DTN News: Yemen Shiite Rebels Seize Army Post, Capture Soldiers

DTN News: Yemen Shiite Rebels Seize Army Post, Capture Soldiers

Source: DTN News / AFP

(NSI News Source Info) SANAA, Yemen - July 26, 2010: Shiite rebels took control of a strategic army post in north Yemen on Monday and captured some 70 soldiers, in the latest clash to endanger an increasingly fragile truce, army and tribal sources said.

"Huthi (rebels) took control of a military position in Al-Zaala and captured all remaining soldiers," a tribal source told AFP. "Violent clashes erupted since the early morning hours." A local military official said the rebels captured some 70 soldiers. The attack came after residents contacted on Sunday by telephone said six soldiers were killed in fighting between the Zaidi Shiite rebels, also known as Huthis, and a government-backed tribe in tense northern Yemen. Al-Zaala controls the road between Sanaa and Saada, the rebels' stronghold. President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Sunday that he did not want another war with the Huthis. "Peace, security and stability are the choice of the state... I say no to another war," he said at a military ceremony. "Stop jeopardising the security and stability of the province of Saada," Saleh said, referring to on-off confrontations in the restive region between government forces and the Huthis since the rebellion began in 2004. "Huthis who are defying rules and laws should implement" the ceasefire agreement which ended the last round of fighting in February, the president said. At least 70 people were reportedly killed in clashes earlier this month with both sides accusing each other of violating the truce. Monday's fighting, in which automatic weapons and cannons were used, erupted after a truce negotiated on Saturday foundered over differences "about control of a position held by men of the Bin Aziz tribe," a mediator said. He said tribal chief Sheikh Saghir Aziz had rejected rebel demands to pull out his men from Al-Zaala but without handing over the position to the army. After Al-Zaala, the rebels are seeking to impose their control over another position, Al-Madaen, another tribal source told AFP. Mediators, headed by Sheikh Abdo Hubeish are trying to secure the evacuation of Aziz, whose son was killed during Monday's clashes after his nephew was killed in an earlier round of fighting. The rebels' spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam denied last week that the Huthis had clashed with local tribes, claiming that the fighting in Al-Amsheyah, the village of the Bin Aziz tribe, was with the army. Aziz is a member of the parliamentary bloc of the ruling General People's Congress party. Last week 62 MPs signed a petition urging the government to "assume responsibility for ending violations committed by the Huthis," and threatening to suspend their parliamentary membership if the authorities failed to help Aziz. The Zaidi rebels complain of political, social and religious marginalisation, and have repeatedly fought with government forces in a conflict that killed thousands and displaced some 250,000 people.

DTN News: Yemeni Forces Attack Rebel-Held Building In South

DTN News: Yemeni Forces Attack Rebel-Held Building In South Source: DTN News / Reuters (NSI News Source Info) SANAA - March 11, 2010: Yemeni forces launched an attack on Thursday to recapture a government building occupied by rebels in the south of the country, setting off a gun battle in which a passer-by was killed, a local official said. Under international pressure to quell domestic unrest and focus its sights on al Qaeda, Yemen earlier this week offered to hold talks with southern separatists and hear their grievances. The offer by President Ali Abdullah Saleh followed an escalation in violence on both sides in south Yemen which left a trail of dead and wounded in recent weeks while insurgent violence elsewhere in the country has faded. "Large military forces launched a campaign this morning to retake the municipality building . But gunmen from the southern movement confronted them and the two sides exchanged fire," the official said. "One person was killed and a gunman was wounded. Clashes are continuing," he added. He said a large group of armed separatists had been occupying the municipal headquarters in the southern town of Tor al-Baha for months. While offering dialogue, Saleh also said the separatist flag would "burn in the days and weeks ahead." The separatists, who lack a unified leadership, have given no public response to the president's offer. Pressure mounted on Yemen to concentrate its efforts on containing al Qaeda after the Yemeni-based regional arm of the militant group claimed responsibility for an unsuccessful attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound passenger plane in December. Western allies and neighbouring Saudi Arabia fear al Qaeda is exploiting instability in Yemen, where 42 percent of the people live in poverty, to use the country as a base from which to prepare attacks in the region and beyond. Besides its conflict with the separatists, Yemen is trying to bring an end to a Shi'ite insurgency in the north which drew in oil exporter Saudi Arabia in November. North and South Yemen united in 1990, but many in the south -- home to most of Yemen's oil facilities -- complain northerners have seized resources and discriminate against them. Diplomats say previous talks offers by Sanaa have not been followed by concrete action to tackle southern complaints that Sanaa neglects the south and treats southerners unfairly, including in property disputes, jobs and pension rights. Some southerners say Saleh's ties to Saudi Arabia, Yemen's biggest donor, have led him to tolerate inroads by the kingdom's puritanical Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam.

DTN News: U.N. Security Council Sanctions al Qaeda's Yemen Wing

DTN News: U.N. Security Council Sanctions al Qaeda's Yemen Wing *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) SANA'A, Yemen - January 20, 2010: The United Nations security council has added the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to its list of outlawed organisations.

Two of the group's purported leaders, Nasser al-Wahayshi and Qasim al-Raymi, also face new restrictions after the move by the international body's sanctions committee on Tuesday.

Yemeni women wearing traditional veils hold a banner with portraits of their detained relatives accused of belonging to a Shiite rebel group. The banner reads in Arabic " unlawfully detained. " Among the sanctions against the two men, who were among 23 fighters who escaped from a jail in Sanaa in 2006, were worldwide freezes on their assets and travel bans.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claims to have been behind the failed attempt to blow up a Detriot-bound airliner on Christmas Day as well as other attacks inside Yemen and Saudi Arabia. "Today's actions strengthen international efforts to degrade the capabilities of AQAP," Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said.

'Dismantle and defeat'

The UN committee made its decision the day after the US state department added the al-Qaeda group to it list of proscribed organisations. "We are determined to eliminate AQAP's ability to execute violent attacks and to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat their networks," Philip Crowley, a state department spokesman, said.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was formed in January 2009 after the merger of groups in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

It has since set up bases inside Yemen and has been blamed for the suicide attack on South Korean tourists in March 2009 and an attempt to assassinate the Saudi deputy interior minister across the border in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

Yemen has bolsetered its troops in three of the country's provinces in an attempt to tackle al-Qaeda and has carried out a number of air raids, which it claims have left dozens of fighters dead.

Al-Raymi was among a number of senior al-Qaeda figures reported to have been killed in a Yemeni attack on two vehicles on Friday.

The government in Sanaa is also battling so-called Houthi rebels in the north and a secessionist movement in the south.

DTN News: Yemen TODAY January 14, 2010 ~ Top al-Qaeda Leader Killed By Yemeni Troops In Desert Battle

DTN News: Yemen TODAY January 14, 2010 ~ Top al-Qaeda Leader Killed By Yemeni Troops In Desert Battle *Source: DTN News / The Times (NSI News Source Info) SANA'A, Yemen - January 14, 2010: Yemeni troops killed a senior al-Qaeda leader in one of the terror group’s southern hideouts, officials said yesterday. The Government said that it would only hold dialogue with militants who agreed to lay down their arms and join an official rehabilitation programme for Islamist insurgents. Yemeni army soldiers hold up their rifles in the northwestern Yemeni city of Saada in this undated picture released by the Yemeni army January 13, 2010. Yemeni forces killed 19 rebels in sweeps to rid the old quarter of the north Yemeni town Saada of Shi'ite rebel hideouts, Yemen's Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. About 25 rebels were seized. The successful operation that killed Abdullah Mehdar, a commander of al-Qaeda forces in the tribally dominated province of Shabwa was, however, offset by an ambush carried out by militants who killed two policemen and wounded four others in an ambush in the same region.Regional tensions again flared when President Ahmadinejad of Iran publicly criticised neighbouring Saudi Arabia for attacking Yemeni Shia rebels who are fighting the weakened Government in the north of the country. “We were expecting Saudi officials to act like a mentor and make peace between brothers, not enter the war and use bombs, cannons and machineguns against Muslims,” said Mr Ahmadinejad, a day after a senior Saudi defence official said that the kingdom’s forces had killed a large number of Shia rebels, known as Houthis, who had been holding a border post inside Saudi Arabia. “If only a small part of the weapons of Saudi Arabia were used in favour of Gaza and against the Zionist regime, today there would be no sign of the Zionist regime in the region,” Mr Ahmedinejad said in an inflammatory televised speech. There have been fears recently that the complex conflict in Yemen — an impoverished, fragile state facing a bitter Shia rebellion in the north and a swelling secessionist movement in the once-independent south — could spill over into a regional conflict between Tehran and Saudi, the world’s two leading oil exporters. Yemen believes that Iran is backing the Houthi rebels, while Tehran has warned the Sunni kingdom in the past against wading into the conflict. Into this volatile mix has stepped a resurgent al-Qaeda, which launched the Christmas Day attempted bombing of a US airliner from Yemen, and which has been attempting to rally support against the unpopular Government in the lawless tribal lands of the southeast. Yemeni officials said that Mehdar, a commander of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular in the area of al-Houta in Shabwa province, was shot dead after troops surrounded the house he was hiding in. Four other suspects were arrested but another 18 managed to escape, tribal sources said. The Government has sent thousands of reinforcements to tribal areas in response to US pressure to crack down on al-Qaeda, and has frequently used air strikes to target suspected terrorist bases. Senior Yemeni officials have warned that Saudi and Egyptian jihadists are streaming into the country as Pakistan fights the Taleban in their northern frontier zones and thousands of fresh US troops deploy into Afghanistan. But Abubakr al-Qurbi, Yemen’s Foreign Minister, Abubakr al-Qurbi, warned of the danger of the various conflicts developing links which could even stretch across competing ideologies, such as al-Qaeda’s belief that the Shia are heretics. He said that al-Qaeda’s stated support for northern rebels and southern separatists showed “a kind of coordination between these three parties despite their different ideologies.” He also stressed that lines between friend and foe become blurred in a country of shifting tribal loyalties, and where central government has traditionally been weak. “What brings them together is their hostility to the Government. Besides, the former jihadist Tariq al-Fadhli is a now a leader of the southern movement, and is harbouring some al-Qaeda militants in their areas,” he said, referring to an influential southern tribal chief who once fought the Soviets in Afghanistan and was until recently allied with the Sanaa Government.

DTN News: Yemen TODAY January 13, 2010 ~ Houthis Deny Being Driven Out Of Border Village

DTN News: Yemen TODAY January 13, 2010 ~ Houthis Deny Being Driven Out Of Border Village *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) SANAA, Yemen - January 13, 2010: Yemen's Shia fighters in a Tuesday statement rejected reports that Saudi forces had taken a small border village, which was controlled by the Houthis since November. The statement came after the state-owned al-Ekhbariya television network on Tuesday quoted Saudi Arabian Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan as saying that the Houthis have been eliminated from southwestern village of al-Jabiri — 966 kilometers (600 miles) from the Saudi capital of Riyadh. In another development, Saudi Jets shelled a refugee camp in al-Khazain area, which is 15 kilometers (10 miles) northwest Sa'ada in two separate aerial attacks. Saudi forces began fighting with Houthi fighters, and bombing their positions on November 4 after accusing the fighters of killing Saudi border guards. Houthi fighters say that Riyadh pounds their positions and that Saudi forces strike Yemeni villages and indiscriminately target civilians. According to the fighters, the Saudis are using unconventional weapons such as white phosphorus shells against civilians in northern Yemen. The overall death toll of Saudi soldiers in the border conflict with Yemen's Houthi fighters now stands at 82. Meanwhile, Saudi fighter jets on Tuesday launched four airstrikes on the districts of Jabal Qatabir in the mountainous province of Sa'ada in northern Yemen. Plumes of smoke could be seen rising as Saudi troops were shelling the area with some 899 rockets in the area. Houthi fighters, in addition, managed to repel Yemeni government forces trying to infiltrate into the eastern section of Sama'a region to regain control over it. Yemeni forces had conducted several military operations in the morning with the intent to creep into the region in northern Yemen, however, the incursions ended in failure. At around 1:30 p.m. local time (1030 GMT) Saudis made a fresh attack which once more was a complete failure. The Shia fighters, meanwhile, set a Yemeni military vehicle ablaze. The conflict in northern Yemen began in 2004 between Sana'a and Houthi fighters. The conflict intensified in August 2009 when the Yemeni army launched Operation Scorched Earth in an attempt to crush the fighters in Sa'ada. The Houthis accuse the Yemeni government of violating their civil rights and marginalizing them politically, economically, and religiously.

DTN News: Saudi Warplanes Rain '1,011 Missiles' On Yemen

DTN News: Saudi Warplanes Rain '1,011 Missiles' On Yemen *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) KUWAIT - December 20, 2009: Houthi fighters say Saudi warplanes have fired some 1,011 missiles on the borderline with Yemen where the Shia population is already under heavy state-led and US-aided bombardment. The fighters also said on Saturday that the warplanes had carried out nearly 60 air assaults on the residential areas in the northern Al-Jabiri, Al-Dukhan and Al-Malaheet districts. Saudi Arabia joined Sana'a's months-long fierce armed campaign against the Shia fighters in November. The Houthis are accused by the central government of breaking the terms of a ceasefire agreement by taking foreign visitors hostage. The Saudis, on their part, claimed that the fighters had attacked one of their border checkpoints. The fighters denounce the offensives as a discriminatory campaign against the Shia minority under Riyadh's auspices. The offensives, meanwhile, have been taking their toll on the locals with the Saudis reportedly venturing beyond the Houthi positions, targeting civilian areas and using unconventional weaponry including flesh-eating white phosphorus bombs. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that since 2004, the conflict has forced up to 175,000 people in the Shia-dominated northwestern province of Sa'ada out of their homes and into overcrowded camps set up by the United Nations. The US military equipment and intelligence have reportedly entered the equation in the recent days. The US special forces have reportedly been sent to Yemen to provide the national army with training services. The US Air Force is also said to have been sporadically pounding the northern areas since Monday. The Houthis said US attacks on Thursday killed 120 civilians, among whom were women and children. Also on Saturday, a report on the Houthis' website said that three civilians, including a woman and a child, had been killed in fresh air raids carried out by US warplanes.

DTN News: Saudi Arabia TODAY November 10, 2009 ~ 'Saudi Fighter Jets Using Phosphorous Bombs' Says Houthi Rebel Spokeperson

DTN News: Saudi Arabia TODAY November 10, 2009 ~ 'Saudi Fighter Jets Using Phosphorous Bombs' Says Houthi Rebel Spokeperson *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) - DUBAI, UAE - November 10, 2009: Houthi fighters in Yemen say Saudi fighter jets are using phosphorous bombs to back a deadly Yemeni government offensive against them. Houthi rebels are seen in the border area between Saudi Arabia and Yemen in this video grab from recent footage released by the rebels November 9, 2009. Saudi Arabia said it had regained control of territory seized by Yemeni rebels in an incursion last week, but the rebels denied the claim and said Yemeni villages were being bombed heavily. "Saudi combat fighter jets launched intense raids against border areas inside Yemeni territory on Sunday night," the fighters' spokesman Mohammad Abdessalam told AFP by telephone. "The Saudi military used phosphorus bombs during those night raids, burning mountainous regions," he said adding that "The Saudi air raids resumed this morning (Monday). " Saudi Army vehicles burn during clashes with Houthi rebels in the border area between Saudi Arabia and Yemen in this video grab from recent footage released by the rebels November 9, 2009. Saudi Arabia said it had regained control of territory seized by Yemeni rebels in an incursion last week, but the rebels denied the claim and said Yemeni villages were being bombed heavily. Abdessalam said that the raids targeted Malaheez, seven kilometers (3.8 miles) inside Yemen, as well as the border villages of Hassameh and Shida and several villages around Jebel (mountain) al-Dukhan straddling the border. The Saudi air force launched its deadly offensive against Houthis seven days ago, accusing the resistance Shia fighters of killing two Saudi soldiers on the border. While Riyadh claims that its offensive targeted Houthi positions on 'Saudi territory', the fighters say Yemeni villages are the main target of heavy bombings.Saudi soldiers on patrol in the southern province of Jizan, near the border with Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009. Saudi Arabian forces have taken control of a mountain straddling the border with Yemen and cleared it of Shiite rebels, in five days of fighting that saw three soldiers killed and 15 wounded, the assistant defense minister said on Sunday. Prince Khaled bin Sultan said another four soldiers were missing and that Saudi troops were still dealing with rebel infiltrators in other spots along the frontier. The developments comes as Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh has declared that attacks against the Houthi fighters will be intensified. The conflict between Houthi fighters and the Yemeni government began in 2004, but intensified last August when government forces stepped up the pressure against the fighters. Saudi Prince Khaled bin Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz (C), assistant minister for defence and aviation, meets with Saudi soldiers in Jizan near the border with Yemen November 8, 2009. Houthi fighters say they have been defending their people against the Yemeni government that has marginalized them economically and politically.

DTN News: Saudi Arabia TODAY November 9, 2009 ~ Saudis 'Retake Captured Territory'

DTN News: Saudi Arabia TODAY November 9, 2009 ~ Saudis 'Retake Captured Territory' *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) DUBAI, UAE - November 9, 2009: Saudi Arabia has regained control of an area of territory seized by Yemeni rebels in an incursion last week, a senior defence official in the kingdom has said.Saudi soldiers on parade at their army base in the southern province of Jizan, near the border with Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009. Saudi Arabian forces have taken control of a mountain straddling the border with Yemen and cleared it of Shiite rebels, in five days of fighting that saw three soldiers killed and 15 wounded, the assistant defense minister said on Sunday. Prince Khaled bin Sultan said another four soldiers were missing and that Saudi troops were still dealing with rebel infiltrators in other spots along the frontier. Saudi Arabia began air raids and artillery bombardments against the Houthi group after its fighters crossed from northern Yemen and reportedly took control of the area called Jebel al-Dukhan. "The situation is calm ... especially in Jebel al-Dukhan, of which full control has been regained," Prince Khaled bin Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz, the assistant minister for defence and aviation, said on Saturday, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA). However, there were reports that air raids along the border were continuing on Sunday. Theodore Karasik, an analyst at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said that it was likely that the apparent success of the Saudi action was only a "temporary reprieve".Prince Khaled bin Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz, right, denied any soldiers had been captured "The Saudis have been able to push back the rebels but they are going to continue to have problems with the rebels if the Yemeni army is indeed using the southern part of Saudi Arabia for operations and for supply lines," he told Al Jazeera from Dubai. "The government in Riyadh is working closely, or wants to work closely with the the government in Saana to arrest this problem. "This draws them closer together, but from the point of view of the rebels, and also from al-Qaeda, it means they become apostates and they will go after them more." Saudi 'infiltration' Prince Khaled was reported as saying that three members of the Saudi security forces had been killed and 15 wounded in the fighting along the Saudi-Yemeni border. He also acknowledged that four Saudi soldiers were missing following the five days of fighting, but dismissed claims that anyone had been captured. Mohammed Abdel-Salam, a spokesman for the Houthis, told Al Jazeera on Friday that the men were seized after Saudi ground forces crossed into Yemeni territory. The group has tried to prove that Saudi troops had crossed over the border by releasing video footage purportedly showing the Saudi military in Yemeni territory. But Prince Khaled said that Saudi Arabia "has not, and will not interfere inside Yemeni borders". Hussein Shobokshi, a columnist for Asharq Al Awsat newspaper in Saudi Arabia, said that the conflict along the border has been escalating for some time.Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Nasser bin Abdul Aziz (R) meets with military officers in the southern province of Jizan near the border with Yemen on November 6, 2009. Saudi Arabia said its jets and ground forces blasted Yemen rebels on the two countries' rugged border after being attacked and briefly occupied by the Shiite insurgents. "We have seen a lot of drug-trafficking taking place, human-trafficking taking place, al-Qaeda members infiltrating the borders, an assassination attempt on the deputy interior minister - all these came through Yemen," he told Al Jazeera from Jeddah. "The Saudis had to take a stand, had to take a very aggressive stand, since the Houthi aggression is not a very benign one, it is not a Yemeni one any more." 'Mercenary group' Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Yemeni president, said that the military would not ease the offensive against the Houthis "until we bring this tyrannical, traitorous and mercenary group to an end". The Houthis have released video footage to prove their claim of Saudi cross-border raids "The war just started two days ago, and what has been happening in the past six years was just ... training for the army units," he said. "The war will never stop no matter how much money or martyrs it costs." Khalid al-Dakhil, a political analyst at the King Saud University, said that it was impossible for Riyadh to ignore the conflict between the Houthis and the Yemeni government. "The Houthis seem to be very determined in pinning down the Yemeni army, and the Saudi government cannot afford to just sit by and watch what is happening. They have to support the Yemeni government", he told Al Jazeera. "The co-operation between Yemen and Saudi Arabia runs for a long time now, even before the Houthis. "I don't think the Houthis have any chance of succeeding in the end. They will be isolated, they will be squeezed between two armies and I think eventually they will run out of any luck." Shia offshoot Hundreds of people have died in northern Yemen since the country's army began an offensive against the Houthis on August 11. The fighters, concentrated mainly in the Saada and Amran provinces, are known as Houthis after their late leader, Hussein Badr Eddin al-Houthi, a Zaidi leader who was killed by the Yemeni army in September 2004. An offshoot of Shia Islam, the Zaidis are a minority in a predominantly Sunni Arabian peninsula but form the majority in northern Yemen. Only a small minority of Zaidis are involved in the Houthi uprising. The Yemeni government accuses the Houthis of seeking to restore an imamate overthrown in a 1962 coup that sparked eight years of civil war. The Houthis, now led by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, Hussein's brother, insist they are fighting to defend their community against government aggression and marginalisation.

DTN News: Iran TODAY October 22, 2009 ~ Iran Arrests Suspects In Attack On Military Chiefs

DTN News: Iran TODAY October 22, 2009 ~ Iran Arrests Suspects In Attack On Military Chiefs *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) TEHRAN, Iran - October 22, 2009: Iranian security forces have arrested suspects in a suicide bombing that killed at least 42 people, including senior Revolutionary Guard commanders, Iran's police chief said Wednesday. An Iranian police officer, foreground, chants the slogan "death to US" as mourners carry the coffins of Revolutionary Guard members, who were killed in Sunday's suicide bombing in southeastern Iran, during a funeral ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009. Iran vowed retaliation Monday after accusing Pakistan, the U.S. and Britain of aiding Sunni militants who stunned the Islamic regime with a suicide bombing that killed top Revolutionary Guard commanders and dozens of others. A suicide bomber targeted a group of elite Revolutionary Guard commanders, killing 42 and injured dozens more in Pishin district in the southeastern province of Zahedan. Gen. Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghadam said members of the Sunni rebel group known as Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, that carried out Sunday's deadly bombing entered Iran from neighboring Pakistan. The group has waged a low-level insurgency in Iran's southeast in recent years, claiming to fight on behalf of the Baluchi ethnic minority, which it says is persecuted by Iran's government. "Fortunately, a number of elements linked to this terrorist group were arrested by security forces," Moghadam was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. He did not say how many were arrested. Sunday's attack killed 15 members of the powerful Revolutionary Guard, including five senior commanders, and at least 27 others in the town of Pishin near Iran's border with Pakistan. The dead included the deputy commander of the Guard's ground force, Gen. Noor Ali Shooshtari. The attacker targeted a meeting of Guard chiefs and local tribal leaders that was aimed at promoting unity between Iran's majority Shiites and minority Sunnis. In a statement posted Wednesday on Jundallah's Web site, the group said those whom Iran had arrested were innocent and the only person involved in the attack was the bomber. "Because of the weakness of the regime and its defeat, they arrest innocent people and under torture they will get false confessions," the Jundallah statement said. Iran has accused the United States, Britain and Pakistan of having links with the Sunni militants of Jundallah, though all three nations have denied the allegations. The accusations put strains on a traditionally friendly relationship between Iran and Pakistan that has soured in recent years over the issue of Islamic extremism. Iran's president and the Guard chief, for the first time, publicly accused Pakistan's intelligence service this week of supporting Jundallah. Moghadam said talks between the two nations were taking place to discuss the arrest of those responsible for the attack. "Unfortunately, some of the Pakistani intelligence services provided support for this group to carry out this terrorist attack," IRNA quoted him as saying. "Pakistan has a direct responsibility for this terrorist act and must provide the necessary facilities to track down and arrest the destructive elements." Pakistan's interior minister said Wednesday that his nation was cooperating with Iran and has handed over a dozen suspected militants in recent months, including the brother of Jundallah's leader, Abdulmalik Rigi. Iranian state media reported earlier this year that the Jundallah leader's brother was in custody and was to have been hanged along with 13 other members of the rebel group on July 14 but that his execution was postponed without explanation. The Pakistani interior minister, Rehman Malik, told reporters in televised comments that Rigi himself was not in Pakistan, but in Afghanistan. "I can tell you this with full responsibility, he is in Afghanistan. And I have given his exact location to the interior minister of Iran — where he is in Afghanistan," Malik said. He pledged Pakistan's willingness to cooperate with Iran. "We have told them they should work with us," he said. "We have seen many 9/11s and many such terrorism acts. We are the prime victim and we desire that our neighbors must not suffer from this pain." Iran believes the U.S. and Britain are provoking ethnic unrest in Iran to undermine its security, charges Washington and London have denied. The region in Iran's southeast has been the focus of violent attacks by Jundallah. The group accuses Iran's Shiite-dominated government of persecution and has carried out attacks against the Revolutionary Guard and Shiite targets in the southeast. Iranian officials have accused Jundallah of receiving support from al-Qaida and the Taliban, though some analysts who have studied the group dispute such a link. Jundallah's campaign is one of several small-scale ethnic and religious insurgencies in Iran that have fueled sporadic and sometimes deadly attacks in recent years — though none have amounted to a serious threat to the government.

DTN News: Iran TODAY October 19, 2009 ~ Iran Says U.S., Britain Behind Attack

DTN News: Iran TODAY October 19, 2009 ~ Iran Says U.S., Britain Behind Attack *Source: DTN News / The New York Times By Michael Slackman (NSI News Source Info) RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - October 19, 2009: Iranian officials claimed Monday that they had evidence of American and British involvement in the country’s worst suicide bombing attacks in years, raising tensions as Iran meets with Western nations for another round of delicate talks on its nuclear program. Iranian medical personnel bring an injured person to a medical facility in the Pishin district in Iran in this image taken from TV Sunday Oct. 18, 2009. A suicide bomber killed five senior commanders of the powerful Revolutionary Guard and at least 26 others Sunday near the Pakistani border in the heartland of a potentially escalating Sunni insurgency. The attack which also left dozens wounded was the most high-profile strike against security forces in an outlaw region of armed tribal groups, drug smugglers and Sunni rebels known as Jundallah, or Soldiers of God. ** TV OUT IRAN OUT. Iran’s Arabic-language network showed a man arriving at a hospital in the southeastern city of Pishin, which is near the attack. At least five commanders of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps were killed and dozens of other people were left dead and wounded on Sunday in two bombings in the restive southeast along Iran’s frontier with Pakistan, according to Iranian state news agencies. The coordinated strike, one of the largest against the Guards in the region, appeared to mark an escalation in hostilities between Iran’s leadership and the Baluchi ethnic minority. Iranian officials accused foreign enemies of supporting the insurgents, singling out the intelligence agencies of United States, Britain and Pakistan. Mohammad Ali Jafari, the Guards’ commander in chief, told the semiofficial ISNA agency on Monday: “Behind this scene are the American and British intelligence apparatus, and there will have to be retaliatory measures to punish them,” adding that Iran had documents proving their and Pakistani involvement. The Baluchi insurgent group Jundallah — or Soldiers of God — took responsibility for the bombings, which included a suicide attack on a community meeting led by Revolutionary Guards and a roadside attack on a car full of Guards, both in the area of the city of Pishin. Jundallah, whose members are Sunni Muslims, has claimed responsibility for other attacks in the region in recent years, and is believed to have killed hundreds of Iranian soldiers and civilians. The southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan has been the scene of attacks in the past, and in April the government put the Guards Corps in control of security there to try to stop the escalating violence. The official Fars news agency reported Monday that the attacks killed 42 people and wounded 28 others. It was unclear how many civilians were killed, but several tribal leaders were among the dead, other official media reports said. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised “that those who committed such criminal and inhuman acts will receive their response soon,” the state-run Press TV reported. Iranian officials said they had evidence the attack was launched from within Pakistan, where Jundallah is based, and the Foreign Ministry late Sunday summoned Pakistan’s chargé d’affaires, Press TV said. A Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman, Abdul Basit, told the Daily Times newspaper: “Pakistan is not involved in terrorist activities,” adding, “We are striving to eradicate this menace.” Ali Larijani, the speaker of Parliament, said the United States bore some responsibility for the attacks. “If they want relations with Iran, they must be frank,” he said, according to the semiofficial ISNA news service, adding, “We consider the recent terrorist measure the outcome of the U.S. measures.” In the past, Iranian officials have accused the United States of financing and arming Jundallah. The United States condemned the bombings and denied any connection with them. “We condemn this act of terrorism and mourn the loss of innocent lives,” said Ian C. Kelly, a State Department spokesman. “Reports of alleged U.S. involvement are completely false.” The British government rejects “in the strongest terms” allegations that it aided rebels, a foreign office spokesperson told Reuters Monday. The bombers struck early Sunday as the Guards prepared to bring regional Shiite and Sunni leaders together for a conference in Pishin to try to improve relations among the different communities, according to the Iranian news reports. In one attack, a suicide bomber wearing a military uniform and an explosive belt entered a mosque where Guard commanders were organizing a reconciliation meeting, according to the semiofficial ILNA news service. In the second attack, a car carrying a group of Guards members was bombed, state news agencies said. According to the Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the Guards, those killed included the lieutenant commander of ground forces, Brig. Gen. Nourali Shoushtari, as well as the commanders of Sistan-Baluchistan province, the Iranshahr Corps, the Sarbaz Corps and the Amiralmoemenin Brigade. The Baluchis, who are mostly Sunni, are one of many ethnic and religious minorities who have complained of discrimination in Iran, a predominantly Shiite Muslim and ethnically Persian nation. Jundallah, which says it is fighting for greater autonomy for Baluchis in Iran and Pakistan, bombed a Shiite mosque in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan, in May, killing 25 people. Jundallah rebels abducted and killed 16 Iranian soldiers late last year, and bombed a bus carrying Guards members in 2007, killing 11. Iranian authorities hanged 13 members of the group in May, and have executed others previously. Mustafa El-Labbad, director of the East Center for Regional and Strategic Studies in Cairo, said ethnic and sectarian divisions made the region particularly volatile. “There is the Baluchi versus Persian, and there is Sunni versus Shiite,” he said. “It also lies on the border with Pakistan, which is not totally secured — weapons can come through. So there is a very explosive blend there.” The Guards have emerged as the most powerful political, social and economic bloc in the nation, eclipsing even the clergy and the conservatives. In the aftermath of Iran’s contested presidential election, the Guards took control of national security, overseeing a violent crackdown on protests as well as mass arrests of protesters and critics. In this context, Mr. Labbad said, an attack on the Guards — no matter the motivation — has symbolic resonance. “It is designed to affect the image of Iran,” he said. Iranian officials are due to meet Monday in Vienna with officials of several countries to discuss an accord to ship uranium to Russia for enrichment, part of an effort by the West to try to halt Iran’s nuclear program. Reporting was contributed by Mona El-Naggar from Riyadh, Sharon Otterman from New York and Nazila Fathi from Toronto.

DTN News: Yemen Army Kills 140 Shias During Ceasefire / Army Kills 140 Shiites Rebels In Saada, Says Military

DTN News: Yemen Army Kills 140 Shias During Ceasefire / Army Kills 140 Shiites Rebels In Saada, Says Military

*The Yemeni military has said that it killed 140 Shiite rebels in the north of the country on Sunday. The government is demanding that the rebels respect a ceasefire announced on Friday. *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media

(NSI News Source Info) SANAA, Yemen - September 21, 2009: The Yemeni army killed more than 140 Shiite rebels during fierce fighting in the rugged mountainous city of Saada in northern Yemen on Sunday, a military official said, after the failure of a truce offered by the government.

Yemeni military hummer vehicles drive on a road during the ongoing military offensive on Shi'ite rebels in the northwestern province of Saada in this undated picture released by the Yemeni army. Yemen said on Sunday it had killed a leader of northern rebels as the air force continued to attack targets in Saada province, where rights groups say tens of thousands have been displaced. Yemni armored vehicles are seen in Saada province, Yemen. Yemeni Shiite rebels claim to have captured a key military post in the northern province of Saada bordering Saudi Arabia where fighting has raged for nearly three weeks.

"The army killed more than 140 rebels after thwarting an attempted attack on Saada," the official said, describing the fighting as "the fiercest" since the start of the military offensive on August 11.

The rebels started their attack on the city at 3.00 am from three directions in an attempt to reach the presidential palace in Saada, but the army was able to foil the offensive, the official said."So far more than 140 bodies have been found," he added.

The government on Friday announced a unilateral suspension of fighting, saying it would become a permanent ceasefire if the rebels abided by certain conditions. A rebel spokesman said they would "examine" the conditions but hostilities resumed on Saturday.

The main government demand is that they "respect the ceasefire and the opening of roads, evacuate their positions and free captured civilians and soldiers."

DTN News: In Yemen, Houthi Muslim Fighters Seize Military Base

DTN News: In Yemen, Houthi Muslim Fighters Seize Military Base

*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media

(NSI News Source Info) SANNA, Yemen - September 13, 2009: As clashes intensify, Yemeni Zeidi Muslim fighters say they have seized a military base, army weapons and arrested 85 soldiers. A Yemeni soldier fires on rebel targets from a military hummer during clashes with Shi'ite rebels in the northwestern province of Saada in this undated picture released by the Yemeni army August 30, 2009. Yemen said on Sunday it had killed a leader of northern rebels as the air force continued to attack targets in Saada province, where rights groups say tens of thousands have been displaced. The fighters led by Abdolmalek al-Houthi took control of the military base in Harf Sufian district of Amran province in northern Yemen, a website for Houthi fighters said in a statement. The statement also rejected reports that the Yemeni army was advancing in the region despite increased military attacks. The attack comes as the clashes continue to rise between the army and the fighters, with the army bombarding different northern areas. Houthi fighters say the army uses forbidden weapons including phosphorus bombs against them. Apart from clashes in Harf Sufian district the army extended attacks in al-Mulahit but the fighters could repel them and destroyed a tank and a military vehicle. Fighting between Yemeni troops backed by fighter aircraft and Muslim Shia fighters has killed dozens, mostly fighters, since the government launched a wide offensive against Shia tribes earlier in the month. The Shia fighters have been engaged in on and off fighting with government forces since 2004. The government accuses the fighters of seeking to reinstate the imamate rule, which ended in a 1962 coup. The Houthis, however, say they are defending themselves against religious oppression.

DTN News: Yemen Rebuffs Shiite Zaidi Rebels' Claim Of Royal Saudi Air Force RSAF Air Raids

DTN News: Yemen Rebuffs Shiite Zaidi Rebels' Claim Of Royal Saudi Air Force RSAF Air Raids *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) SANAA, Yemen - August 29, 2009: Yemen rebuffed claims by Shiite rebels that the airforce from neighbouring Saudi Arabia has been aiding the army in its offensive against rebels in the north of the country. President Ali Abdullah Saleh recently said that the army will change its fighting tactics in Saada. A video grab from Yemen's state television shows army soldiers firing machine guns and rocket launchers on rebel targets in Saada province August 17, 2009. Yemen's latest assault on Shi'ite rebels in the north seems unlikely to end a conflict that has flickered for five years and inflicted thousands of casualties. It may only deepen instability in an impoverished country also struggling with southern separatists, al Qaeda militants and a disastrous mismatch between fast-depleting oil and water resources and explosive population growth, analysts say. "These fabricated claims are baseless. We have become familiar with such lies from those elements, as they overtly try to embroil our Saudi brothers in the confrontations," an unnamed official spokesman said in a statement carried by Saba state news agency early on Friday. The Shiite Zaidi rebels -- also known as Huthis -- had claimed that Saudi warplanes bombed districts in the rugged mountainous Saada province, near the Saudi border. "Saudi military aircraft executed several sorties on Thursday morning over the area of Malaheez and bombed the area before returning to Saudi Arabia," said a rebels' statement on Thursday. "We consider this action a flagrant intervention in Yemeni affairs... It is a continuation of the Saudi interference in the conflict, which has now got to the point of attacking Yemen (territory) directly," it added. Meanwhile, a military official told AFP that the army made major advances around Malaheez, aided by Yemeni warplanes which bombed rebel garrisons. "We are continuing the mopping-up operation in Malaheez and advancing toward the main stronghold of Marran Mountain," in the west of Saada, said the official who requested anonymity. President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed on Thursday to crush the rebellion within weeks, saying that the army will change its fighting tactics. A video grab released by the Houthi rebel group August 28, 2009 shows members of the group standing on armoured personnel carriers seized from the army during the ongoing operation on their strongholds in northwestern Yemen. Banner on the vehicles reads "Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Jews, victory to Islam." "I am sure that we will manage, in the weeks to come, to clean up these regions... I am sure we will bring an end to this sedition... We will change our tactics and our military strategies in order to root out the rebels and put a final end to their criminal acts," he said. There have been no reliable casualty figures since Yemen launched "Operation Scorched Earth" against the rebels more than two weeks ago, but the rebels say that dozens of civilians have been killed. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said last week that around 35,000 people have been displaced by the clashes. The government had offered a six-point plan to end the fighting, but the rebels dismissed the offer, recalling that a Qatari-brokered peace deal reached in June 2007 had never been implemented. An offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Zaidis are a minority in mainly Sunni Yemen but form the majority community in the north and want to establish anew the imamate overthrown in a 1962 coup. Thousands of people have been killed since the conflict first erupted in 2004.