Archive: yemen

3rd July 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Tension continues in northern Yemen, where a truce was called in February between the government and the Houthi rebels.  The interior ministry said yesterday that rebels attacked the home of Ibn Aziz, a tribal leader in Harf Sufyan, killing three people. Ibn Aziz, who survived the attack, is a… Read more
26th June 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Six Yemeni soldiers died in an attack on a military site in the southern province of Shabwa yesterday. Officials are blaming militants connected with al-Qaeda. Meanwhile, fighting involving the Houthi rebels resumed in northern Yemen after a ceasefire agreed less than 24 hours earlier broke down.… Read more
21st June 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Five people were killed, including three soldiers, and 11 people injured during clashes in Yemen's Amran province "between militants and military personnel", Shawa.Net reports. Shooting is said to have broken out when the "militants" set up road blocks in protest at non-payment of "allowances for… Read more
20th June 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Faris Mana'a, Yemen's top arms trafficker, was released from jail last week, according to tribal sources. The Sahwa.Net websitedescribes his release as "astonishing" and says his return home was welcomed by "masses" of sheikhs and citizens in Saada province. Mana'a served for some time as head of… Read more
8th June 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
There have long been suspicions that the "Abyan massacre" - abotched airstrike in Yemen last December which killed 41 civilians, including 14 women and 21 children (plus 14 alleged al-Qaeda members), was carried out by the United States rather than the Yemen military. Photographs from the… Read more
2nd June 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Following last month's botched airstrike which accidentally killed Jaber al-Shabwani, the deputy governor of Marib province, along with four bodyguards, his tribe has now accepted compensationfrom the Yemeni government – in the form of five million riyals ($22,000) and 200 Kalshnikov rifles. I know… Read more
30th May 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
An interesting variant on that hoary old tale of Muslims who cut open aubergines, tomatoes, etc, and find the word "Allah" miraculously inscribed in Arabic by the arrangement of the seeds. Now, the Yemen Observer reports a similar miracle of a more secular kind: a 32-year-old man who has a… Read more
26th May 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Another disastrous airstrike in Yemen aimed at al-Qaeda accidentally killed the deputy governor of Marib province along with his bodyguards yesterday. The deputy governor, Jaber al-Shabwani, was reportedly "on a mediation mission to persuade al-Qaeda elements to hand themselves over to the… Read more
23rd May 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
As part of Yemen's 20th anniversary "festivities" yesterday, President Salih announced an amnesty for all journalists convicted or facing trial for press offences, together with "all detainees held in connection with the Houthi rebellion in the far north ... and the rioting in some southern… Read more
22nd May 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Today is the 20th anniversary of the unification of north and south Yemen (an event that I wrote about in detail in my online e-book, The Birth of Modern Yemen). In 1990, the north-south union made a lot of sense and in principle it still does today, but because of the way unification was carried… Read more