Yemen dismantles Houthi cell in Marib

Marib, Marib Governorate, Yemen, Apr. 7, 2021. (Reuters)
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Updated 04 July 2023
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Yemen dismantles Houthi cell in Marib

  • Cell was made up of eight people with ties to the Houthis, some of whom were caught placing improvised explosive devices along a road in Marib
  • Yemeni officials have long accused Houthi cells of planting landmines and IEDs as well as carrying out drive-by shootings in Marib

AL-MUKALLA: Security authorities in Yemen’s central city of Marib have dismantled a Houthi cell responsible for plotting assaults against military and civilian facilities and assassinating security and military officers in the city, Yemen’s Ministry of Interior said on Tuesday.

The cell was made up of eight people with ties to the Houthis, some of whom were caught placing improvised explosive devices along a road in Marib, targeting security and military officers, the ministry said in a statement. 

Two members confessed in a five-minute video released by the ministry to planting IEDs inside an oil plant and blowing up another at a pickup driven by a military officer, claiming that Houthi figures trained them on how to plant and denote explosive devices and paid them SR2,000 ($533) for each mission.

The ministry said the confessions revealed that a Houthi leader named Ahmed Ali Al-Amer controls the cell and trains its members in using the explosives, while another Houthi figure named Majed Al-Deraq was responsible for transporting the explosives from Sanaa to Marib.

Abdul Razaq Hassan Dawood, a member of the cell, confessed to planting an IED in Marib to kill a military officer and claimed that the Houthis took advantage of his poverty to recruit him. 

Dawood said he only carried out one mission for the Houthis after being instructed to plant an IED and was paid for it as “neither I nor my children could afford to purchase clothing.”

Yemeni officials have long accused Houthi cells of planting landmines and IEDs as well as carrying out drive-by shootings that have killed dozens of military and security personnel in Marib.

Moammer Al-Eryani, Yemen’s information minister, said the Houthi cell attempted to undermine security and stability in the city of Marib, which has been a safe haven for over 2 million people who have escaped fighting or Houthi repression.

In a tweet, Al-Eryani referred to the dismantling of the cell as “a security achievement” and “new evidence of the militia’s terrorism and bloodshed.”

Meanwhile, security forces in the eastern province of Mahra have announced the arrest of a Daesh intelligence official from Syria. The officer, identified as Obeid Al-Razaj (alias Abu Danieh Al-Suri), worked as a truck driver in the province under the pseudonym Ahmed Anwar Al-Akaf. 


Lebanon PM says expanded strikes suggest Israel’s ‘rejection’ of ceasefire

Updated 10 sec ago
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Lebanon PM says expanded strikes suggest Israel’s ‘rejection’ of ceasefire

  • Mikati said in a statement after overnight raids hit Beirut’s southern suburbs
Beirut: Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday criticized Israel’s “expansion” of its attacks on his country, saying they indicated a rejection of efforts to broker a truce after more than a month of war.
“The Israeli enemy’s renewed expansion of the scope of its aggression on Lebanese regions, its repeated threats to the population to evacuate entire cities and villages, and its renewed targeting of the southern suburbs of Beirut with destructive raids, are all indicators that confirm the Israeli enemy’s rejection of all efforts being made to secure a ceasefire,” Mikati said in a statement after overnight raids hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, in the first such attack this week.

In east Lebanon, looming winter hints at stretched aid response

Updated 4 min 38 sec ago
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In east Lebanon, looming winter hints at stretched aid response

  • Supplies running tight in Deir Al-Ahmar in eastern Lebanon
  • Winter snow likely to cut off only safe route
Lebanon: Nerjes Hassan was so worried her children would fall ill from bathing in the frigid water of a displacement shelter in northeast Lebanon that she drove back into her hometown to give them a hot bath and pick up food preserves.
While at home on Wednesday morning in the town of Buday, near the eastern city of Baalbek, an Israeli air strike killed her, her husband and her two children, according to her coworkers and neighbors.
Hassan, who worked for the Lebanese Organization for Studies and Training (LOST) aid organization, was among thousands seeking refuge from Israeli strikes in the mountainous Christian town of Deir Al-Ahmar in eastern Lebanon.
The town was already hosting more than 10,000 displaced people before Israel escalated its strikes on predominantly Shiite Muslim Baalbek and nearby towns starting on Wednesday this week.
Thousands more are flowing into Deir Al-Ahmar as Israel’s bombardment continues. The needs are growing, temperatures are dropping, and supplies in the town are getting tight.
In one school now serving as a shelter, aid groups that once served two meals have cut breakfast to feed more at lunch. Townspeople have put together donation drives for winter clothes and blankets but are facing shortages, leaving displaced sharing blankets overnight.
“If we flee the bombing, are we meant to die of cold?” said Suzanne Qassem, a mother of two at one displacement center, whose home in Buday had been destroyed.
“I’m sick, I’ve been taking medicine for a week and I’m still coughing... If my son gets sick, am I going to be able to get him medicine?“

’Like a siege’
Temperatures in Deir Al-Ahmar are dropping to 6 degrees Celsius (43 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight even before winter fully sets in and the schools have no diesel to run central heating systems.
“At night, we’re shaking. I put my mattress up next to my daughter and tell her to hug me so that we can keep warm. But we’re not keeping warm,” said Neyfe Mazloum, 69.
Most families fled with just the clothes on their backs, rushing out of their homes after Israeli evacuation warnings for Baalbek and surrounding towns on Wednesday and Thursday.
More than 1.2 million people have been displaced by Israeli strikes on Lebanon over the last year in its campaign against militant group Hezbollah. That includes nearly 190,000 who have sought refuge in shelters. Others are staying with relatives, have rented out homes, or are sleeping in the streets.
Lebanon’s crisis management cell says that out of 1,130 accredited shelters, 948 have reached maximum capacity. Most of the displaced are in the districts of Mount Lebanon and Beirut — easy to reach for most aid organizations.
But Deir Al-Ahmar is much further afield.
The quickest routes run through the massive area that the Israeli military says must evacuate. To avoid it, aid groups planning to deliver supplies this week will travel further north through mountain peaks before cutting back down to the town.
Imran Riza, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon, told Reuters that aid deliveries to the Baalbek region had to be postponed this week due to Israeli air strikes. Other deliveries of medical aid to Lebanon from foreign countries have been delayed due to strikes near the airport.
“Access is becoming more and more difficult. The needs are growing in Deir Al-Ahmar. It’s up to us to try to get there, and to plan a way to be able to access in it a way that is reasonably safe,” he said.
Local volunteers are worried that the looming winter will cut off the only safe route into Deir Al-Ahmar, leaving them stranded.
“That road will close with the first snow. It will be like a siege,” said Khodr Zeaiter, a volunteer with LOST. Displaced himself, he is now helping to organize aid in Deir Al-Ahmar.
Beyond the immediate concerns of food and fuel, Zeaiter is worried about the education ministry’s directive that public schools — now hosting displaced — will need to reopen for students in three weeks.
Volunteers are studying the possibility of refurbishing an abandoned school to host morning and evening classes, he said.
“We’re grateful to the people of Deir Al-Ahmar so much. It’s their solidarity that has gotten us through this. But how long that will last — who knows.”

Colm McLoughlin, Irishman who led Dubai Duty Free to become an airport retail giant, dies at age 81

Updated 16 min 57 sec ago
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Colm McLoughlin, Irishman who led Dubai Duty Free to become an airport retail giant, dies at age 81

  • Colm McLoughlin ran Dubai Duty Free from 1983 until he retired earlier this year
  • He helped lead Dubai Duty Free into becoming an airport retail behemoth generating billions of dollars

DUBAI: Colm McLoughlin, an Irishman who landed in the deserts of the United Arab Emirates and helped lead Dubai Duty Free into becoming an airport retail behemoth generating billions of dollars, has died. He was 81.
McLoughlin ran Dubai Duty Free from 1983 until he retired earlier this year, a span of over 40 years that saw Dubai grow from a creekside trading port into a modern metropolis, home to the world’s tallest building and other attractions.
And all the millions of passengers coming into Dubai International Airport, now the world’s busiest for international travel, saw the rows of electronics, cigarettes, cigars, alcohol and other goods available duty-free at his stores, hawked by a salesforce in green suit jackets, yellow ties and conversing in multiple languages.
“It’s a very Middle Eastern kind of thing,” McLoughlin told the Los Angeles Times in 1987 as he showed off its gold market. “We have to cater to a lot of tastes.”
Dubai Duty Free said in a statement that McLoughlin died Wednesday after a short illness, without elaborating. The operation’s new managing director, Ramesh Cidambi, praised McLoughlin for steering its “growth to a $2 billion dollar business with over 6,000 employees at the time of his retirement.”
Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the CEO of long-haul carrier Emirates and chairman of Dubai Duty Free, offered his condolences.
“His passion, commitment and pioneering spirit have left a lasting legacy,” Sheikh Ahmed said in a post on the social platform X.
Born in Ballinasloe, Ireland, in 1943, McLoughlin joined Shannon Airport’s first-in-the-world duty-free operation in 1969. In July 1983, he came with a 10-man team to Dubai to set up the sandy airport’s duty-free operation. His six-month contract ended up stretching into 40 years.
Like the rest of the aviation industry, Dubai Duty Free took a hit during the years of the coronavirus pandemic and airline groundings. But sales have since bounced back. In 2023 alone, under McLoughlin, Dubai Duty Free sold 6 million cans of beer, 2.3 million bottles of whiskey, 2.3 million cartons of cigarettes, 10.2 million cigars and 3.3 million bottles of perfume.
One big segment has been Chinese travelers, after Dubai Duty Free worked to accept their credit cards, had staff speaking Mandarin and put in goods they wanted.
“We would be silly if we didn’t take advantage of it and try to serve them,” McLoughlin told The Associated Press in 2012.
And many a bleary-eyed traveler in Dubai’s cavernous airport tried their luck at the constant raffles being offered, whether for $1 million, a luxury automobile or a racing motorcycle.
McLoughlin also was known for Dubai Duty Free’s sponsorship of tennis and golf tournaments, as well as his work supporting Dubai’s Irish community. He received the Irish Presidential Distinguished Service Award in 2014.
“Colm McLoughlin has been an integral part of the Irish community in the UAE,” his award citation read. “Both in his highly successful professional career with Dubai Duty Free and in his leadership roles across almost every Irish organization, Colm McLouglin has played a hugely positive role in the promotion of Irish interests in the UAE.”
McLoughlin is survived by his wife Breeda, son Niall, daughters Tyna and Mandy, and their families.


Urgent need for South Sudan food aid: WFP

Updated 39 min 35 sec ago
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Urgent need for South Sudan food aid: WFP

  • WFP said it would have to rely on expensive airdrops later in the year to reach isolated communities who are most at risk
  • Funds received before the end of this year would enable WFP to transport food by road during the dry season

Nairobi: The UN World Food Programme made an urgent appeal Friday for donors to provide early funding for South Sudan, where millions are on the brink of starvation.
WFP said its stores of food supplies in South Sudan were empty and that it needed $404 million to prepare assistance for 2025 amid “spiralling operational costs and hunger.”
Without early funding, WFP said it would have to rely on expensive airdrops later in the year to reach isolated communities who are most at risk.
“It can take months to turn pledged donor funds into food in the hands of hungry people in South Sudan. The country’s limited road networks are impassable for much of the year — particularly in the east and central parts of the country where food insecurity is highest,” said Shaun Hughes, WFP’s acting country director for South Sudan, in a statement.
Funds received before the end of this year would enable WFP to transport food by road during the dry season from December to April.
“Airdrops are always (a) last resort for WFP. Every dollar spent on planes is a dollar not spent on food for hungry people,” said Hughes.
WFP said it had to double deliveries by airdrop in 2024, adding $30 million to its operational costs.
It said more than half — 56 percent — of people in South Sudan face crisis levels of hunger.
This is expected to worsen due to high inflation, flooding and people fleeing conflict in neighboring Sudan.
Since gaining independence in 2011, South Sudan has remained plagued by chronic instability, violence, economic stagnation and climate disasters.
Like other aid agencies, WFP’s resources have been stretched thin by multiple global crises.
It said only 2.7 million of the 7.1 million hungry people received assistance during South Sudan’s lean season in 2024, and most received half rations.


47 Palestinians killed overnight in Israeli strikes in central Gaza, Palestinian news agency says

Updated 01 November 2024
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47 Palestinians killed overnight in Israeli strikes in central Gaza, Palestinian news agency says

  • Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced most of the enclave to rubble

GAZA: Forty seven Palestinians were killed and dozens injured, most of them children and women, in overnight Israeli bombardment of the city of Deir Al-Balah, the Nuseirat camp and the town of Al-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Friday.

The Gaza war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced most of the enclave to rubble, Palestinian authorities say.

At least 46 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, mostly in the north where one attack hit a hospital, torching medical supplies and disrupting operations, the enclave’s health officials said.

Israel’s military has accused the Palestinian militant group Hamas of using Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya for military purposes and said “dozens of terrorists” have been hiding there. Health officials and Hamas deny the assertion.

The health ministry in the Gaza Strip called for all international bodies “to protect hospitals and medical staff from the brutality of the (Israeli) occupation.”

Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Thursday that one of its doctors at the hospital, Mohammed Obeid, had been detained last Saturday by Israeli forces. It called for the protection of him and all medical staff who “are facing horrific violence as they try to provide care.”