Al-Houthi responds to Netanyahu's allegations

Member of the Supreme Political Council Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi mocked at Netanyahu's statements in which he alleged that Iran deployed precision-guided missiles in Yemen to target Israel.
"Netanyahu was unable to conclude a sentence without contradictions saying "the Iranians have started deploying precision-guided missiles in Yemen" Then he said in another tweet  that "the development of missiles is still an Iranian ambition", said Mohammed Ali AL-Houthi in two tweets on Tuesday.
AL-Houthi wondered how ambition has quickly turned out to be an action and deployed into Yemen!
Al-Houthi said that such fast change from ambition into action and deployment requires a miracle the same as the miracle of Solomon when one of his comrades that had the science of the book could bring the shrine of the Queen of Sheba from Yemen to Jerusalem within a second.    
Al-Houthi stressed that Netanyahu's statement confirmed Israel's participation in the US Saudi Lead Coalition war on Yemen.
"This Israeli statement is nothing but a message for continuing the aggression against the Yemeni people Particularly that it coincided with the presence of the US secretary." Tweeted Al-Houthi.
Al-Houthi added that Netanyahu's statement served the Yemeni awareness as it confirmed for the people of Yemen that Israel was a partner with the Saudi Lead Coalition in their aggression on Yemen.
Al-Houthi concluded saying "deception of the Zionist entity is over and its time is over"

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Lead by al-Beidh Southern National Resistance declares war against army forces

By Mohammed al-Kibsi

Few days before the conclusion of the National Dialogue Conference (NDC), the former vice president of Yemen Ali Salem al-Beidh declared war against the military and security forces, launched from Dale and Lahj provinces in the south of Yemen on Sunday.

In a statement screened on the Beirut based, Aden Live TV channel, affiliated to al-Beidh, the TV channel published what it called the statement number one that it attributed to the Southern National Resistance through which it sponsored launching attacks against the military and security forces in Dale and Lahj provinces on Saturday.

This was the first time the Southern Movement admits launching attacks against the army and calling it as "the army of the enemies".  The southern movement has been always affirming it’s a peaceful movement.

In its statement it said that the Southern National Resistance militias launched massive attacks against the military sites of the 33^rd armor brigade in al-Jarba and Abboud military camps in Dale province. "The attacks resulted in capturing two military sites and capturing one of the soldiers," the statement said.

It also said that the southern resistance's fighters launched an attack against a military patrol in Lahj province, killing four soldiers, destroying a military vehicle and capturing a number of arms.

A security source affirmed that militants affiliated to the Southern Movement launched an RBG assailant on a military vehicle while it was in its way to the 7^th of July military brigade at al-Malah area of Radfan district in Lahj province on Saturday.

The source said that two soldiers were killed immediately and that two others died later sustaining injuries from the attack.

The statement also warned the military forces from attacking any southerners, promising to continue launching assailants against the army until liberating the south of Yemen and restoring the "South Arabian State", former southern Yemen.

The statement said the attacks were in response to killing leader Burkan Manee'  Saleh  and a number of civilians who were killed in attacks launched by the 33^rd armor brigade located in Dale province on Friday.  

Confrontations between the southern movement and the 33^rd armor brigade, located in Dale province, have been continuing for the past two weeks resulting in killing over 30 of the southern movement fighters and civilians including women and children.

Over 20 people were killed when a tank affiliated to the 33^rd armor brigade bombarded a school in Sanah area of Dale last December. The southern movement stated that the tank targeted a mourning ceremony that had been launching in the school. However the commander of the 33^rd brigade General Abdullah Dhaba'an alleged the tank fired back at militants that were launching attacks from the school at a military vehicle. President Hadi dispatched a military committee to investigate the incident; however the committee has not announced its findings.

Last Friday confrontations broke out between the two sides and over nine people were killed including three women.

A number of political parties and civil society organizations condemned the attacks launched by the 33^rd armor brigade against civilians and called for ousting General Dhaba'an who was also accused of burning protest site in Taiz city during the uprising against Ex president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011 before the general and his armor brigade were moved from Taiz to Dale as part of a wide restructure process of the Yemeni army.

A sit in was launched at the National Dialogue Conference before starting activities of the conference on Saturday. The sit in was organized by the representatives of the southern movement to the NDC but all NDC members took part in it. They called for moving the 33^rd armor brigade from Dale, ousting General Dhaba'an and referring him to the judiciary for the crimes he committed in Dale. Representatives of the southern movement to the NDC called for trying general Dhab'an and threatened to withdraw from the conference if not firm measures would be adopted regarding what has been happening in Dale.

"If the authority could not remove Dhaba'an during the past three weeks what would it do to implement the NDC's outcomes", they vowed.

Member of the NDC Abdulhamid Huraiz considered the silence of the government and president Hadi about what has been happening in Dale as approval for what has been happening there.

"The Southern Resistance affirms that operations of the southern resistance will continue until removing the Yemeni occupation off the Southern Arabian, militarily, politically and economically and liberating the last inch of the Southern Arabian national soil and restoring the independence of the Southern Arabian State," the statement read.

"I'm talking on behalf of the southern movement and I'm with the demands of trying Dab'aan the killer and removing the brigade centered in Dale and we request from president Hadi to interfere for this issue and to withdraw this brigade to another place and to form a new brigade comprising from the sons of that region," said  Dr, Yasin Makawi , vice president of the NDC.

This escalation coincided with the conclusion of the National Dialogue Conference a matter that indicated attempts to sabotage the political dialogue process.

The UNSC council had warned former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and former Vice president Ali Salem al-Beidh from disturbing the political settlement.

The Yemeni government accuses al-Beidh of receiving financial support from Iran to disturb the security, stability and unity of Yemen, an accusation that al-Beidh has not denied.

An Iranian diplomat was assassinated on a main road down town in Sana'a on Saturday.

The Yemeni government had detained a number of ships carrying weapons from Iran to Yemen the last of them was Jihan 1 that was captured in the Yemeni maritime territorial in 2012. Investigations uncovered that most of the weapons were of Iranian origin.

Yemen security arrests 5 al-Qaeda suspects, al-Qaeda kills 2 soldiers

By : Mohammed al-Kibsi

Few hours after the Yemeni security authorities arrested two al-Qaeda operatives in a check point in Lahj province, al-Qaeda insurgents attacked the checkpoint and killed two soldiers and wounded three others.

Suspected al-Qaeda militants ambushed a Yemeni army post in the southern province of Lahj before dawn Wednesday, killing two soldiers and wounding three, a security source said.

The attack occurred early Wednesday in the area of Hableen when four gunmen opened fire on an army checkpoint in eastern Lahj province, said the security source.

The death toll is expected to rise because some of those injured were in critical condition.

On Tuesday security forces at al-Habilain check point arrested two al-Qaeda terrorists. The arrested are called Ammar al-Maysari and Ali al-Jahafi.

After arresting the two suspects the security forces stormed their home in Rimi neighborhood in Aden where the forces found huge number of explosives, weapons and valuable documents about al-Qaeda plans for attacking vital government premises and officials in Aden.

On Tuesday, security forces stormed a house in Aden's Mansoura neighborhood to arrest some wanted terrorists, but the armed group started shooting at the security troops, sparking a short gun battle that left four al-Qaeda suspects killed at the scene.

The security authorities also announced on Tuesday of arresting three key al-Qaeda operatives in Aden.

Lahj is located 337 km southwest of the capital city Sanaa, and 30 km east of Aden, Yemen’s international seaport.

While media affirms that hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters left to Syria Yemen says hijacked officers were studying in Syria

By Mohammed al-Kibsi

Hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters left Yemen to Syria to join the fight against Bashar al-Asad’s forces, said different media sources.  

Yemen Observer had published a report attributed to Sheikh Tariq al-Fadhly as saying that hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters were transported from Abyan province in south Yemen to Syria.

Al-Fadli announced that there was a deal for evacuating al-Qaeda fighters from Yemen and sending them to Syria to join the fight against the Syrian regime.

He said that Saudi Arabia is sponsoring this deal and that the fighters were sent to Syria through Turkey.

“The sudden withdrawal of al-Qaeda militants from the two cities of  Zinjubar and Ja’ar in Abyan province is connected to a conclusive deal recently made to  have groups of armed men relocated to Syria to partake in the war against the Syrian regime, al-Fadhli told the Adenalghd local news site.

Later in the month the British based Guardian newspaper affirmed that hundreds of international fighters have flocked to Syria to join the war against Bashar al-Assad’ government.

Sheikh Tariq al-Fadhli is a veteran Arab Afghan Jihadist who is currently one of the key leaders of the southern movement.

Some are fresh-faced idealists driven by hatred for Assad, while some are jihadi veterans from Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan.

According to the Guardian, to reach the country, foreign fighters have crossed borders with forged passports and dodge secret services.

The fighters have been dispersed among different jihadi organizations, including Ahrar al-Sham ("the Free Men of Syria") and Jabhat al-Nusra ("the Front for the Aid of the People of the Levant").

These fighters are also secretive, especially when dealing with the Free Syria Army.

Meanwhile the German De Vilt newspaper revealed that a report issued by the German intelegence uncovered that only 5 percent of the Syrian Free army are of Syrian national and that the rest are jihadists brought from other Arab and Islamic countries, including Yemen.

The report said that the number of the Arab Jihadists in Syria amounts to 15000. According to the report most of these jihadists are affiliated to al-Qaeda and the rest are from other extremist Islamic groups that have been using children as human shields.

On the same context the Yemeni daily newspaper al-Ola said that the Yemen government rejected a Qatari deal for purchasing weapons from North Korea and sending have of the weapons deal to the Syrian Free Army.

The paper said that the deal was rejected by President Hadi during his visit to Qatar.

Yemen's defense ministry has denied that five military officers reportedly being held by rebels in Syria were sent to fight alongside Syrian government forces.

An official told BBC Arabic that the soldiers had been studying at a military academy in Aleppo and were detained as they tried to travel home.

The al-Nusra Front, an Islamist rebel group in Syria, posted a video on Sunday saying it had captured them.

The video showed five men asking Yemen to stop supporting Bashar al-Assad.

The Yemeni defense ministry said the five soldiers had travelled to Syria two years ago to study at the Assad Military Academy in Aleppo as part of a military co-operation agreement between the two countries.

“They were sent to study in Syria a year before the uprising started in Syria”, said the military source and friends of the captured Yemeni officers.

They were detained on 4 September as they travelled from Aleppo to Damascus to get their flight home, it added.

The ministry's account supports what the Yemeni human rights group, Hood, told the Reuters news agency over the weekend.

The unverified four-minute video, which was posted on jihadist forums, shows the identity cards of five men, one of whom appears to be a lieutenant-colonel, as well as pictures of them in military uniform.

The men are pictured sitting below a black flag emblazoned with "al-Nusra Front" in Arabic.

The video includes an interview with one of the men, who says the group had been sent to Damascus to help quell the uprising.

The man, who identifies himself as Mohammed Abdo Hezam al-Meleiky, says: "I ask the Yemeni government to cut all logistical and military ties because Bashar al-Assad's regime is a regime that is killing its people and that is what we saw with our own eyes when we came here."

A friend of al-Meleiky said all he knows about Mohammed al-Meleiky was that he was studying for a master degree in Syria and that they were expecting him to come back home early September.

“I believe that what al-Meleiky said on the video was under threat by his abductors,” said his friends that preferred to be anonymous.

Al-Qaeda in Yemen assassinates pro-government tribal militia leader

Source: Yemen Observer www.yobserver.com

A pro-government militia man died an hour ago after being targeted along with other members by al-Qaeda suicide bomber earlier today in the southern province of Abyan.

The suicide bomber targeted a group of pro-government militia in the morning but mist the militia leader in the district of Lawdar, Abyan province in south Yemen, a local source said.

Saleh al-Agdal, a local from Lawdar district, said that al-Masoodi died in a hospital in Aden city, south Yemen. He said another member is unlikely to survive whlile the third one is stable.

The suicide bomber was waiting for the pro-government leader, Muhammed Aidarous, but he was already in office when the bomber resorted to targeting a car carrying members of the militia, said al-Agdal.

Al-Agdal said three of the targeted people were taken to Aden as they were seriously injured. The other four, the source said, are now in the local hospital in Lawdar. “So far,” al-Agdal said, “no one has died and Aidarous is fine.”

Aidarous has escaped three assassination attempts before. The pro-government militias, known as the Popular Committees, have joined the government army in its fight against al-Qaeda militants in the restive province in Abyan.

The militants attacked earlier in the month the leader of the militia in Ja’ar district but he escaped the assassination and suffered severe injury.

   

Yemen al-Qaeda: second man alive, US asks Yemen delay DNA test

By Mohammed al-Kibsi & Shoaib al-Musawa

Saeed al-Shihri, the Yemen al-Qaeda’s second-in-command government announced killed recently, is still alive, sources close to the group said.

Yemen defense ministry announced on September 10 it killed Saeed al-Shihri, deputy leader of Yemen based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in a “qualitative operation” believed to have been conducted by a U.S. drone attack.

Local sources from Abyan said al-Shihri is still alive. “The man is present,” said an Abyan local source who is familiar with the groups’ activities. “I contacted several people [close to al-Shihri] and confirmed he wasn’t basically at the attack scene.”

Another Abyan source, known to be an al-Qaeda affiliate, said al-Shihri is still alive. “I am one hundred percent sure he [al-Shihri] is alive. So close sources from al-Shihri have also affirmed he is still alive,” said the al-Qaeda affiliate source. Both two sources spoke on anonymity conditions citing personal concerns.

The al-Qaeda affiliate source, reached by mobile from al-Mahfad area which is now under al-Qaeda control, said “many” of al-Qaeda leaders announced dead by government are still alive, too. “Sometimes, they [al-Qaeda leadership] avoid affirming or denying that their members are dead for fear of [government] pursuit,” he said.

Yemeni government has not commented since media has reported conflicting accounts on al-Shihri being alive.

London-based Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, quoting a “senior government official”, reported on September 14 that symbols of corpses were taken from a Hadramout hospital for a DNA test which, according to the paper, proved al-Shihri was not among those killed by the drone attack. Saudi interior minister told the paper on September 16 that he is not sure yet that al-Shihri was among those killed.

However, Yemeni officials from the criminal investigation said that no DNA test has been taken yet to any of the corpses.

 “We received four corpses, one of which is believed to be al-Shihri’s,” said a security officer at the criminal investigation department based on Sana'a. “Department of Criminal Evidence Investigation [in Sana’a] fetched them to Sana’a the second day of the attack for the DNA test but the American asked [Yemeni government] not to conduct any test,” said the officer, who asked to remain anonymous for not being authorized to speak to the press.

The officer said an American German team is arriving Yemen to conduct a DNA test of what believed to be the corpse of al-Qaeda second man along with three affiliate members killed by a U.S. drone attack in east province of Hadramout. The officer said he doesn’t know the specific day the team would arrive.

 The officer said he had been to the criminal evidence department, where the corpse are, and saw four corpses but that no DNA test has been conducted yet either in Sana’a nor in Hadramout. “All were totally burned that no one can identify them [corpses].

Yemen has announced killing of Shihri three times before but the group has denied the news.

Al-Shihri is a Saudi national who was released from Guantanamo Bay in 2007 and was sent to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation.