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| Arabia |
| Saudi Arabia trains Yemeni tribal fighters in war against Houthis: Sources |
| 2015-04-30 |
| [AlAhram] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... is providing military training for hundreds of Yemeni rustics to fight the Iranian-allied 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 Americaâ„¢, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews... militia, sources familiar with the matter told Rooters. A Saudi-led alliance has been bombing the group from the air for over a month, but it remains Yemen's dominant force. The kingdom announced last week it would rein in its strikes to give aid and reconciliation efforts more space, but the warring sides have made no visible progress toward talks. "You cannot win a war against the Houthis from the air - you need to send ground forces in, but now there's a programme to train tribal fighters on the border," said a Doha-based military source familiar with the matter. This week 300 tribal fighters trained in Saudi Arabia were deployed back to their home area in the Sirwah district of central Marib province to fight the Houthis and managed to push the militia back, a Yemeni official source told Rooters. A Saudi defence source said there was a plan to bolster Yemeni forces in the battles raging across the country because locals knew the terrain better than Saudis. "The problem is the number of tribal fighters being trained is very small and not enough," said the Yemeni source who declined to be named, adding that the training includes giving the fighters light weapons and tactical advice. Adversary Asked about the training, Saudi Arabia's coalition front man, Brigadier Ahmed Asseri, told Rooters he could not comment on operations that were still underway, but did not deny that such training was taking place. "We always comment on what is achieved. We never comment on something in the future. We don't want to put the security and safety of any one of the soldiers in danger." "We always confirm that we are helping the resistance and the popular groups, the loyal army ... but we cannot go into details on where, how, how much," he said. Uniting forces In an attempt to cobble together a united tribal front against the Houthis, Saudi Arabia has invited heads of tribes for a meeting in Riyadh, Yemeni sources told Rooters. Much of the armed opposition to the Houthi advance has been from local southern fighters, many of whom resent the north and seek secession. "Saudi Arabia wants to unite tribal leaders in this meeting but the feeling is that there's not much hope for that," said a Yemeni source currently in Riyadh. Yemen's prime minister and newly appointed vice president Khaled Bahah travelled from Riyadh to Doha on Monday to discuss ways of re-establishing the authority of Yemen's government in exile, sources familiar with the matter said. One of the options currently under discussion with Gulf states is how to remove al Qaeda elements from the city of Seyoun in the Hadramawt region, which could be a possible base for the government's administration. "There's a growing sense among everyone that if the government officials stay outside of 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... this in itself will be a gain for the Houthis," said a Yemeni source. So far the fighting and air strikes have killed more than 1,000 people, including an estimated 551 civilians since the bombings started on March 26, the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... said on Friday. Its children's agency UNICEF said at least 115 children were among the dead. |
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