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Arabia

Yemen: Militant Groups Lead Descent into Chaos

2015-01-22

[AnNahar] Powerful armed groups have sidelined Yemen's government ever since a 2011 popular uprising forced long-time president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. Shiite militiamen and Sunni extremists have looked to exploit the power vacuum in pitched battles that have fuelled tensions and abetted Yemen's slide into violence. The Shiite Huthi militia, also known as Ansarullah (Supporters of God), have long complained of marginalization by authorities in Sanaa. They hail from the Zaidi sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that makes up approximately one-third of Yemen's Sunni-majority population. Their strongholds lie in the northern provinces bordering Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia, and they have been accused of receiving support from Shiite Iran. North Yemen was a Zaidi imamate until a 1962 coup turned the country into a republic. Badreddin al-Huthi, who formed the "Faithful Youth" political movement in 1992 to fight discrimination, is considered the spiritual leader of the Huthis, which take his name. His son Hussein led a nearly three-month uprising in Saada province before the army killed him in 2004. Ansarullah is now led by Hussein's brother, Abdulmalik. Six wars fought with the central government between 2004 and 2010 killed thousands of people before a truce was signed. After months of clashes with the Sunni Islamist party al-Islah last year, the Huthis took control of the capital on September 21. They are thought to be backed by forces loyal to Saleh. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is considered by the United States to be the extremist network's deadliest branch. It formed in 2009 when al-Qaida in Yemen -- whose biggest attack was the 2000 bombing of the American guided-missile destroyer the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors -- merged with its Saudi counterpart. AQAP fighters have repeatedly attacked Yemeni security forces and been targeted by scores of US drone strikes. Present in southern and southeastern Yemen, AQAP has launched a series of raids on major state institutions such as the defense ministry and intelligence headquarters. The group abducts foreigners, including US journalist Luke Somers and South African teacher Pierre Korkie, who were killed by their captors when American commandos stormed an AQAP hideout last year. AQAP also claimed responsibility for the deadly January 7 attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, claiming vengeance for its cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed. With weakened state institutions, AQAP has become the only force capable of resisting the advance of Ansarullah. Sunni tribes, hostile to the Huthis' arrival in their provinces, have teamed up with Al-Qaeda against the militia, as the government has remained mostly idle. Since September, AQAP has claimed several attacks on the Huthis, including the killing of 49 people in the central Ibb province in December, and one in October that left 47 dead in Sanaa. Hopes of an end to Yemen's political crisis were raised in 2013 with the launch of a national dialogue, but the impoverished country now appears to be spiraling into chaos. President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi's repeated calls for the Huthis to withdraw from Sanaa went unanswered as they expanded further the south and east, claiming they were fighting al-Qaida on behalf of the authorities. In November, new Prime Minister Khalid Bahah formed a new cabinet as part of a U.N.-brokered peace deal that also called for a Huthi pull back. Tensions have been running high in Sanaa since the Huthis abducted Hadi's chief of staff, Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, in an apparent bid to extract changes to a draft constitution that he is overseeing. Mubarak is in charge of the national dialogue. The Huthis said they had seized the top aide to prevent the violation of the U.N.-brokered agreement they reached with Hadi, which provided for the formation of a new government and the appointment of Huthi advisers to the president. On Tuesday, the Shiite militia seized the presidential palace in what a minister said was a bid to usurp Hadi's U.S.-backed government. A day earlier they had surrounded Bahah's residence.

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Arabia

Jihadi groups active in Yemen

2006-04-05

A number of previously clandestine Islamic groups have spread in Yemen, especially after the unification of the north and south in 1990. These groups carry different names and vary in beliefs. Some of these groups are the Islamic Jihad, Al-Sunnah Wal-Jamaa, the Aden Abyan Army, and the Faithful Youth organization, led by Badr adinne al-Houthi. The confrontation between the Faithful Youth and the authorities between 2004 and early last year, posed the greatest challenge to the political regime in Yemen since the civil war between the north and south in the summer of 1994. Asharq Al-Awsat looks into the topic of the jihadist groups in Yemen. In this report, the geographic location, programs and government support of groups will be looked into. Furthermore, the claim that some jihadist leaders have been integrated into the Yemeni Armed Forces as a way for the government to keep watch on them will be examined.

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Arabia

Al-Dailamy sentenced to death

2005-12-06

The verdict of Yahia Al-Dailamy and Mohamed Ahmed Miftah cases was issued last Saturday by the Penalty Court upholding the judgment passed by the Primary Court. The two were accused of stirring sectarian tumult and corresponding with a foreign country namely Iran. Certain people you can have correspondence with, and certain people you can't ... The court compelled the prosecution to refer the case to the high court. The court also accepted Miftah’s appeal formally and refused it substantially. The two suspects had already refused the appeal petition that was submitted by their lawyer last June, dismissing the court as being illegal. The Primary Court had sentenced Al-Dailamy to death on the 29th of last May, and sentenced Miftah to eight years in prison for instigating unrest and establishing a group affiliated to the so called terrorist “Faithful Youth Organization” headed by Hussein Badradeen al-Houthi. They were also convicted for illegal correspondence with Iran to destabilize public security. A number of civil society coalition members organized a peaceful sit-in at the Penalty Court on Saturday, in remonstration against the Al-Dailamy and Miftah convictions. The coalition described the trial as unconstitutional and considered the court itself to be illegal. The civil society coalition expressed their grave concern over the procedures of the court, which deprived defense rights.

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Arabia

Yemen rebels plotted to kill Saleh

2005-09-06

A Yemeni court has accused 36 suspected rebels from the country's Zaidi minority of plotting to kill President Ali Abd Allah Salih. Adding to a catalogue of alleged crimes for which the 36 are on trial, prosecutor Said al-Aqil told a Sanaa court that the accused had also planned to kill high-ranking army officers. The defendants, eight of whom are being tried in absentia, are accused of carrying out a spate of attacks on soldiers and military vehicles in Sanaa in recent months, in which one officer was killed and 27 other people rounded. The Zaidis are a Shia Muslim sect dominant in northwestern Yemen but in the minority in the mainly Sunni country. President Salih has accused Zaidi rebels of seeking to overthrow his republican government. Hundreds have been killed in fierce fighting between the rebels and government forces in the country's northwest. Two rounds of fighting in Saada province last year and again in March-April involved rebels from the Faithful Youth movement of slain radical preacher Husain al-Houthi, who was killed by the army last September after leading a nearly three-month uprising. The rebels reject as illegitimate the republican regime which seized power in a 1962 coup, overthrowing the Zaidi imam.

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Arabia

Saleh says Yemen's rebels waging coup

2005-05-16

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has accused rebels from the Zaidi minority who were engaged in fierce fighting with government forces in the country's northwest of seeking to overthrow his republican regime. "These militias sought to rebel against the republican regime and turn the clock back," he said on Saturday of the two rounds of battles in Saada Province last summer and in March-April this year, according to the official Saba news agency. "Documents proved that there was [an attempt] to topple the republican regime and return the regime to what it was in the past, which our people will not accept at all," he said. The Zaidis are a Shiite sect dominant in northwestern Yemen but in the minority in the mainly Sunni country. The rebels reject as illegitimate the regime which seized power in a 1962 coup, overthrowing the Zaidi imamate. Saleh, who was speaking to members of Parliament and a consultative council, did not mention the "Faithful Youth" movement of slain radical preacher Hussein Badreddine al-Houthi, who was killed by the army last September after leading a nearly three-month uprising in Saada Province in which more than 400 people were killed. He said those involved in the rebellion were "militias," the "armed wing of the Al-Haq and Union of Popular Forces parties," a reference to two Zaidi-led Islamist opposition parties. The Faithful Youth organization was formed in 1997 as a breakaway from Al-Haq.

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Arabia

Yemen rebels seek presidential pardon

2005-05-13

SANAA - Leaders of a Yemeni rebel group involved in an anti-government rebellion that has cost the lives of hundreds of people have appealed for a presidential pardon, officials said. The call in a letter signed by the Faithful Youth movement's spiritual leader Badr Eddin al-Huthi came after the authorities claimed they had put down the revolt in the northwest of the impoverished country after fighting that left some 280 people dead. Presidential sources quoted the letter as saying the rebels were surprised by the launch of the assault in April, which they described as "unjustifiable... as we have never denied the presidential regime." "As citizens, we ask you to bring to an end the injustice committed against us. If this is done, we are prepared to present ourselves (to the authorities) at any moment," the letter said. "We're getting our asses kicked! Please stop!" The presidential sources said that President Ali Abdullah Saleh had "agreed to end action against these elements so that they can go back to their region in safety and renounce their sins." April's fighting followed another uprising led by Huthi's son, Hussein, a radical preacher killed by the army last September after leading a nearly three-month revolt in which more than 400 people were killed. Authorities announced last month that they had put down the uprising in Saada province but that leaders of the "sedition" were still fleeing on the run. The Zaidis are a Shiite Muslim sect dominant in northwest Yemen but in the minority in the mainly Sunni country. The rebels reject as illegitimate the republican regime, which seized power in a 1962 coup, overthrowing the Zaidi imamate.

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Arabia

Yemen arrests Zaidis accused of attacks in capital

2005-05-07

Yemeni authorities said Thursday they have arrested 11 members of the minority Zaidi community suspected of carrying out attacks in the capital as part of an uprising against the government. The 10 men and one woman "are part of a gang which carried out acts of violence and sabotage, including bomb attacks against cars belonging to officials from the Defense Ministry, and in public places, causing death and injury to citizens," the Defense Ministry's September 26 weekly reported. "Several grenades, weapons and pamphlets bearing fatwas (religious decrees) hostile to the regime and inciting violence were found in the apartment where these people lived." "Those arrested are followers of Badreddine al-Houthi" of the Faithful Youth movement, it said. Badreddine is considered the spiritual leader of rebels who emerged from the extremist Faithful Youth movement of his son, Hussein Badreddine al-Houthi.

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Arabia

Clashes with rebels in Yemen kill 50

2005-04-11

Gosh. That's really too bad. I'm sure their Moms will miss them. At least 40 rebels and 10 soldiers have been killed in fresh clashes in Yemen's mountainous northwest, military and tribal sources said Sunday, as government forces pursue followers of a slain rebel preacher. Yemeni forces have killed at least 40 rebels and captured 50 others since Friday, they said, adding that 10 government soldiers had also died in fierce fighting that has left close to 270 people dead in less than two weeks. Tribal sources had said insurgents had retreated north to the rugged Lawdiya area as the noose tightened around the members of Huthi's Faithful Youth movement.

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Arabia

Scores dead as Yemeni Army seizes rebel outposts

2005-04-09

"Scores" is good... Followers of a slain rebel preacher went on a shooting spree in a Yemeni town Friday after more than 70 comrades were killed in two days of fierce clashes with government forces, residents and tribal sources said. The fighting on Wednesday and Thursday, which ended with government forces taking control of rebel outposts in northwestern Saada Province, also left more than 30 soldiers and police dead or wounded, pro-government tribal sources said. Dead Good Guys is bad... Residents of Saada town said members of the Faithful Youth movement sneaked into the city at dawn Friday and took over a number of buildings from which they sniped at army and police units, sparking shoot-outs that left at least eight rebels and four police dead. An undetermined number of civilians were also killed or wounded in the clashes. The shooting subsided at midday, but sources close to the town government said troops were hunting for some 60 rebels believed to be hiding in the city. Government forces were meanwhile still trying to track down followers of Sheikh Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi in mountain regions. "More than 70 [Huthi] followers were killed in the fighting which went on throughout Wednesday and until Thursday night" in Saada Province, where the two sides have been locked in combat since March 28, one tribal source said. "Their bodies were found in the mountain hideouts from which they had been resisting authorities," he said. Figure a four-to-one wounded to killed ratio... Lots of opportunities for sepsis to set in... The source said government forces suffered most of their casualties when counter-terrorism units parachuted onto mountain tops overlooking the rebels' strongholds in Razamat and Wadi Nushur (Nushur Valley) on Thursday. Government forces stormed rebel positions in Razamat, Wadi Nushur and Al-Shafia, wresting control of the outposts Thursday night. One tribal source said "troops are combing the area to hunt down the leaders of the rebellion, starting with Badr Eddin al-Huthi," father of the preacher killed by the army last year, who authorities say is the rebels' spiritual leader. Want to bet Pop's been in control behind the scenese all along? Government forces are also trying to track down the ground commanders of the Faithful Youth rebels, chiefly Abdullah Ayedh al-Razami, Yussef al-Madani and the preacher's brother, Abdul Malak, after dozens of militants were reportedly rounded up. Military sources confirmed that government forces had seized control of rebel positions, saying the insurgents had retreated to Um Issa mountain and an area called Al-Salah. Apart from the undetermined number of government forces which fell in the clashes of the past two days, more than 190 people have now been reported killed in the fighting since it began 10 days ago. Dozens more have been wounded on both sides.

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Arabia

Fresh Yemen clashes kill more than 30

2005-04-06

SANAA - More than 30 people were killed or wounded Wednesday in fierce clashes between security forces and supporters of a slain rebel preacher who have been locked in fighting in northwest Yemen, military and tribal sources said. Heavy fighting pitted army troops and counter-terrorism units against the rebels in the Al-Shafia and Wadi Nushur (Nushur Valley) areas of Saada province, the sources said. Once the Yemeni's get their teeth in ya, they don't let go. Government forces were trying to advance toward the Wadi Nushur stronghold of the father of slain preacher Sheikh Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi, who was killed by the army last year. Authorities say Badr Eddin al-Huthi has become the spiritual leader of his son's followers from the Faithful Youth movement. Dad took over sonny's business, normally it's the other way around. Both military and tribal sources said at least 30 people from both sides were killed or wounded in Wednesday's fighting, but could not give a more specific breakdown. Around 110 people had been reported killed, and dozens more wounded, since the violence erupted in the mountainous region on March 28. The deputy governor of Saada, Hassan Mannaa, escaped an ambush laid by the rebels in the town of Saada Wednesday, a source close to Mannaa said. But five of his bodyguards were seriously wounded when his car came under fire. The government announced last September that the army had killed Hussein al-Huthi, a radical preacher from the minority Zaidi community, nearly three months after he started a rebellion in the mountainous northwest. The uprising, near the border with Saudi Arabia, triggered clashes which left more than 400 people dead. The Zaidis are a moderate Shiite Muslim sect dominant in northwest Yemen but in the minority in the mainly Sunni country. So they'd be getting support from Iran then? Authorities had accused Huthi of seeking to foment sectarian strife, but he said last July the conflict was a result of his anti-US stand.

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Arabia

Opposition accused of supporting rebellion in Yemen

2005-04-02

Sanaa: Yemen's official newspaper has launched an attack on opposition Socialist and Islamist groups accusing them of supporting the armed rebellion. The rebellion which broke out on Monday has claimed several lives. An armed forces weekly said the opposition parties are helping members of the Faithful Youth organisation which was headed by Shaikh Hussain Badr Al Deen Al Houthi until he was killed by the army last year, in their uprising. "The trouble in Sadah revealed the dirty role played by those who are fond of creating fires and causing troubles in the homeland. Badr Al Deen Al Houthi has always been stirring fears, especially after he disclosed his intentions [referring to a previous interview with the elder Al Houthi] and his dark vision and his hostility to republican and democratic system. He has flagrantly violated the laws and constitution," 26 September weekly wrote in a front page editorial on Thursday. "
 those who do not care but to offend the homeland and put it into troubles, chaos and unrest, have found their long-sought goal in this man with his deep fanaticism and racism", the weekly said. "It is surprising to see that they agree on one thing that is not for the cause of good, but for the cause of evil. They will be held accountable before Allah, justice, people and the history," the paper concluded. Meanwhile, Ali Mohammad Salah, Deputy Chairman of the Military General Staff for Operations Affairs, confirmed on Thursday that government troops were surrounding Al Houthi followers in three areas Al Shafa'a, Al Ruzamat and Al Nushur in Sadah governorate, 250 km north of the capital Sanaa. "The heroes of the armed forces and security are now surrounding the saboteurs and outlaws from all directions with the objective of forcing them to surrender to the security forces. They will be brought to justice," Salah said. He said efforts were being exerted by security forces, local authorities, social figures and tribal elders to contain the situation peacefully. He spoke of many deaths and injuries among the government troops but without mentioning numbers . He also said many of the rebels were arrested in addition to deaths and injuries.

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Arabia

Yemen Corpse Count Rises to 65

2005-04-01

Clashes between security forces and supporters of a slain rebel preacher community continued in Yemen yesterday, taking to 65 the toll since fighting began earlier this week, tribal sources said. Twenty-seven members of the Faithful Youth organization, which was headed by Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi until he was killed by the army last year, have been killed in Saada province since Wednesday, the sources said. Security forces, who have been bombing the rebels' mountain strongholds in Nushur, Al-Shafia and Razamat, lost five reconnaissance and military intelligence personnel in an ambush laid by the militants, the sources said. Dozens have been wounded on both sides. Thirty-three people, including 10 members of the army and security forces, were earlier killed. The fighting erupted on Monday in the most serious upsurge of violence between the two sides since the army announced Al-Houthi's killing last September.

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