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Yemen clashes kill 44 as UN seeks talks no one else wants
[AlAhram] Fighting in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... killed at least 44 people in a 24-hour period to Wednesday, military officials said, as the UN's peace envoy arrived in the capital to meet rebels. Saudi-backed government forces clashed with the Shia Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews... rebels and fighters loyal to ousted president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... in battles across western Yemen. The UN's mediator, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, landed at Sanaa airport on Wednesday afternoon ahead of meetings with Houthi and Saleh representatives. The envoy met this week with President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in the Saudi capital to prepare for a resumption of talks between the two sides in Kuwait on Friday. Kuwait City has already hosted more than two months of UN-backed negotiations that have failed to make any real headway. The talks, aimed at ending a war that the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... says has killed more than 6,400 people since March 2015, were suspended at the end of June. Fighting has persisted across Yemen despite a truce that came into force on April 11. On Wednesday pro-government forces seized a mountain base from Houthis in Nahm, northeast of Sanaa, said military front man Abdullah al-Shandaqi. Eight loyalists and 17 rebels were killed in the battle, he told AFP. A Saudi-led coalition operating in Yemen since March 2015 supported the assault with air strikes, said military sources. Four soldiers and four rebels also died during battles in Marib province, east of Sanaa, when pro-government forces repelled a rebel attempt to seize a hill overlooking their base, a government source told AFP. Further north, coalition air strikes against a rebel convoy killed seven rebels in Jawf province, said the army. In the oil-rich southern province of Shabwa, four soldiers died during battles that saw the army make "slow progress" against rebels, said Colonel Motleq Jawhar, an infantry commander in the region. Posted by: trailing wife 2016-07-14 |
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