23 killed in Houthi attack in southern Yemen

A Houthi fighter mans a turret in an armoured technical vehicle. (File/AFP)
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Updated 27 August 2023
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23 killed in Houthi attack in southern Yemen

  • Houthis launched an attack on government troops in Lahj’s Yafae region, sparking heavy fighting
  • Fighting killed 15 Houthis, eight pro-government soldiers, and injured at least ten more

AL-MUKALLA: At least 23 people were killed in heavy combat between Yemeni government troops and Houthis in the southern province of Lahj on Sunday, as the Yemeni government criticized the militia for rejecting peace efforts to end the war. 

The Houthis launched an attack on government troops in Lahj’s Yafae region, sparking heavy fighting that killed 15 Houthis, eight pro-government soldiers, and injured at least ten more.

Mohammed Al-Naqeeb, a spokesman for pro-independence southern forces that control Yafae, described the Houthi attacks on Yafae as the militia’s “biggest and bloodiest” attack in recent months, adding that their forces were able to repel the Houthis, forcing them to retreat after suffering heavy casualties. 

“The Houthi militia’s assault on Yafae is a response to all concessions offered by the legitimate government and peace initiatives,” Al-Naqeeb told Arab News.

Since early last year, when the UN-brokered truce came into force, hostilities have drastically decreased, primarily outside the government-controlled city of Marib.

However, Yemeni government officials say that the Houthis have continued their fatal attacks on residential neighborhoods and military targets in Lahj, Marib and Taiz.

According to local press reports citing Houthi media, the Houthis have buried more than 4,000 fighters, killed on the battlefield since the beginning of this year.

The Houthi attack on Yafae occurred a day after a member of the Presidential Leadership Council, Sultan Al-Aradah, accused the Houthis of impeding peace efforts to end the war and reiterated the government’s threat to respond militarily to Houthi attacks on oil facilities. 

Al-Aradah told a gathering of government officials in Marib on Saturday that the Houthis were attempting to lay siege to government-controlled areas by halting oil shipments and forcing local traders to abandon ports. He said that the Houthis were disintegrating from within and beset by major internal issues as Yemenis, particularly those who live in areas under their control, rejected their repressive rule and radical ideologies.

“We assure you, in the name of the political leadership, that we will restore our state, either through peace through the United Nations, which is what we are seeking, or through the valor of the armed forces, security, and popular resistance,” Aradah said.

Meanwhile, the UN Yemen envoy, Hans Grundberg, said on Sunday that he had a virtual meeting with Ali Asghar Khaji, adviser to Iran’s foreign minister, in which they discussed gaining international support for attaining peace in Yemen.

“They discussed the progress of UN-led mediation &ways to strengthen concerted regional &international support to resume an inclusive political process under UN auspices,” Grundberg’s office said in a statement. 

The UN envoy has increased his diplomatic efforts throughout the region in the hope of achieving a breakthrough that will allow the peace process in Yemen to resume, which was halted in October when the Houthis refused to renew the UN-brokered truce.

At the same time, a Yemeni government official told Arab News on Sunday that the present peace efforts, whether led by the UN envoy or Omani mediators, were aimed at persuading the Houthis to renew the truce and agree to end-of-war talks.

“The mediators are engaging in discussions with the Houthis in an effort to persuade them of certain outstanding details and what is required to renew the cease-fire and build on it to initiate a comprehensive political process, said the official, who requested anonymity. 


Turkiye man kills seven before taking his own life

Updated 2 sec ago
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Turkiye man kills seven before taking his own life

Istanbul: A 33-year-old Turkish man shot dead seven people in Istanbul on Sunday, including his parents, his wife and his 10-year-old son, before taking his own life, the authorities reported on Monday.
The man, who was found dead in his car shortly after the shooting, is also accused of wounding two other family members, one of them seriously, the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement.
The authorities, who had put the death toll at four on Sunday evening, announced on Monday the discovery near a lake on Istanbul’s European shore of the bodies of the killer’s wife and son, as well as the lifeless body of his mother-in-law.
According to the Small Arms Survey (SAS), a Swiss research program, over 13.2 million firearms are in circulation in Turkiye, most of them illegally, for a population of around 85 million.

2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

Updated 7 min 26 sec ago
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2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

  • The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night

Yabad: The Palestinian Authority said two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, were killed during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank village of Yabad.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night, leading to clashes during which soldiers shot dead two Palestinians.
The two dead were identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Muhammad Rabie Hamarsheh, 13, and Ahmad Mahmud Zaid, 20.
“Overnight, during an IDF (Israeli army) counterterrorism activity in the area of Yabad, two terrorists hurled explosives at IDF soldiers. The soldiers responded with fire and hits were identified,” an Israeli military source told AFP.
Last week, the Israeli army launched several raids in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing nine people, most of them Palestinian militants.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7 last year after Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 777 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.


Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

Updated 44 min 45 sec ago
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Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

  • The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday
  • Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army on Monday said it had struck a Hezbollah command center in the downtown Beirut neighborhood of Basta in a deadly air strike at the weekend.
“The IDF (Israeli military) struck a Hezbollah command center,” the army said regarding the strike that the Lebanese health ministry said killed 29 people and wounded 67 on Saturday.
The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday, leaving a large crater, AFP journalists at the scene reported.
A senior Lebanese security source said that “a high-ranking Hezbollah officer was targeted” in the strike, without confirming whether or not the official had been killed.
Hezbollah official Amin Cherri said no leader of the Lebanese movement was targeted in Basta.
Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign, later sending in ground troops against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The war followed nearly a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the Gaza war.
The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September this year.
On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.


HRW says Israel strike that killed 3 Lebanon journalists ‘apparent war crime’

Updated 25 November 2024
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HRW says Israel strike that killed 3 Lebanon journalists ‘apparent war crime’

BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch said on Monday an Israeli air strike that killed three journalists in Lebanon last month was an “apparent war crime” and used a bomb equipped with a US-made guidance kit.
The October 25 strike hit a tourism complex in the Druze-majority south Lebanon town of Hasbaya where more than a dozen journalists working for Lebanese and Arab media outlets were sleeping.
The Israeli army has said it targeted Hezbollah militants and that the strike was “under review.”
HRW said the strike, relatively far from the Israel-Hezbollah war’s main flashpoints, “was most likely a deliberate attack on civilians and an apparent war crime.”
“Information Human Rights Watch reviewed indicates that the Israeli military knew or should have known that journalists were staying in the area and in the targeted building,” the watchdog said in a statement.
HRW “found no evidence of fighting, military forces, or military activity in the immediate area at the time of the attack,” it added.
The strike killed cameraman Ghassan Najjar and broadcast engineer Mohammad Reda from pro-Iran, Beirut-based broadcaster Al-Mayadeen and video journalist Wissam Qassem from Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television.
The watchdog said it verified images of Najjar’s casket wrapped in a Hezbollah flag and buried in a cemetery alongside fighters from the militant group.
But a spokesperson for the militant group said he “had no involvement whatsoever in any military activities.”
HRW said the bomb dropped by Israeli forces was equipped with a United States-produced Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit.
The JDAM is “affixed to air-dropped bombs and allows them to be guided to a target by using satellite coordinates,” the statement said.
It said remnants from the site were consistent with a JDAM kit “assembled and sold by the US company Boeing.”
One remnant “bore a numerical code identifying it as having been manufactured by Woodard, a US company that makes components for guidance systems on munitions,” it added.
The watchdog said it contacted Boeing and Woodard but received no response.
In October last year, Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed by Israeli shellfire while he was covering southern Lebanon, and six other journalists were wounded, including AFP’s Dylan Collins and Christina Assi, who had to have her right leg amputated.
In November last year, Israeli bombardment killed Al-Mayadeen correspondent Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih Maamari, the channel said.
Lebanese rights groups have said five more journalists and photographers working for local media have been killed in Israeli strikes on the country’s south and Beirut’s southern suburbs.


16 survivors rescued after tourist boat sinks off Egypt’s Red Sea coast

Updated 10 min 34 sec ago
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16 survivors rescued after tourist boat sinks off Egypt’s Red Sea coast

CAIRO: Egyptian authorities rescued 16 people after a tourist boat sank off its Red Sea coast, three security sources told Reuters on Monday, as search operations continued for the remaining passengers and crew members.
The boat, Sea Story, was carrying 45 people, including 31 tourists of varying nationalities and 14 crew, on a multi-day diving trip when it went down near the coastal town of Marsa Alam, according to a statement by the Red Sea Governorate.
Governor Amr Hanafi said some survivors were rescued using a helicopter and have been taken to medical care. Efforts to locate more survivors were ongoing in coordination with the Egyptian navy and army.
The governorate said a distress call was received at 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) and that the boat had departed from Porto Ghalib in Marsa Alam on Sunday, with plans to return to Hurghada Marina on Nov. 29.
The Red Sea is a popular diving destination renowned for its coral reefs and marine life, key to Egypt’s vital tourism industry.