Discussing the use of child soldiers in Yemen, the US State Department's annual report on trafficking in persons, issued in June, said:
"Despite a 1991 [Yemeni] law which stipulates that recruits to the armed forces must be at least 18 years of age, and assertions by the government...
Blog archive: Yemen
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27th October 2010
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26th October 2010Fifteen men described as al-Qaeda fighters whose names are on the government's wanted list surrendered to the authorities in southern Yemen yesterday. They gave themselves up following negotiations with tribal leaders in the area and the governor of Abyan province is quoted as saying...
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23rd October 2010The motorbike assassinations of security officials continue in Yemen. AFP reports that a colonel in the intelligence service, Mohammed Abdel Aziz Bou Abess, was shot dead near his home in Mukalla (Hadramawt province) yesterday by two masked men on a motorcycle. Such attacks, widely...
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17th October 2010The Yemeni authorities say they have arrested Saleh al-Raimi, who was wanted for financing al-Qaeda activities in Yemen. Raimi, a 33-year-old Yemeni living in Saudi Arabia, was captured at Sana'a airport on Friday when he arrived from the kingdom,according to the interior ministry....
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15th October 2010Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is planning to form an army in Aden and Abyan with the aim of establishing "God's law", according to a recorded speech by its military leader, Qasim al-Raimi, which has been posted on the internet. In the recording, he described the...
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12th October 2010Ghazi al-Samawi, a criminal investigations officer named on an al-Qaeda hit-list, was killed in Zinjibar (Abyan province) on Sunday night. A Yemeni official said two men on a motorbike shouted "Allahu akbar" as they shot him and sped off. Motorbike attacks have become a common...
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9th October 2010For some years now, Yemen has been seeking to join the Gulf Cooperation Council. There are good reasons for thinking this would benefit Yemen, though the GCC states – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – also have reasons to be wary. In the long term, though, continued...
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8th October 2010Following the attack on a British embassy vehicle in Sana'a on Wednesday, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper has some interesting titbits about the militants' choice of targets. "The British embassy in Yemen has suffered the most number of terrorist attacks of all the foreign...
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7th October 2010Violence, unfortunately, is part of the daily scene in Yemen and most attacks go unreported beyond the local press. When westerners are the target, though, there's more interest – as we saw yesterday. A vehicle carrying five British embassy staff, including the deputy ambassador, came under...
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29th September 2010The Committee to Protect Journalists has today released a damning report on the Yemeni government's efforts to restrict press freedom. It looks in some detail at the legislative and administrative measures as well as extra-judicial violence against journalists. In particular, it...
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25th September 2010The six-day siege of al-Hawta (Hota, Huta) in southern Yemen ended yesterday with an official announcement that the army had cleared suspected al-Qaeda fighters from the town. The huge operation, involving tanks, artillery, air strikes and 1,500 troops may have been intended to show...
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23rd September 2010More than 1,500 Yemeni troops launched a major offensive yesterday against the southern town of Hota (Huta, Hawta) which they have been besieging since Sunday. Xinhua news agencyquotes a local counter-terrorism official as saying: "The massive offensive started with ... air raids and a...
