Yemeni Civil War Thread

[jimmy olsen]

You'd think the House Saud would have massively intervened long before this.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/yemen-shiite-rebels-rout-islamist-allied-general-25669734

In a stunning sweep of the Yemeni capital, the country's Shiite rebels seized homes, offices and military bases of their Sunni foes on Monday, forcing many into hiding and triggering an exodus of civilians from the city after a week of fighting that left 340 people dead.

It was the latest development in the Hawthi blitz, which has plunged volatile Yemen into more turmoil, pitting the Shiite rebels against the Sunni-dominated military and their Islamist tribal allies.

The heavily armed Hawthi fighters on Monday seized tanks and armored vehicles from military headquarters they had overrun, and raided the home of long-time archenemy Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the commander of the army's elite 1st Armored Division and a veteran of a series of wars against the Shiite rebels, as well as residences of top Sunni Islamist militiamen or the fundamentalist Islah party.

Al-Ahmar himself fled and was forced into hiding, along with his followers, as the U.N. envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, succeeded in mediating a deal on Sunday between the Shiite Hawthis and their rivals and the fighting died down. But the Hawthis made no concessions.

After flooding into Sanaa, the Hawthis also took strategic installations and key state buildings, though they claimed later to have handed them back to the army's military police.

Thousands of Hawthi fighters — including many youths — were the only visible force Monday on the streets of the capital. They drove army tanks and armored vehicles they looted from al-Ahmar's forces out of the city, heading north, likely to the Hawthis' heartland in the city of Saada.

The group's spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam said the rebels will hunt down those who committed violence against them, indicating the possibility of wider revenge attacks against opponents.

Observers say the Hawthis' battlefield success reflects a major change in Yemen's political landscape, with traditional sources of power — Sunni Islamists, allied army generals and tribal chiefs — losing their grip as the central government gave in to the Shiite rebels to avert a full-blown civil war.

Mansour Hayel, a Yemeni political analyst, compared the Hawthi sweep to the rampage in Iraq and Syria by Sunni militants from the Islamic State group.

"The situation is very disturbing," Hayel said. "The state withdrew its control over institutions and the Hawthis and their affiliates replaced it. They are all over the city."

The Hawthis signed the U.N.-brokered deal on Sunday, an agreement that gave them unprecedented influence in the presidency and over the Cabinet. It calls for an immediate cease-fire and the formation of a technocratic government within a month after consultations with all political parties.

According to the deal, President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is to appoint key advisers — from both the ranks of the Hawthis and the pro-separatist factions in the south.

However, the Hawthis abstained from signing an appendix to the deal that stipulates that they abide by the cease-fire, withdraw from Sanaa and other northern cities, and surrender their weapons to the government.

Yemen, one of the Arab world's poorest nations, is facing multiple challenges. An al-Qaida branch in the south poses a constant threat as it tries to impose control over cities and towns. Washington considers the Yemeni branch to be the world's most dangerous arm of al-Qaida and has helped support Yemeni government offensives against it with drone strikes.

The Hawthis waged a six-year insurgency that officially ended in 2010. The following year, an Arab Spring-inspired uprising forced then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down in 2012 as part of a U.S.-backed deal giving him immunity from prosecution.

After Saleh's ouster, a power-sharing deal brokered by Yemen's neighboring Gulf Arab states and Western allies gave the Islah party along with the rest of the opposition half of the Cabinet and parliament seats. The other half went to Saleh's party.

The Hawthis opposed the deal, which sidelined them completely and which likely contributed to their further disenchantment with the government in Sanaa.

Before going into hiding, al-Ahmar and Saleh's successor, President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, met briefly at the president's office on Sunday, according to an official at the presidency.

They argued, and the general failed to convince the president to send warplanes against the Hawthis, the official said, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the content of the closed-door meeting. "Hadi choose the best of the worst options ... to avoid a civil war."

The Yemeni army is also fractured, something that was apparent when the Hawthis swept into Sanaa and several state institutions were taken over without a fight as commanders abandoned their posts, said military officials, also speaking on condition of anonymity to talk to the media.

Hawthis also took over the offices of the Islah party, the Muslim Brotherhood's chapter in Yemen, which on Sunday also signed the U.N.-brokered deal.

The rebels also stormed the house of Nobel Peace Laureate Tawakkol Karman, an Islah sympathizer. She wrote on her Facebook page on Monday that the Hawthis broke her doors, searched it and slept in her children's room.

The Islah party called on its members to "stay home" and lay low.

"Don't get dragged to calls of violence and revenge. You are a political party and you are not responsible for protecting state institutions," said top Islah official Zaid al-Shami, according to a statement posted on the party's website.

Hadi, deeply weakened by the latest crisis, told a Cabinet meeting on Monday that the U.N. deal was "a big achievement for the sake of safeguarding Yemen from disasters, war, and fragmentation."

But many think the crisis is far from over.

"In a country awash with weapons, we will enter a war where everyone is against everyone," said Abdel-Bari Taher, a veteran Yemeni journalist and author.

Hayel, the analyst, said there are increasing fears Yemen will be torn apart with sectarianism, intertwined with tribalism, which will "blow up the whole country."

Thousands of Sanaa residents have already fled the city, while those who stayed hunkered down in their homes, fearful of new clashes and looting. Long lines of cars loaded with suitcases and food were seen leaving the capital for the countryside Monday.

Schools, banks and government offices were all closed while Sanaa's northern and western districts, the scenes of fierce battles, were badly damaged by the past week's relentless shelling. Many buildings were pockmarked by gunfire and bodies of fighters were left rotting on the streets.

Resident Ahmed al-Hamdani said he saw Red Crescent staff carrying away bodies from the street he lives on. Some of the bodies were torn apart or had no limbs, he said.

Yemeni medical officials said 200 more bodies were retrieved from Sanaa streets on Monday, bringing the death toll to 340 in the week-long battles.

[Razgovory]

Yeah Tim, cause that worked so well for Egypt when they intervened.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Saudi intervention with what? Their mercenaries are already tied up fighting the Shi'ites in Iraq.

[DGuller]

Yeah Tim, cause that worked so well for Egypt when they intervened.

Seemed to have done the job in Bahrain.  The Shiite rebels there were sufficiently massacred.

[jimmy olsen]

Things are heating up!

http://www.wsj.com/articles/yemens-houthi-rebels-attack-several-points-in-saudi-arabia-1433581449

Yemen's Houthi Rebels Attack Several Points in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia air defense shoots down Scud missile

By Ahmed Al Omran
June 6, 2015 5:04 a.m. ET

RIYADH—Yemen's Houthi rebels launched a cross-border attack on several points in southern Saudi Arabia on Saturday, a major escalation of the monthslong conflict.

Saudi air defense shot down a Scud missile fired into the kingdom, the first time a Scud has been used in the conflict, said a statement posted to Saudi state media. Two patriot missiles intercepted the Scud over the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait.

Saudi Arabia said dozens of Yemen's elite Republican Guard forces, loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, had been killed. Four Saudi soldiers were also killed in the border city of Jizan, which has been a frequent target of small-scale Houthi incursions.

In the statement, the Saudi-led coalition that has launched airstrikes against the Houthis since late March called the new attack as a "failure of an attempt of penetration," describing it as "the largest of its kind since the start of the operation."

The Iran-backed Shiite rebels took control of Yemen's government in February, causing President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee to Riyadh.

A Saudi-led coalition began an air offensive against the rebel group in late March.

Thousands of Yemenis have been displaced since the start of the conflict, part of a humanitarian crisis aid groups say is rapidly worsening.

[Caliga]

If House Saud won't intervene then maybe House Kurita will? 

[Tonitrus]

If House Saud won't intervene then maybe House Kurita will? 

I used to always like House Kurita, but I think that was just the cool dragon...they're really rather terrible.  Marik was really the best of the lot.  Davion was just so smug that they needed to die horribly.

They were all bad, really.  Probably should go with the Magistracy of Canopus.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I prefer House Atreides myself.

[Agelastus]

If House Saud won't intervene then maybe House Kurita will? 

I used to always like House Kurita, but I think that was just the cool dragon...they're really rather terrible.  Marik was really the best of the lot.  Davion was just so smug that they needed to die horribly.

They were all bad, really.  Probably should go with the Magistracy of Canopus.

Marik the best of the lot? They were all either useless, fakes or fanatics. A few too many kinslayers as well.

Better than Kurita and Liao though.

[Tonitrus]

At least Marik's system tried to maintain some idea of freedom.  And I suppose at least Kurita was blankly honest about it's despotism.  Steiner and Davion were overly smug and hypocritical in their pretense of being the "good guys".

And of course, Liao was pretty much just North Korea crazy.

[Syt]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/26/world/middleeast/emirates-secretly-sends-colombian-mercenaries-to-fight-in-yemen.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Emirates Secretly Sends Colombian Mercenaries to Fight in Yemen

WASHINGTON — The United Arab Emirates has secretly dispatched hundreds of Colombian mercenaries to Yemen to fight in that country's raging conflict, adding a volatile new element in a complex proxy war that has drawn in the United States and Iran.

It is the first combat deployment for a foreign army that the Emirates has quietly built in the desert over the past five years, according to several people currently or formerly involved with the project. The program was once managed by a private company connected to Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater Worldwide, but the people involved in the effort said that his role ended several years ago and that it has since been run by the Emirati military.

The arrival in Yemen of 450 Latin American troops — among them are also Panamanian, Salvadoran and Chilean soldiers — adds to the chaotic stew of government armies, armed tribes, terrorist networks and Yemeni militias currently at war in the country. Earlier this year, a coalition of countries led by Saudi Arabia, including the United States, began a military campaign in Yemen against Houthi rebels who have pushed the Yemeni government out of the capital, Sana.

It is also a glimpse into the future of war. Wealthy Arab nations, particularly Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Emirates, have in recent years embraced a more aggressive military strategy throughout the Middle East, trying to rein in the chaos unleashed by the Arab revolutions that began in late 2010. But these countries wade into the new conflicts — whether in Yemen, Syria or Libya — with militaries that are unused to sustained warfare and populations with generally little interest in military service.

"Mercenaries are an attractive option for rich countries who wish to wage war yet whose citizens may not want to fight," said Sean McFate, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of "The Modern Mercenary."

"The private military industry is global now," said Mr. McFate, adding that the United States essentially "legitimized" the industry with its heavy reliance on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan over more than a decade of war. "Latin American mercenaries are a sign of what's to come," he said.

The Colombian troops now in Yemen, handpicked from a brigade of some 1,800 Latin American soldiers training at an Emirati military base, were woken up in the middle of the night for their deployment to Yemen last month. They were ushered out of their barracks as their bunkmates continued sleeping, and were later issued dog tags and ranks in the Emirati military. Those left behind are now being trained to use grenade launchers and armored vehicles that Emirati troops are currently using in Yemen.

Emirati officials have made a point of recruiting Colombian troops over other Latin American soldiers because they consider the Colombians more battle tested in guerrilla warfare, having spent decades battling gunmen of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in the jungles of Colombia.

The exact mission of the Colombians in Yemen is unclear, and one person involved in the project said it could be weeks before they saw regular combat. They join hundreds of Sudanese soldiers whom Saudi Arabia has recruited to fight there as part of the coalition.

In addition, a recent United Nations report cited claims that some 400 Eritrean troops might be embedded with the Emirati soldiers in Yemen — something that, if true, could violate a United Nations resolution restricting Eritrean military activities.

The United States has also been participating in the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen, providing logistical support, including airborne refueling, to the nations conducting the airstrikes. The Pentagon has sent a team to Saudi Arabia to provide targeting intelligence to the coalition militaries that is regularly used for the airstrikes.

The Obama administration has also in recent years approved the sale of billions of dollars' worth of military hardware from American contractors to the Saudi and Emirati militaries, equipment that is being used in the Yemen conflict. This month, the administration authorized a $1.29 billion Saudi request for thousands of bombs to replenish stocks that had been depleted by the campaign in Yemen, although American officials say that the bombs would take months to arrive and were not directly tied to the war in Yemen.

The Saudi air campaign has received widespread criticism from human rights groups as being poorly planned and as having launched strikes that indiscriminately kill Yemeni civilians and aid workers in the country. Last month, Saudi jets struck a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in Saada Province in northern Yemen, and in late September the United Nations reported that 2,355 civilians had been killed since the campaign began in March.

On the other side in Yemen is Iran, which over the years has provided financial and military support to the Houthis, the Shiite rebel group fighting the coalition of Saudi-led Sunni nations. The divisions have created the veneer of a sectarian conflict, although Emirati troops in southern Yemen have also been battling members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Sunni terrorist group's affiliate in Yemen.

Dozens of Emirati special operations troops have died since they arrived in southern Yemen in August. A single rocket attack in early September killed 45, along with several Saudi and Bahrani soldiers.

The presence of the Latin American troops is an official secret in the Emirates, and the government has made no public mention of their deployment to Yemen. Yousef Otaiba, the Emirati ambassador to Washington, declined to comment. A spokesman for United States Central Command, the military headquarters overseeing America's involvement in the Yemen conflict, also declined to comment.

The Latin American force in the Emirates was originally conceived to carry out mostly domestic missions — guarding pipelines and other sensitive infrastructure and possibly putting down riots in the sprawling camps housing foreign workers in the Emirates — according to corporate documents, American officials and several people involved in the project.

A 2011 intelligence briefing for senior leaders involved in the project listed Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Somali pirates and domestic riots as some of the biggest threats to Emirati stability.

The troops were told that they might one day be called for foreign combat missions, but until the deployment to Yemen the only external missions they were given were to provide security on commercial cargo vessels.

Those missions were rare, and soldiers involved in the project describe years of monotony at the desert camp, housed within a sprawling Emirati military base called Zayed Military City. They rise every day at 5 a.m. for exercise and military training — including shooting practice, navigation and riot control. A number of Westerners, including several Americans, live at the camp and serve as trainers for the Latin American troops.

But by late morning the sun burns so hot at the windswept complex that the troops move into air-conditioned classrooms for military instruction.

The troops live in typically austere military barracks, hanging their laundry out the windows to dry in the hot air. There is a common computer room where they can check their email and Facebook pages, but they are not allowed to post photographs on social media sites. Meals are basic.

"It's the same food all the time, every day," one member of the project said several weeks ago. "Chicken every single day."

The Emiratis have spent the equivalent of millions of dollars equipping the unit, from firearms and armored vehicles to communications systems and night vision technology. But Emirati leaders rarely visit the camp. When they do, the troops put on tactical demonstrations, including rappelling from helicopters and driving armored dune buggies.

And yet they stay largely because of the money, receiving salaries ranging from $2,000 to $3,000 a month, compared with approximately $400 a month they would make in Colombia. Those troops who deploy to Yemen will receive an additional $1,000 per week, according to a person involved in the project and a former senior Colombian military officer.

Hundreds of Colombian troops have been trained in the Emirates since the project began in 2010 — so many that the Colombian government once tried to broker an agreement with Emirati officials to stanch the flow headed to the Persian Gulf. Representatives from the two governments met, but an agreement was never signed.

Most of the recruiting of former troops in Colombia is done by Global Enterprises, a Colombian company run by a former special operations commander named Oscar Garcia Batte. Mr. Batte is also co-commander of the brigade of Colombian troops in the Emirates, and is part of the force now deployed in Yemen.

Mr. McFate said that the steady migration of Latin American troops to the Persian Gulf had created a "gun drain" at a time when Latin American countries need soldiers in the battle against drug cartels.

But experts in Colombia said that the promise of making more money fighting for the Emirates — money that the troops send much of home to their families in Colombia — makes it hard to keep soldiers at home.

"These great offers, with good salaries and insurance, got the attention of our best soldiers," said Jaime Ruiz, the president of Colombia's Association of Retired Armed Forces Officials.

"Many of them retired from the army and left."

[jimmy olsen]

Wow, makes me think of cyberpunk novels for some reason.

[KRonn]

And just a year ago Yemen was hailed as mostly a success story, and working with the US/West to target AQ and other extremists operating out of there.   

[frunk]

And just a year ago Yemen was hailed as mostly a success story, and working with the US/West to target AQ and other extremists operating out of there.   

I don't remember that, but I'll admit I haven't been following Yemen that closely.

[DGuller]

When has Yemen been a success story?  Hasn't it been a story of constant drone strikes in a failed state for quite a while?