a rebel defeat in Aleppo, an informed Arab intelligence official told Breitbart Jerusalem.

The family of John Hamen of Chesapeake, Virginia, has filed a federal lawsuit against the governments of Syria and Iran, seeking $319 million in damages for his torture and murder by Iran-backed Houthi insurgents in Yemen.

Iran’s ballistic missile launches “are not consistent with the constructive spirit” of a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, but it is up to the United Nations Security Council to decide if they violated a resolution, U.N. chief Ban

The Sunni-Shia battle between Saudi Arabia and Iran continues as the Saudi Foreign Minister slams Iran for “destabilizing” the Middle East, even as advocacy groups called for the suspension of Saudi Arabia from the U.N. Human Rights Council over its military operation in Yemen.

TEL AVIV – Qatari daily Al-Sharq published an anti-Semitic poem titled “The Plot of the Jews” accusing Jews of spreading corruption among Muslims for its special Ramadan supplement last Monday.

The Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is disseminating a guide urging all Muslims in America, “regardless of their affiliation,” to carry out more “lone wolf” attacks that mirror the recent massacre in Orlando, FL, and to target “areas where the Anglo-Saxon community is generally concentrated.”

A Saudi company came under fire for organizing a mixed-gender iftar dinner for its employees.

The number of CIA drone strikes have plummeted to a low single digit so far in 2016, President Barack Obama’s last full year in office, reports The Washington Post (WaPo), citing unnamed current and former U.S. officials.

Contents: UAE backs out of Saudi coalition in Yemen, saying ‘War is over’; Saudi Arabia is condemned for Yemen’s humanitarian disaster
