Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 4-1-Yemen-5

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Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 4-1-Yemen-5

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is the early winner in Yemen. -- Bruce Riedel

Previous: Hayden: Fall Of Yemen Means "Physical Pressure We Had On al-Qaeda Is Reduced.Western diplomats have warned that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, could take advantage of the power vacuum to expand. “We’re watching very carefully at the moment, with all the security failures in Yemen, that the opportunity AQAP has right now may allow them to expand and will enable their activities,” said a senior State Department official

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is the early winner in Yemen. With its hated enemies Saudi Arabia and the Zaydi Houthi rebels engaged in what may well be a protracted war, AQAP is flourishing in eastern Yemen and under less pressure than at any time since its founding in 2009. Al-Qaeda units take control of port city of Al-Mukalla Units of the Tanzim al-Qaidah fi Jazirat al-Arab/Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have completely took control of the port city of Al-Mukalla, located in southern Yemen, 800 kilometers from the capital Sana'a.

In a measure of how chaos has confused battle lines, Saudi Arabia and AQAP – each committed to the other’s destruction – are now focused on a common enemy in the Shia Houthi rebels. C: What we seem to forget, Saudi Arabia the mother of today’s modern terrorists groups; al Qaida, the base was sponsored, and created some decades ago, and today’s actions show no change over time. We need to wake up..

“I’m afraid the characterization of this war is quite misrepresented in international media, especially in the US press… the main goal isn’t to uproot or eliminate terrorism in Yemen, but in fact to encourage terrorism against Shias. We should remember that Saudi Arabia provided 15 of the 19 hijackers in 9/11. They have the same religion – Wahabism – as Al-Qaeda and ISIS, and right now Sunnis are fighting against Shias not only in Yemen, but in Syria and Iraq. Here, the Shias are the underdogs - they are the good guys. “Yemen is already a failed state,” he goes on, remembering that the same fate befell Libya, which became “a breeding ground for extremists.” --- Professor Firat Demir at the University of Oklahoma

U.S. counterterrorism efforts take a back seat to civil war, relieving pressure on al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is the early winner in Yemen. Agency and U.S. military personnel have been pulled out of Yemen amid escalating sectarian violence in recent weeks. Elite Yemeni units that the United States trained to hunt al-Qaida have been scrambled by the government’s collapse. And millions of dollars in U.S.-provided military equipment has been destroyed by Saudi airstrikes aimed at rendering those arms useless to the Iran-backed rebels who control the capital. The vacuum, U.S. officials say, appears to have allowed al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to focus on rebuilding its strength after years of U.S. drone strikes against its leaders. A prison break in eastern Yemen on Thursday freed as many as 300 inmates.

The chaos would appear to give AQAP a chance to ramp up terrorist plotting against the West while also asserting itself as the defender of Sunni Muslims across Yemen who are threatened by advancing Shiite-dominated Houthi militias.

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With its hated enemies Saudi Arabia and the Zaydi Houthi rebels engaged in what may well be a protracted war, AQAP is flourishing in eastern Yemen and under less pressure than at any time since its founding in 2009.

So a stalemate looms for the immediate future. The Royal Saudi Air Force and its allies with US help operate with impunity, but the Zaydis remain in control of the north and the major urban centers. Hadi is weak and marginalized.

All this leaves al-Qaeda increasingly free to recruit and train in the chaos."This (Saudi-led) coalition will never achieve its objectives in Yemen," Yemeni journalist and researcher Mohammad Azan told FNA on Sunday.

"What the Saudi jets are doing in Yemen is crime against the Yemeni nation and all those who take part in these attacks will be punished," he added

"We advise Saudi Arabia to take lesson from the US' fate of military interference in the region and immediately halt its military attacks in Yemen," Amir Abdollahian said on Sunday.

He warned that enemies of Islam are trying to turn Saudi Arabia into a new Libya by engaging the country in a war against Yemen in a bid to weaken the Muslim states.

He also warned that the only result of Saudi Arabia's strategic mistake of attacking Yemen will be the growth of terrorism, reduced power for Muslims and reinvigoration of the Zionist regime of Israel.

"Those contributing to the military attack on Yemen will be held responsible for regional insecurity, while making their country insecure as well," the Iranian deputy foreign minister cautioned.

"The Saudi regime should know that the fire they have set will backfire and will impose a heavy cost on the Muslim world."

"Imposing war on Yemen will, God willingly, have no result other than Saddam's fate for the aggressors and the US that is the direct sponsor of this crime will have to leave the region forever after losing its puppet, the Al Saud regime," Brigadier General Naqdi said in a statement

Saudis prevented Russian evacuations by air, bombed Moscow’s spy center in Aden

Saudi Arabia has asked for Pakistani fighter jets, ground troops and naval warships to join its campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen, Pakistan's defence minister has said. Khwaja Asif was addressing a joint session of the Pakistani parliament, which met in Islamabad on Monday to begin a debate on whether to join the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, where air strikes against Houthi rebels have been ongoing since March 25. Asif said that while no decision had yet been taken on joining the military coalition, "any violation of Saudi Arabia's territorial integrity would elicit a strong response from Pakistan", echoing the position publicly stated by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif repeatedly in the last week. Terming the Houthi rebels "non-state actors", who had overthrown the "legitimate” Yemeni government, led by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, Asif stressed that Pakistan, along with regional ally Turkey, was calling for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. "The situation is grave and might endanger the safety and security of the whole region," Asif said.

Saudi bombing strengthens al-Qaida in YemenApril 7, AQAP 'early winner' as 'Arab Spring' country disintegrates. WASHINGTON – The jihadist group Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is benefitting from the Saudi Arabian-led coalition’s bombing of the Iranian-backed al-Houthi rebels in northern Yemen, according to Middle East experts. While the Sunni Saudi aerial bombardment under Operation Decisive Storm is meant to restore to power the Sunni-led government of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is the “early winner in Yemen,” said

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Middle East expert Bruce Riedel, director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution and a contributor to the Middle East newssite Al-Monitor.We’re watching very carefully at the moment, with all the security failures in Yemen, that the opportunity AQAP has right now may allow them to expand and will enable their activities,” according to a U.S. State Department official. AQAP conceded as much by announcing through its media outlet that “large numbers of Sunni Yemenis will fight along with AQAP against Houthis, even though [Sunni tribes] could disagree with us.” One Sunni tribal leader said that while he isn’t for AQAP, they share the same enemy. In addition to Saudi aerial bombardment of Houthi sites, which began in late March, the Saudis with the help of the Egyptians have mounted a sea blockade that has cut off critical food, water, medical supplies and assistance to residents of the country. Civilians on the ground stand to suffer the most from the blockade, bolstering the argument by observers that it offers AQAP a new reservoir for recruitment among the Sunnis, which comprise two-thirds of the country’s population.Hadi came to power after the Saudis forced the resignation of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh after 33 years in power. Saleh and his supporters are allied with the Houthis, who control the northern part of the country. The United States backed the Hadi government and had major counter-terrorism operations there in cooperation with Yemeni security authorities. After the Houthis took over the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and other parts of the country last month, however, the U.S. suspended all of those operations. In taking over the capital, the Houthis said they are not out to overthrow the existing government but to seek further representation in it, since the Shiites comprise a third of the country’s population. However, they now say they don’t want to work with Hadi, who had fled to neighboring Saudi Arabia following the Houthi takeover of the capital. “The Yemen war has profound implications for the stability of the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia and the broader region,” Riedel said. “It is simultaneously a sectarian conflict, the unfinished business of the Arab Spring and part of the broader Saudi-Iranian struggle for regional hegemony. “It is likely to draw in more players as it goes on and spill out of Yemen to other countries,” he said. “For now, al-Qaida is the only clear winner.”Disintegrating into chaos Clare Lopez, vice president for research and analysis at the Washington-based Center for Security Policy agrees. Yemen, she said, has disintegrated into “chaos where gunmen, factions and tribes run amok, but the central governance has collapsed, and is not likely soon to be re-established.” “AQAP is likely to hold onto a swath of northern Yemen, but Iran and its Houthi proxies, bolstered by the (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) Quds Force and surely the MOIS (Iranian intelligence), will continue their assault on the south, including Aden,” Lopez told WND in an interview. “They may be prevented by the Saudi alliance from achieving control of the Bab al-Mandab, but almost certainly will be in a position to threaten it, much like the Strait of Hormuz.” Bab al-Mandab is a strategic strait between Yemen and Africa that provides access to the Red Sea and onward to the Mediterranean Sea. The Saudis also are concerned that the Houthis could threaten to come into the neighboring Saudi kingdom and create unrest among the Shiites, who are a majority of the population in the province where much of Saudi Arabia’s oil is produced.While the Saudis seek to prevent further expansion of Iranian influence through the Houthis in Yemen, they are helping al-Qaida and ISIS fighters – both radical Sunni Muslim groups – even though Riyadh now claims it opposes ISIS after helping finance its rise. “With its hated enemies Saudi Arabia and the Zaydi Houthi rebels engaged in what may well be a protracted war, AQAP is flourishing in eastern Yemen and under less pressure than at any time since its founding in 2009,” Riedel said. Eastern Yemen, which never has been under the complete control of the Yemeni government, is primarily Sunni and has been a main al-Qaida recruiting region. Yemen is the home of AQAP, which is capable of attacking targets in the United States. AQAP in December 2009 attempted to blow up a passenger

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plane flying from Amsterdam to Detroit. Until he was killed by a Hellfire strike from a U.S. drone on Sep. 30, 2011, Yemen also was home to Anwar al-Awlaki, a native-born U.S. citizen who also was instrumental in radicalizing U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan, a psychiatrist who fatally shot 13 people Nov. 5, 2009 at Ft. Hood in Texas.“All this leaves al-Qaida increasingly free to recruit and train in the chaos,” Riedel said. “Al-Qaida has more freedom of operation, which means it is more dangerous.” In pointing out that the long war in Yemen could go on much longer, Riedel said it will benefit AQAP. “(AQAP) will carry out terror attacks on the Zaydis (Houthis) and the Saudis both,” he said. “It has underground cadres in the kingdom that (Saudi) Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef tries to unmask. He has been very success in doing so, but it’s a constant battle.” Riedel said Yemen will help AQAP to strike targets in Europe and the U.S. He said AQAP’s leader, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, is a disciple of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden and is a “firm believer” in taking jihad to faraway enemies. Riedel pointed out that Yemen also serves as a critical base for AQAP to launch military operations against Oman, a neighbor of Yemen.Like Saudi Arabia, the Omani government is headed by a Sunni monarchy, although it has close economic ties with Iran. It has chosen not to be included among the 10 Gulf Arab countries in the coalition against the Houthis. Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/04/saudi-bombing-strengthens-al-qaida-in-yemen/#UDU19dUACzSpU1li.99

Al-Qaeda gains ground in Yemen war Author: Bruce Riedel Posted April 3, 2015 Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is the early winner in Yemen. With its hated enemies Saudi Arabia and the Zaydi Houthi rebels engaged in what may well be a protracted war, AQAP is flourishing in eastern Yemen and under less pressure than at any time since its founding in 2009. On April 2, AQAP militants attacked the prison in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province, releasing as many as 300 prisoners. Many were experienced al-Qaeda operatives. The attackers also destroyed government installations and weakened the already fragile security situation in Hadramawt.Hadramawt is the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden's father. The eastern wing of Yemen, primarily Sunni, has long been a fertile recruiting area for al-Qaeda. It has never been under firm government control from Sanaa and has always had weak security. The Saudi-led Operation Decisive Storm has achieved complete air superiority and air control over the country. Saudi and Egyptian naval forces are blockading Yemen's main ports. The Houthis and their allies loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh are largely cut off from outside supplies from their ally Iran. The impoverished country faces a humanitarian disaster.The Houthi-Saleh forces have taken control of much of Aden, the last major city loyal to former President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is in exile in Saudi Arabia. But the Zaydis are also overextended, controlling not only predominantly Zaydi areas in the north but also Sunni areas in the south and along the Red Sea coast and cities like Hudaydah, where they are unpopular. The Saudis are trying to rally Sunni tribal opposition to the Zaydis to engage them in a war of attrition, and Saudi money will attract takers.Riyadh wisely wants to avoid getting sucked into a quagmire itself by sending Saudi ground forces into Yemen in large numbers, risking provoking a nationalist backlash. So a stalemate looms for the immediate future. The Royal Saudi Air Force and its allies with US help operate with impunity, but the Zaydis remain in control of the north and the major urban centers. Hadi is weak and marginalized.All this leaves al-Qaeda increasingly free to recruit and train in the chaos. AQAP is still being monitored by Saudi intelligence, especially Prince Muhammad bin Nayef and the Interior Ministry. Western intelligence services have residual capabilities but are handicapped by the closure of embassies and military posts. Drone strikes are down. Al-Qaeda has more

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freedom of operation, which means it is more dangerous. AQAP already demonstrated its reach this year with what it calls "the blessed battle of Paris," the attack on the office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last winter. The group trained the killers and claimed credit for financing the operation. It credited al-Qaeda emir Ayman al-Zawahri for selecting the target. The Paris attack inspired others a month later in Copenhagen against other individuals who had satirized the Prophet Muhammad.AQAP was behind the December 2009 attempt to blow up a passenger jet flying from Amsterdam to Detroit and a series of plots to send explosives to destroy aircraft in the United States. The group has a cadre of experienced bomb-makers. The longer the war in Yemen continues, which could be a long time, the more al-Qaeda will benefit. It will carry out terror attacks on the Zaydis and the Saudis both. It has underground cadres in the kingdom that Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef tries to unmask. He has been very successful in doing so, but it's a constant battle.It will also seek to strike targets in Europe and North America. AQAP's leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi is a bin Laden disciple and a firm believer in taking jihad to faraway enemies. Another target for al-Qaeda may be Oman, which has a long border with eastern Yemen. The Omanis face the prospect of a chaotic, lawless terror emirate on their Dhofari border for the foreseeable future. With the sultan's health in doubt and an uncertain succession process, Muscat must keep its guard up. Sultan Qaboos bin Said, whose country shares a long maritime border with Iran, has an aversion to foreign adventures and chooses not to join Operation Decisive Storm. The Yemen war has profound implications for the stability of the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia and the broader region. It is King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud's first test as custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Qaboos' last after 45 years on the throne. It is simultaneously a sectarian conflict, the unfinished business of the Arab Spring and part of the broader Saudi-Iranian struggle for regional hegemony. It is likely to draw in more players as it goes on and spill out of Yemen to other countries. For now, al-Qaeda is the only clear winner.

Al-Qaeda units take control of port city of Al-Mukalla Units of the Tanzim al-Qaidah fi Jazirat al-Arab/Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have completely took control of the port city of Al-Mukalla, located in southern Yemen, 800 kilometers from the capital Sana'a. The unexpected storming of the port took by surprise the troops of the puppet regime, who could not organize a serious resistance to the AQAP. After the capture of the port the Mujahideen of al-Qaeda released from prison of Al-Mukalla more than 300 hostage Muslims and prisoner Mujahideen. Among those released is one of the commanders of AQAP Khaled Saeed Batarfi, who was held captive for more than 4 years. Meanwhile, fghitngs are continuing in the central areas of Yemen with Shiite Houthi militants, backed by Iran. Local sources reported that Houthis managed to capture the state residence in Aden. However, by the evening of Thursday, it was reported that troops loyal to president Hadi, backed by warplanes of Arab coalition, recaptured the residence.

U.S. officials: Al-Qaida rebuilding amid chaos in YemenU.S. counterterrorism efforts take a back seat to civil war, relieving pressure on al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. THE WASHINGTON POST, 6 APRIL. The CIA’s drone base in the rippled surface of the Saudi Arabian desert has undergone major renovations over the past few years. Satellite imagery shows dozens of additions that appear to include living quarters, a new clamshell hangar and neat rows of freshly planted palm trees. That base is one of the few components of the White House’s counterterrorism campaign in Yemen that remain intact. Agency and U.S. military personnel have been pulled out of Yemen amid escalating sectarian violence in recent weeks. Elite Yemeni units that the United States

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trained to hunt al-Qaida have been scrambled by the government’s collapse. And millions of dollars in U.S.-provided military equipment has been destroyed by Saudi airstrikes aimed at rendering those arms useless to the Iran-backed rebels who control the capital.The vacuum, U.S. officials say, appears to have allowed al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to focus on rebuilding its strength after years of U.S. drone strikes against its leaders. A prison break in eastern Yemen on Thursday freed as many as 300 inmates. U.S. officials said that the CIA’s armed drones are still flying over Yemen, prepared to launch strikes against AQAP. Officials also insisted that U.S. intelligence support to the Saudi air campaign has not diverted resources from tracking the group. But the counterterrorism fight has gone from the most active battlefront in Yemen to a secondary conflict, swallowed up by a civil war that is serving as a proxy for a broader regional struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran.The U.S. has not carried out a drone strike in Yemen since February, when Houthi rebels declared their takeover of the government. The drone campaign has been characterized by such pauses for several years, but U.S. officials said that they are likely to become more common and lengthy as ground-level intelligence missions in the country grind to a halt.“With the deterioration in security, and a diminution in counterterrorism cooperation, the pressure has been taken off AQAP,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “We still obviously have intelligence in Yemen,” he said, “but we’re more reliant on our overhead assets.” The chaos would appear to give AQAP a chance to ramp up terrorist plotting against the West while also asserting itself as the defender of Sunni Muslims across Yemen who are threatened by advancing Shiite-dominated Houthi militias.Before the Thursday prison raid, though, AQAP had been relatively inactive. For now, the U.S. and al-Qaida are in oddly similar positions of warily assessing the course of the unfolding war in Yemen and the impact of that conflict on their abilities to proceed. “The (U.S.) counterterrorism strategy has been kicked aside for a while,” said Khaled Fattah, a Yemen expert, adding that he expects AQAP to become increasingly involved in fighting the Houthis. U.S. officials continue to see AQAP as posing the most direct danger to the United States, even amid the rise of new terrorist groups including the Islamic State. Al-Qaida’s Yemen franchise was linked to the attacks in Paris in January as well as to previous attempts to detonate bombs on U.S.-bound aircraft. The CIA’s airstrip in Saudi Arabia has been a critical hub in the U.S. assault on AQAP, serving as a base for remotely piloted aircraft.But other aspects of that strategy – including the U.S. dependence on local security forces to shoulder on-the-ground risk – have unraveled since its most staunch supporter in Yemen, former president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, was forced from office and then fled the country. In a measure of how chaos has confused battle lines, Saudi Arabia and AQAP – each committed to the other’s destruction – are now focused on a common enemy in the Houthi rebels. April 3, RT. Al Qaeda takes control of eastern Yemeni city. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took control of Mukallah, the capital of Yemen’s eastern province of Hadramout, just one day after storming several government buildings and freeing hundreds of prisoners, including a senior commander. Hadramout is the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, and the province has become an AQAP bastion over the past several years. The jihadist group regrouped in Hadramout and other provinces after losing control of major cities in Abyan and Shabwa provinces to government forces starting in late spring 2012. In May 2013, the Yemeni government claimed it foiled a plot by AQAP to establish an Islamic emirate in the Ghayl Bawazir area of the province. AQAP has launched numerous attacks against Yemeni security forces in Mukallah over the past three years. In one assault, in June 2013, a platoon-sized AQAP assault team overran a base run by the Interior Ministry’s paramilitary Central

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Security Organization. Several soldiers were killed and the base was held by AQAP for days before it was retaken by commandos.Suspected Al-Qaeda fighters have seized a major army base in the southeastern city of Mukalla, a military official said. The city is now almost entirely under the jihadists’ control. The Sunni extremists stormed and took control of the headquarters of the 2nd Military Region on Friday afternoon “without resistance” an unnamed official told AFP. According to a Reuters report citing residents and local officials, the militants killed at least five soldiers and ransacked the base’s ammunition store. The regional commander and his troops reportedly fled the base and withdrew to military camps around the airport, one of the few remaining areas not controlled by Al-Qaeda. As well as setting fire to the local broadcasting station, the Sunni fighters reportedly also raided local banks and government buildings. The previous day, the extremists broke into a Mukalla prison and liberated some 300 inmates, including a man identified as prominent local Al-Qaeda leader Khaled Batarfi. They also captured the city’s port and called for “jihad against Shiites” from local mosques, according to residents. The chaos in Yemen has forces the US to withdraw all military and diplomatic personnel from the country. The US had relied on the Hadi government as a partner in its counterterrorism strategy against al Qaeda. The US launched a series of drone and conventional airstrikes against AQAP from 2009 until earlier this year. President Barack Obama had described the US strategy of partnering with local Yemeni forces as “one that we have successfully pursued … for years” when announcing the commencement of airstrikes agains the Islamic State in Iraq last summer. While the US has killed some senior AQAP leaders, the group’s leadership cadre has remained intact, and its emir, Nasir al Wuhayshi, was promoted to serve as al Qaeda’s general manager during the air campaign.

Thu Apr 02, 2015 9:21

Basij Commander: Saudi Arabia Fighting US Proxy War in Yemen

TEHRAN (FNA)- Commander of Iran's Basij (volunteer) Force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi strongly condemned the Saudi-led aggression against Yemen, and said that Saudi Arabia is fighting a proxy war designed and run by the US."It would be wrong think that Saudi Arabia is administering the

war in Yemen, while the US is in charge," Brigadier General Naqdi said on Thursday.Addressing Riyadh leaders, the commander of Iran's Basij Force said, "You cannot stand against the will of a nation with an army; the Saudi army is apparently in battlefield, but it is the US that plays the role". In relevant remarks, Brigadier General Naqdi also said on Tuesday that the Al Saud dynasty will have a fate similar to that of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. "Imposing war on Yemen will, God willingly, have no result other than Saddam's fate for the aggressors and the US that is the direct sponsor of this crime will have to leave the region forever after losing its puppet, the Al Saud regime," Brigadier General Naqdi said in a statement on the occasion of the anniversary of the Islamic Republic Day in Tehran on Tuesday.On Monday, Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Seyed Mohammad Baqerzadeh also lashed out at Saudi Arabia for attacking Yemen, warning that Riyadh is playing with fire. "This aggression is playing with fire and the Al Saud regime will never be able to bring Yemen under its control," Brigadier General Baqerzadeh said. He said what is presently going on in Yemen will eventually result in the hatred of the international community for the US and its regional mercenaries and proxies.Brigadier General Baqerzadeh reiterated that the Saudi army is unable to fight long-term wars due to its lack of the needed capabilities, and said, "This war will have dire repercussions for the US and Saudi interests in future just like the wars in Syria and Iraq."

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On Wednesday, a senior member of the popular Ansarullah movement said the movement's popular forces have struck massive victories against the Saudi-backed Takfiri and Al-Qaeda terrorists in vast parts of Yemen. "I felicitate the recent victories of the revolutionary and popular committees as well as the Yemeni armed forces for their gains against the Al-Qaeda-linked Takfiri terrorists in vast areas of this country," member of Ansarullah Executive Committee Mohanad Abdel Momen Al-Ashtouri told FNA. He informed that the Ansarullah movement has managed to take control of Yemen's airports and cut the flow of terrorists and weapons into Yemen from certain Arab countries as well as Turkey by stopping a number of flights. "I believe that the Yemeni nation will succeed in purging entire Yemen of terrorists and set the country free," Al-Ashtouri reiterated. He pointed out that Ansarullah's strategy vis-à-vis the Takfiri Al-Qaeda terrorist group and the Saudi aggressive regime has not changed and the revolutionary movement still believes in confronting the two heinous entities with maximum power. Sun Apr 05, 2015 6:55 Political Researcher: Saudi Alliance to Lose War in YemenTEHRAN (FNA)- A Yemeni researcher underlined that the Saudi-led aggression against Yemen is doomed to failure and Riyadh and its allies will never achieve their goals in the war-torn country. "This (Saudi-led) coalition will never achieve its objectives in Yemen," Yemeni journalist and researcher Mohammad Azan told FNA on Sunday. "What the Saudi jets are doing in Yemen is crime against the Yemeni nation and all those who take part in these attacks will be punished," he added. Earlier today, Spokesman of Yemen's Ansarullah Movement Mohammad Abdel Salam disclosed that pro-Saudi parties in Yemen have blocked the road to a peace initiative for the settlement of the Yemeni crisis. "Those sides who favor Saudi Arabia's policies reject the initiatives for peace in Yemen and block the path to the acceptance of any solution to keep it open for the Saudi aggression," Abdel Salam said on Sunday. He noted that the solution to the crisis in Yemen is holding national dialogue under the auspices of the United Nations, and added, "We welcome Oman's efforts to mediate in Yemen."

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 11 days now to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression against Yemen has killed at least 874 people, including hundreds of women and children. Another 1,700 people have also been wounded in the last 11 days. 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. Five Persian Gulf States -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait -- and Egypt that are also assisted by Israel and backed by the US declared war on Yemen in a joint statement issued on March 26. US President Barack Obama authorized the provision of logistical and intelligence support to the military operations, National Security Council Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said late on March 25. She added that while US forces were not taking direct military action in Yemen, Washington was establishing a Joint Planning Cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate US military and intelligence support.

Sun Apr 05, 2015 8:39 Iran: US Fate in Mideast Waiting for Saudi Arabia in YemenTEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian warned Riyadh that if it does not immediately halt its aggression against Yemen, it will be destined to experience the same fate that the Americans had in Iraq and Syria."We advise Saudi Arabia to take lesson from the US' fate of military interference in the region and immediately halt its military attacks in Yemen," Amir Abdollahian said on Sunday.

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He warned that enemies of Islam are trying to turn Saudi Arabia into a new Libya by engaging the country in a war against Yemen in a bid to weaken the Muslim states.Amir Abdollahian pointed to the present conditions of Yemen, and said, " Siege of Yemen and blockade on humanitarian aid supplies by the international bodies has no justification by any means." He also warned that the only result of Saudi Arabia's strategic mistake of attacking Yemen will be the growth of terrorism, reduced power for Muslims and reinvigoration of the Zionist regime of Israel."Those contributing to the military attack on Yemen will be held responsible for regional insecurity, while making their country insecure as well," the Iranian deputy foreign minister cautioned. The Iranian legislature in a statement issued on Sunday strongly deplored the Saudi-led military strikes against Yemen, cautioning that Riyadh is implementing enemies' plots against the worldwide Muslim community. "We as members of the Iranian parliament support the Yemeni nation's popular uprising and condemn the foreign, specially the Saudi, meddling and military attack and consider it as a clear interference in the Yemeni people's sovereignty in deciding their fate," the statement read by member of the parliament's Presiding Board Zarqam Sadeqi said.Noting that the Saudi strike against Yemen proved that Riyadh is serving enemies' plots against the Islamic world instead of strengthening unity and being a source of honor for the Muslims, the statement said, "The Saudi regime should know that the fire they have set will backfire and will impose a heavy cost on the Muslim world." The statement cautioned that the "fake coalition" against Yemen will further complicate the Muslim world and the regional problems, and said the US and the Zionist regime and their allies' support for the Saudi aggression against an independent nation is against the international laws and shows the US and its allies' hypocritical policies once again.The Iranian lawmakers also blasted the international community for its deadly silence on the Saudi crimes in Yemen. Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 11 days now to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression against Yemen has killed at least 874 people, including hundreds of women and children. Another 1,700 people have also been wounded in the last 11 days. 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.Five Persian Gulf States -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait -- and Egypt that are also assisted by Israel and backed by the US declared war on Yemen in a joint statement issued on March 26. Iranian people and officials have strongly condemned the aggression and called for its immediate halt.Iranian protesters condemned the Saudi aggression against Yemen in rallies staged after the Friday prayers in different cities. During the rallies held in the cities of Tehran, Tabriz, Mashhad and Ardebil, the protesters chanted slogans in support of the Yemeni army and popular forces and against the Al Saud regime. In Tehran, the protesters carried out placards which read "Down with the US", "Ansarullah will win", "Down with Saudi Arabia".In Tabriz, the worshippers underlined that the people of Yemen have and will never be alone and the Iranian nation will forcefully stay beside the Ansarullah movement and their resistance against the Saudi-led aggressors.In Mashhad, the protesting people also condemned the Saudi aggression against Yemen while carrying posters in support of the oppressed Yemeni people. The people of Ardebil also took part in rallies against the Al Saud regime after the Friday prayers and called for immediate halt to the aggressions.

Cees Page 9 of 12 15/04/2023

By Capt (Ret) C de Waart, feel free to share: in Confidence

Yemen war: Saudis prevented Russian evacuations by air, bombed Moscow’s spy center in AdenDEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 7, 2015 Saudi Arabia has gone head to head with Russia as Iran's ally in Yemen. Moscow claims to have evacuated hundreds of Russian nationals from Yemen by an air lift running out of Sanaa airport, but DEBKAfile’s exclusive intelligence and military sources reveal that not a single Russian plane has taken off from any Yemeni airport since March 27, when Saudi Arabia launched its military offensive against the pro-Iranian Houthi rebels. The Saudiis warned Russia that they would not be responsible for the safety of any flights landing at a Yemeni airport or the passengers assembled there for evacuation, while their air force conducted strikes against the rebels. Having achieved control of Yemen’s skies in the early stages of their intervention, the Saudis declared its air space a no-fly zone. This warning gained substance when, on April 1, Saudi F-15 warplanes bombed the Russian consulate in the second largest Yemeni city, Aden. A Russian witness said that not a single window was left in the building and all Russian citizens would have to leave the town.According to DEBKAfile’s sources, the building was in fact completely demolished in order to dismantle Russia’s regional intelligence-gathering center which operated out of the consulate building and fed Iranian intelligence with data on military movements in the neighborhood. It functioned according to the same system as Russian spy stations in Syria, which routinely keep their Iranian colleagues au fait with military activities, including Israeli army movements. The intelligence gathered by the Aden facility was no doubt passed on by Iranian agents to the Houthi commanders, certainly after Al Qods Brigades chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani arrived in Sanaa to direct the rebel offensive after the Saudi offensive was launched.In normal times, the Russian spy facility would have been responsible for surveillance over navigation through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the warships sailing between Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. The next chapter of the Russian evacuation story unfolded on Thursday, April 2, the day after the consulate was razed: The Russians tried activating their connections in Cairo to obtain Saudi permission to land a plane in Sanaa, where hundreds of Russians had crowded to await passage to safety.The Saudis relayed their refusal to Moscow through Cairo. Then, on Friday, April 3, a flight landed at Moscow’s Chkalovsky Airport carrying Russian evacuees from Yemen, followed by a second flight which landed at an unnamed Russian military airport. DEBKAfile’s sources report that neither of those planes were actually permitted to take off from Sanaa, but flew in from Cairo. After the Saudi ban on flights through Yemeni airports, Moscow had no choice but to rescue its nationals from the embattled country by sea aboard ships that carried them to Egypt.

C: A dangerous game: Pay back time 1 - 2: According to a diplomatic leak detailing the Bandar-Putin meeting in Moscow on July 31 2014, Bandar suggested that Putin's agreement to abandon the government of Bashar al-Assad would lead Saudi Arabia to restrain its Chechen terrorist clients who have been attacking Russia targets for years. Putin reportedly grew furious, interpreting Bandar's offer as a warning that the Sochi games would be threatened by terrorism if Putin didn't comply, according to opednews.com website. At the time, Putin warned Saudi Arabia of potentially severe consequences -- suggesting military retaliation -- if Bandar's implied warning was followed up by actual terrorist attacks like the ones in Volvograd on Monday, killing more than 30 people, the report said. Moreover, A grim “urgent action memorandum” issued today from the office of President Putin to the Armed

1 http://en.alalam.ir/news/1551009 2 http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1699.htm

Cees Page 10 of 12 15/04/2023

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Forces of the Russian Federation is ordering a “massive military strike” against Saudi Arabia in the event that the West attacks Syria. According to Kremlin sources familiar with this extraordinary “war order,” Putin became “enraged” after his early August meeting with Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan who warned that if Russia did not accept the defeat of Syria, Saudi Arabia would unleash Chechen terrorists under their control to cause mass death and chaos during the Winter Olympics scheduled to be held 7-23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

'We will wait till the last Indian is rescued': India's Navy steps up Operation Raahat in Yemen as rebel fighting escalatesBy Mail Today Bureau , 5 April 2015 Amid fierce fighting for control of Yemen’s main southern city Aden, India’s ongoing Operation Raahat to pull out its nationals from the war-ravaged Yemen has entered a crucial phase.  Unable to berth at the port of Aden amid heavy shelling, the Indian authorities have hired boats to ferry people to INS Mumbai.  Naval officials said it was clearly one of the most challenging phases of the operation to rescue Indians from various parts of the strife-torn country where the situation has deteriorated significantly due to an escalation in fighting between warring groups.  Sources said that the locals were charging exorbitant rates for boats that were hired to ferry people in batches of 30-35 to the guided-missile destroyer, anchored five kilometres from the port.  About a dozen boats were arranged by the Indian consulate by paying up to $700 an hour. According to the latest information coming from the INS Mumbai crew, they can see a lot of smoke and firing as the rebels have inched their way to within two kilometres of the harbour.  There are 374 people on board and two more boats carrying around 70 Indians were expected to reach the ship late Saturday. “We are ready to wait till the last of the Indians is evacuated,” said a navy officer. 

+4Sources allayed fears of the kidnapping of Indians in Yemen, asserting that the situation was not like that in Iraq. But the stranded Indians are feeling cornered as the strife reaches their doorstep.  They are getting increasingly anxious about their evacuation. With no newspapers and no power most of the time, they do not know how to sift information from rumour. First port  Aden is one of the two ports – the other being al-Hudaydah on the Red Sea — from where the Navy’s offshore patrol vessel INS Sumitra, led by commander M.M. Mokashi, had picked up over 600 Indians in two sorties. The INS Mumbai is the second warship sent to Aden, but it was forced to halt short of its destination. The officials said the window of evacuation is closing down as more towns fall to Houthi rebels, who are supporters of ousted

Cees Page 11 of 12 15/04/2023

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Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. Latest reports said that the rebels were pushed back in the southern port city of Aden by the Saudi-led coalition forces.  As INS Mumbai waited outside Aden, INS Sumitra’s next evacuation voyage from Djibouti to another Yemen port Mukalla was called off after the city fell to al-Qaeda militants.  INS Mumbai’s captain Rajesh Dhankar reported heavy firing in Aden as he decided to stay outside the port.  Like other countries, India is bringing its citizens from Yemen across the Gulf of Aden to Horn of Africa nation Djibouti, from where they are airlifted back home.  In a major relief, Air India’s aircraft managed to land at Yemen's capital Sana’a from where the maximum number of people is to be evacuated.  The clearance to operate from Sana’a was received after Saudi Arabia, in control of the Yemen airspace, gave a go-ahead following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention.  Sources said the situation in Sana’a was serious as militants have stepped up their offensive and particularly due to the movement of heavy artillery and missiles during nights.  Around 1,000 of the around 3,000 Indians have been pulled out of Yemen in Operation Raahat, which is also demonstrating the Indian Navy’s capability to handle rescue operations at this scale in a war-like situation. The naval war room in New Delhi is getting real-time images of the action on the ground through dedicated communication satellite Rukmini.  The officials said that all those people who have managed to reach the port cities of Yemen from the hinterland will be picked up. But the intensity of fighting has curbed the movement of people within the country. The Aden operation is given priority because of the heavy fighting going on there. The ground work for Operation Raahat to facilitate the passage of people is being carried out by the local consulate, with Minister of State for External Affairs Gen. (retd) V.K. Singh monitoring the activities from Djibouti.  Two merchant vessels and an equal number of IAF’s C-17 heavy air lifters are available at Djibouti to bring the stranded Indians back home. The IAF’s transport aircraft have already brought two batches of people to Kochi and Mumbai. In a joint operation that lasted over three hours, the Pipavav Marine Police and Indian Coast Guard on Saturday rescued 17 crew members of two ships from Oman around 10 to 15 nautical miles off the Gujarat coast in Amreli district.  The ships from Oman — Abdullah and Ayman — were headed for the Alang ship breaking yard, considered to be the biggest ship breaking hub in Asia.  According to Pipavav Marine Police Station, it sent two boats for rescue operations after receiving a call around 10.30am that the two Oman ships were sinking due to a technical snag.  Ten Pakistanis, five Yemenis, one Iraqi and an Indian were on board and were rescued.  “The moment I received a message of the ships getting capsized, I mobilised all my resources,” Coast Guard Station Commandant at Pipavav A.K. Saxena told Mail Today.  “There is little hope of the boats being saved, but all crew members have been rescued and are fine,” Saxena added.

Cees Page 12 of 12 15/04/2023