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Saudi jets bomb Yemen’s Sa’ada, Ma’rib, Hudaidah; Yemenis fire back
Saudi jets kill several people in Yemen’s Hajjah
Dozens killed in latest Saudi airstrikes on Yemen
Yemen Explosion destroys security facility in Hadramaut
Hutíes assault army building and military of Saudí Arabia August 30, 2015
Yemen Map of War, August 28 Update | The Vineyard of the Saker
(For a full size map please go to: http://southfront.org/yemen-map-of-war-august-28-2015/)
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Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State in Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) continue to use Saudi-led coalition victories as leverage to increase their territorial control and recruitment in Yemen. Coalition forces have been attempting to strengthen Saudi-controlled President Abdu Mansour Hadi’s ability to govern and control recently captured territories in southern and eastern Yemen.
August 22, AQAP militants attacked key government buildings and seized two districts in Aden. Terrorists also released a photo set commemorating AQAP’s recent southern battles against the al Houthis to boost recruitment in Yemen.
August 23, Saudi-led coalition forces and allied militants launched an operation to capture al Houthi controlled al Bayada.
August 23-26, Saudi-led coalition forces are preparing an advance to regain control of al Mukalla city in Yemen’s eastern Hadramawt governorate from AQAP. However, AQAP militants operate in
the city despite reports of a pending Saudi-led operation to liberate al Mukalla.
August 26, Al Houthi fighters continued attacks along the Saudi-Yemeni border as the Saudi-led coalition amassed its forces in central Ma’rib. Al Houthi conducted series of cross-border artillery
strikes against Saudi military sites, downing an Apache helicopter and killing the commander of the Saudi eighteenth army brigade, Major General Abdul Rahman bin Saad al-Shahran.
August 26, Saudi-led coalition forces invaded Yemen and seized northern al Houthi sites in Sa’ada along the Saudi-Yemeni border.
August 22-26, 8 Apache helicopters and 100 Saudi armored vehicles and tanks transferred from Shabwah to central Ma’rib.
August 27, Saudi troops have pushed their way into the northern Yemeni regions which overlook the southwestern Saudi province of Jizan. Brigadier General Ahmed Assiri, a Saudi military
spokesperson, noted that the Saudi soldiers have taken some areas under their control during the invasion.
August 28, Saudi warplanes have conducted new attacks on Yemen’s northwestern Sa’ada Province, killing five people there. Earlier, Human Rights Watch called on Saudi Arabia to “immediately stop”
it’s use of cluster munitions against Yemen, which has resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians in the country.
The Saudi-led offensive in Yemen has lost it’s initial momentum. After breaking out of Aden and advancing into the lightly defended areas of Lahj and Ibb provinces, anti-Houthi advances have now reached areas where they cannot to move further fastly In the west, clashes have been focused on the city of Taiz, where the urban terrain and entrenched Houthi positions have slowed the offensive significantly. Houthi forces have been answering by a flexible defense in these areas.
To the east, where Saudi forces have captured the Lawder city, Houthi forces have successfully established positions in the Mukayras area, preventing northwestern operations into Bayda province. As forces reorganize following the breakout from Aden and as more resources are brought into the area, Saudi Arabia’s military and militants will eventually be able to overpower Houthi in Yemen’s southern regions. Nonetheless, their momentum to advance has failed.
In the north, Saudi Arabia has been working to open another front in Marib. An offensive push driving west toward Sanaa is an evident move for Saudi-backed units. Houthi fighters have been answering by increasing cross-border operations into Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula militants are openly moving through certain areas of the Aden Peninsula. The jihadist group has exploited the crisis to establish stronger control over certain locations in Hadramawt province and enter in Aden.
‘Iranian expansion’ warning from Yemen’s exiled president Hadi
3 US Military Advisors killed, 2 Others Wounded in Yemeni Attack on Najran
Several US military advisors of the Riyadh government’s army were killed and wounded in heavy clashes with Yemen’s revolutionary forces in Saudi Arabia’s Najran region.
“The Yemeni revolutionary committee forces killed three US military advisors and wounded two others in the Southern province of Najran,” Abu Hessam, a senior Ansarullah commander, told FNA on Sunday.
He noted that seven Saudi military men were also killed in the clashes with Yemeni forces.
Abu Hessam did not disclose the names of the American military advisors.
On Saturday, media reports revealed that the US has invaded and occupied Yemen’s strategic Island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean and is now building up its biggest naval base there.
“Hundreds of workers from Asian countries have been deployed by the US navy to construct its biggest naval base on the island,” Arabic-language Al-Masyra TV quoted a Spanish-language newspaper as saying.
Socotra is a small archipelago of four islands in the Indian Ocean; the largest island, also called Socotra, is about 95 percent of the landmass of the archipelago. Socotra is located between the continents of Asia and Africa.
Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 158 days now to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 5,535 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.
Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by Ansarullah revolutionaries of the Houthi movement.
Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.
US Navy Base: Saudi Reward for Collusion in Yemen
Nowadays, not just for Iraqis and Syrians, but for Yemeni people, it is what is happening in the dark that counts.
While many critics of the Yemen War are still not willing to cut the Obama administration some slack, something more unsettling appears to be going on – just as the case has been for so long in other parts of the Middle East:
The United States has reportedly invaded and occupied Yemen’s strategic Island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean and is now building its biggest naval base there. This is while the colonial scheme has no UN blessing and certainly no consent from the Yemeni government.
Hundreds of workers from Asian countries have already been deployed by the US Navy to construct the illegal base between the continents of Asia and Africa. Socotra is a small archipelago of four islands; the largest island, also called Socotra, is about 95 percent of the landmass of the archipelago.
All of this doesn’t fit with a script promisingly laid out by Barack Obama in his 2008 presidential campaign, when he promised the US would keep no bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, and would withdraw its occupying forces before 2014.
Far from it, tens of thousands of American troops are still stationed there as “advisors” indefinitely, and thousands more will soon be dispatched from the Socotra Naval Base to complete the destruction, destabilization and radicalization of Yemen. It’s a picture that couldn’t be uglier.
There can be no question that Washington’s new dark of night policy is not to reduce what the Pentagon might call the US military ‘footprint’ in the Middle East. Obama’s key officials seem to be opting not for blunt-edged, Bush-style militarism, but for what might be thought of as a new colonial scheme: A much more aggressive military program as regards the resistance group of Ansarullah to force them into surrender.
Then, of course, the crucial thing that could be said about the Obama administration’s new game of regional domination is this: Ignore the headlines, the fireworks, and the briefly cheering crowds of pro-Saudi Yemenis on TV screens, who might or might not have the faintest idea. Just like in the Arabian Peninsula, the Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and more recently Turkey (Incirlik), they just don’t know the “Empire of Bases” and its murderous drones are to stay in Yemen for a very long time!
Even a glance at a Mideast world map tells you that, if the US is to carry out ever more drone strikes across the developing world, it will need more bases for its future UAVs.
In the grand scheme of things, then, the illegal naval base is designed to transform Yemen into a main base for America’s current and future undeclared wars and drone assassination campaigns in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. It’s a reward for the military support the Obama administration provide on Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen, and for their continued support of the tyrannical regime in Riyadh.
What is vaguely visible from this new strategy is the outline of an American posture to project power and influence in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. What it doesn’t look like is the posture of a bloodthirsty occupying power preparing to end the Saudi-led war on Yemen, close up all military bases and black sites in the Middle East, and head for home.
If Iraq and Afghanistan is any indication, the new colonial scheme won’t go down well with the brave people of Yemen
Saudi Arabia Showing Fake Videos on Military Gains in Yemen
The Saudi media are running a hype about their country’s unreal military gains in Yemen in order to boost the morale of their troops, even showing fake videos of slain Yemeni forces.
The footage of Saudi Arabia’s false videos comes just days after the Yemeni army and revolutionary forces uploaded their genuine videos on their victories in Yemen and Southern Saudi Arabia.
One of the videos titled ‘Saudi Apache helicopter precisely targeted Al-Houthis in Sa’ada Mountains’ is actually a videogame that has even appeared in some pro-Saudi media such as Al-Watan al-Kuwait and al-Manateq al-Wusta.
The fake video comes from a computer game named ‘Medal of Honor 2010′. The Arabic subtitle has even been used for the fake video, making the case even more ridiculous.
On Saturday, a senior Yemeni popular commander cautioned that Saudi Arabia is running a media hype about war in Sana’a in a bid to reduce pressure on the Riyadh-led forces in the South.
“The Saudi media hype about Sana’a battle is no more than the enemy’s psychological warfare to help the forces loyal to fugitive president Mansour Hadi who are fighting against the Yemeni forces in the South and the Saudi army in Najran and Jizan to feel less pressure and boost their morale,” a senior Ansarullah commander told FNA.
The commander said that the Saudi enemy has to pass through Southern provinces before opening its path to Sana’a, while it has failed to do so. “Before Sana’a, they should come in control over Ibb, Taez and Damar, but have failed to stretch their control over these provinces.”
He said the Saudi regime does not even know the location or whereabouts of the Ansarullah missiles that target its troops. “The Yemeni army and revolutionary forces have developed their missile capabilities to adopt a new strategy against the enemy,” he added.