Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses. Share the link of this article with your facebook friends

 

Scores of Yemenis Killed in Fighting, Children Are the Most Victimized, Dying of Malnutrition

November 18, 2018 

25 Houthi fighters were killed in fighting with the Hadi government forces in the 'ahem triangle, in the Hijja Province, November 18, 2018

Yemeni children, the most affected victims of war, November 18, 2018	A Yemeni child, a victim of war, November 18, 2018

***

The following news stories are from the Yemeni pro-Saudi website Al-Sahwa ( http://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/  ):

*** 

25 Houthi fighters were killed in fighting with the Hadi government forces in the 'ahem triangle, in the Hijja Province

Sahwa, November 18, 2018

قتل وجرح عدد من مليشيا الحوثي الانقلابية في المعارك التي دارت في مثلث عاهم بمحافظة حجة.

وقالت مصادر ميدانية لـ"الصحوة نت" إن أكثر من 25 حوثياً قتلوا في المعارك التي دارت في مثلث عاهم انتهت بتحرير المثلث ومواقع وقرى مجاورة. وتمكنت قوات الجيش من أسر 3 حوثيين ودمرت القوات عدداً من الآليات العسكرية التابعة للمليشيا.

وكانت قوات الجيش الوطني نفذت مطلع الشهر الجاري عملية عسكرية، تمكنت خلالها من قطع الخط الاسفلتي الرابط بين مثلث عاهم ومديرية مستبأ، لتستكمل فجر هذا اليوم السيطرة على قلب المثلث وعدد من القرى المجاورة.

http://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/p-25369

***

The following news stories are from the Yemeni independent website Al-Masdar ( http://www.almasdaronline.com/category/42  ):

*** 

Large military advance to government forces in A’ahem in Hajjah of fighting against the Houthis

November 18, 2018, ALMASDARONLINE ١٨ نوفمبر ٢٠١٨

Government troops on Sunday took control of the remaining villages adjacent to A’ahem triangle the north western province of Hajjah, following a military operation by the fifth military region, backed by Arab coalition fighters.

According to field military sources, which confirmed to Al-Masdar source online, that the government forces took control of several villages located east and north of the triangle, which are Bani Hieg, Alteen, and Al-Radd . Sheab Albaz and Alshabtiah.

The fighting is still going on to clear the remaining villages, she said.

Coalition fighters launched several airstrikes on al-Houthi rallies and reinforcements, resulting in the destruction of a military vehicle, which was carrying a number of Houthi gunmen.

Government forces had approached the control of the strategic triangle of A’ahem earlier.

The significance of the triangle is that it connects the directorates of Haradh and Meidi North, Hayran South, the Directorates of Hajour, Mastaba and Bakeel al-Mir east, a vital artery linking Sa'dah, Amran, Midi, and al-Hodeidah governorates.

If it is controlled, it would represent a major military strike on the Hodeidah, as it is no less important than the road between Sanaa and Hodeidah.

Associated Press: American Drones implemented in Yemen 176 raids in the past two years killed more than 300 people

November 18, 2018, ALMASDARONLINE ١٨ نوفمبر ٢٠١٨

The Associated Press said the number of raids carried out by US planes within two years of President Donald Trump's reign exceeded the number of raids that were launched throughout his predecessor Barack Obama's reign.

According to a report published by the Associated Press, in 2017 and 2018, the Trump administration launched 176 air raids by drones on civilian and military targets in Yemen.

According to the report, which tells the story of trying to save a child from al-Qaeda and drones in Shabwah and translate and re-publish by Al-Masdar online, these raids resulted in the deaths of more than 300 members of al-Qaeda and civilians.

The report noted that this large amount of raids exceeded the number of raids that had been carried out over the eight-year reign of Park Obama, which reached 154 raids.

The Associated Press based its statistics on the monitoring and follow-up of raids and accounts from family members of victims and eyewitnesses in the areas where the raids were carried out.

The United States considers Yemen to be one of the most popular areas of al-Qaida activity in the Arabian Peninsula, and the turbulence and armed conflict in the region has enabled extremists to achieve a greater presence.

***

The following news stories are from the pro-Houthi website Yemen Extra (http://www.yemenextra.net/):

***

High tension between Saudi-led coalition, Yemeni army forces on this battlefront

Nov 18, 2018, YemenExtra, Y.A

The Saudi-led coalition, backed by the US, sustained heavy losses on Sunday evening southeast of Hays on the West Coast Front.

A military source confirmed that special units of the Yemeni army forces carried out a surprise operation on the positions of the coalition’s troops , paid fighters south-east of Hays and fought them directly.

The source pointed out the killing and wounding of a number of the coalition’s troops, paid fighters , including leaders during the operation carried out by the Yemeni army forces  supported by the sons of Tihama .

The US-Saudi-led coalition  launched an offensive on Hudaydah on 12 June in the largest battle of the war that the United Nations fears risks triggering a famine in Yemen where an estimated 8.4 million people are on the verge of starvation. Recently, It has been paused for peace talks, but no deal has been struck leaving Yemenis pessimistic over a viable political process.

Abdulmalik al-Houthi, the leader of the Houthi(Ansarallah)  movement, which is the main force that faces the coallition, said on a TV speech ,” The decision of invading the Yemeni ,western coast, has been taken and adopted by the United States of America,noting that the Saudis are trying to abolish Yemen’s freedom,” stressing that it was the people of Yemen’s right to defend their country.

The Bab el-Mandab Strait, which is the southern entrance to the Red Sea, is one of the world’s key shipping lanes for crude oil and allows crude exports into the European market.

Here is what happens to UAE loyal commanders in Aden

Nov 18, 2018, YemenExtra, Y.A

Unknown gunmen assassinated deputy commander of the so-called security belt of Abyan, loyal to the United Arab Emirates, in the city of Aden , run by UAE, on Sunday, a local source told YemenExtra.

The incident took place in front of his house where gunmen opened fire towards Brigadier Fahd Gharamah in Anma neighbourhood, killing him instantly with one of his companions, added the source .

Aden city, which was occupied by UK but now under the control of UAE, and the rest of the southern cities witness an insecurity situation that increased the assassinations of Imams of mosques and security and military leaderships

The province of Aden also witnesses a security fiasco that escalated with killings, looting issues , in addition to others that never happened before.

The Children of Yemen Are in Deep Need of Help

Nov 18, 2018, YemenExtra, M.A.

The Saudi-led way on Yemen alongside with various other Arab states, backed by the US and the UK, have caused the worst humanitarian disaster in the world since world war II. This four-year-old war might have a chance to come to an end if the United States is willing to. Two weeks ago, the US secretary of defense James Mattis called for peace talks within the beginning of the next month. This comes after the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate at Istanbul, Turkey, which has cast light on the brutal Saudi war on Yemen that is being waged by the MBS, the crown prince of the kingdom.

The Saudi airstrike on the impoverished country has killed thousands of Yemenis, which is estimated that the toll of the killed civilians by the Saudi bombardment has killed more than  56,000 Yemenis, according to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization.

After the New York Times article about Yemen, the forgotten war was once recognized by the people around the world, especially those who are considered westerners. If you did read the article in the newspaper, you wouldn’t forget the face of the Seven-year old named Amal, who was the cover page of the article. When the new york times took her picture, she was breathing, but she died a few days after the report was published. However, Amal was a mere one of more than 2 million children who are suffering from starvation.

The Saudi coalition warplanes have targeted residential areas and many events, either happy or sad ones, which is completely an unjustified manner. children have been killed in their school buses, in food markets, and at weddings and funerals. The UN has reported that women and children have been hit by snipers and shelling, “while in their homes, just outside their homes, fetching water at local wells, on their way to purchase food, traveling to seek medical attention and delivering critical supplies.” Conditions are particularly worsening for women and girls, who are now more vulnerable to violence and exploitation due to the conflict. According to the UN, more than three million women and girls in Yemen are at risk of gender-based violence.

A few months ago, Canada and other countries have faced increasing pressure to suspend military assistance to the countries participating in an aggressive war against Yemen, who according to the UN, are responsible for potential war crimes.

“It was just like tickling a ghost,” the United Nations food chief David Beasley said after he went to a three-day visit to the war-torn country in a conference held in New York.

While he was there, he spoke to a doctor within the capital of Yemen, Sana’a, in which he emphasized that up to 50 children come to the hospital he works daily, but the hospital can only  receive 20 patients as maximum, ”We have to send 30 home to die.”

The country’s economy is in crisis and three-quarters of Yemen’s population, or 22 million people, require aid. Some 8.4 million are on the brink of starvation, though Lowcock has warned that will likely rise to 14 million.

“This is not on the brink of a catastrophe. This is a catastrophe,” Beasley said.

Beasley also visited Yemen’s main port city Hodeidah, which handles 80 percent of the country’s food imports and aid supplies, after the Saudi-led coalition conducted two airstrikes on it.

“That port has got to protected at all costs,” Beasley said.

“We are prepared, if necessary, if all parties desire, for the U.N. to take over the operational capacity of the port. We are prepared to do that, we do not want to do that, but if that’s what it takes we will do it,” he said.

Beasley concluded by saying that he saw an eight months old baby who weighed only a third of what he should, but died shortly after he left the country.

Another story that was reported recently regarded a little, who her father is named Saleh al-Faqeh, died, as she was held from her wasted arm by her father while she took her last breath on Thursday at the malnutrition ward of the main hospital in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, after she was taken miles away from her home in Saada, northern Yemen, for treatment in the capital.

The United Nations says 22 million Yemenis, out of a population of 29 million, rely on humanitarian aid. Almost 18 million are considered hungry and 8.4 million severely hungry.

A Children’s Crisis: 80% of All Kids in Yemen Are in Need

Nov 18, 2018, YemenExtra, SH.A.

Children are bearing the brunt of the war on Yemen, with 80% in desperate need of aid and 2 million suffering from acute malnutrition, the UN has warned.

The impact of war and hunger on the country’s 12.5 million young people has been compounded by what the directors of the World Health Organization, the UN Children’s Fund and the World Food Programme described in a joint statement as “the world’s worst cholera outbreak in the midst of the world’s largest humanitarian crisis”.

“This is a children’s crisis,” said Bismarck Swangin, a communication specialist for Unicef Yemen. “When you look at the number of children who are staring at death due to malnourishment, and now that is compounded by a cholera outbreak, children are not only being killed directly as a result of the war, but more children are at risk and could die from indirect consequences.”

Destruction to the country’s infrastructure has meant that 14.5 million people, including nearly 8 million children, do not have access to clean water and sanitation. The number of cholera cases in Yemen is expected to reach 600,000 by the end of the year.

Swangin said half of all suspected cases and a quarter of all cholera-related deaths . He described horrific scenes in health clinics and hospitals, with children lying on the floor unable to move their limbs and parents standing by helplessly.

“When you ask the mothers, they just look up to the sky and say, ‘We just leave it to God’. This is all the women can say, this is how helpless the women feel,” said Swangin.

Caroline Anning, senior conflict and humanitarian advocacy adviser for Save the Children, said she was not surprised by the finding that 80% of children need humanitarian aid.

“It tallies with what we see on the ground,” said Anning. “The message we get is this is an off-the-scale humanitarian crisis, much bigger than what we see in Syria, much bigger than in other parts of the world, and it happens in the background almost, it doesn’t get the same amount of attention.

“What it means for children in Yemen is that there are millions of children going to bed hungry each night. They can’t go to school, there are 2 million children out of school. Huge numbers of children are acutely malnourished so they’re too weak to stand up.

“We’re having mothers who are carrying their acutely malnourished children to clinics on their backs, walking for hours, because they don’t have the money to pay for transport and now those same children are falling prey to the cholera epidemic that is sweeping across the country.”

The Crimes of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen

Nov 18, 2018

YemenExtra, M.A.

The US-backed Saudi-led coalition continued on Saturday, launching raids and bombardment on a number of Yemeni provinces, leaving killed, wounded civilians while damaging property.

In the coastal province of Hodeidah, four girls from a single family of Majid al-Wahidi in the district of al-Hali lost their lives while two others were wounded as a result of an aerial strike that targeted their house. Moreover, the militias of the Saudi coalition targeted with medium and heavy weapons the houses of citizens and the neighboring regions near the Kilo-16 area while the neighborhood of July 7 in al-Hali district was subjected to artillery shelling by coalition militias.

In the northern province of Saada, the Saudi coalition warplanes conducted nine raids on the border areas of al-Qud, Azhour and Razih.

The Saudi coalition continued to carry out dozens of rockets and missiles on different areas in the two border districts of Razih and Shada, causing severe damage to homes and property.

Today, on Sunday the 18th, the Saudi-led coalition committed another crime as it usually does on daily-basis in Yemen, which gets the Yemenis outraged after each crime; however, international human rights organizations and humanitarian ones usually disregard such crimes unless they were severe, such as the targeting of a schools bus that killed about 40 children while they were on their way on  a trip riding the bus.

A child was killed and another was injured this Sunday after a Saudi bombardment on one of the districts that share the border with Saudi Arabia within the province of Saada, northern Yemen

The rockets and artillery shells kept continuing too, where they targeted densely populated villages in the two border districts of Razih and Shada, causing material damage to property.

The villages within the bordering district of Munebah in the province of Saada was subjected to a new attack by the Saudi forces, resulting in significant damage to the property of citizens.

A local source reported to YemenExtra that rockets and shells targeted populated villages in the border district of Munebah, which resulted in families to terrified.

The Saudi-led coalition continues to target the border areas indiscriminately and without any regard for the lives of civilians, where a vast number of women and children are being killed after most of the time, as well as damage to property belonging to citizens.

U.S, EU bark about stopping war against Yemen worse than their bite

Nov 18, 2018, YemenExtra

By:Yousra Abdulmalik (YA) -

New footage provided by Yemen’s War Media outlet shows Yemenis fighting back a Saudi push against the port city of Hudaydah , meantime the international calls to stop the war ignored by the Saudi-led coalition, backed by the US.

The Military Media published, on Saturday, special scenes of the coalition losses in AlMandhar village on West Coast. The scenes showed targeting gatherings of the coalition’s paid fighters with artillery shells, causing direct casualties, and destroying gathering of machinery with bombs, killing and injuring a number of the paid fighters.

The scenes also showed burning a number of the coalition’s equipment, including Emirati armored, and seizing arms and supplies were in the damaged machinery.

In addition, the Yemeni army forces killed five of Sudanese paid fighters through targeting two military trucks.50 paid fighters were killed in encountering a creep of them in Attohayta, and a number of paid fighters were killed by explosive device in 50 Street, in Hodiedah.

EU and European countries approved the sale of more than $86.7bn in arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to figures compiled by Middle East Eye.

The Republican majority in Congress managed on Wednesday to block a Democrat-sponsored resolution to end Washington’s support for Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen by advancing a bill to remove gray wolves from the protected species list.

The Netherlands has announced its intention to defend a ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia in the UN Security Council.

Dutch Foreign Secretary Stef Blok made the announcement in a speech at the House of Representatives of the Netherlands on Thursday, in which he discussed a law which had been passed to ban arms exports to Riyadh against the backdrop of the war in Yemen.

Earlier on Thursday, the European Parliament renewed its call for further restrictions on the European Union (EU)’s arms exports to Saudi Arabia against the backdrop of the war in Yemen and the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

However,Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed about 10,000 new troops to Yemen’s west coast this month after their repeated campaigns to seize Hudaydah were thwarted.

Last week, Saudi Arabia announced a pause in the offensive, which a Houthi spokesman described a bid to buy time and reinforce the military strength for a fresh push.

“It was just like tickling a ghost.” That is a remark expressed with desperation by Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program David Beasley following his return from a three-day visit to Yemen, where he saw for himself the suffering of Yemeni children.

The ICRC’s regional director for the Near East and the Middle East, Fabrizio Carboni, stressed that reaching a political solution in Yemen is an urgent requirement, stressing the need to stop targeting civilians and infrastructure and to facilitate humanitarian tasks.

The US-Saudi-led coalition  launched an offensive on Hudaydah on 12 June in the largest battle of the war that the United Nations fears risks triggering a famine in Yemen where an estimated 8.4 million people are on the verge of starvation. Recently, It has been paused for peace talks, but no deal has been struck leaving Yemenis pessimistic over a viable political process.

Abdulmalik al-Houthi, the leader of the Houthi(Ansarallah)  movement, which is the main force that faces the coallition, said on a TV speech ,” The decision of invading the Yemeni ,western coast, has been taken and adopted by the United States of America,noting that the Saudis are trying to abolish Yemen’s freedom,” stressing that it was the people of Yemen’s right to defend their country.

The Bab el-Mandab Strait, which is the southern entrance to the Red Sea, is one of the world’s key shipping lanes for crude oil and allows crude exports into the European market.

In March 2015, the US -backed –Saudi-led coalition started  a war against Yemen with the declared aim of crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement, who had taken over from the staunch Riyadh ally and fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, while also seeking to secure the Saudi border with its southern neighbor. Three years and over 60,000 dead and injured Yemeni people and  prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country, the war has yielded little to that effect.

The American Role in the Battle of Yemen’s Hodeidah; Britian’s rapacious plans in Yemen

Nov 18, 2018, YemenExtra, M.A.

Diplomatic sources and military sources confirmed the seriousness of the US role in the battle of the West Coast (Hodeidah), which has been an American objective since last year, when the United States, through its ambassador to Yemen, Matthew Toler, demanded the Ansar Allah movement to hand over the coastal city of Hodeidah without fighting.

The United States took actions after Ansar Allah has refused the American demand by assassinating the former President of the Supreme Political Council, the martyr Saleh al-Samad, by an American MiQ-9 aircraft on April 19, in a crime that will not be forgotten by Yemenis throughout the ages.

The US-backed Saudi-led coalition latest de-escalation on the West Coast front was only after the arrival of the commander of the US Central Command, Joseph Votel, to Aden, where he met with the leadership of forces loyal to the exiled ex-president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

According to western media outlets, US officers in the Saudi capital were overseeing a new plan to topple Hodeidah, at a time when the United States handed over to Saudi Arabia two new spy drones and provided them with “vital” information for the attack.

The American involvement was not confined to the military side, but also to the economic sphere in which the US ambassador to Yemen took part in the fight. In the recent Kuwait negotiations, Toller threatened Sana’a delegation to tighten the economic dossier after the refusal to sign an agreement that would give the coalition a diplomatic victory, which was rejected, leading to the closure of Sana’a airport, the transfer of the central bank to Aden, freezing its monetary reserves in international banks, limiting maritime traffic in Hodeidah.

What does Britain want from Yemen?

Intelligence source revealed that the British are acting to restore the gains it has lost within the region, from the Arabian Sea to the Gulf of Aden, through Bab al-Mandab, to the Red Sea.

The sources said in statements published by the “Lebanese News” that Britain is seeking to establish a permanent military base in the city of Aden under the name of “the protection of the Gulf of Aden and Bab al-Mandeb and territorial waters”, the sources pointed after the visit of the US military delegation to Aden last September, the purpose of the meeting with the Chief of General Staff in the forces loyal to former President, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, Taher Aqili, and other leaders, including the commander of the fourth military zone Fadl Hassan.

A photo of the meeting held in Aden between the US delegation, head by the commander of United States Central Command, Joseph Votel, and Chief of General Staff in the forces loyal to former President Taher Aqili

According to information published by the Lebanese News, the head of the US delegation began by reminding the audience of a memorandum of understanding signed between the Yemeni authorities and the NATO alliance, whereby the latter allows the use of Yemeni territorial waters and land for confronting pirates.

This was followed by a declaration by the American official that a new memorandum of understanding would be signed, in which the Pentagon will support the former president force affiliated with the Saudi coalition in exchange for allowing the American armies to use all the sea, land and air facilities used by the Yemeni army, especially the island of Socotra Airport and its seaports, al-Anad base and all the military installations on the island of Miyoun, as well as the rest of the ports and islands within the west coast of Yemen.

The sources confirm that a memorandum was signed by the American side with a representative of the government of the the former president Hadi, pointing out that al-Aqili spoke to his companions, after the departure of the American delegation, that he was not aware of the contents of the memorandum, and that he only received instructions from Hadi and his deputy Ali Mohsen al-Ahmer head to the Saudi occupied city of Aden and meet with an American official for signing an agreement intended to support the so-called “national army,” that is proponent with the Saudi aggression on Yemen.

Moreover, al-Aqili added that he was not even aware that a previous agreement with NATO was signed in 2008.

The head of the American delegation, during the meeting, did not overlook the battle of the West Coast, stressing that an hour before his arrival in Aden, he reported that US military experts, after intensifying their supervising of the scene of the clashes and their concentrated intelligence operations, put few changes on the plan to overthrow Hodeidah.

The US ambassador to Yemen, Matthew Toler, who coordinates between the foreign and defense ministries, had advised delaying the meetings between Ansar Allah and the Hadi government, which was appointed by the UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffith after experts from the «Pentagon» thought the fall of Hodeidah is close.

***

Share the link of this article with your facebook friends