Yemen Crisis/Conflict & the "Decisive Storm" Coalition

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
The civil war in Yemen has now blossomed into a regional conflict where Saudi Arabia has created a "Decisive Storm" Coalition of itself and nine other Mid-East countries to intervene.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt have imposed a military naval blockade and the he Saudi vessels and Egyptian vessels involved in the Blockade are first rate:


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Saudi Arabian Navy Frigate involved in the naval blockade of Yemen.

It is a strong coalition.

Basically Saudi Arabia has enlisted nine other Mid-East countries to support the military operation to defeat the Iranian backed rebels.

Saudi Arabia - 100 aircraft, 150,000 troops, Naval vessels
Egypt - Naval Vessels
UAE - 30 aircraft
Bahrain - 15 aircraft
Kuwait - 15 aircraft
Qatar - 10 aircraft
Jordan - 6 aircraft
Morocco - 6 aircraft
Sudan - 3 aircraft
Pakistan - undetermined number of naval ships and aircraft

The US will be supplying logistical support and intelligence.

SD's own NavalRecon has reported very well on this crisis:

Yemen Crisis: Saudi Arabia and Egypt Blockade Yemen, Coalition formed


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NavalRecognition said:
The Saudi-led Decisive Storm coalition has imposed a naval blockade on Bab El-Mandab strait which connects the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean, sources told Ahram Online. The Saudi navy's western fleet has also secured Yemen's main ports including Aden and Midi. In the same time, four Egyptian naval vessels have crossed the Suez Canal en route to Yemen to secure the Gulf of Aden.

Saudi Arabia launched intense airstrikes on neighboring Yemen on Thursday, March 26, targeting key sites including the country’s main airport, as part of a bold Arab-led offensive to weaken powerful Shiite rebels who have put the country’s president on the run.

The attacks plunged Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies into the deepening crisis in Yemen after a rebel advance forced the country’s Western-backed president to flee and left the Shiite insurgents, known as Houthis, on the brink of claiming control of the country’s two largest cities.

The Saudi-led campaign also reflects a balance-of-power showdown with Shiite power Iran, which is believed to back the Houthi rebels and could gain new footholds on the Sunni-dominated Arabian peninsula.

Saudi Arabia has mobilized a major force — with direct or political support of other Sunni states — that suggested it was prepared for a sustained fight that could mirror the U.S.-led attacks against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The Red Sea is one of the world's most strategic water arteries, connecting Europe to the Persian Gulf and East Asia. To the south, Bab El-Mandab strait connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, while, to the north, Egypt’s Suez Canal provides passage to the Mediterranean Sea. States which secure the Red Sea for international navigation include Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Yemen, Djibouti and Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan and Egypt announced their participation in the ongoing Saudi-led military campaign against with air and naval forces, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.

Al Arabiya said Egypt, Pakistan and Sudan have also expressed their readiness to contribute ground troops in the campaign.

Four Egyptian warships entered the Suez Canal on Thursday en route to the Gulf of Aden, Reuters news agency reported citing canal officials said.The officials said the ships will take part in operations “to secure” the strategic waters that control southern access to the Suez Canal.

The UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan have also deployed fighter jets to join the Saudi air force in the ongoing air campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, Al Arabiya News Chanel reported.The UAE has deployed 30 fighter jets, Bahrain 15, Kuwait 15, Qatar 10 and Jordan 6 warplanes, according to the news channel.

This thread will be about this military/warfare crisis and the news, pictures, videos, etc. regarding it.

While we will allow comments on the forces arrayed against each other and their basic support...DO NOT make this thread about politics, ideology, or religion.
 

ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
China says deeply concerned about Yemen situation

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's foreign ministry said on Thursday it was deeply concerned about the worsening situation in Yemen, after Saudi Arabia announced it had launched military operations in that country with Gulf region allies.

Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that China urges all parties to act in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions on Yemen, and to resolve the dispute through dialogue.

Hua told a news conference that China hopes all parties involved will "quickly resolve the dispute through political dialogue, solve the current crisis and restore domestic stability and normality to Yemen at an early date."

She said that all Chinese people and institutions in Yemen were safe, adding that the foreign ministry and the Chinese embassy in Yemen had warned its citizens not to visit Yemen.

Yemen exports about 1.4-1.5 million barrels of Masila crude each month, mainly to China, but a Chinese trade source said that volume was relatively small and could easily be replaced with West African crude.

China's crude imports from Yemen in the first two months this year were 4.5 mln bbls, up 315 percent from the same period a year ago.

China has traditionally kept a low profile in Middle East diplomacy despite its reliance on oil imports from the region, although it is keen to demonstrate its role as a force in international politics.

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ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
Iran, Russia diplomats hold talks on situation in Yemen

A high-ranking diplomat of Iran’s Foreign Ministry has held talks with authorities in Moscow over the situation in Yemen.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met with his Russian counterpart, Mikhail Bogdanov, in the country’s capital on Wednesday.

"During the discussion of the situation in the Republic of Yemen the common opinion was expressed about the need to settle the acute domestic crisis in that country on the basis of a broad national dialogue involving all influential political forces in Yemen," the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a report.

"Such a dialogue is meant to stabilize the situation in the country, preserve its territorial integrity and unity, find solutions of political and economic problems facing the Yemeni society acceptable for all sides, and prevent the transformation of the country into a new seat of international terrorism. Support was confirmed for corresponding efforts made by special adviser of the UN Secretary General for Yemen Jamal Benomar," it added.
The meeting was held as reports said Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi escaped the country on a boat from the southern port city of Aden where he was staying.

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ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
Civilians killed in Arab airstrikes on Yemen

At least six children under the age of 10 were among a reported 25 people killed in Saudi Arabian-led airstrikes in the Yemeni capital Sana’a early this morning, Amnesty International confirmed after speaking to hospital officials and eyewitnesses.

The organization spoke to medical personnel at four different hospitals where the dead were taken after being pulled from the rubble of 14 houses that were hit in a residential neighbourhood near the city’s international airport. The rest of those killed were men, mostly in their 30s and 40s. It is believed that more people may still be buried beneath the rubble, and at least 20, including four women, were admitted to hospital with mainly shrapnel injures.

This high toll of civilian deaths and injuries in these attacks raises concerns about compliance with the rules of international humanitarian law. Saudi Arabian and any other armed forces carrying out airstrikes in Yemen are required to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians.

“This high toll of civilian deaths and injuries in these attacks raises concerns about compliance with the rules of international humanitarian law. Saudi Arabian and any other armed forces carrying out airstrikes in Yemen are required to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians,” said Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“This includes verifying that targets are in fact military objectives and giving civilians effective advance warnings unless circumstances do not permit.

“The Huthi armed groups and the Yemeni armed forces also have obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians under their control from the effects of attacks, including by avoiding, to the extent feasible, locating their fighters and weaponry within residential neighbourhoods.”

Given the civilian deaths and injuries, Saudi Arabia and other states involved in these airstrikes must investigate whether violations of international humanitarian law were committed. And if there is evidence that war crimes were committed they must prosecute the suspects in fair trials.

Yemen’s Ministry of Health today said the airstrikes killed 25 people and injured some 40 – it is not yet known if there were any fighters among the casualties.

According to a paramedic who witnessed the aftermath, the airstrike near the airport occurred shortly before 3AM local time, in a residential area called Beni Hawat. Huthi armed groups had allegedly been operating a checkpoint around 100m away, as well as al-Dailami base around 500m away.

Saudi Arabian officials today stated they had destroyed “all Huthi air defences" at al-Dailami base next to Sana’a International Airport.

Beni Hawat was among a number of sites around the city hit by airstrikes overnight as Saudi Arabia announced it was launching a military intervention by a coalition of 10 countries, including five Gulf Cooperation Council states, against the Huthi armed groups. The US government today stated it had “authorized the provision of logistical and intelligence support” to this military intervention, and other governments, including the UK and Turkey, endorsed the move.


amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2015/03/yemen-six-children-killed-in-saudi-arabian-airstrikes/
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Okay, the Yemen situation is a flash point and is going to have, like the Ukrainian situation ,all sorts of fall out.

It is also war, and no matter how you slice it, no matter what sides are incvolved, you are ALWAYS going to have civilian suffering and death.

Let's not try to use that to make points politically or ideologically.

Keep it to a discussion of the tactics, the orders of battle, the specific battles, the hardware and sensors, etc. No politics, ideology, or religion.
 

ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
Egypt Says It May Send Troops to Yemen to Fight Houthis


CAIRO — Egypt said Thursday that it was prepared to send troops into
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as part of a Saudi-led campaign to drive back the
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, signaling the growing likelihood of a protracted ground war on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

A day after
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and a coalition of nine other states began hammering the Houthis with airstrikes and blockading the Yemeni coast, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt said in a statement that the country’s navy and air force had joined the campaign and that its army was ready to send ground troops “if necessary.”

The Associated Press, citing unnamed military officials, reported that plans for an Egyptian invasion were already underway, and many analysts had already concluded that airstrikes alone had little chance of pushing back the Houthis.

Saudi news media declared that the offensive, which began Wednesday night, had fully disabled the Houthi-aligned Yemeni Air Force.


Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival and the Houthis’ main ally, denounced the assault as an American-backed attempt “to foment civil war in Yemen or disintegrate the country.” Houthi-controlled television channels broadcast footage of dead bodies and wounded civilians, blaming “American-backed aggression.”

The movement’s leaders warned that the battle could widen into a regional conflict, but they also vowed to overcome the Saudi attacks without Iranian help. “The Yemeni people are prepared to face this aggression without any foreign interference,” Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi spokesman,
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.

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rose about 4 percent on Thursday over concerns that the fighting in Yemen might affect the passage of tankers through the Bab el Mandeb strait, a narrow chokepoint between Yemen and Africa that is the entrance to the Red Sea.

Along with Iraq, Libya and Syria, Yemen is the fourth Arab nation where an attempt to build a new democracy has been consumed by civil conflict, regional proxy wars and the expansion of extremist groups like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda.

The Houthi leadership, which hails from northern Yemen, practices a variant of Shiite Islam, the religion of the Iranian theocracy. Saudi Arabia, the region’s Sunni Muslim power, is backing forces loyal to President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has fled the capital, Sana, and has taken refuge among his supporters in the south.

The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, criticized the airstrikes and said, “Regional countries should restrain from any actions which may intensify the crisis,” the presidential website reported.

Mr. Rouhani added, “We should make extensive efforts for three aims: stopping military interference in Yemen, preventing any opportunities for terrorists to take control, and helping setting up a sovereign government.”


The Saudi Arabian-led military intervention immediately raised the threat that Iran might retaliate by increasing its own support for the Houthis with money and weapons — as Tehran has in the past — or with a more active military role, escalating the violence. But the struggle for Yemen is more than merely a sectarian conflict or a regional proxy war, in part because of the singular role of Ali Abudullah Saleh, the country’s former strongman.



Mr. Saleh left power under pressure from an Arab Spring uprising under a transitional plan brokered by Saudi Arabia and the other Persian Gulf states. As president, he fought wars against the Houthis and at times appeared to ally with Saudis against Iran.

But he is a member of the same Shiite sect as the Houthis, and he has now struck an alliance with them in an apparent bid to restore himself and his family to power. He has helped lead units of the Yemeni military and security services to swing to the side of the Houthis against his successor, Mr. Hadi, and analysts say Mr. Saleh has played a much more critical role than Iran has in enabling the Houthi advance.

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Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
I think that the Saudis and the Egyptians, between them, have the resources and manpower to have a very decisive impact on the situation in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has indicated that it is willing to commit numbers like 150,000 personnel.
 

ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
Unknown plane fires 3 rockets at Hadi's palace in Aden


An unknown warplane has targeted the residence of Yemen’s fugitive President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in the southern city of Aden, a presidential security official said.

The aircraft "fired three missiles at the presidential complex, which were met by the air defense" systems, the unnamed security official was quoted by AFP as saying on Wednesday.

The security official further noted that the missiles hit "an abandoned building" used by guards within the presidential complex.

The official stated that the missile attacks did not cause any casualties. Witnesses said plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the area around Hadi's complex in the southern port city.

Earlier in the day an aide to the Yemeni fugitive president said he had been transferred to a "secure location within Aden."

Members of the Houthi Ansarullah movement entered Aden on Wednesday after detaining Hadi's Defense Minister Mahmoud al-Subaihi and transferring him to the capital, Sana’a.

“Subaihi was arrested in the city of Houta” in Lahij Province, Mohammed Abdulsalam, a spokesman for the Houthi movement, said in a statement aired by the Houthi-run al-Massira television.

The spokesman said that Subaihi and others arrested were "transferred to Sana'a and are held by the armed forces."

Air traffic was suspended at Aden’s international airport with an official saying, “Aden airport has been shut down and air traffic suspended due to the security situation."

The latest developments come as Yemeni forces backed by Ansarullah revolutionaries seized the al-Anad air base, located about 50 kilometers north of Aden.

A spokesman for the Houthis said the ongoing conflict is aimed at fighting al-Qaeda militants and the country’s former president.

The spokesman added that the Houthis would respect the rights of people in southern Yemen.

Days earlier, Yemen’s Houthi movement named Major General Hussein Khairan as the new defense minister for the country

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ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
Houthis forces have entered presidental compound in Aden and All government institutions are also seized.

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Defense minister, Mahmoud al-Subaihi was arrested also here is the picture.

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All credits goes to IMF
 
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