De kwestie Jemen/Houthis

[VandeWiel]

Ik heb de naam van het draadje aangepast in "De kwestie Jemen/Houthis" om zo de lijn door te trekken met Israel/Hamas en Israel/Hizbollah. Het conflict is even zo bloedig en verdient wat mij betreft ook een vergelijkbare aandacht en eigen vaste draadje.

[Ik hoop dat de mods dit delen. Dank!]

[VandeWiel]

A large Saudi armored force crosses into Yemen to fight Iran-backed rebels

Thursday, Nov. 5, a substantial Saudi armored infantry force and tank column crossed the border into Yemen to do battle with Iran-backed Houthi rebels the day after they killed a Saudi border guard. Saudi air force F-15 and Tornado jets have been bombing Yemeni rebel positions near the border with the southern Saudi Jizan province since Wednesday. The Yemeni Houthi rebels are the second Iranian ally to be attacked after Israel's Cast Lead operation against the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza earlier this year, DEBKAfile's military sources report.
"This is not a hit-and-run, this is a sustained action" to clean out the rebel camps in coordination with the Yemeni authorities, said a Saudi source Thursday night.

Sources in Riyadh report a number of Saudi casualties in the first hours of combat. The Saudis decided to send troops into northern Yemen to wipe out the Yazdi Houthi bases after the rebels crossed into Jizan Tuesday, Nov. 3, and captured three villages in the rugged Jebel al-Dukhan district. They killed a Saudi soldier and injured eleven before being driven out.

At this point, the oil kingdom's royal rulers decided to draw the line lest the Yemeni revolt spill over into southern Saudi Arabia's Shiite Muslim tribes which have an affinity with the Yazdis, a branch of the Shia. Most of all, they are concerned to prevent pro-Iranian fighters from encroaching on Saudi soil.

In the last two weeks, Saudi warships have helped the Yemeni navy apprehend at least three ships bringing fresh arms supplies from Iran to the Houthis, by the same method as Tehran arms supplies reach Hizballah and Hamas.

Tehran denied it is sending weapons to the rebels, but the Saudi rulers decided that Iran had crossed too many red lines and it was time to go on the offensive before the throne was imperiled by Iranian proxy belligerence.

For the last five months, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have been providing Yemeni president Abdullah Salah with military assistance against the Yazdi Houthi insurrection, mainly military equipment and ammunition.

Nonetheless, the Yemeni military has not been able to quell the rebellion. The Houthis' strength has been constantly reinforced from Tehran to the point that the Salah regime is in danger.


http://www2.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6360

[Elzenga]

Het feit dat shiitische rebellen goed uitgerust zijn met Iraanse wapens vind ik zeer zorgwekkend. Dat vind ik niets anders dan in Gaza en Libanon. Het is "maar" een burgeroorlog tussen moslims? BAH, het aantal doden overtreft de voorgaande twee oorlogen al! 

er zijn overeenkomsten maar mijns inziens ook grote verschillen. Al was het maar dat de Palestijnen in Gaza zich verzetten binnen een internationaal onderkende bezettingspolitiek van Israël. Hezbollah in Zuid-Libanon kan zich daar niet meer op beroepen maar is wel door een Israëlische bezetting van Zuid-Libanon ontstaan.

Verder kan ik de stap van Iran om deze opstandelingen te bewapenen goed begrijpen (al keur ik die niet goed). Binnen het kader van de anti-Iraanse dreigementen en militaire ontwikkelingen in de regio. Het Iraanse regime probeert zo haar "bedreigers" elders bezig te houden en haar dreigement kracht bij te zetten, dat een aanval op Iran de regio op verschillende plaatsen in brand zal zetten. Via acties van aan haar geallieerde groepen. Hoewel het Iraanse regime sympathie zal hebben voor de standpunten van de opstandelingen, geloof ik niet in een echt principiële steun. Als Iran een veiligheidsakkoord/non-aanvalsverdrag zou kunnen sluiten met de VS of landen in de regio zal de Iraanse steun aan deze opstandelingen volgens mij snel opdrogen. Het is een defensief strategische stap. Niet met als hoofddoel om de regio in Iraanse invloedssfeer te brengen (dan was dit al veel eerder gebeurd).

Gek genoeg draagt volgens mij juist de recente "war on terrorism" en de onevenwichtige buitenlandse politiek van veel Westerse landen bij tot radicalisering in de regio. Als antwoord daarop vanuit met name jonge lokale moslims en intellectuelen. Jongere generaties die veelal de bevolkingen van de landen in de regio uitmaken en hun wens naar verandering en meer ontwikkeling belemmerd zien door de door Westerse landen gesteunden veelal dictatoriale regimes in hun land. Hun religie en radicale, daarop gebaseerde, "bevrijdings"-ideologieën zien zij dan uiteindelijk vaak als enige antwoord op deze misstanden en hun eigen onmacht en onvrede. Westerse landen die dan ook nog Islamitische landen bezet houden maakt het nog erger. En daar spint het Iraanse regime garen bij. Ondanks haar beroerde binnenlandse beleid.    

[VandeWiel]

Ook de rol van Iran wordt nadrukkelijk genoemd...Gezien de bronnen zal hier vast ook een eigen boodschap achter zitten..Israelische "omsingeling" door Iran? Yemen de volgende dominosteen? Het past in het plaatje cq de mythe welke bepaald kringen graag schetsen..

Ook Egypte en Saudi-Arabië worden genoemd. Die hebben waarschijnlijk ook liever geen shiïtische moslimbroeders met terroristische neiging steeds dichter bij hun achtertuin. Zeker niet als dan ook nog blijkt dat ze flinke steun krijgen vanuit Iran en dat de invloedsfeer van Iran blijkbaar behoorlijk sterk is.

Het feit dat shiitische rebellen goed uitgerust zijn met Iraanse wapens vind ik zeer zorgwekkend. Dat vind ik niets anders dan in Gaza en Libanon. Het is "maar" een burgeroorlog tussen moslims? BAH, het aantal doden overtreft de voorgaande twee oorlogen al! 

[Enforcer]

Ook de rol van Iran wordt nadrukkelijk genoemd...Gezien de bronnen zal hier vast ook een eigen boodschap achter zitten..Israelische "omsingeling" door Iran? Yemen de volgende dominosteen? Het past in het plaatje cq de mythe welke bepaald kringen graag schetsen..

Ook Egypte en Saudi-Arabië worden genoemd. Die hebben waarschijnlijk ook liever geen shiïtische moslimbroeders met terroristische neiging steeds dichter bij hun achtertuin. Zeker niet als dan ook nog blijkt dat ze flinke steun krijgen vanuit Iran en dat de invloedsfeer van Iran blijkbaar behoorlijk sterk is.

[Elzenga]

In potentie kan dit net zo lelijk worden als Gaza en het Libanon 2006 conflict. Alleen geldt hier niet dat een "agressor" op grond van PR na 30 dagen moet stoppen. Ziet er niet al te best uit...

Het grote verschil is ook, dat het hier om moslims onderling gaat....en dit een burgeroorlog is en zowel Libanon 2006 als Gaza niet. Ook is de internationale impact beduidend minder groot dan beide andere. Vandaar dat het, helaas, minder prominent in de media wordt genoemd.

Ook de rol van Iran wordt nadrukkelijk genoemd...Gezien de bronnen zal hier vast ook een eigen boodschap achter zitten..Israelische "omsingeling" door Iran? Yemen de volgende dominosteen? Het past in het plaatje cq de mythe welke bepaald kringen graag schetsen..

[VandeWiel]

In potentie kan dit net zo lelijk worden als Gaza en het Libanon 2006 conflict. Alleen geldt hier niet dat een "agressor" op grond van PR na 30 dagen moet stoppen. Ziet er niet al te best uit...

[VandeWiel]

Yemen close to 'all-out war' against Shi'ite rebels



Yemen declared a state of emergency in a northern province bordering Saudi Arabia late Wednesday, where the Yemeni army is waging a comprehensive offensive against Shi'ite Islamists, bringing the country to the brink of all-out civil war.


A serious humanitarian crisis has developed in the fighting zone, with more than 130,000 people fleeing over two weeks of fighting.

Government officials say that the rebels, who are part of the Zaydi branch of Shi'ite Islam, oppose Yemen's alliance with the United States and want to restore clerical rule that existed until the 1960s.

Warplanes and artillery bombed the Saada province for a second straight day on Thursday, according to the rebels and local officials.

The offensive in Saada province started on Tuesday, after the rebels claimed they had wrested more control of the region from Sunni-led government troops. Authorities in turn promised to crush the Shi'ite uprising "with an iron-fist."

Saada has been the scene of a five-year rebellion by a Shi'ite minority that has further destabilized the country as it faces a resurgent threat from al-Qaida, a separate secessionist uprising in the south and an economic downturn from plunging oil prices.

The latest attacks came a day after air force planes hit an outdoor market in the provincial town of Haydan as people were doing their early morning shopping, killing several civilians, according to rebels and local officials.

They also claimed that in a renewed bombardment, with sorties overnight and into early Thursday, military planes bombed several other Saada towns and rebel positions. "Dozens" of people were killed and wounded, including in the towns of Sihar, Miran and Al-Maqash.

A statement from the rebel leader Abdel Malik al-Hawthi, posted on the group's Web site, described the attack as "a mass carnage" and appealed to Yemen's political parties to condemn the government strikes. It said an unspecified number of civilians died and posted gruesome photos of victims allegedly killed in the bombardment.

In addition to the state of emergency in the province, the government imposed a nightly curfew in Saada and other nearby towns.

A government committee also set several conditions on the rebels for halting its offensive, including leaving their positions, laying down their arms and handing over soldiers and civilians captured in the fighting.

On Wednesday, a local government official said 20 rebels were killed. A local Health Ministry official said 12 others died in fighting across Saada and 51 were wounded.

Yemen's instability has been a key concern for both the US and Saudi Arabia, where newspaper editorials have been warning of regional impact of the troubles.

A commentary this week in Asharq Al-Awsat, a London-based pan-Arab newspaper owned by the Saudi royal family, warned that "this disaster threatens Yemeni unity as a whole, as well as the security of Saudi Arabia and all Gulf Cooperation Council countries without exception."


http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249418603268&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[VandeWiel]

The latest paroxysm of Yemen's five-year war with the rebel Houthis has left more than 2,000 dead in less than a month and up to 150,000 homeless. Yemeni government troops are battling around 15,000 Iranian-armed and trained Houthi rebels dug into the northern Sadaa mountains on the Saudi Arabian border. Saudi air force bombers are pounding the rebels and the Egyptian air force and navy are ferrying ammunition to the Yemen army with US encouragement and funding.

This is the second war in less than a year in which US allies are pitted against Iran-backed forces. The first was Israel's three-week campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which ended last January.

This strategically-located, poor Red Sea country, for years a critical stage for the war on Islamist extremists, has now become a key arena where the United States and Iran jockey for regional primacy. In that respect, the Yemen conflict compares in importance with the 2006 Lebanon War and the Gaza conflict. Its outcome will bear heavily on the relative strategic positions in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea regions of the US - as well as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and indirectly Israel too - vis-à-vis Iran.
DEBKAfile's military sources point to eight salient features of the ongoing Yemen conflict:

1. Two weeks ago, president Ali Abdullah Saleh's army launched the sixth round since the year 2000 of his war with the Houthis, deploying about 20,000 troops for a major offensive to dislodge the 15,000 Houthis from their mountain fastnesses (12-18,000 feet tall) in the northern province of Saada.

2. The Houthis are Zaydis who claim they adhere to the purest form of Shiite Islam. They are fighting to bring the true faith to Yemen by restoring the Zaydi imamate overthrown in 1962. Their name derives from the movement's founder, Badreddin al-Houthi, who was killed by the Yemeni army in 2004. The Houthi Shiites and Iranian Shia have nothing in common barring Tehran's exploitation of the Yemeni rebels as a proxy force (like the Lebanese Hizballah) for gaining Iran a military foot through the door to the Saudi Arabian border and the southern Arabian peninsula.

3. The sheer quantities of hardware the Iranians managed to transfer to the Houthis in two weeks amazed Washington, Sanaa, Riyadh and Cairo, even through Iran had previously displayed this capability by the speed with which it replenished and augmented Hizballah losses after the 2006 war against Israel. The Yemeni army is therefore hard put to quell the heavily-armed insurgents or even prevent the battles from spilling out of the Saada region into other parts of the country, including the capital.

4. Fearful that the conflict and Zaydi influence may seep across Yemen's northern border into the southern Saudi regions of Najran and Asir, Saudi Arabia has sent its air force to help the Yemeni army by pounding the Houthi strongholds in Saada's mountain villages.

5. The small 66,000 Yemeni army, lacking organized military stockpiles, soon began running out of ammunition and military equipment. The Egyptian army is running these necessary supplies to Yemen through a naval and aerial corridor.

6. The Obama administration has pitched in with financial assistance for the Saudi and Egyptian efforts to help Yemen. This was agreed at the meeting the US and Egyptian presidents held at the White House last Tuesday, Aug. 18. In this fashion, US president Barack Obama is making a stand against Iran alongside Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah.

7. Just as the US and Israel were taken by surprise by the Iranian surrogate Hizballah's military capabilities in the 2006 Lebanon War, so too were the US and its allies astonished by the Houthi rebels' command of the battlefield. The Yemeni army's First Mechanized Infantry Division, fortified by every one of its six paratroop and commando brigades and Saudi air support, has proved unable in two weeks of combat to break into the rebels' mountain strongholds.

8. Without this breakthrough, the conflict threatens to spread and escalate into the biggest and most dangerous war to strike any part of Arabia in the last 18 years, ever since Saddam Hussein ordered the Iraqi army to invade Kuwait in 1991.


http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1402