Yemen rebels take port city, province near capital

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SANAA, Yemen — Shiite rebels who recently overran Yemen’s capital on Tuesday seized control of a key port city on the Red Sea and a province south of Sanaa in a stunning new blitz that is certain to deepen the country’s turmoil, security and military officials said.

The land grab indicates the rebels, also known as the Houthis, may be determined to carve out a mini-state within Yemen, taking advantage of the weakness of the central government and the disarray in the army and security forces.

The Shiite rebels’ offensive is the latest chapter in the chaos prevailing across much of this impoverished country on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

Yemen analysts say the Houthis, who are widely suspected of being supported by Iran, may be building on the momentum gained from their recent battlefield successes — only months ago no one had thought they would seize the capital, Sanaa — to snatch more territory. Apart from Sanaa, they also have taken control of the provinces of Saada and Omran to the north.

http://www.sfgate.com/world/article/Yemen-rebels-take-port-city-province-near-capital-5822656.php

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1. Yemen's Houthis advance near al Qaeda stronghold

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen's new Shi'ite Muslim powerbrokers sent fighters towards an al Qaeda stronghold on Wednesday, raising the possibility of clashes between the politically ascendant Houthi movement and the hardline Sunni Muslims of the militant network.

Witnesses said dozens of cars carrying armed Houthi fighters were seen arriving in the city of Ibb, bordering al-Bayda province, a bastion of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

AQAP, which views Shi'ites as heretics and Houthis as pawns of Iran's revolutionary Shi'ite theocracy, last week claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on a Houthi gathering in the capital Sanaa that killed at least 47 people.

That attack was seen as a sign of AQAP's anger at the Houthis' takeover of Sanaa on Sept. 21, a lightning assault that saw the group impose its will on the weak and fractured administration of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKCN0I41KG20141015

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2. 16 dead in Yemen as rebels clash with tribes

SANAA - Rebels sweeping across Yemen clashed with armed tribesmen for a second straight day on Saturday in violence that left at least 16 people dead, medics said.

Twelve rebels were killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on their vehicle, while four tribesmen died in fighting, medics and local officials said.

The rebels have met increasing fierce resistance since they advanced into mainly Ibb province, southwest of the capital, on Wednesday.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/foreign/18-Oct-2014/16-dead-in-yemen-as-rebels-clash-with-tribes

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3. Yemen agrees new ceasefire after Ibb fighting

Tribesmen and Shia Houthi fighters have signed an agreement that should end hostilities in Yemen's Ibb province, after renewed fighting breached a day-long ceasefire pact.

The second ceasefire, which was signed on Saturday, states as a condition the safe withdrawal of all Houthi fighters from Ibb.

A 24-hour ceasefire agreement between the warring sides was reached on Friday, interrupted by the death of at least 20 people in fighting on Saturday. Violence erupted when tribesmen set up a checkpoint in Yareem town to prevent the Houthis from entering the provincial capital of Ibb.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/10/yemen-ceasefire-broken-as-fighting-resumes-2014101893314161841.html

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4. Yemen's Houthi rebels storm governor's house

Yemen's Houthi rebels have stormed the office and home of the governor of Sanaa, after blowing up the house of a politician in Ibb province, where they had agreed to a ceasefire with local tribesmen, officials said.

The rebels struck the house of a senior member of rival political group, the al-Islah party, in Yarim in Ibb province, just hours after signing the truce, while Iran gave its public backing to the Houthis.

The Houthis have now taken control of Yarim, located about 170km south of Sanaa, where they received no resistance from the army.

Yarim has a population of more than 100,000 and lies along the main road to Yemen's southern provinces

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/10/yemen-houthi-rebels-storm-governor-house-2014101992733886793.html

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5. Houthi rebels refuse to pull out of central province

Al Arabiya News, AP
Sunday, 19 October 2014

Houthi rebels in Yemen refused on Sunday to sign an deal that calls for their withdrawal from central Ibb Province, converting a university there into a military barracks, Al Arabiya News Channel’s correspondent reported.

Ibb University said it had suspended classes as a result of deployment of Houthi fighters.

The Houthis also seized the town of Yarim in Ibb Province, about 170 km south of Sanaa, early on Sunday. The town has a population of more than 100,000 and lies along the main road to Yemen's southern provinces.

On Saturday, the rebel group, widely suspected to have links with Iran, took over the house of a prominent Islamist politician in Yarim, setting off clashes that left 12 people dead.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/10/19/Houthi-rebels-refuse-to-pull-out-of-central-province-.html

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6. Yemen's Houthis dismantle Sanaa airport road camp, gunmen remain

(Reuters) - Yemen's Shi'ite Houthi group dismantled a protest camp blocking the country's main airport in Sanaa on Sunday, authorities said, but was keeping its fighters on the streets of the recently seized capital.

The dismantling of the encampment, which allowed traffic to move unobstructed between the airport and the capital for the first time in weeks, came as newly appointed Prime Minister Khaled Bahah, Yemen's ambassador to the United Nations, flew back home to take up his post as part of an agreement aimed at stabilizing the conflict-prone country.

The Houthis captured Sanaa on Sept. 21 after weeks of anti-government protests centering on fuel price rises. The group signed a power-sharing agreement with other political parties soon afterwards, a deal that was sanctioned by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, but this has not deterred them from pushing in to other parts of the country.

Under the terms of the power-sharing agreement, the Houthi group was supposed to start dismantling the protest encampment and withdraw its fighters from the capital once a new prime minister had been appointed.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/19/us-yemen-crisis-airport-idUSKCN0I80OU20141019

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7. Yemen's Southerners see hope in Houthis' rise

Sanaa - Overshadowed in recent years by the rise of Houthi rebels in the north of the country, Yemen's southern secessionists revealed plans to rejuvenate their push to secession.

The Southern Movement, or Al-Hirak al-Janoubi, hoped to exploit a political vacuum created by the Houthis' recent military successes to advance their cause.

At the same time, they are being spurred on by fears that the Houthis could soon expand into the once independent south.

Those fears were deepened when on October 19, Houthi fighters continued to push south in Ibb province, taking over the town of Yarim after dismantling a protest camp blocking the country's main airport in the capital Sanaa.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/10/yemen-southerners-see-hope-houthis-rise-2014102052535893759.html

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8. Scores of rebels killed in Yemen fighting Fighting between Houthi rebels and Sunni tribesman leaves

Renewed fighting between Sunni tribesmen and Shia Houthi rebels advancing into a town in central Yemen has killed dozens of people, as part of a growing struggle over territory and influence between the two sides.

Sources told Al Jazeera on Monday that clashes between Houthi fighters and Sunni tribes backed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) killed 67 Houthis in the Radaa district of Bayda province, 130km south east of Sanaa.

An attack on a Houthi gathering killed 23 Shia fighters, 15 were killed in a suicide car bombing and 29 others were killed by shelling and an attack at two posts.

Intense fighting erupted overnight, with the town rocked by explosions, rocket-propelled grenades and artillery by both sides.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/10/scores-rebels-killed-yemen-fighting-2014102012235242304.html

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9. Blowback in Yemen: Houthi advance is a Saudi nightmare

Nothing illustrates the free-wheeling chaos of the Middle East better than what is going on in Yemen.

A small Iranian-backed north Yemeni militia, modeled on Hezbollah and from an offshoot of Shia Islam, has walked into the capital Sana’a, taken over Hodeida, Yemen’s main port on the Red Sea, and is now advancing southwards towards one of the most sensitive straits for oil traffic in the region. Cut off Bab Al-Mandab, or the Mandab Strait, between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa and you make the Suez Canal redundant.

The Houthi offensive, complete with chants of “Death to America, and Curse on the Jews” is being conducted under the nose of a US military base in Djibouti from where drones operated by the CIA and Joint Special Operations Command base attack Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The Houthis are even protecting the US embassy in Sana’a.

Whatever the original demands of the Houthis were―they took part in the 2011 uprising and held non-violent protests against social injustice and economic corruption―today they look and act like a well armed, ideologically motivated force bent on seizing control. They have the capital, north Yemen’s main port, and they are now attacking Safer, Yemen’s largest oil company.

http://www.yementimes.com/en/1827/opinion/4485

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10. War without end: 12 years of US drone strikes in Yemen

Salem Al-Taysi’s big brown eyes stared straight through me. I was trying to ask him about his father, who had been killed six days earlier in a US drone strike that had rocked this barren hillside in remote central Yemen. But Salem did not say a word. The boy, who appeared to be about ten years old, just gazed intently into the middle distance as his younger siblings huddled around him.

It is hard to forget Salem’s eyes. Every time the White House claimed that the 12 civilians, including his father, who were killed in a wedding procession on Dec. 12 were Al-Qaeda militants, I thought of him. I remember his brothers and sisters and the 17 other children I met that day who had lost their fathers. I think of the scores of people in the village, living without any support from the government, without electricity or running water, who had lost their main breadwinner.

This is the grim reality of the “Yemen model” touted again last month by the US president, Barack Obama, as he outlined his strategy for tackling the threat of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

It is 12 years since the first US missile strikes hit Yemen. The “Yemen model” is one of perpetual violence, war without end. It is an opaque conflict in which no one knows what qualifies an individual to become a target for US drones, for Yemeni, Saudi or US fighter jets, or for US-trained Yemeni counter-terrorism groups. The limits of what can be done in the name of “counter-terrorist” action often appear boundless.

http://www.yementimes.com/en/1827/opinion/4486

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11. Houthis secure six ministerial portfolios in new Yemeni cabinet

Sana’a, Asharq Al-Awsat—The Houthi movement has secured six cabinet seats in the new Yemeni government, at the same time that President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi retained the right to appoint ministers of defense, interior, finance, and foreign affairs.

Interim Prime Minister Khaled Bahah announced on Saturday the 34 ministerial portfolios that will form the country’s new cabinet, as well as the distribution of posts among Yemen’s political factions.

The posts will be divided among the parties and groups that formed the signatories to the Peace and Partnership agreement signed last month in a bid to put an end to the month-long mass protests the Houthis had staged in the capital, Sana’a.

http://www.aawsat.net/2014/10/article55337905

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12. Yemen’s Al Houthis demand recruitment in army

Sana’a: Al Houthi rebels have demanded the newly appointed government to recruit thousands of their supporters into the army and security forces, a month after they tightened their grip on Sana’a and many other provinces in northern Yemen.

Al Houthi rebels have been in the centre of the political landscape in the troubled country since they gained control of key government buildings in the capital on September 21. They forced the government to resign and forced it to reverse the controversial lifting of fuel subsidies.

Ali Al Bikhiti, a spokesman for the group, recently said in an article published in the local press that Al Houthis should be treated like the Islamist Islah party whose followers were allegedly recruited in the thousands when they triumphed over the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011.

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/yemen-s-al-houthis-demand-recruitment-in-army-1.1404163

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13. Revolutionaries Take Control of Al-Qaeda Stronghold in Central Yemen

TEHRAN (FNA)- Yemeni revolutionaries stormed an al-Qaeda stronghold in central Yemen on Sunday and killed large numbers of them, local tribesmen said.

The revolutionaries inflicted massive losses on al-Qaeda terrorists in al-Bayda province, and managed to take the control of the terrorist group's hideout, World Bulletin reported.

The latest round of fighting comes as hundreds of thousands of Yemeni people from various tribes and faiths have been staging massive protests in Sana'a for the last several weeks to demand the dismissal of the government and the reversal of an earlier government decision to slash fuel subsidies.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13930804001439