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black;">AVOID MUSLIM YEMEN</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></b></p> <div style="text-align: justify;"><font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Houthis hit submarine communications cables<br> </span><br> 26 Feb, 2024<br> Assaf Gilead<br> Globes<br> <br> "Globes" has learned that four submarine communications cables have been damaged in the Red Sea between Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Djibouti in East Africa.<br> <br> Three months after the Houthis began attacking merchant ships, the Yemenite rebels have carried out another one of their threats. "Globes" has learned that four submarine communication cables have been damaged in the Red Sea between Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Djibouti in East Africa.<br> <br> According to the reports, these are cables from the companies AAE-1, Seacom, EIG and TGN. This is causing serious disruption of Internet communications between Europe and Asia, with the main damage being felt in the Gulf countries and India.<br> <br> Estimates are that the damage to communications activities is significant but not critical because other cables pass through the same region linking Asia, Africa and Europe that have not been hit. The repair of such a large number of underwater cables may take at least eight weeks according to estimates and involve exposure to risk from the Houthi terror organization. The telecommunications companies will be forced to look for companies that will agree to carry out the repair work and probably pay them a high risk premium.<br> <br> EIG (European India Gateway) connects Southern Europe with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, the UAE and India. The underwater cable was laid by Tyco arm Alcatel-Lucent at a cost of $700 million and was the first cable stretching from the UK to India. Shares in EIG are held by a consortium including AT&amp;T, Saudi Telecom, Verizon, and India's Bharat Sanchar.<br> <br> TGN Atlantic was laid by Tyco International in 2001 and sold to Indian company Tata Communications in 2005 for $130 million. The AAE-1 cable which has also been cut links East Asia to Europe via Egypt. The cable, which has a 40 terabyte per second capacity, links China with the west via countries belonging to the Chinese-Iranian axis including those countries and Pakistan and Qatar.<br> <br> The Seacom cable links Europe, Africa and India as well as South Africa.<br> <br> Senior executives at international communications and underwater cable companies have posted reports about the damage on LinkedIn and X.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br> <br> <br> Group Biden Removed From Terror List Storms U.S. Embassy in Yemen, Takes Hostages</span></font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> BY ROBERT SPENCER </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> NOV 11, 2021 </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> PJ MEDIA</font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> Isn t great that America is back and the adults are back in charge? America is back, all right: all the way back to 1979, the last time we had a president so weak that enemies of the United States stormed one of our embassies and took hostages. On Thursday, the Yemeni media outlet Al-Masdar Online reported that Houthi jihadis in Yemen, which are backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, stormed our embassy in Sana a, seizing  large quantities of equipment and materials. Just days before that, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), they  kidnapped three Yemeni nationals affiliated with the U.S. Embassy. Biden s team promised America would be back, but didn t say anything about Jimmy Carter coming around again as well.</font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> A State Department spokesman confirmed the Yemeni report, saying:  The United States has been unceasing in its diplomatic efforts to secure their release. The majority of the detained have been released, but the Houthis continue to detain additional Yemeni employees of the embassy. They are being  detained without explanation and we call for their immediate release. The U.S., the spokesman continued, is  concerned about the breach of the compound and is calling  on the Houthis to immediately vacate it and return all seized property. </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> Yeah, I ll bet the Houthis are shaking with fear now. Because Biden s handlers are really going all out on this one: deploying the Navy? Sending in the Marines? Immediately imposing crippling sanctions? Come on, man! The Biden team, said the State wonk,  will continue its diplomatic efforts to secure the release of our staff and the vacating of our compound, including through our international partners. That ll show  em.</font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> Contrast that weak and uninspired response with what is going on among the Houthis themselves. Last June, according to MEMRI, the Houthis Al-Eman TV featured an Islamic scholar, Dr. Ahmad Al-Shami, telling a room full of children that  the scam of 9/11 was a theatrical show produced by the Jews and the Americans. They killed a group of their own people so that they could have a pretext.& All of this is done under the pretext of fighting terrorism, which  emerged from your midst of Muslims and Arabs.  Al-Shami declared:  When we say  Death to America, it means life for all the nations that America is killing. When we say  Death to Israel, it means life for all the people, around the world, in whose killing and corruption Israel is taking part. </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> The students then began chanting  Allahu akbar! Death to America! Death to Israel! Curse be upon the Jews! Victory to Islam! </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> Charming. Yet when Donald Trump had the Houthis designated as foreign terrorists, the Leftist political and media establishment was (as always regarding anything and everything Trump did) outraged. No fewer than twenty-two aid groups that were operating in Yemen demanded that the designation be revoked  immediately, and when his handlers gained control of the presidency, Old Joe Biden did just that. Trump was right again. If any group deserves to be considered foreign terrorists, it s the Houthis.</font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> Nevertheless, in September the Biden administration quietly removed an advanced missile defense system from Saudi Arabia, despite the fact that the Saudis are suffering ongoing air attacks from the Houthis in Yemen.</font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> Did Biden s handlers think that removing the missile defense system would move the Houthis, or their Iranian backers, to make a reciprocal gesture of goodwill? Did they think that the Houthis would stop teaching children to scream  Death to America and tell them that America turns out to be pretty nice after all?</font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> The removal of the missile defense system was obviously another attempt to appease the mullahs in Tehran, who so far have not been moved by Biden s handlers many overtures to soften their harsh anti-American rhetoric. Pentagon spinmeister John Kirby, however, said nothing about the Islamic Republic as he admitted to  the redeployment of certain air defense assets ; instead, he insisted that the American commitment to its allies in the Middle East remained  broad and deep. </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> Kirby added:  The Defense Department continues to maintain tens of thousands of forces and a robust force posture in the Middle East representing some of our most advanced air power and maritime capabilities, in support of U.S. national interests and our regional partnerships. But it is increasingly clear to the world that this is just empty verbiage and nothing more. The storming of our embassy in Yemen proves that anew.</font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> </font><br> <font style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;" size="+2"> Will this new act of belligerence by Iran s Yemeni clients lead Biden s handlers to abandon their policy of appeasement toward the Islamic Republic of Iran? Will they drop their pipe dream of reviving the nuclear deal and begin to deal realistically with the genuine threat that Iran and its clients pose? Once again: come on, man!<br> <br> <br> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Yemen model who was arrested by Iran-backed Houthi rebels for 'violating Islamic dress codes' while on her way to a shoot is jailed for five years</span><br> <br> " &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Entesar Al-Hammadi was detained in February at a checkpoint in Sanaa, Yemen<br> " &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 20-year-old model was arrested after she was pictured without wearing a hijab<br> " &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; She was sentenced to five years for violating public morality at court on Sunday<br> " &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Amnesty International said Hammadi was abused by police and made to confess<br> <br> By LAUREN LEWIS FOR MAILONLINE and REUTERS<br> PUBLISHED: 04:07 EST, 8 November 2021<br> <br> A Yemeni model who was arrested by Iran-backed Houthi rebels for 'violating Islamic dress codes' while on her way to a shoot has been jailed for five years.&nbsp; <br> <br> Entesar Al-Hammadi, 20, was arrested in February at a checkpoint in the capital Sanaa over images which showed her without a headscarf in defiance of Yemeni societal norms.&nbsp; <br> <br> On Sunday the model and actress was sentenced by a Sanaa court to five years in prison for violating public morality over the pictures. <br> <br> Amnesty International and Hammadi's lawyer Khaled Mohammed Al-Kamal have claimed she was unfairly treated in detention being interrogated while blindfolded, physically and verbally abused and subjected to racist insults.<br> <br> She was also allegedly forced to 'confess' to several offences, including drug possession and prostitution, and threatened by prosecutors with a so-called 'virginity test'. <br> <br> Her arrest and prosecution has been seen as a part of a series of crackdowns on objectors and liberals in areas of the country controlled by Houthi rebels. <br> <br> A judicial source previously told Reuters Hammadi had been charged with carrying out an indecent act and going against Islamic principles.<br> <br> Amnesty has branded her detention arbitrary and spurious and denounced her alleged brutal treatment while in custody. <br> Hammadi's lawyer has made similar claims, alleging, among others things, that she was forced to sign a document while blindfolded and threatened with a so-called 'virginity test'.&nbsp; <br> <br> Houthi-run news outlet Saba on Sunday said Hammadi was also sentenced for using drugs, and said three other women were sentenced alongside her for crimes including debauchery, prostitution, violating public morality and drug taking.<br> <br> She was arrested by rebels with two colleagues while on their way to film a drama TV series in February.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br> <br> Hammadi's detention came amid reports of a crackdown on Yemeni women in Houthi-controlled areas. <br> <br> Yemeni Minister of Information Moammar Al-Eryani wrote on Twitter at the time: 'They must stop the extortion of women and release all disappeared women from their secret prisons unconditionally.'<br> <br> Entesar had told a Yemeni TV channel that she dreamed of travelling abroad to escape Yemen's conservative society last year.<br> <br> Entesar, whose mother is Ethiopian, said at the time: 'It would be great if I was given an opportunity outside Yemen.' <br> <br> According to a report in Arab News, as a child, Al-Hammadi dreamed of being a model, wore her mother's clothes around the house and imitated famous models she watched on TV.&nbsp; <br> <br> Her parents told her that her aspiration to become a model was a 'pie in the sky', Al-Hammadi said in a TV interview last year.<br> <br> She gained popularity after her friend, who was a professional photographer, published photos of her on social media wearing traditional Yemeni outfits.<br> <br> The 20-year-old has appeared in two local TV drama series and had planned to attend college next year. <br> <br> At the time of her arrest, she was the sole breadwinner for her family of four, including her blind father and disabled brother.&nbsp; <br> <br> The Houthi movement, which holds most of northern Yemen, ousted Yemen's internationally recognised government from power in Sanaa in late 2014 amid an ongoing civil war. <br> <br> The main players are the Iran-backed Houthis, the Saudi-backed Hadi-led government, and terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS. Human Rights Watch puts the civilian death toll at over 18,400.<br> <br> <br> </font></div> <b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Houthis borrow a page of ISIS fanaticism as they ban song and music in Sana a<o:p></o:p></span></b> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Yemeni artists push back against Houthi censorship attempts by organising campaigns to celebrate the country s authentic music and song.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Tuesday 29/06/2021<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Arab Weekly<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">ADEN -&nbsp;Yemeni activists have launched a counter-offensive to celebrate Yemeni music in defiance of the decision by the Houthi militias to ban music and songs at social functions in the areas under their control, based on religious fatwas criminalising popular art in a practice similar to that of Islamic State (ISIS) extremists.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">The Yemeni ministry of information, culture and tourism joined the activists campaign and announced the adoption of the first of July of each year as Yemen s Song Day.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">The ministry called for celebrations on this day in Yemeni governorates. It also invited  artists, poets, writers, journalists, broadcasters, activists and all groups of people in all governorates to participate in the celebration of the Yemeni Song Day & with the aim of promoting Yemeni culture and Yemeni heritage. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Commenting on the campaign launched by Yemeni activists, the Yemeni government s Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Muammar al-Eryani tweeted,  In response to the initiative launched by a number of artists, intellectuals and activists, in order to strengthen the Yemeni identity and protect Yemeni heritage and art, in the face of the fierce campaign waged by the Houthi militias against art, the ministry of information, culture and tourism, announces that July 1 of every year will be celebrated as Yemen s Song Day. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">During the past few days, Yemeni journalists and intellectuals posted on social media a copy of an official document by the Houthi authorities, containing instructions that prevent male and female artists from attending weddings and other social functions held in Sana a and other areas under the control of the Iran-backed militias.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">The document issued by the Houthi governor of Sana a, Abdul Basit al-Hadi, confirmed that directives were issued to heads of directorates and local councils to  curtail the phenomenon of artists and artists performing at events and weddings by promoting Quranic awareness within the community. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">The decision is just part of measures and practices enforced by the Houthi militias in their areas of control, which include the closure of public places, such as cafes and restaurants, detention and arrest of activists and artists on moral charges and restricting artistic and creative activities, <span class="GramE">through&nbsp; measures</span> that Yemeni media and activists likened to ISIS practices in Iraq and Syria during the period of the extremist group s control of large swathes of the two Middle East countries.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">The representative of the Yemeni House of Representatives Ahmed Seif Hashid, said that  when singing is prohibited in Sana a, this means that Sana a is no longer the capital of all Yemenis.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"> It is the right of citizens in other regions and indeed in all of Yemen, to resist the group s project, which seeks to snuff out pluralism and diversity and impose its presence by force on everyone, Hashid said in a post on his official Facebook account.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">He added,  What happens from time to time in trying to impose the group s prohibitions reflects persistent attempts to impose this obscurantist project by force, in a way that intimidates all Yemenis and makes them more terrified of this group s future intentions.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"> This adds to this group s catastrophic failure in building the state and achieving citizen rights and to its drive to eliminate political and intellectual pluralism. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">The anti-Houthi Yemeni MP considered that the decision to ban singing is  an intense expression of economic and political failure that will end  in abysmal failure at all levels. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Talking to The Arab Weekly about the reasons for the Houthi cultural and social <span class="GramE">measures,&nbsp; Yemeni</span> writer and poet Ahmed Abbas said that they go back to the cultural and ideological roots of the Houthis, who are no less fundamentalist and fanatical than other groups known for their cultural totalitarianism, such as ISIS and the Taliban.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Abbas pointed out that there are other reasons that may explain the Houthi behaviour, including their desire to divert the attention of Yemeni society, especially the youth, in the areas under Houthi control towards the norms of behaviour sought by the group s cultural and media machine. This seeks to transform young people into human bombs by brainwashing them into joining the Houthi war project under fallacious concepts of sacrifice and religious devotion.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Abbas pointed out that recently Yemenis, especially young people, in Houthi-controlled areas have shown increasing aversion to Houthi-held events such as the so-called  cultural courses .&nbsp; This rejection may explain the Houthis growing concern that young people may be attracted to song and music that are part of Yemen s authentic cultural legacy heritage.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Yemen has recently seen a wave of departures by contemporary Yemeni singers, especially from the younger generation, who have left the Houthi-controlled areas and emigrated outside Yemen, to flee the restrictions imposed by the militant group.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Yemeni officials: Blast at Aden airport kills 25, wounds 110<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">By AHMED AL-HAJ and SAMY MAGDY<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">December 30, 2020<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">SANAA, Yemen (AP)  A large explosion struck the airport in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on Wednesday, shortly after a plane carrying the newly formed Cabinet landed there, security officials said. At least 25 people were killed and 110 wounded in the blast.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Yemen s internationally recognized government said Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired four ballistic missiles at the airport. Rebel officials did not answer phone calls from The Associated Press seeking comment. No one on the government plane was hurt.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Officials later reported another explosion close to a palace in the city where the Cabinet members were transferred following the airport attack. The Saudi-led coalition later shot down a bomb-laden drone that attempted to target the palace, according to Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV channel.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">The Cabinet reshuffle was seen as a major step toward closing a dangerous rift between the government of embattled Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, and southern separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates. Hadi s government and the separatists are nominal allies in Yemen s years-long civil war that pits the Saudi-led, U.S.-backed military coalition against the Houthis, who control most of northern Yemen as well as the country s capital, Sanaa.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">AP footage from the scene at the airport showed members of the government delegation disembarking as the blast shook the grounds. Many ministers rushed back inside the plane or ran down the stairs, seeking shelter.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Thick smoke rose into the air from near the terminal building. Officials at the scene said they saw bodies lying on the tarmac and elsewhere at the airport.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Yemeni Communication Minister Naguib al-Awg, who was on the plane, told the AP that he heard two explosions, suggesting they were drone attacks. Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed and the others were quickly whisked from the airport to the Mashiq Palace.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Military and security forces sealed off the area around the the palace.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"> It would have been a disaster if the plane was bombed, al-Awg said, insisting the plane was the target of the attack as it was supposed to land earlier.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Prime Minister Saeed tweeted that he and his Cabinet were safe and unhurt. He called the explosions a  cowardly terrorist act that was part of the war on  the Yemeni state and our great people. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad <span class="GramE">Bin</span> Mubarak blamed the Houthis for the attacks. His ministry said in a statement later that the rebels fired four ballistic missiles at the airport, and launched drone attacks at the palace, the Cabinet s headquarters. They did not provide evidence.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Health Minister Qasem Buhaibuh said in a tweet the attacks at the airport killed least 25 people and wounded 110 others, suggesting the death toll could increase further because some of the wounds were serious.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;">Images shared on social media from the scene showed rubble and broken glass strewn about near the airport building and at least two lifeless bodies, one of them charred, lying on the ground. In another image, a man tries to help another man whose clothes were torn to get up from the ground.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Cholera Hits Yemen<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> </span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">State of emergency called as disease strikes impoverished nation.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> May 14, 2017<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> DUBAI (Reuters) - Cholera has killed at least 115 people in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, the local Saba news agency said, after authorities on Sunday declared a state of emergency over the outbreak and called for international help to avert disaster.<br> <br> Sanaa is controlled by the armed Houthi movement, which is aligned with Iran and fighting a Western-backed, Saudi-led coalition. More than 10,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in more than two years of war, which has also destroyed much of the country's infrastructure.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Only a few medical facilities are still functioning and two-thirds of the population are without access to safe drinking water, the United Nations has said.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> "What is happening today exceeds the capabilities of any healthy health system, so how can we (cope) when we are in these difficult and complicated conditions," Saba quoted the Houthi-run administration's health minister Mohammed Salem bin Hafeedh as saying.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The ministry, after meeting in Sanaa with U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick and other international officials, called on humanitarian organizations and aid donors to help it avert an "unprecedented disaster".<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> It declared a "state of health emergency in the capital," the agency said.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Saba said 8,595 suspected cholera cases were recorded in Sanaa and other Yemeni provinces between April 27 and May 13, while laboratory confirmed cases were 213.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The acute diarrhoeal disease, which can be fatal within hours if left untreated, has killed 115 people, the agency said.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier put the death toll at 51. It has also said that 7.6 million people in Yemen live in areas at high risk of cholera transmission.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> A cholera epidemic late last year petered out but outbreaks are becoming more frequent.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Sanaa has been worst hit, followed by the surrounding province of Amanat al-Semah, WHO data has shown. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Cases have also been reported in other major cities including Hodeidah, Taiz and Aden.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Some 17 million of Yemen's 26 million people lack sufficient food and at least three million malnourished children are in "grave peril", the U.N. has also said.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> <b><br> Attack on mourners in Yemen kills more than 140<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> </span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">By Mohammed Ghobari<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Reuters<br> October 8, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Saudi-led warplanes struck a funeral at a community hall in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, the country's Houthi-run administration said on Saturday, but the coalition denied any role in the attack. More than 140 mourners were killed, according to local health officials cited by the United Nations, in an attack that prompted a strong rebuke from Washington, a key Saudi ally.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Jamie McGoldrick, a UN official in charge of humanitarian efforts in the country, said more than 525 were injured.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The death toll was 82, according to Ghazi Ismail, the administration's acting health minister. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers was not immediately clear.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Ismail said the air strike occurred in the southern part of the city, where a wake was taking place for the father of the administration's interior minister, Jalal al-Roweishan, who had died of natural causes on Friday.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The death toll was one of the largest in any single incident since the Saudi-led alliance began military operations to try to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power following his ousting by the Iran-aligned Houthis in March 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> "The Saudi aggression committed a major crime today, by attacking a mourning hall for the al-Roweishan family, targeting residents in the hall," Ismail told a news conference in Sanaa.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> In a strongly worded rebuke, the White House said it may consider cutting its support to the Saudi-led military campaign.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> "U.S. security cooperation with Saudi Arabia is not a blank check," said U.S. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price in a statement. "In light of this and other recent incidents, we have initiated an immediate review of our already significantly reduced support to the Saudi-led coalition and are prepared to adjust our support so as to better align with U.S. principles, values and interests, including achieving an immediate and durable end to Yemen's tragic conflict."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Sources in the Saudi-led coalition said there was no Arab coalition air role in the strike.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> "Absolutely no such operation took place at that target," one of the sources said, citing what he described as confirmation from the coalition air force command.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> "The coalition is aware of such reports and is certain that it is possible that other causes of bombing are to be considered. The coalition has in the past avoided such gatherings and (they have) never been a subject of targets."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The Saudi-led coalition has been providing air support for Hadi's forces in a civil war that has killed more than 10,000 people since March 2015 and displaced more than three million.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Fighting has intensified since August when U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait ended without an agreement.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Iran, Saudi Arabia's main regional rival, described the attack as  a horrific and inhuman crime , and called for the resumption of peace talks among all Yemeni parties.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br>  To resolve the crisis in Yemen there is no solution but the end of aggression by the brutish Saudi rulers and start of new round of talks that includes all Yemeni sides, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> SCENE OF CARNAGE<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Residents said aircraft fired two missiles at the hall, where hundreds of mourners had gathered to offer condolences.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> One missile tore through the building, setting it on fire and sending a large plume of smoke above the area. The other landed nearby.<br> <br> Witnesses described a scene of carnage, with charred or mutilated bodies strewn around. Ambulances raced to carry the wounded to hospitals, which sent out urgent appeals for blood.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> A spokesman for Yemen's Houthi group condemned the strike as an act of savagery.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> "The aggression continues to shed blood in an uncommon savagery and with international collusion that reaches the level of direct participation," the Houthi-run Saba news agency quoted the group's spokesman, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, as saying in a statement.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> At least two local officials were among the dead. It was not immediately clear if Roweishan was in the hall when the strike happened.<br> <br> Roweishan had sided with the Iran-aligned Houthi movement when President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi fled Yemen after the Houthis advanced on his headquarters in the southern port city of Aden in March 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The Saudi-led coalition had been blamed for several attacks on medical centers, including some run by international aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), schools, factories and homes in the past 18 months that has killed scores of civilians.<br> <br> In August, MSF said it was evacuating its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen after a coalition air strike hit a health facility operated by the group killing 19 people.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The coalition, which says it does not target civilians, has expressed deep regret over the decision and said it was trying to set up "urgent meetings" with the medical aid group.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> <b><br> Islamic State Bombing Kills 54 Government Recruits in Yemen<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> </span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">AUG. 29, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> SANAA, Yemen  A suicide car bombing claimed by the Islamic State in Yemen's southern city of Aden on Monday killed at least 54 pro-government recruits, officials said, underscoring how the militant group has been able to exploit Yemen's civil war to stage large-scale attacks.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> In the attack in Aden, the men were gathered at a staging area near two schools and a mosque when a pickup truck suddenly accelerated through the building's gate as a food delivery arrived, exploding amid the crowd, witnesses said.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> "Bodies and body parts are scattered all over the place," said Mohammed Osman, a neighbor who rushed to the scene. "It was a massacre."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The death toll steadily rose through the day and by mid-afternoon, the director of Aden's Health Ministry, Khidra Lasour, said 54 had died from the explosion. Almost 70 people were wounded, including 30 seriously, and were being treated in area hospitals.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, identified the bomber as one Ahmed Seif, distributing a photo of him smiling and holding an assault rifle next to a flag used by Islamic extremists as well as a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Yemen is embroiled in a civil war pitting the internationally recognized government and a Saudi-led coalition against the Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who are allied with army units loyal to a former president. The fighting has allowed al-Qaida and an IS affiliate to expand their reach, particularly in the south.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The recruits were signing up to join a new unit the Saudis hope will ultimately be made up of 5,000 fighters. After some training, the new force will deploy to the Saudi cities of Najran and Jizan, near the border with Yemen, the officials said.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Hundreds have already arrived in the border province of Jawf and the adjacent province of Marib. The Houthis control most of northern Yemen, including the border regions and the capital, Sanaa.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Aid group Doctors Without Borders reported on social media that their hospital in Aden had received 45 dead.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The IS-run Aamaq news agency said the attack was carried out "by a fighter from the Islamic State who targeted a recruitment center." Later, another statement circulated by IS called the bomber a "knight" who had purportedly killed some 60 coalition fighters.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Ahmed al-Fatih, who had been working at the center, said security at the site was lax.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> "There was no consideration of security," he said. "<span class="GramE">So</span> it was easy for al-Qaida or Daesh to pull off such an act," he added, using an Arabic acronym to refer to the Islamic State group.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Most of the recruits are men in their early 20s, unemployed, according to the officials, and mostly from the southern provinces of Abyan, Dhale, and Lahj. Eleven bodies from the attack were taken by ambulances to the town of Koud, where they were buried collectively, officials added.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> One of the recruits killed was 27-year-old Mohammed Nasser, whose mother said he hadn't been able to find a job since graduating from the Aden University four years ago. "I didn't want him to go," she said, sobbing. "But I never expected him to return a dead body."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The U.N. and rights groups estimate that at least 9,000 people have been killed since fighting escalated in Yemen in March 2015 with the start of Saudi-led airstrikes targeting the Houthis and their allies. Some 3 million people have been displaced inside the country, the Arab <span class="GramE">world's</span> poorest.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> U.N.-mediated peace talks in Kuwait were suspended earlier this month with no signs of progress.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The Houthis and forces allied to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh seized Sanaa in September 2014, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee the country. The Saudi-led campaign against the Houthis has pushed them out of southern Yemen, but has failed to dislodge them from the capital and the rest of the north.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Also on Monday, a delegation of Houthis met in Baghdad with Iraq's Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to discuss the war and fruitless peace talks.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The Houthis and Iraq's Shiite-led government are closely allied with Iran. Al-Jaafari in a statement reiterated the Iraqi government's opposition to the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, saying it contributed to bloodshed and instability.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The Yemeni delegation was headed by Yehia Badreddin al-Houthi, a political leader among the Houthis and the brother of Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi. They additionally briefed al-Jaafari about their recent decision to form a political council with the party of Yemen's former president.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> That decision, which was criticized by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, gives the rebels and their allies control of much of the north, including the capital Sanaa, and leaves President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's loyalists with control of most of the south.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br style=""> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style=""> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Al-Qaeda gunmen storm Yemeni city; 27 killed</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">MOHAMMED MUKHASHAF AND MOHAMED GHOBARI | REUTERS<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Published  Saturday 24 May 2014<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> ADEN, Yemen At least 27 people were killed in an overnight raid by gunmen on a city in southeastern Yemen, residents and a local official said on Saturday, as Al-Qaeda continues its fightback against a government offensive in the country.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;MS Gothic&quot;; color: black;">( <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Armed with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and explosives, attackers drove in from the surrounding desert on 15 pickup trucks into Seyoun after detonating a car bomb at the entrance to the city in Hadramout province.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;MS Gothic&quot;; color: black;">( <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Al Qaeda has carried out many hit-and-run attacks since the Yemeni army drove it from its southern strongholds in Abyan and Shabwa provinces last month. The West is concerned the group could use Yemen, which borders major oil producer Saudi Arabia, as a base for international attacks.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;MS Gothic&quot;; color: black;">( <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The militants targeted at least seven locations, including the main military posts, the local police headquarters, bank branches and the airport.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;MS Gothic&quot;; color: black;">( <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Residents said the city s electricity supply was cut during the attack and they heard explosions and gunfire throughout the night. The militants briefly captured some buildings before withdrawing early on Saturday.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;MS Gothic&quot;; color: black;">( <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br>  They wanted to capture the city and control it, a local official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;MS Gothic&quot;; color: black;">( </span><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The official said 20 attackers died and said they took away 18 bodies. Five members of the security forces and two soldiers died in the fighting, he said.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;MS Gothic&quot;; color: black;">( <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Local officials said they suspected the attack was led by Jalal Balaidi, a senior Al-Qaeda figure in the region.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;MS Gothic&quot;; color: black;">( </span><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Hadramout province stretches from the port of Mukalla in the south to the Saudi border, through arid valleys and empty desert, the type of landscape Al-Qaeda uses to its advantage across the Middle East.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> A regional website, Al-Mukalla Al-Yawm, said the attackers were wearing Yemeni army uniforms. It said that dozens of casualties were taken to local hospitals.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;MS Gothic&quot;; color: black;">( <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> A US ally, with a population of 25 million, Yemen is trying to end three years of political unrest, which began when mass protests erupted in 2011 against Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president of 33 years, who stepped down.</span><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;MS Gothic&quot;; color: black;">( <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Apart from the fight against Al-Qaeda, the government faces by southern separatists for independence and battles with rebels from the Shiite Muslim Houthi movement, which is trying to extend its control over the north.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></b></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">65% of females in Yemen marry underage</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Sana'a University study lifts lid on exactly how serious the child marriage problem has become<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> By: Jumana Al Tamimi, Associate Editor<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Published: 12:44 January 26, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Dubai: Two little girls aged eight and nine celebrated last year a Sana a court ruling that allowed them to annul their marriages.<br> <br> A third young girl in the second grade was about to marry a man in his thirties when the civil society groups intervened and stopped the wedding a few months ago in the southern part of the country. Unconfirmed reports said an 8-year-old Yemen girl died after being married to a man in his forties.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Child marriages are rampant in Yemen. A study revealed that the bridal age in more than half of the finalised marriages in Yemen was under the age of 15. According to the study conducted by Sana a University, only 7 per cent of  husbands were under the age of 18.&nbsp; <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> It also added that nearly 65 per cent of females are married  underage, while that number rises to 70 per cent in rural areas.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Despite efforts to put an end to  this catastrophe , experts and activists differ on whether setting, by law, a minimum age for marriage will solve the problem. Some say the issue has been receiving considerable attention and growing approval to setting a minimum age for marriage that will be agreed on by the society.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Others disagree.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br>  The issue is related to the country s culture, said Yousuf Abu Ras, head of the Yemeni Organisation for economic and social development, one of the NGOs in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> For the efforts to change the child marriage to succeed there is a need to change peoples perceptions and not just make a legal or legislation amendment, he told Gulf News.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br>  Any legal amendment will come from above, and it doesn t reach the roots of the society. The issue (tackle child marriage) needs more awareness and enlightenment efforts, (to succeed) Abu Ras said.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Even within the same Islamic groups, people differ in their opinion on a minimum age group. There are  religious extremist and traditional powers that refuse any legal move to set a minimum age for girl, arguing that there is no minimum age for marriage in Islamic law.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br>  Accordingly, these groups that have popular basis don t want to lose these bases by supporting the move. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> But other activists believe the light shed on the issue locally and internationally after reporting some cases as boosted the efforts to put an end to the child marriage. It also united more people in their rejection to child brides.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br>  Until now there is no social opposition, because of the massive damage endured in the past few years on different levels, including social and economic, said Youssef Abdou, a consultant with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Yemen.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> He described numbers of child marriages as  scary figures, and said they led to a decline in the health indicators of mothers and children in the country, one of the most improvised countries in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> With an infant death rate of 51 deaths in early 1,000 live births and a maternal death risk of 200 deaths in every 100,000 live births, infant mortality and maternal mortality rates are high in Yemen.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Abdou noted that child marriages <span class="GramE">is</span> also related to high illiteracy rates in Yemen and the high number of people living under the poverty line. Many poor families receive some  generous dowry, while they get rid of an extra member in the family to feed.<br> <br> Setting a minimum age of marriage of 18 years for girls in Yemen was among the main recommendations of national dialogue held in Yemen as part of the Gulf initiative to end the tension in the country after people took to the streets to demand change.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, according to the initiative, handed over the power to his deputy, Abed Rabou Mansour Hadi, and a national dialogue was held.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> And even if it is approved, the law of minimum age needs nearly two years to come into effect, experts and activists said.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Until then, Yemen and Saudi Arabic remain to be the only two Arab countries that don t have a minimum age for marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> U.S. Embassy in Yemen Stormed as Film Protests Spread in Mideast<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> </span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">By Mohammed Hatem and Donna Abu-Nasr on September 13, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Protesters attempted to storm the U.S. embassy in Yemen s capital and one was reportedly shot dead, while there were also demonstrations in Egypt and Iran against a film seen as insulting to Islam.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The spread of violence follows the killing of the American ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three colleagues during an attack on consular buildings there two days ago. U.S. lawmakers said yesterday that groups tied to al-Qaeda may have been involved.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Demonstrators in Sana a breached the compound s security perimeter and set two cars ablaze, as security personnel fired into the air to disperse the crowd, said Yousef Al-Ahjan, who joined the rally. One protester was killed and five injured, Al Arabiya television said. Thick columns of smoke rose from the compound s vicinity. In Cairo, police were injured and dozens of protesters arrested in a third day of clashes near the U.S. embassy, and in Tehran demonstrators gathered outside the Swiss mission, which represents U.S. interests there.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The anti-American violence threatens U.S. efforts to establish ties with the new governments that are emerging in the Middle East after last year s wave of revolts. Yemen and Egypt are longtime U.S. allies, while Libya s political leaders are drawn from the rebellion against Muammar Qaddafi that was backed by American air power.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Another Attempt<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Yemen s embassy in Washington said in an e-mailed statement that order has been restored to the embassy complex. It said Yemen will step up security around all foreign missions. President Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi said the attacks may hurt ties with the U.S., and promised to pursue the perpetrators.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Mohammed Ali, a protester who was leaving the compound area, said the demonstrators want the U.S. ambassador to Yemen expelled. He said several were arrested. Haitham al-Sukkari, wearing a paper shoe on his right foot with the U.S. flag printed on it, said he and other protesters plan to return later today for another attempt to storm the embassy.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">In Cairo, protesters set fire to two police vehicles as authorities tried to keep them away from the U.S. embassy. At least 16 people were injured and 24 arrested, government officials said. Protesters outside the Swiss embassy in Tehran chanted  death to Israel and  death to America. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The eruptions across the Middle East, recalling the reaction to the publication of cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish magazine in 2005, were prompted this time by the film  The Innocence of Islam, extracts from which were posted on YouTube. It portrays Mohammad as a womanizer. For Muslims, any depiction of the prophet is sacrilegious.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Islamists Rising<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The governments of Islamic countries including Egypt and Iran have called on the U.S. to crack down on works that offend religious feelings. Egypt s Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as the country s strongest political party since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak last year, and Islamic parties have gained ground elsewhere in the region.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">U.S. politicians including Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who heads the Senate intelligence panel, said yesterday that the attack in Libya may have been the work of al-Qaeda.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The Pentagon dispatched an anti-terrorism team of 50 U.S. Marines from Europe to Tripoli, Libya s capital, to safeguard the U.S. embassy there and also assist in evacuating American personnel from Libya, U.S. officials told reporters yesterday.<br> &nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></b></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Bomber kills 100 soldiers in Yemen<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Reuters | May 22, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> SANAA: A suicide bomber with explosives strapped under his uniform killed nearly 100 people at a military parade rehearsal in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Monday, an attack which will alarm Washington as its involvement in the front-line state deepens. <br> <br> Militant group Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law), which is affiliated to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), claimed responsibility for the military parade suicide attack, saying it was in response to the "crimes" of the security forces, who are fighting to dislodge militants from their strongholds in Abyan. Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, facing a growing campaign by an al-Qaida affiliate in the country, said security forces would become "tougher and more determined in pursuing terrorist elements". <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Yemen's defence minister and chief of staff were both present at the rehearsal for Tuesday's National Day parade but neither was hurt. A police source said he could not rule out the bombing was an attempt to assasinate them. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The attack, along with an ambush on Sunday on an American military training team, indicated that terror campaign could be entering a dangerous new stage. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The US sees Yemen as a vital front in its global war on Islamic militants and is increasing its military support for the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.The US military has itself targeted militants in Yemen using drones, which have frequently killed civilians and are deeply resented by Yemenis, even those who abhor Qaida. A US military instructor was seriously wounded in Sunday's ambush, claimed by group Ansar al-Sharia.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><span style="">&nbsp;</span><br> The explosion in Sanaa's Sabaeen Square left scenes of carnage, with bloodied victims and body parts strewn across the 10-lane road where the rehearsal was held on Monday morning, not far from the presidential palace.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The defence ministry said nearly 100 soldiers were killed and 222 wounded. "We had just finished the parade. We were saluting our commander when an explosion went off," said a soldier. "It was a gruesome. Many soldiers were killed and others had their arms and legs blown off." <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Yemen Swears in New President to the Sound of Applause, and Violence</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">By LAURA KASINOF<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">February 25, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The New York Times<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">SANA, Yemen  Yemen s first new president in more than three decades was sworn in on Saturday, taking over a country with a broken economy, crumbling infrastructure, violent separatist movements, an active Qaeda franchise and Islamist militants in control of large swaths of territory.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">After a year of antigovernment protests and rising insecurity in a country the United States sees as a critical ally in the fight against Al Qaeda, Yemenis were hopeful that the new government led by Abed Rabu Mansour Hadi, the former vice president, represented a fresh start.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">But as if to underscore the problems Mr. Hadi faces, hours after he took the oath of office and promised to continue the war on Al Qaeda, militants responded with attacks on government targets in the southeastern port of Mukalla, killing at least 21 soldiers.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The swearing-in ceremony, in a room in Parliament packed with legislators, diplomats and journalists, was strikingly cheerful. Members of the former ruling party and the opposition, who fought bitterly over the past year, greeted one another with smiles, handshakes and kisses on the cheek.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">When Mr. Hadi entered, the room burst into applause. He took the oath standing between two men who led enemy camps last year, Yahya al-Rayie, the Parliament speaker and a Saleh loyalist, on his left, and Himyar al-Ahmar, whose tribesmen fought government forces on the streets of northern Sana, on his right.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"> I know that there are complex and interlocking crises: economic, social and security, Mr. Hadi afterward.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">He called the fight against Al Qaeda  a national and religious duty. And in an indirect reference to his predecessor, the autocratic president Ali Abdullah Saleh, he urged officials from both sides to work together to  build a strong state through establishing institutions that are not based on a single personality, <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Mr. Hadi, 65, had been chosen as a consensus candidate by the former ruling party and the opposition, and was confirmed in a one-candidate election on Tuesday. The election was part of a United States-backed deal to end the political crisis and remove Mr. Saleh from office.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Despite the lack of choice, the turnout was heavy, said by the government to be 65 percent, suggesting that after more than a year of protests and unrest in which hundreds were killed, Yemenis were eager to embrace change.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"> We consider this a historic day for Yemen, said Ali al-Mamari, a legislator who quit Mr. Saleh s party last spring after government supporters used violence against peaceful protesters.  All year there was a revolution, but now a new revolution started that is without weapons, without conflict, to transform our country into a civil state. I am incredibly happy. Months ago, I did not expect to be happy like this. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The challenges remaining, however, are immense.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"> This transfer of presidential power is historic for Yemen, said April Alley, a regional analyst for the International Crisis Group.  But it s the days ahead that are going to really matter.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"> There are the economic and security challenges that are immediate, she said.  And <span class="GramE">also</span> there are political challenges when it comes to pulling the country back together, dealing with the separatist movement in the south and a different set of grievances with the Houthis, rebels who control Saada Province in the north.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The United States, which sees Yemen largely through the lens of counterterrorism, is expected to be involved in restructuring the military into what it hopes will be a more effective force against Al Qaeda. President Obama s chief counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, raised those concerns in private meetings with Mr. Hadi in Sana last week.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Even the accomplishment being celebrated on Saturday, the end of Mr. Saleh s 33-year rule, was tempered by the reality that he still wields considerable influence. His <span class="GramE">relatives</span> control most of the military and government security agencies, and it remains to be seen how independent Mr. Hadi, a longtime Saleh loyalist, will be.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Mr. Saleh kept a low profile on Saturday and, despite having promised to hand over power formally to Mr. Hadi, did not attend the ceremony. He had been in the United States for medical treatment for injuries sustained in an attack on his presidential palace last June, and returned to Yemen early Saturday.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">He  returned to his private residence in Sana, not the presidential palace, said Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, without elaborating.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Mr. Hadi is charged with leading a transition to democracy, and his new unity government, composed of members of Mr. Saleh s party and the opposition, is to begin a national dialogue on a new constitution. If that effort is to succeed, the government will need to find a way to bring in the separatists in the south and the Houthis in the north.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The south has been discriminated against and marginalized by the Saleh government since north and south Yemen unified in 1990, and many southerners bitterly hate the Sana government. Although Mr. Hadi is from the southern province of Abyan, he fled to Sana in the 1980s and is seen as a traitor by many in the south.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Last spring, a Qaeda-linked militant group called Ansar al-Sharia seized large swaths of territory in the south as government forces fled, either defecting or joining the fight against armed opposition fighters in the capital, Sana.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">It was not clear if that group was behind the attacks in Mukalla on Saturday. In one case, a suicide car bomb exploded in front of the presidential palace on the outskirts of town. At least 21 soldiers and a civilian woman were killed, the Defense Ministry said. There were also clashes in front of a government security building, residents said.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">West of Mukalla, in Aden, there was a gun battle between government forces and armed civilians believed to belong to the southern separatist movement, residents said.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">In the capital, however, officials tried to focus on the progress the day symbolized more than the problems that lie ahead.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"> This is the beginning of the end of the crisis in Yemen, said Sultan al-Barakani, a legislator from Mr. Saleh s party.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The American ambassador, Gerald Feierstein, was among those in attendance.  This is a victory for all of Yemen, he said.  I think anyone sitting here today knows that real change happened. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Ordinary Yemenis also held out hope that whatever comes next must be better than what they have endured for the past year.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Haitham Jarallah, 20, who has known no leader other than Mr. Saleh, was in his father s corner store, near the old city, with a crowd of neighbors, listening to the radio broadcast of Mr. Hadi being sworn into office.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"> Always I was with Ali Abdullah Saleh, but now we will stand with Mr. Hadi, Mr. Jarallah said.  A new chapter opened in Yemen s history. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></b></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Weeks of clashes in northern Yemen kill 200, including 15 foreigners<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> By Associated Press<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Published: December 21, 2011 <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">SANAA, Yemen  Nearly 200 people, among them 15 foreigners, have been killed in clashes over the past few weeks between an ultraconservative Islamist group and former Shiite rebels in northern Yemen, a military official and the leader of the Islamist faction said Wednesday. In Moscow, Russia s Foreign Minister said four Russian citizens were among those killed.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The tension between the Salafi Islamists, who are Sunni, and the former Hawthi rebels, who are Shiite, escalated just as Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed in late November a U.S.-backed proposal crafted by powerful Gulf Arab neighbors, under which he transfers power to his vice president in exchange for immunity from prosecution. He agreed to step down after a 10-month uprising against his 33-year authoritarian rule.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The Hawthis fought a bloody and costly six-year war with Saleh s government in northern Saada province, along the Saudi border, until a cease-fire was reached early last year.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Salafi spokesman Surour al-Wadee said 71 Salafi fighters, among them an American and French, Russian, Algerian, Malaysian, Somalian, and Libyan citizens, have been killed in the clashes. A Yemeni military officials said more than 120 Hawthis have been killed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Many of the foreigners were studying in the Salafi Dar al-Hadith school in Saada, which has attracted students from around the world. It was set up more than 20 years ago as a learning center to counter Shiite Islam in the area. Its funds often flow from Yemen s neighbor to the north, Saudi Arabia.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Salafism is a particularly hardline branch of Islam. Some Salafis follow a militant ideology similar to al-Qaida s, but the terror network operates separately. Salafi preachers in Saada have used the pulpit to argue that the killing of Hawthi Shiites is an Islamic duty.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">During Yemen s uprising, security has unraveled and al-Qaida and other Islamist militants have tried to exploit the vacuum to gain a firmer foothold in the impoverished country. The al-Qaida branch in Yemen is one of the most active in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">In the months leading up to Saleh s signing of the agreement to give up power, security forces appeared to have turned a blind eye to Salafis arming themselves and amassing in greater numbers in Saada province. The Saudi government pressures Saleh to step down as of the group of Gulf states that formulated the plan for him to go.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">On Tuesday, the Hawthis and Salafis agreed to a cease-fire brokered by opposition tribesmen, politicians and religious figures. It collapsed less than 24 hours later in part of Saada. According to al-Wadee, eight Hawthis and two Salafi fighters were killed on Wednesday.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Al-Qaida fighters have not attempted a cease-fire with Hawthi Shiites. Instead, leading al-Qaida figures in Yemen have reportedly called on fighters in recent weeks to fight the Shiites.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Russia tracks its citizens who travel abroad for training in Muslim seminaries. The Russian Embassy in Yemen counted 36 Russian citizens living in Saada  students at Dar al-Hadith school for Islamic studies and their families.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The Russian Foreign Ministry said Russian and Yemeni authorities are working to evacuate the remaining Russian citizens from the area.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The Russian Embassy said the Russian students are at Dar al-Hadith illegally, having bypassed regulations for leaving Russia.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Russia has millions of Muslim citizens, notably in the Caucasus republics that have been plagued by insurgent violence.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Tired of widespread poverty and a government perceived as corrupt and abusive, many Muslims from the Caucasus have traveled to the Middle East and South Asia to study with radical Islamic leaders who challenge the Kremlin-backed Muslim clerics at home.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">In 2009, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called on Russia s Muslim leaders to join forces in an effort to keep young Muslims in Russia and quell recruitment by extremist groups abroad. In May, Alexander Khloponin, Medvedev s envoy to the Caucaus region, said authorities were planning to closely monitor young people who go abroad to study Islam.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br style=""> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style=""> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Yemen tribe warns against harming cleric on US wants dead<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> </span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">(AFP)  April 10, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> SANAA  A powerful tribe in Yemen threatened violence on Saturday against anyone trying to harm a radical US-born Muslim cleric whom Washington has reportedly placed on its hit list.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The heavily armed Al-Awaliq tribe, active in the Abyan and Shabwa regions that are key Al-Qaeda strongholds in Yemen, warned against any attempt against Anwar al-Awlaqi, a Yemen-based US citizen with suspected Al-Qaeda ties.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> In an official statement published after a meeting of tribal leaders, the tribe said it would "not remain with arms crossed if a hair of Anwar al-Awlaqi is touched, or if anyone plots or spies against him."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> "Whoever risks denouncing our son (Awlaqi) will be the target of Al-Awaliq weapons," the statement said, and warned "anyone against cooperating with the Americans" in the capture or killing of the cleric.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> A US official said on Wednesday that President Barack Obama's administration had authorised the targeted killing of the cleric, even though he is an American citizen.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> "The US government would be remiss if it didn't go after terrorist threats like Awlaqi," the counter-terrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> It was not immediately clear if the tribe was actually harbouring Awlaqi in Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden where tribal ties and laws largely hold sway.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> In 2002, a US missile attack in Yemen killed six suspected Al-Qaeda operatives, including Sunyan al-Harthi whom Washington had linked to an attack two years earlier on American warship the USS Cole in Yemeni waters.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The rare step of targeting Awlaqi was reportedly approved after US intelligence agencies concluded he was now directly involved in plots against the United States, not merely publicly encouraging such attacks.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Awlaqi rose to prominence last year after it <span class="GramE">emerged</span> he had had prolonged communications with Major Nidal Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist accused of opening fire on colleagues at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> He is also accused of having had ties to the September 11 hijackers, and to Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound flight with explosives last December 25.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br style=""> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style=""> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">16 Are Killed in Bombings at Embassy in Yemen</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">By <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/robert_f_worth/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More Articles by Robert F. Worth"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">ROBERT F. WORTH</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">New York Times<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Published: September 17, 2008 <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">BEIRUT, Lebanon  Militants disguised as soldiers detonated two car bombs outside the United States Embassy compound in Sana, <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/yemen/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about Yemen."><span style="color: windowtext;">Yemen</span></a>, on Wednesday morning, killing 16 people, including 6 of the attackers, Yemeni officials said.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">No American officials or embassy employees were killed or wounded, embassy officials said. Six of the dead were Yemeni guards at the compound entrance, and the other four killed were civilians waiting to be allowed in. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">It was the deadliest and most ambitious attack in years in Yemen, a poor south Arabian country of 23 million people where militants aligned with <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/al_qaeda/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Al Qaeda."><span style="color: windowtext;">Al Qaeda</span></a> have carried out a number of recent bombings. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The attack began at 9:15 a.m. when gunmen dressed in camouflage uniforms drove up and began firing rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at a checkpoint outside the heavily fortified United States Embassy compound, said one Yemeni official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">As the embassy guards began firing back, the suicide bombers drove through the checkpoint and detonated their cars on the concrete barriers nearer to the compound s front gate, the official said. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Satellite television images showed thick black smoke rising from the blast site as Yemeni security forces and medical teams streamed in and closed off the streets around the sprawling embassy compound, which is in one of the capital s most secure areas.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The attack was especially shocking to Yemenis because it came during the holy Muslim month of <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/r/ramadan/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Ramadan."><span style="color: windowtext;">Ramadan</span></a>, when the faithful fast during the day and are meant to abstain from sin. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Just last month, the embassy had reversed an order made in April for all nonessential personnel to leave the country, said Ryan Gliha, an embassy spokesman, speaking by telephone from Sana. The order was rescinded because the security situation appeared to have improved after a series of bombings in the spring, Mr. Gliha said. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Also, Yemeni counterterrorism forces had scored some notable successes in hunting down militants, Mr. Gliha added, including an attack on a Qaeda safe house on Aug. 11 in which five militants were killed. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">After the attack on Wednesday, a little-known Yemeni group that calls itself <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/i/islamic_jihad/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Islamic Jihad"><span style="color: windowtext;">Islamic Jihad</span></a> claimed responsibility. Yemeni officials seemed skeptical, however, saying they suspected Al Qaeda s Yemeni branch, which has become more active over the past year. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">After the raid last month, Islamic Jihad released a statement on the Internet promising to carry out attacks in retaliation. The proof, the statement said, using a common Islamist phrase,  will be in what you see and not in what you hear. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Some American analysts voiced the suspicion on Wednesday that members of Al Qaeda s Yemeni branch may have used the name Islamic Jihad to exaggerate the group s size and influence in the country. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"> The group has used various names over time, which leads many to believe it is larger than it actually is, said an American intelligence official in Washington who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the subject. The official estimated that the ranks of Al Qaeda in Yemen, as American intelligence agencies call the group, number in the  low hundreds. The group is headed by Nasir al-Wahishi.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The official also said that an initial review of security videotapes taken outside the embassy indicated that as many as three of the attackers were wearing suicide vests, another hallmark of Al Qaeda. Two attackers detonated or partially detonated their vests; a third attacker was shot by Yemeni security forces before he could blow himself up.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">In Washington, President Bush warned that the United States was  at war with extremists who will murder innocent people to achieve their ideological objectives. Emerging from a meeting with Gen. <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/david_h_petraeus/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about David H. Petraeus."><span style="color: windowtext;">David H. Petraeus</span></a>, the former commander of American forces in Iraq, he said that one of those objectives was  to try to cause the United States to lose our nerve and to withdraw from regions of the world. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">On the campaign trail, Senator <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Barack Obama"><span style="color: windowtext;">Barack Obama</span></a> issued a statement condemning the bombing and calling for increased counterterrorism assistance to the allies of the United States.  We must do more to strengthen the military, police, and intelligence capability in nations like Yemen that are on the front lines in the fight against terrorism, Mr. Obama said.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Yemen has long been viewed as a haven for jihadists, with its conservative tribal culture and its remote mountains and deserts, where the central government has limited authority. The country became a special concern for the United States in 2000 after Qaeda operatives detonated a suicide bomb alongside the destroyer Cole in the port of Aden, on Yemen s southern coast, killing 17 American sailors. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Yemen joined in a counterterrorism partnership with the United States, and its elite American-trained forces have had some important successes in fighting jihadists. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">But American officials have also voiced frustration with Yemen s unusual detention policies, under which jihadists convicted on terrorism charges are sometimes granted parole in exchange for assistance in capturing fugitives. Last year, American officials were furious when they learned that Jamal al-Badawi, who is wanted in the United States for his role in the Cole bombing, had been released. He was quickly returned to prison. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Over the past year or so, jihadists claiming allegiance to Al Qaeda appear to have reorganized, releasing more propaganda materials on the Internet and carrying out more attacks. In July 2007, suicide bombers killed seven Spanish tourists in eastern Yemen, and there were two unsuccessful attacks on oil installations. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Earlier this year there were several attacks on foreign embassies and tourists. In March, mortar rounds fired at the American Embassy compound in Sana struck a nearby school for girls instead, killing a security guard, wounding more than a dozen girls and prompting the United States and other countries to send nonessential embassy staff home. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The embassy compound has been the scene of occasional political violence in previous years, including an attack by a gunman in 2006 and a large demonstration against the American-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, in which three people were fatally shot and dozens were injured. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Yemen is also facing serious security threats on other fronts, including an intermittent rebellion in the north that has left thousands of people dead since it began in 2004 and periodic riots and instability in the south. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Khaled al-Hammadi contributed reporting from Sana, Yemen, and Eric Schmitt and Steven Lee Myers from Washington.</span></i><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></b></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">International Crisis Group</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br clear="left"> January 8, 2003 <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">On 3 November 2002, an unmanned U.S. "Predator" aircraft hovering in the skies of Yemen fired a Hellfire missile at a car carrying a suspected al-Qaeda leader, four Yemenis said to be members of the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, and a Yemeni-American who, according to U.S. authorities, had recruited volunteers to attend al-Qaeda training camps. All six occupants were killed. Almost two months later, three American missionaries were shot and killed in the Yemeni city of Jibla. These incidents, only the latest in a series involving Yemen, reinforced its image as a weak and lawless state with porous borders, a sanctuary for al-Qaeda operatives, a country with tenuous government control over vast parts of its territory and dominated by a culture of kidnappings and endemic violence. The October 2000 attack on the USS Cole, the arrest earlier in 2002 of several Yemenis in the United States and Pakistan suspected of membership in the al-Qaeda network, the capture of Ramzi bin al-Shibah, a Yemeni citizen accused of being a key plotter of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the U.S., and the attack on the French oil tanker Limburg in October 2002 have all contributed to this perception. Indeed, during the past year, the U.S. has sent special forces to Yemen and neighbouring countries, with the purpose of pursuing presumed members of the al-Qaeda network and associated organisations in Yemen. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The Yemeni reality is, of course, vastly more complex than the headlines it generates and presents a conundrum for international policymakers. Signs of potential instability are offset by significant positive political developments. Yemen has made substantial progress since its unification in 1990 and civil war in 1994. A nascent democracy with the most open political system in the Arabian Peninsula, its government has shown a general commitment to developing the instruments of a modern state and has cooperated with international efforts to uproot the al-Qaeda network. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Concerns that areas of rural Yemen increasingly will become a magnet for members of al-Qaeda fleeing Afghanistan are legitimate but appear exaggerated and, more importantly, can lead to wrong-headed policy conclusions. In contrast to Afghanistan under the Taliban, Yemen's central government has not offered direct support to that international terrorist organisation. Al-Qaeda has used Yemen as a staging and recruitment area on account of the presence of thousands of veterans who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, but has not been able to establish large bases. A variety of politically motivated attacks on foreign and Yemeni targets have taken place in recent years but these have been conducted by diverse actors driven by diverse political goals. Detailed, reliable information about such attacks is scarce, and in most <span class="GramE">cases</span> it is impossible to discern whether they are personally, financially or politically motivated. Organisational and financial relations between al-Qaeda and two home-grown Islamist militant groups, the Islamic Jihad Movement (IJM) and the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, remain murky, although it is known that there have been personal links between Osama bin Laden and members of the IJM in the past. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">An exclusive focus on terrorism  and on combating it almost exclusively through military means  would present two sets of risks. First, it could obscure, and therefore leave unaddressed, the domestic roots of the many problems that confront Yemen. Endemic urban and rural violence there reflect a host of interlinked factors. These include widespread poverty, rapid population growth, an uneven distribution of scarce natural and other resources, a heavily armed civilian population that is dispersed throughout remote and often inaccessible regions, a state often unable to extend its authority to rural areas, porous borders and smuggling, weak political institutions, popular disenchantment with the slow pace of democratisation and lingering social, economic and religious cleavages. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The central government has yet to exert full control over tribes in remote areas and faces difficulties in exerting control over religious education in both public and private schools. Parts of the population continue to resist stronger government authority, and many discontented young men and women have been attracted to a variety of home-grown Islamist movements. That Yemen continues to be marred by violent clashes and hostage taking  including by the authorities  is a function of all these complex factors, not one alone. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">A second risk, is that the Yemeni government may, like other states, use the cover of anti-terrorism efforts to pursue its own, unrelated political objectives and that it might bend the rule of law in ways that risk generating broader anti-government feeling, thus creating new recruitment opportunities for militant Islamist groups. Branding government disputes with tribes as counter-terrorist operations is one example, as is direct government intervention in tribal disputes motivated by the affiliation of senior officials with one of the conflicting tribes. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">The role of the international community and the policy choices it makes are critical. While the government of President Ali Abdallah Salih appears committed to cooperate with U.S. efforts to root out al-Qaeda, it also fears that excessive alignment with Washington, particularly should it attack Iraq, could generate a domestic backlash. Large numbers of Yemenis remain staunchly opposed to any deployment of U.S. forces in their country and an American presence, therefore, needs to be limited, fully coordinated with the Yemeni authorities, and geared toward enabling Yemen to handle security problems arising within its territory. The international community also would be well advised to expand its assistance beyond security in order to help Yemen tackle some of its underlying economic and political problems. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Yemen's relationship with neighbouring Saudi Arabia is equally complex. While a recent agreement resolving longstanding border disputes has the potential to improve relations, Riyadh continues to provide direct subsidies to a number of tribal leaders  making the task of building an effective central government all the more challenging. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Yemen is not a failed or failing state but it is a fragile one. The varied and, at times, contradictory pressures it faces  from the U.S. to take stronger action against suspected al-Qaeda followers; and from the very militant groups the U.S. seeks to root out and that seem to thrive on the expanding U.S. presence in the Middle East  could put it at risk. Add to this the tensions created by a possible war on Iraq and the continued confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians, and the carefully constructed edifice of the Yemeni state  a work still in progress  may yet come apart. The disintegration of the Yemeni state would present its citizens, their region and the international community alike with a set of challenges far graver and more complex than any confronted during the recent past. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></b></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Yemen pardons convicted pro-rebel Muslim clerics</span></b><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">Sat 20 May 2006<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;">SANAA, May 20 (Reuters) - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has pardoned a Muslim preacher sentenced to death and another who was jailed for backing a rebel movement and spying for Iran, a government official said on Saturday.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Last year, a court ruled that Yehia Hussein al-Daylami, sentenced to death, and Mohamed Meftah wanted to overthrow the Arab country's government and supported radical Shi'ite rebels.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Both were being freed under the pardon, the official said. Meftah's original jail sentence was eight years.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> In March, Yemen freed more than 600 supporters of anti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric Hussein al-Houthi in an amnesty that aimed to put an end to two years of clashes, which have killed several hundred soldiers and rebels.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> After Houthi was killed in 2004, the government blamed his father, Sheikh Badr el-Deen al-Houthi, for a new round of clashes which erupted in 2005. Later, the elder Houthi agreed to stop fighting.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; color: black;"><br> The rebels are not linked to al Qaeda. 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