AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s Houthi militia said on Saturday that the US and UK militaries carried out two airstrikes on the Red Sea Ras Isa port in Yemen’s western province of Hodeidah.
This comes as Trafigura, an international trading corporation, said that it had extinguished a fire on one of its ships in the Red Sea caused by a Houthi missile hit.
Houthi-run Al-Masira TV reported that the US and UK struck Ras Isa port on Saturday morning, which has an oil export facility and is close to the decaying floating oil ship Safer that has captured the world’s attention over the past several years.
Without naming the target site, the US Central Command said that its forces conducted an airstrike at about 3:45 a.m. (Sanaa time) on Saturday against an anti-ship missile that the Houthis were about to fire.
Yemen’s oil exports from the central province of Marib pass through Ras Isa in Hodeidah, while oil from the southern provinces of Hadramout and Shabwa pass through Arabian Sea oil terminals.
The 48-year-old FSO Safer tanker and its replacement are both berthed at the new Ras Isa oil facility.
The airstrikes in Hodeidah happened after the Houthis launched a ballistic missile at a Marshall Islands-flagged and UK-linked tanker controlled by Trafigura, causing a fire.
Trafigura stated on Saturday that the tanker’s crew was able to extinguish the fire and that all of the crew members were safe, and thanked the Indian, US and French navy warships for their support.
“We are pleased to confirm that all crew on board the Marlin Luanda are safe and the fire in the cargo tank has been fully extinguished. The vessel is now sailing toward a safe harbor,” the company said in a statement.
In a statement by their military spokesperson Yahya Sarea on Friday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for launching “a number of naval missiles” at the British oil ship, claiming that the action was both in support of the Palestinian people and in retribution for UK and US bombings on regions under their control in Yemen.
The Houthis also launched on Friday an anti-ship ballistic missile from regions under their control toward the Arleigh-Burke class destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) in the Gulf of Aden on Friday, but it was intercepted by the US Navy, according to US Central Command.
In Houthi-controlled Ibb, residents of the Al-Sabrah district reported that the Houthis fired a missile from the Al-Hamza military base in the district on Friday evening but the missile failed to reach its target and exploded shortly after in an area not far from the military base, the latest in a string of botched missile launches by the Houthis.
Experts believe that the Houthis will continue to attack US and UK ships, particularly oil tankers, to remain in the spotlight and build popular support, playing on public outrage over Israel’s war in Gaza, despite the danger of causing a catastrophic environmental disaster off Yemen’s coast.
“They don’t care about the implications for Yemen or the potential of an environmental disaster. The Houthis are trying to project themselves as a power that can defeat the US-led coalition. They are masters of war of attrition and propaganda,” Yemen conflict expert Nadwa Al-Dawsari told Arab News.
He added that the Houthis were infamous for concealing weaponry within civilian infrastructures such as ports to force their enemies to bomb them and then exploit the footage for propaganda.
“Houthis have a history of putting their missile launchers and weapons in civilian facilities. If they are bombed, that is good propaganda material showing that the US is targeting vital civilian infrastructure.”
Meanwhile, Yemen’s internationally recognized Presidential Leadership Council repeated demands on Saturday for foreign relief groups working in Yemen to transfer their headquarters from Houthi-controlled Sanaa to the southern city of Aden, Yemen’s temporary capital.
During a meeting with Sonali Korde, USAID assistant to the administrator for the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance in Riyadh, PLC chairman Rashad Al-Amili said that his government would facilitate international relief organizations that wish to operate in Aden, attacking the Houthis for forcing US and UK citizens working with UN agencies and other humanitarian organizations to leave Yemen within a month.
Houthis accuse US, UK of targeting Ras Isa oil terminal in Hodeidah
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Houthis accuse US, UK of targeting Ras Isa oil terminal in Hodeidah
- Houthi-run Al-Masira TV reported that the US and UK struck Ras Isa port on Saturday
- The Houthis claimed responsibility for launching “a number of naval missiles” at the British oil ship
Hamas in Gaza says 16 killed in strike on UN school
- The Israeli military said in a statement it “struck several terrorists operating in structures located in the area of UNRWA’s Al-Jawni school”
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: The Hamas authorities in Gaza said an Israeli strike on Saturday on a UN-run school where thousands of displaced were sheltering killed 16 people.
Israel’s military said its aircraft had targeted “terrorists” operating around the Al-Jawni school in Nuseirat, central Gaza.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which condemned the strike as an “odious massacre,” said 50 injured were taken to hospital from the school.
Some 7,000 people were sheltering in the school at the time of the attack, the Hamas government press office said. Dozens of people scrambled through the rubble after the strike to find survivors.
The press office said the school was run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, and most of the casualties were “children, women, and elderly.”
“This is the fourth time they have targeted the school without warning,” said one woman, Samah Abu Amsha, who told how some children were killed as they read the Qur’an in a class when the missile hit.
“Shrapnel flew at me inside the classroom and the children were injured,” she told AFP.
Hamas called the attack “a new massacre and crime committed by this criminal enemy as part of its war of genocide against our Palestinian people.”
The Israeli military said in a statement it “struck several terrorists operating in structures located in the area of UNRWA’s Al-Jawni school.”
“This location served as a hideout and operational infrastructure from which attacks against IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip were directed and carried out,” it added, insisting that “steps were taken in order to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.”
Israel has agreed to meetings with mediators on a ceasefire initiative but has kept up its offensive in the territory that started on October 7 after the Hamas attack on southern Israel.
UNRWA said two of its workers were killed in a strike at Al-Bureij, also in central Gaza, early Saturday. The agency has a major food warehouse in the district.
The Al-Aqsa hospital said nine other bodies were brought to its morgue from the strike.
The UN agency said 194 of its workers have now been killed since the war started.
An UNRWA spokesperson said that since the war began, more than half of the agency’s facilities have been hit and many were shelters. “As a result at least 500 people sheltering in those facilities have been killed,” the spokesperson told AFP.
Paramedics said 10 people, including three journalists, died in another strike on a house in Nuseirat on Saturday.
“Absolutely no place in the Gaza Strip is safe,” said civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal.
The war began with the October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Hamas militants also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the military says are dead.
In response, Israel has carried out a military offensive that has killed at least 38,098 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry there.
Tunisian court jails prominent critic of president
- The court ruling reinforces opposition concerns that critical voices will continue to be targeted ahead of a presidential election on Oct. 6
- “The one-year prison sentence is unjust and confirms the targeting of free speech,” said Dahmani’s lawyer
TUNIS: Sonia Dahmani, a prominent Tunisian lawyer known for her criticism of President Kais Saied, has been sentenced to one year in prison, her legal representative said on Saturday.
The court ruling reinforces opposition concerns that critical voices will continue to be targeted ahead of a presidential election on Oct. 6.
“The one-year prison sentence is unjust and confirms the targeting of free speech,” Dahmani’s lawyer Sami Ben Ghazi told Reuters.
Dahmani was arrested in May after appearing on a television program in which she said Tunisia is a country where life is not pleasant.
Opposition parties, many of whose leaders are in prison, have accused Saied’s government of exerting pressure on the judiciary to target his election rivals.
They say fair and credible elections cannot be held unless imprisoned politicians are released and the media is allowed to operate without pressure from the government.
Lotfi Mraihi, leader of the opposition Republican Union Party, who has announced his intention to run in the presidential election, was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of money laundering.
Abir Moussi, the leader of the Free Constitutional Party and a prominent candidate, has been in prison since October 2023 on charges of harming public security.
Some potential candidates, including Safi Saeed, Mondher Znaidi, Nizar Chaari and Abd Ellatif Mekki, are facing prosecution for alleged crimes such as fraud and money laundering.
Rached Ghannouchi, a fierce critic of Saied and head of the Ennahda main opposition party, was jailed last year on charges of incitement against police and plotting against state security.
Saied, a retired law professor who was elected president in 2019, has not officially announced his candidacy to stand for a second term. Last year he said he will not hand power to what he called non-patriots.
In 2021, Saied dissolved parliament and began ruling by decree in a move that the opposition described as a coup. Saied said his steps were legal and necessary to end years of rampant corruption among the political elite.
Egypt, Syrian leaders discuss Gaza developments during call
LONDON: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Saturday received a phone call from Syrian President Bashar Assad, during which the two leaders discussed the latest regional developments.
They “exchanged views on the dangers of escalation in the region, and emphasized the vital necessity to prevent the widening of the conflict zone and to preserve regional security and stability,” Ahmed Fahmy, the Egyptian presidential spokesman, said in a statement.
The two leaders stressed their rejection of attempts “to liquidate the Palestinian issue or displace” the Palestinian people.
El-Sisi said that his country will continue to push for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and ensure the sustainable delivery of humanitarian aid to meet the needs of the Palestinians, while “pursuing its efforts toward reinforcing the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” Fahmy added.
UAE foreign minister congratulates new UK counterpart, pledges to develop relations
LONDON: UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan on Saturday congratulated David Lammy on his appointment as UK secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, state news agency WAM reported.
“Sheikh Abdullah expressed his wishes to Secretary Lammy for success in his work, praising the historical relations between the two countries,” the WAM statement said.
Lammy was appointed to the post on Friday following a general election in Britain that saw the Labour Party win after 14 years of Conservative rule, with Keir Starmer taking over as prime minister from Rishi Sunak.
Al-Nahyan also expressed his “aspiration to work with Secretary Lammy to reinforce and develop these relations to achieve the mutual interests of the two countries and benefits their peoples,” WAM added.
Lammy, who has replaced former foreign secretary David Cameron, spoke with Al-Nahyan during one of first calls in government as part of efforts to “reconnect Britain to build a better future,” he said in a post on social platform X.
On Friday, Lammy said that “the world faces huge challenges, but we will navigate them with the UK’s enormous strengths,” adding that his country will be reconnected “for our security and prosperity at home.”
Hezbollah chief congratulates Iran’s Pezeshkian on vote win
- Nasrallah congratulated Pezeshkian on his “blessed election” by the Iranian people
- “We in Hezbollah and in all the resistance groups in the region... always look to the Islamic republic of Iran as a strong, stable and permanent support,” the letter read
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday congratulated Iranian president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian on his victory, emphasising Tehran’s role as a “strong” supporter of regional “resistance” groups.
In a letter circulated on the Iran-backed group’s social media channels, Nasrallah congratulated Pezeshkian on his “blessed election” by the Iranian people.
“We in Hezbollah and in all the resistance groups in the region... always look to the Islamic republic of Iran as a strong, stable and permanent support,” the letter read.
Tehran provides financial and military support to Hezbollah, which was created at the initiative of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards after arch-foe Israel overran Beirut in 1982 during Lebanon’s civil war.
The Shiite Muslim movement is a key part of the so-called Axis of Resistance — an alliance of pro-Iran armed movements that oppose Israel and the United States.
The alliance also includes Palestinian militant group Hamas, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and fighters in Iraq.
Reformist candidate Pezeshkian, who advocates improved ties with the West, won a runoff presidential election against ultraconservative Saeed Jalili, the Iranian interior ministry said Saturday.
The election came against a backdrop of heightened regional tensions because of the Gaza war, a dispute with the West over Iran’s nuclear program, and domestic discontent over the state of Iran’s sanctions-hit economy.
The death of ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash necessitated the election, which had not been due until 2025.
Hezbollah has been trading regular cross-border fire with the Israeli army in support of ally Hamas since the day after the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
Hezbollah is the only Lebanese faction to have retained its weapons after the country’s 1975-1990 civil conflict.
Its members have long fought in Syria’s war in support of President Bashar Assad, who earlier Saturday also sent his congratulations to Iran’s president-elect.
