Saleh loyalists accuse Houthi allies of ineptitude and corruption

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Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis take part in a demonstration in support of Yemen's ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, as his political party, the General People's Congress, marks 35 years since its founding, at Sabaeen Square in the capital Sanaa on August 24, 2017. (AFP / Mohammed Huwais)
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Supporters of Yemen's former President Ali Abdullah Saleh rally to mark the 35th anniversary of the establishment of the General People's Congress party in Sanaa on Thursday. (REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah)
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Yemen's ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh gives a speech addressing his supporters during a rally as his General People's Congress party marks 35 years since its founding at Sabaeen Square in the capital Sanaa on August 24, 2017. (AFP / Mohammed Huwais)
Updated 24 August 2017
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Saleh loyalists accuse Houthi allies of ineptitude and corruption

SANAA: Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis descended on Sanaa Thursday in a major show of force for ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose alliance with the country’s Shiite Houthi rebels has been shaken by mutual distrust.
Tensions have been rising between Saleh and his one-time foe, rebel chief Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, who in 2014 joined ranks in a shock alliance that drove the government out of the capital and into the southern province of Aden.
The rally marking 35 years since the founding of Saleh’s Arab nationalist General People’s Congress (GPC) sends out a signal that the strongman remains a force to be reckoned with.
“We came today to the square to show our faith in the General People’s Congress and in Ali Abdullah Saleh,” Saeed Al-Obeidi said at the rally.
“Today the GPC proved that it is a national party and that the Houthis are incapable of leading the nation the way a real political party can.”
Chanting “With our souls, with our blood, we serve you, Yemen,” crowds poured into the four-square-kilometer (1.5-square-mile) square and poured into the streets of the capital, waving the blue flag of the GPC and carrying pictures of the 75-year-old Saleh.
Saleh ruled Yemen with an iron fist for more than three decades before stepping down in 2012 after a bloody year-long uprising.
But the strongman retained the loyalty of some of the best-equipped units in the military and later joined forces with the Houthis, after they overran the capital in 2014.
The ensuing civil war between the Saudi-backed government and the Houthi-Saleh alliance has killed thousands and brought the Arabian Peninsula country to the brink of famine.
Saleh’s supporters had traveled to Sanaa from across the impoverished country, camping out in Sabaeen Square overnight ahead of the rally.
An AFP reporter in Sanaa said the Houthis had set up checkpoints at the main entrances to the city.
But they did nothing to stop the demonstrators from reaching the square, where the rebels had also deployed but did not interfere with the rally.
Saleh — who survived the 2011 Arab Spring protests that saw a string of his peers ousted from Egypt to Libya — appeared in person at the rally and gave a brief speech behind bulletproof glass, surrounded by heavily armed guards.
“We are political pioneers with a solid anchor, and we have been facing conspiracies against us since 2011,” he told the cheering crowd, referring to the start of protests in Sanaa that eventually led to his resignation.

Mismanaged by Houthis
Saleh said he was ready to deploy “tens of thousands of fighters to the frontlines,” on condition the rebel-led government train and pay them.
Analysts have said the rally serves in part as public protest against the Iran-backed Houthis, who with Saleh have run the capital since 2014.
The rebels have rapidly risen in a parallel government in Sanaa, and now hold clout in the city’s economy, defense and educational ministries.
Former troops and civil servants in the parallel rebel-run government have not been paid for months.
Saleh’s second-in-command in the GPC, Aref Al-Zouka, on Thursday accused the Houthis of financial mismanagement and corruption, saying the party refused to be “allies for show.”
A war of words between Saleh and Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, whose rebel group have historically clashed with Saleh’s troops, has escalated in the past week.
The two have publicly accused each other of treason, with Saleh hinting his allies were merely “a militia” and the rebels warning the former president he would “bear the consequences” of the insult.
The Houthis reportedly suspect Saleh has been negotiating with a Saudi-led Arab military coalition that supports the Yemeni government.
Saleh was a strong ally of Saudi Arabia from the late 1970s, when he fought the Houthis for control of Yemen, until 2014.
The Saleh camp has meanwhile accused the Houthis of aiming to consolidate their power in Sanaa.
The war between the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, and the rebel camp has killed more than 8,300 Yemenis since 2015 and pushed the country to the brink of famine.
More than 30 people, including civilians, were killed on Wednesday in air raids on Sanaa, where the coalition has been bombing the Houthis since joining the war in 2015.
A cholera outbreak has independently claimed an estimated 2,000 lives since April in Yemen.


Israel says it will re-open crossing into Gaza as pressure builds to get more aid in

Updated 12 sec ago
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Israel says it will re-open crossing into Gaza as pressure builds to get more aid in

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said on Friday it was planning to reopen the Kissufim crossing into central Gaza to increase the flow of aid into the southern end of the Gaza Strip.
The move comes amid growing international pressure on Israel to get more aid into Gaza, where aid agencies have warned of a gathering humanitarian crisis in the north of the enclave, where Israeli troops have been conducting a major operation for more than a month.
The new crossing would be opened following engineering work over recent weeks by army engineers to build inspection points and paved roads, the army said.
Last month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote to Israeli officials demanding concrete measures to address the worsening situation in the Palestinian enclave.
The letter, which was posted to the Internet by a reporter from Axios, gave the Israeli government 30 days to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Among the demands included in the letter was for the opening of a fifth crossing into Gaza.

Sudan army govt accuses paramilitaries of causing 120 civilian deaths in 2 days

Updated 6 min 33 sec ago
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Sudan army govt accuses paramilitaries of causing 120 civilian deaths in 2 days

  • The Janjaweed militia (paramilitaries) committed a new massacre in the town of Hilaliya

PORT SUDAN: The Sudanese foreign ministry accused paramilitaries late Thursday of causing at least 120 civilian deaths over two days in Al-Jazira state, reportedly in attacks involving gunfire, food poisoning and lack of medical care.
“The Janjaweed militia (paramilitaries) committed a new massacre in the town of Hilaliya in Al-Jazira state over the past two days, resulting in 120 martyrs so far, killed either by gunfire or due to food poisoning and lack of medical care affecting hundreds of civilians,” the ministry of the army-backed government said in a statement obtained by AFP.


Yemen’s Houthi militants shoot down what they say was a US drone as American military investigates

Updated 08 November 2024
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Yemen’s Houthi militants shoot down what they say was a US drone as American military investigates

  • The US military acknowledged the videos circulating online showing what appeared to be a flaming aircraft dropping out of the sky
  • The Houthis claimed to have downed an American MQ-9 Reaper drone

DUBAI: Yemen’s Houthi militants shot down what they described as an American drone early Friday, potentially the latest downing of a US spy drone as the militants continue their attacks on the Red Sea corridor.
The US military acknowledged the videos circulating online showing what appeared to be a flaming aircraft dropping out of the sky and a field of burning debris in what those off-camera described as an area of Yemen’s Al-Jawf province. The military said it was investigating the incident, declining to elaborate further.
It wasn’t immediately clear what kind of aircraft was shot down in the low-quality night video. The Houthis, in a later statement, claimed to have downed an American MQ-9 Reaper drone.
The Houthis have surface-to-air missiles — such as the Iranian missile known as the 358 — capable of downing aircraft. Iran denies arming the militants, though Tehran-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in sea shipments heading to Yemen for the Shiite Houthi militants despite a United Nations arms embargo.
The Houthis have been a key component of Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” during the Mideast wars that includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Hamas and other militant groups.
Since Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the militants have shot down MQ-9 Reaper drones in Yemen in 2017, 2019, 2023 and 2024. The US military has declined to offer a total figure for the number of drones it has lost during that time.
Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land. The aircraft have been flown by both the US military and the CIA over Yemen for years.
The Houthis have targeted more than 90 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip started in October 2023. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have also included Western military vessels.
The militants maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran. The tempo of the Houthi sea attacks also has waxed and waned over the months.
In October, the US military unleashed B-2 stealth bombers to target underground bunkers used by the Houthis.


Israeli defense minister officially steps down

Updated 08 November 2024
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Israeli defense minister officially steps down

  • Israel has been rocked by Gallant’s dismissal, with the news setting off mass protests across the country
  • Israel Katz, his replacement, currently serves as foreign minister and is a longtime Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister
Israel has been rocked by Gallant’s dismissal, with the news setting off mass protests across the country
Israel Katz, his replacement, currently serves as foreign minister and is a longtime Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister

TEL AVIV: Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant officially stepped down Friday in a ceremony that replaced him with Israel Katz, the former foreign minister, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Gallant earlier this week.
Israel has been rocked by Gallant’s dismissal, with the news setting off mass protests across the country. Many in Israel view Gallant as the sole moderate voice in a far-right government, and see his removal as a sign that the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu has lost interest in returning hostages still held in Gaza.
Israel Katz, his replacement, currently serves as foreign minister and is a longtime Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister.
Also Friday, the Israeli military body handling aid to Gaza, COGAT, said it is preparing to open a new aid crossing into Gaza as the deadline for a US deadline to increase desperately-needed aid into the war-ravaged territory approaches. But the body did not say when the crossing will open nor if aid will be delivered to north of Gaza, where the UN and aid groups say the humanitarian situation is most dire.
The United Nations humanitarian office says Israel’s monthlong offensive in northern Gaza is preventing the estimated 75,000 to 95,000 Palestinians in the north from receiving essential items for their survival.
On Thursday, the Israeli military says it will allow 300 truckloads of humanitarian aid supplied by the United Arab Emirates to enter the Gaza Strip in the coming days. That’s less than the 350 trucks per day that the United States said it wants to see enter the war-ravaged territory.
The Israel-Hamas war began after militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Since the conflict erupted, more than 3,100 people have been killed and some 13,800 wounded in Lebanon, the health ministry reported.

Turkiye, Greece must work together to resolve host of issues, Turkish minister says

Updated 08 November 2024
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Turkiye, Greece must work together to resolve host of issues, Turkish minister says

  • Issues between NATO allies Turkiye and Greece are not limited to disagreements over maritime boundaries and jurisdiction in the eastern Mediterranean

ANKARA: Issues between NATO allies Turkiye and Greece are not limited to disagreements over maritime boundaries and jurisdiction in the eastern Mediterranean, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday, adding the historic rivals must work together to resolve them.
Speaking at a press conference in Athens alongside his Greek counterpart, Fidan also repeated Ankara’s view that a federation model to resolve the dispute over the ethnically-split island of Cyprus was no longer viable, calling for a two-state solution.
He also said Turkiye wanted to deepen cooperation with Greece on irregular migration and counter-terrorism, while increasing cooperation on tourism and cultural affairs.