Melee erupts at Yemen peace talks,

[Sally]

One would think that the participants could act like gentlemen.


Melee erupts at Yemen peace talks, underscoring rifts
Source: Reuters - Thu, 18 Jun 2015 15:17 GMT
Author: Reuters


* Supporters of different factions brawl on sidelines in Geneva

* Clashes in Yemen reportedly kill 30 Houthis, tribesmen

* Disease and hunger spread amid raging war (Recasts with Geneva fight, adds background)

By Mohammed Ghobari and Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA/SANAA, June 18 (Reuters) - A fistfight erupted on the sidelines of peace talks in Geneva on Thursday between supporters of different warring factions in Yemen, underlining the divisions that have thwarted United Nations efforts broker a truce in the near three-month conflict.

Yemeni opponents of the Houthi forces that drove the government into exile interrupted a news conference by Houthi officials, throwing shoes and insulting them as "criminals" and "dogs" who were "killing the children of south Yemen".

A Saudi-led coalition has been launching air raids against the Iran-allied Houthis since late March in a campaign to restore the exiled government and back its armed supporters.

Continue reading at:

Melee erupts at Yemen peace talks underscoring rifts?

 

[waltky]

About time the Arab League got into this...

Qatar sends 1,000 ground troops into Yemen
Sept. 7, 2015 -- Some 1,000 troops from Qatar were deployed to Yemen Monday to join the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi.

The Qatari-owned Al Jazeera television reported the troops, backed by 200 armored vehicles, 30 Apache helicopters, missiles and missile launchers, were headed to Yemen's Maareb province. The Doha-backed news agency said more Qatari forces were expected to follow.

The news comes after 45 soldiers from the United Arab Emirates and 10 Saudi troops were killed in Marib on Friday. It was the largest single loss of life in the Saudi-led coalition since it began its attack against the Houthis in March.

Yemeni civilians and security forces stand at the site of Saudi Arabian air strikes against Houthi rebels near Sanaa Airport on March 26, 2015 in Yemen. Saudi warplanes launched the attack against the Houthi rebels to slow their advance thoughout the country. Monday, the Gulf nation of Qatar has reportedly deployed 1,000 troops to Yemen to join the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi.

The coalition said it is aiming at taking back Sanaa from the Houthis, thought to be backed by regional rival Iran. Airstrikes continued Monday in Sanaa, hitting a military aviation college.

Qatar sends 1,000 ground troops into Yemen

 

[waltky]

Yemen back to the stone age...

After more than six months of bombings, Yemeni Blacks Ravaged by Poverty
Monday 12th October, 2015 -- Among the poorest of the poor in Yemen are Yemeni blacks, set aside from society in what lingers of an ancient, now-defunct caste system.

After more than six months of bombings, aid workers say Yemeni blacks who number roughly 20,000 people in the capital alone have become invisible victims of a war in which they have no side. "They are streets cleaners, simple people," said Sheik Majid al-Jamal, 35, a local community leader in the Sawan district in Sana'a. "The ground is their mattress and the sky is their blanket. They work either as street cleaners or collect used plastic bottles, [the] women beg for money."

Recent airstrikes that have killed Yemeni blacks have not been near military installations or against them for political reasons, he added. "They never affiliate with political parties," he said. "Their jobs as cleaners are their only political loyalties." Traditionally known as the "Akhdam" which translates as "the servants," Yemen's black demographic has been rechristened the "Muhamasheen" or the "marginalized ones" by humanitarian groups in recent years. And their community, according to the United Nations children's agency, is among those hardest hit by Saudi airstrikes in the ongoing civil war.

"UNICEF believes that Muhamasheen communities have been severely impacted by the conflict due to their very poor living conditions and lack of tribal and social support mechanisms," said Buthaina al-Iryani, the agency's social policy chief in Yemen, by email. Many families across Yemen are gathering in traditional villages, trying to avoid the airstrikes and battles in the cities. Muhamasheen families often live in a kind of permanent state of semi-homelessness, however, settling on government lands in makeshift homes made of found material, like blankets and tires. When an airstrike hits them, they have nowhere to run, and no way to recover.

Personal loss

 

[waltky]

UAE helps Yemeni troops take back city from al-Qaeda...

Yemeni Troops, Backed by United Arab Emirates, Take City From Al Qaeda
APRIL 24, 2016 — Yemeni troops in armored vehicles and backed by airstrikes advanced toward this city of 500,000 people on Sunday, intending to capture it from militants with Al Qaeda who had controlled the major stronghold for more than a year.

Thousands of Qaeda fighters were said to be in the city and appeared ready for the battle against the attacking force, which was backed by the United Arab Emirates. In mosques, the militants asked residents to support them as they confronted “the invaders,” and they placed gas tankers in roads to use as defensive booby traps. But in the end, hardly a shot was fired. By nightfall, the Qaeda militants had withdrawn from Al Mukalla in an apparently tactical retreat, residents said.

The loss of the city was a blow to the ambitions of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch, which is widely considered the militant group’s most dangerous worldwide affiliate, with a particular focus on blowing up commercial airliners. Over the last year, Al Qaeda had used Al Mukalla as a base as the militants stormed through southern Yemen, capitalizing on the power vacuum caused by the country’s 14-month civil war and seizing territory, weapons and money. The militants had faced little resistance. During the war between the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels, a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition supporting the government with airstrikes rarely, if ever, attacked Al Qaeda.

The militants’ expansion became the subject of more intense focus in regional and Western capitals as Yemen’s war reached a stalemate. In a major shift, the United Arab Emirates, a member of the Saudi-led coalition, turned its attention in the last few months from fighting the Houthis to readying thousands of Yemeni tribal fighters for the battle against Al Qaeda, several Yemeni military leaders said. In early February, the top counterterrorism official in the Obama administration, Lisa O. Monaco, met for two and a half hours with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and a senior Emirati leader. A large part of the discussion focused on how to address the threat from the growing Qaeda strongholds in southern Yemen, two senior American officials said.

American military and counterterrorism officials have said the Yemeni affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, poses the most imminent terrorist threat to the United States. “If we do not deal with AQAP, it is only a matter of time before the group uses its expanded capabilities and safe haven to attempt another attack against the U.S.,” Gen. Joseph L. Votel, the new leader of the military’s Central Command, told the Senate last month, referring to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The Central Command’s area of responsibility includes the Middle East. General Votel added that such an attack could come “with little to no warning.”

MORE

 

[there4eyeM]

Reminder of 'Dr. Strangelove'. "Gentlemen! Fighting in the War Room?"

 

[xband]

Reminder of 'Dr. Strangelove'. "Gentlemen! Fighting in the War Room?"

Dr. Strangelove was filmed during the height of the cold war. Great script, great cast and great director.

 

[there4eyeM]

The very concept of the story is genius.

 

[Roudy]

One would think that the participants could act like gentlemen.


Melee erupts at Yemen peace talks, underscoring rifts
Source: Reuters - Thu, 18 Jun 2015 15:17 GMT
Author: Reuters


* Supporters of different factions brawl on sidelines in Geneva

* Clashes in Yemen reportedly kill 30 Houthis, tribesmen

* Disease and hunger spread amid raging war (Recasts with Geneva fight, adds background)

By Mohammed Ghobari and Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA/SANAA, June 18 (Reuters) - A fistfight erupted on the sidelines of peace talks in Geneva on Thursday between supporters of different warring factions in Yemen, underlining the divisions that have thwarted United Nations efforts broker a truce in the near three-month conflict.

Yemeni opponents of the Houthi forces that drove the government into exile interrupted a news conference by Houthi officials, throwing shoes and insulting them as "criminals" and "dogs" who were "killing the children of south Yemen".

A Saudi-led coalition has been launching air raids against the Iran-allied Houthis since late March in a campaign to restore the exiled government and back its armed supporters.

Continue reading at:

Melee erupts at Yemen peace talks underscoring rifts?

Ah, Yemen, another bastion of Muslim peacefulness, free speech, coexistance, democracy, and tolerance. There's just so many of these Muslim havens, one doesn't know which to pick for the next vacation where you could relax and recharge your batteries. Is there a Club Med in Yemen? Kabul? Torah Bora? Islamabad? Mosul? Damascus?

 

[Roudy]

Yemen back to the stone age...

After more than six months of bombings, Yemeni Blacks Ravaged by Poverty
Monday 12th October, 2015 -- Among the poorest of the poor in Yemen are Yemeni blacks, set aside from society in what lingers of an ancient, now-defunct caste system.

After more than six months of bombings, aid workers say Yemeni blacks who number roughly 20,000 people in the capital alone have become invisible victims of a war in which they have no side. "They are streets cleaners, simple people," said Sheik Majid al-Jamal, 35, a local community leader in the Sawan district in Sana'a. "The ground is their mattress and the sky is their blanket. They work either as street cleaners or collect used plastic bottles, [the] women beg for money."

Recent airstrikes that have killed Yemeni blacks have not been near military installations or against them for political reasons, he added. "They never affiliate with political parties," he said. "Their jobs as cleaners are their only political loyalties." Traditionally known as the "Akhdam" which translates as "the servants," Yemen's black demographic has been rechristened the "Muhamasheen" or the "marginalized ones" by humanitarian groups in recent years. And their community, according to the United Nations children's agency, is among those hardest hit by Saudi airstrikes in the ongoing civil war.

"UNICEF believes that Muhamasheen communities have been severely impacted by the conflict due to their very poor living conditions and lack of tribal and social support mechanisms," said Buthaina al-Iryani, the agency's social policy chief in Yemen, by email. Many families across Yemen are gathering in traditional villages, trying to avoid the airstrikes and battles in the cities. Muhamasheen families often live in a kind of permanent state of semi-homelessness, however, settling on government lands in makeshift homes made of found material, like blankets and tires. When an airstrike hits them, they have nowhere to run, and no way to recover.

Personal loss

You mean "FORWARD to the Stone Age" right?