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Yemen update 9/30\2015..scenario .. three proxy wars metamorphose into one conflict between West and Russia-Iran “nexus.”
Saudi airstrikes behind almost 2/3 of reported civilian deaths
Saudi FM On Accuracy Of Airstrikes In Yemen, Civilian Casualties
4 killed in Saudi bombing of Sa’ada
Tehran denies report “Iranian vessel carrying weapon was seized off Oman’s coast”
Saudi Arabia Seizes Iranian Ship “Laden With Missile Launchers, Anti-Tank Weapons”
For months, a Saudi-led coalition has been battling Iran-backed militants for control of the country which was effectively wrested from Mansour Hadi earlier this year when the Sauid-backed President was forced to flee to Riyadh as the Houthis advanced on Aden.
Sadly, Yemen has since descended into chaos, an embarrassment for the Obama administration which just a little over a year ago held the country up as an example of Washington’s successful counterterrorism efforts (no mention was made of the alleged covert cooperation between the government of Hadi’s predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh and AQAP).
Between the Saudis, the UAE, and Qatar, the coalition has managed to push the Houthis back, but the human and cultural toll has been high. Riyadh and the Houthis routinely play headline hockey in an effort to play up or play down the number of civilian casualties that result from Saudi bombing runs and Sana’a, a UNESCO world heritage site, is gradually being decimated as coalition forces fight to take back the city. Last Thursday, a shoe bomber and an accomplice detonated themselves in a Shia mosque where the Houthis go to pray. The attack was claimed by Islamic State which is of course notable because this is the very same Islamic State that is fighting to destabilize Bashar al-Assad who, like the Houthis, is backed by Tehran. Iran-backed Shiite militias are also fighting ISIS in Iraq, an effort which is now set to benefit from cooperation with the Russian and Syrian armies.
The takeaway here is that Yemen, like Syria and Iraq, is a theatre for the regional and global proxy wars that have pitted the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and to a lesser extent Washington’s European allies against a “nexus” comprised of Russia, Iran, Syria, and China with the latter having thus far only asserted itself via its Security Council veto.
What’s particularly interesting about this is the extent to which the traditional Western conception of who the “good guys” are and who the “bad guys” are has been turned on its head of late.
That is, Russia’s willingness to confront ISIS in a straightforward way (as opposed to through the use of various proxy armies who in many cases end up defecting and becoming extremists themselves) as well as the realization that the man once billed as the world’s number one state sponsor of terror, Qasem Soleimani, is seemingly far more interested in preserving the Mid-East BOP by using Iran’s Quds Force to combat Sunni extremism in Syria and Iraq than he is in facilitating attacks on the US and its allies, have left the world to question whether it is in fact the West that’s been the proximate cause of the turmoil in the region.
It’s with all of this in mind that we bring you the following story from WSJ who reports that on Saturday, the Saudis stopped an Iranian boat bound for Yemen that was “laden with missile launchers and anti-tank weapons, including firing guiding systems.” Here’s more:
A Saudi Arabia-led military coalition that has been fighting Iran-supported rebels in Yemen said Wednesday that it had stopped an Iranian boat carrying arms to the war-torn country.
The boat carried 14 Iranians and was laden with missile launchers and anti-tank weapons, the coalition said in a statement, including firing guiding systems.
It was seized around 1pm local time Saturday, Sept. 26 in the Arabian Sea, about 150 miles southeast of the Omani port of Salalah. Oman shares a border with Yemen.
The reason this is important is that it helps to provide context for the various conflicts unfolding throughout the Middle East.
The key thing to understand here is that the fighting in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq is all related and it all comes back to the existing balance of power as delineated above.
Russia’s official arrival on the scene in Syria means that Moscow is now prepared to defend this balance of power overtly, marking a step up from the dynamic that existed previously wherein, as exemplified by the story excerpted above, the powers that oppose the West were content with the “covert” support they could provide to their various proxy armies.
In short, now that Moscow has let the genie out of the bottle, it may not be long before both sides ditch the charade altogether, leading directly to a scenario that sees three proxy wars metamorphose into one outright armed conflict between the West and the Russia-Iran “nexus.”
Yemen loyalists attack rebels at Marib dam
Saudi Centcom Chief in Jizan Killed
The Central Command Commander of Saudi Arabia’s Jizan province was killed in clashes with the tribal forces in Najran, Yemeni sources said Wednesday.
Ali al-Hamazani, a Yemeni activist, told FNA today that tens of Saudi military men were killed in clashes with the tribal forces in the Southern province of Najran, specially al-Khazra passage, near the Saudi-Yemeni borders.
“The Saudi forces were attempting to advance in a region fully controlled by Labsa’ tribe which is seen as one of the most dangerous threats to the Saudi army, but they faced the tribal forces’ ambush and sustained heavy damages,” he added.
Hamazani said that the tribal forces destroyed a number of Saudi military vehicles and targeted a military base in the region with a barage of missiles attacks which killed tens of Saudi military men, including Jizan’s centcom commander.
Fierce clashes also erupted on Saturday between the Saudi army and opposition forces in the province of Najran in the Southern parts of the Arab country.
Early reports said tens of Saudi troops were killed in clashes with the tribal forces in Najran province, one of the tribal heads said Saturday.
The tribes of Najran have declared war against the Saudi government since several months ago for the Riyadh government’s aggression the Yemeni nation. The Najran’s tribes say that Najran is part of Yemen and the Saudi regime has captured it by force.
Meantime, the local sources in Najran disclosed that the head of Hamzan tribe, Sheikh Ali al-Hamzani has been assassinated in the Southern parts of Najran.
Last Sunday, the Yemeni army and the Popular Committees gained control of several areas in the city of Al-Khubah in the Saudi province of Jizan.
The Yemeni forces seized several areas in Al-Khubah city, including Qamar, Al-Dhahira and West of Dar Al-Nasr towns, killing and injuring scores of Saudi troops on Sunday. Nine Saudi vehicles were also destroyed.
Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 189 days now to restore power to Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 6,429 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.
Bahraini King’s Son Injured in Yemen
Prince Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the son of Bahrain’s king, was injured in an Ansarullah missile attack on a military base of the Saudi-backed forces in Ma’rib, Yemen, sources in Manama confirmed on Wednesday.
On September 14, several sources revealed on their twitter accounts that Khalid had been either killed or injured in Ma’rib.
According to al-Safir newspaper, Khalid has not appeared in front of the public ever since then and was even absent in the funeral ceremony of Dubai ruler’s son and the media have just been informed by his office that he is running affairs and fulfilling his daily duties.
But sources close to Khalid told the daily on Wednesday that he had been injured in Ma’rib, without disclosing further details.
The report came after informed sources announced on September 21 that son of the Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, was also killed in the Yemeni revolutionary forces’ attack in Ma’rib province, rejecting claims that Sheikh Rashid has died of heart attack.
“Sheikh Rashid and a number of other UAE forces were killed in a Yemeni forces’ Katyusha attack in Ma’rib province and reports on his death as a result of a heart attack are only aimed at deceiving the Emirati people who are demanding withdrawal of the UAE troops from Yemen,” the Yemeni Press quoted informed sources as saying.
The UAE news websites had claimed that Sheikh Rashid had died of a heart attack.
The Arab-language al-Ain news website, meantime, quoted people close to Ansarullah as confirming that Sheikh Rashid has been killed in Ma’rib.
Sheikh Rashid was the eldest son of Sheikh Mohammed. Rashid’s brother Sheikh Hamdan is the Crown Prince of Dubai.
Source: http://blogdogcicle.blogspot.com/2015/09/yemen-update-9302015scenario-three.html
