2 Yemeni governors escape suicide attack, guard killed

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ADEN, Yemen, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The governor of Yemen's southern port province of Aden on Tuesday escaped unharmed a suicide bomb attack on his convoy, which killed a guard and injured eight others, a government official said.

The local government official said that a suicide bomber driving his explosives-laden car struck the motorcade of Major General Aidarous Zubaidi, Aden's newly appointed governor, near Enma city of Aden province.

Unknown assailants launched an attack on the governor's convoy minutes after the car bomb explosion that failed to assassinate the governor, the source told Xinhua.

Local residents confirmed to Xinhua that a powrefull blast rocked Enma city and was followed by heavy gunfire that continued for several minutes.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-01/05/c_134980390.htm

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1. Houthis claim to have killed a Daesh commander in Yemen

Yemen’s al-Masirah news website Tuesday identified the Daesh chief as Hassan Hamoud Uqlan, a known field commander in the Tha’bat district of Ta’izz Province.

Over the past weeks, Houthis and popular fighters have achieved victories in Ta’izz against forces loyal to the embattled president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who control some regions in southern Yemen.

On Tuesday, one Saudi soldier was killed in a retaliatory attack by Yemeni forces targeting an area near the al-Tawwal border crossing in the Saudi province of Jizan.

Yemeni forces also targeted Jabal al-Dukhan region in Jizan with rockets, destroying a Saudi military vehicle and inflicting losses on the Saudi forces in the area.

http://www.albawaba.com/news/houthis-claim-have-killed-daesh-commander-yemen-789434

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2. Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen intensify as rebels fire back

SANAA, Yemen (AP) -- Yemeni security officials say the Saudi-led coalition has intensified airstrikes on the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, targeting Shiite rebels known as Houthis.

The officials said Wednesday the airstrikes targeted rebel positions in Sanaa, including those at the presidential palace and the airport. They say at least 20 Houthis have been killed in the strikes since Tuesday. The officials, who are independent in the conflict that has torn Yemen apart, spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Meanwhile, tribal officials in the Houthi stronghold of Saada in northern Yemen, which borders Saudi Arabia, say rebels have been launching rockets into Saudi Arabia.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_YEMEN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-01-06-05-51-48

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3. Saudi Coalition Just Bombed a Center for the Blind in Yemen

THE NEW YEAR seems to have brought little change for civilians living under bombs in Yemen. Early Tuesday morning, missiles reportedly fired by aircraft supporting the Saudi-led and U.S.-backed coalition damaged a center for the blind in the capital city of Sanaa, as well as the city’s chamber of commerce, a wedding hall, and at least one residential area.

Multiple outlets reported that the attacks caused no casualties, though one local report, citing an unidentified security official, claimed “at least three people” were wounded at the al Noor Center for Care and Rehabilitation of the Blind in Sanaa. Footage from the capital, published by the International Business Times, showed images of crumbled buildings, collapsed rooftops, and a young man weeping in the street. A spokesperson for UNICEF in Sanaa told Vice News that the al Noor Center offers classes for visually impaired students.

In an email to The Intercept Tuesday, Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, confirmed that his office had received reports of airstrikes in Yemen indeed hitting the al Noor Center, as well as the other reported sites. The Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the region, did not respond to requests for comment.

https://theintercept.com/2016/01/05/saudi-coalition-just-bombed-a-center-for-the-blind-in-yemen/

How ironic.

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4. UN: civilian death toll from Yemen fighting nears 2,800

BERLIN (AP) -- The United Nations says the civilian death toll from nine months of fighting in Yemen has reached nearly 2,800 after at least 81 people were killed in December.

The U.N. human rights office said Tuesday another 109 civilians were wounded last month. That brings its total count to 2,795 dead and 5,324 wounded since March 26.

Yemen's fighting pits Shiite rebels known as Houthis and troops loyal to the ex-president against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants and presidential loyalists. A Saudi-led coalition has been waging an air campaign since March against the Houthis.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_UNITED_NATIONS_YEMEN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-01-05-06-29-29

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5. Southern Yemeni officials survive car bomb attack in Aden

ADEN, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Three senior southern Yemeni officials survived a suicide car bomb attack on their convoy in Aden and a subsequent gun battle that killed three of their guards on Tuesday, a government spokesman and security sources said.

The incident highlights the security chaos in the port city, the temporary seat of Yemen's embattled government, as its loyalists seek to wrest the capital Sanaa from the Iran-allied Houthi movement with support from a Saudi-led coalition.

"A suicide bomber in a car detonated as the convoy of the governors of Aden and Lahj provinces along with the Aden security director passed through the area of Inma," Nizar Anwar, a government spokesman said.

Three soldiers were killed in the exchange of fire which followed the attack, security sources said, before the assailants retreated into the surrounding desert.

http://www.trust.org/item/20160105143531-673xu/

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6. Saudi Arabia to continue in Syria, Yemen peace talks despite break with Iran: envoy

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia ambassador to the United Nations on Monday said his country will attend the upcoming Syrian and Yemen peace talks, despite its breakoff in diplomatic relations with Iran amid tensions over the Riyadh's execution of an opposing Shiite cleric and the resulting attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.

The disputes "should have no effect" on Riyadh's participation in the talks expected to begin later this month, Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.

Yet the ambassador stressed that Saudi Arabia still awaits the official condemnation by the Security Council of Iran for the attacks on the Saudi Arabian diplomatic posts in Tehran, in the wake of the execution by the Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr Al-Nimr among 46 convicted "terrorists".

"We hope that the council would come out with a statement condemning the attacks on the embassy of Saudi Arabia in Tehran and the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Mashhad," the ambassador said. "Those attacks were unprovoked and constituted very serious violations of international norms and laws and regulations."

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-01/05/c_134979693.htm

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7. Yemen’s War Is Nearly Lost in the Din of Surrounding Conflicts

Of the two things Saudi Arabia did on Jan. 2 to make the world a more dangerous place, one has caught all the attention: the execution of the dissident Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr. That led to the fire-bombing of the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and Riyadh’s retaliatory decision to break off diplomatic ties.

The other, however, has gone almost unnoticed: the formal ending of a poorly-observed truce in Yemen, and new airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states against Shia rebels known as the Houthis.

Much of the analysis following the events of the weekend has focused on fears that the Saudi-Iranian conflict will derail peace talks on Syria (paywall), where Iran backs president Bashar al-Assad and Saudi Arabia backs opposition rebels. Indeed, the talks planned for later this month may not now happen at all. But the consequences for Yemen are no less dire.

Yemen’s civil war, raging for nearly a year, seems fated to constantly be drowned out by tumult elsewhere in the region. (When it does get some press, headline writers inevitably label it the “forgotten war.”) Nearly 3,000 civilians have been killed in the fighting, the country’s already fragile economy has been shattered, and attempts at negotiated settlement have gone nowhere. The resumption of airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition—which enjoys US support—means the impoverished nation at the foot of the Arabian Peninsula is not likely to find peace anytime soon.

http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2016/01/yemens-war-nearly-lost-din-surrounding-conflicts/124872/

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8. UN Security Council urges cease-fire and new talks in Yemen

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council urged the warring parties in Yemen on Tuesday to resume a cease-fire and participate in a new round of talks in mid-January.

The council welcomed "the positive progress" in the last round of U.N.-facilitated talks from Dec. 15-20 and called on the government and Shiite rebels known as Houthis to engage in new talks without preconditions, reject violence, and refrain from provocations.

The council statement, issued after a closed briefing, expresses deep concern at Yemen's "dire humanitarian situation which continues to worsen."

The conflict pits the government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, against Houthis allied with a former president and backed by Iran. Peace negotiations were launched in December and a cease-fire was declared, but both government forces and rebels ignored it.

http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/UN-Security-Council-urges-cease-fire-and-new-6738247.php

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9. Yemen's fire sale: How conflict turns civilians into arms dealers

TAIZ, Yemen - Adnan al-Qaatabi, 33, became an arms dealer after getting fired from working in a clothes shop in al-Turbah area in Taiz's al-Shimayateen district. Now he is doing a roaring trade selling Kalashnikovs to the Popular Resistance militia fighting the Houthis.

Although the arms trade is illegal in Yemen, since the war escalated in March 2015, the demand for weapons has soared and, in the face of rising unemployment and hunger caused by the conflict, Yemenis have started selling their personal weapons to armed groups.

"In June 2015, I was in need of money and decided to sell one of my two Kalashnikovs," Qaatabi told MEE. "Then I found its price to be around double and I knew that the Resistance buys different kinds of Kalashnikovs. This led me to work as an arms trader," he said.

Before the war, a Kalashnikov rifle sold for 170,000 Yemeni Riyals ($791) but now these weapons have skyrocketed to 300,000 Yemeni Riyals ($1,395). This was an indication for Qaatabi that many people will agree to sell their weapons.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/yemens-war-fuelling-rampant-arms-trade-64294521

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10. . nt