Iranian backed rebels force Yemen president to flee

[Olo]

"Rebels"? Who are they "rebelling" against?

The internationally-recognized government of yemen.

It's kind of funny that the U.S. went from selling something in favor of Iran to widening the role in fighting Iranian backed rebels in less than two weeks.

Who knows. It may of have been part of the deal to get KSA on board.

[Gumboy]

"Rebels"? Who are they "rebelling" against? Al Qaeda? And where's the evidence that they're being actively supported by Iran? John "The Comedian" Kerry and his head-chopping religious nutjob buddies in Riyadh can claim that as much as they want, but I've yet to see them present any evidence.

Ern, the government in Yemen? And Iran has sent weapons and money to the rebels, not sure how you can deny that considering it's a known fact?

[wunksta]

"Rebels"? Who are they "rebelling" against? Al Qaeda? And where's the evidence that they're being actively supported by Iran? John "The Comedian" Kerry and his head-chopping religious nutjob buddies in Riyadh can claim that as much as they want, but I've yet to see them present any evidence.

The Houthi rebels are most likely backed by Iran, fighting the government of Yemen. The US is supporting Saudi Arabia.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8327892.stm

[Olo]

Good news.

"Yemen's al-Qaeda branch announced on Tuesday that its top cleric, a Saudi-national who has had a $5 million bounty on his head, has been killed, allegedly in a drone attack."

[ringpriest]

The internationally-recognized government of yemen.

And who exactly is that? The guy who resigned, fled the country, and set up shop in Saudi Arabia, where's he's supported a bombing campaign that's killed or injured thousands of civilians?

[Independent voter]

And who exactly is that? The guy who resigned, fled the country, and set up shop in Saudi Arabia, where's he's supported a bombing campaign that's killed or injured thousands of civilians?

In your anti-American propaganda you still neglect to mention the Iranian backed Shiites in Yemen who are slaughtering civilians. Why is that?

[wunksta]

Iran and Saudi Arabia have always been at each other's throats. It's obviously a proxy war.

[Xjev]

Its a biased thread, how come SA meddling is not a problem?

[Gumboy]

And who exactly is that? The guy who resigned, fled the country, and set up shop in Saudi Arabia, where's he's supported a bombing campaign that's killed or injured thousands of civilians?

So you are fine with other countries backing rebellions against democratically elected people?

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Its a biased thread, how come SA meddling is not a problem?

I never once supported Saudi arabia in this either. It's "biased" about Iranian backing them because at the time, the U.S. was working hard on selling Iran deals to the world, as they spread discord in a democratically elected government
Which is to say, it's not biased at all; it is about that one topic. I made this thread before the bombing campaign by Saudi arabia by the way.

[Shalcker]

So you are fine with other countries backing rebellions against democratically elected people?

Like in Ukraine?

[ringpriest]

So you are fine with other countries backing rebellions against democratically elected people?

Me, personally? Not at all - I'm always a "better jaw-jaw than war-war" guy. I'm just referencing the precedent set by my country's government last year: "Ukraine: Yanukovych is no longer leading country, says White House"

The Obama administration has not endorsed the new leader Mr Turchynov but said: “Mr Yanukovych is no longer actively leading the country,” after the ousted president fled Kiev.

...

The White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday that while Mr Yanukovych “was a democratically elected leader, his actions have undermined his legitimacy, and he is not actively leading the country at present”.

Of course, calling elections "democratic" when when there was only one candidate on the ballot does seem rather questionable.

[Olo]

And who exactly is that? The guy who resigned, fled the country, and set up shop in Saudi Arabia, where's he's supported a bombing campaign that's killed or injured thousands of civilians?

Yes, that's who the rebels are rebelling against. Him and the parliament that refused to accept the resignation.

Like in Ukraine?

I suppose russia's military support for insurgents in ukraine is comparable to iran's backing of the hiuthis.

[ringpriest]

US Reportedly Steps Up Involvement in Saudi-Led Yemen Campaign

The U.S. reportedly has taken on a greater role in the Saudi-led campaign of airstrikes against Shiite rebels in Yemen amid doubts about whether Riyadh can achieve its objectives.

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the U.S. Navy has stepped up patrols looking for weapons that American and Arab officials believe have been sent to the rebel forces, known as Houthis, by Iran. On one occasion, the paper reports, U.S. sailors boarded a Panama-flagged freighter in the Red Sea that was suspected of carrying armaments. The search turned up nothing.

The paper also reported that the Obama administration authorized Pentagon war planners to cross-check a list of targets provided by the Saudis against U.S. intelligence and provide feedback ahead of the first airstrikes last month.

Al-Qaeda Captures Yemen Airport, Oil Terminal

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has been the chief beneficiary of the Saudi war against Yemen’s Houthis so far, as it has distracted the Houthis from fighting against them, and freed up AQAP forces to amass huge gains in the southeast.

Having taking the city of Mukalla earlier this month, freeing over 300 prisoners, AQAP has now consolidated its position through the rest of the immediate vicinity, capturing the major provincial airport as well as a valuable oil terminal.

There was a brief clash with what remained of Yemen’s military in the region, and they are now in full retreat, with AQAP securing the sites as well as another air defense base.

Not only is the US-supported war on Yemen by the Saudi Islamist dictatorship not working (i.e. a bloody and predictable failure), it's starting to edge the Obama administration close to "adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort" territory.

[Bakis]

I watched a BBC docy by a woman who spent months there and arranged to meet all sides and its not just the Houthis that yelled death to american, it was every franction of groups present. The government force, AQ, tribal local leaders you name it, guess what? Death to america was frequently expressed by all of those parties.

In terms of Irans involvement, lets also look at Saudi Arabia, what give hem the right to bomb primarily the Houthis which live in in the mountain region close to the border to SA but kept on their side.

The whole conflict as sad as it is is really should be looked at for what it is, a proxy war between SA and Iran.

My personal view is that the Houthies nowdays are fucking nuts but as so often before does such regional movements with a imense backup up of the population in the region not suddenly go nuts over nothing. Any popular and rather harmless movement when faced with an utterly totalitarian regime like the government side usually have that effect
.
Only 'upside' of the severe abuse by the government was stability much like the case of Saddam and there our views were oddly vere different.

[ringpriest]

US generals: Saudi intervention in Yemen ‘a bad idea’

Military sources said that a number of regional special forces officers and officers at U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) argued strenuously against supporting the Saudi-led intervention because the target of the intervention, the Shia Houthi movement — which has taken over much of Yemen and which Riyadh accuses of being a proxy for Tehran — has been an effective counter to Al-Qaeda.

Michael Horton, a Yemen expert close to a number of officers at SOCOM and a consultant to the U.S. and U.K. governments, picked up on this debate. Within days of the Saudi intervention’s start, he said in an email that he was “confounded” by the intervention, noting that many in SOCOM “favor the Houthis, as they have been successful in rolling back AQ [Al-Qaeda] and now IS [the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL] from a number of Yemeni governorates” — something that hundreds of U.S. drone strikes and large numbers of advisers to Yemen’s military had failed to accomplish.

Later, in a telephone interview, Horton expanded on that. “These constant reports that the Houthis are working for the Iranians are nonsense, but the view is right out of the neocon playbook,” he said. “The Israelis have been touting this line that we lost Yemen to Iran. That’s absurd. The Houthis don’t need Iranian weapons. They have plenty of their own. And they don’t require military training. They’ve been fighting Al-Qaeda since at least 2012, and they’ve been winning. Why are we fighting a movement that’s fighting Al-Qaeda?”
...
But that’s not the view of McCain and other hawkish senators around him. They see Iran’s fingerprints all over whatever goes wrong in the region — a view that alarms Horton. “This is a guy who complained that we were Iran’s air force in Iraq,” he said. “Well, guess what? Now we’re Al-Qaeda’s air force in Yemen.”

Al-Qaida in Yemen takes massive weapons depot from army

Al-Qaida's Yemen branch routed government forces from a large weapons depot in the country's east on Friday, seizing dozens of tanks, Katyusha rocket launchers and small arms, security officials said, as airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition intensified in the capital, Sanaa, and also in Yemen's second-largest city.
...
However, the Saudi-led air campaign has not targeted areas with an al-Qaida presence, including Hadramawt, where the militant group has long been implanted despite U.S. drone strikes and Yemeni counterterrorism operations. The coalition says the airstrikes are aimed at the rebels, known as Houthis, not al-Qaida.

On Friday evening, hundreds of al-Qaida supporters and fighters gathered at a theater in Mukalla to celebrate their victories in the Hadramawt region, singing war songs and chanting slogans.

Why is President Obama (along with Senator McCain and other warmongers in our government) helping a bunch of murderous religious zealots aid Al-Qaeda?

[Anyael]

Honestly, if Iran would chill with its "Death to Israel" crap, I think we'd be better off with Yemen, Syria, and Iraq under their firm control. It's not saying much to say it'd be better, but it would be.

[Gumboy]

US generals: Saudi intervention in Yemen ‘a bad idea’


Al-Qaida in Yemen takes massive weapons depot from army

Why is President Obama (along with Senator McCain and other warmongers in our government) helping a bunch of murderous religious zealots aid Al-Qaeda?

So...you are fine with one biased report being taken more serious than a different biased report?

[ringpriest]

"U.S. Navy ships sent to waters near Yemen in security move: official "

The U.S. Navy has sent an aircraft carrier and a guided-missile cruiser into the waters near Yemen to conduct maritime security operations, a Pentagon spokesman said on Monday, but he denied the ships were on a mission to intercept Iranian arms shipments.

The U.S. Navy sent the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and escort cruiser USS Normandy from the Gulf into the Arabian Sea on Sunday. Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, denied reports the ships were on a mission to intercept Iranian arms shipments to Yemen.

And a little more grease drips onto the slope.

If the US isn't there to intercept (likely nonexistent) Iranian arms, what is it there for? Perhaps the US government feels its head-chopping, terror-supporting, religious-extremist allies in the Saudi dictatorship need help in starving the Yemeni public?
Exclusive: Yemen food imports disrupted, conflict pressures supply chain
Humanitarian Crisis Unfolding As Saudi Coalition Preventing Food Ships From Reaching Yemen

[mmokri]

So will Iran shoot that world policeman in the head?

[ringpriest]

So will Iran shoot that world policeman in the head?

Even if it wanted to or could, why would it bother? The US is doing plenty of damage to itself in Yemen - there are no good outcomes from the Saudi campaign; the best that could possibly be hoped for is that in ten years the Saudis own a little more worthless desert, and that the population of a decimated Yemen only hates them somewhat more than they historically have. That's the best case scenario, and its awful - worse scenarios include (but are not limited to):
-another failed state near the Horn of Africa, providing a haven for terror and a threat to vital international commerce.
-The Saudi Army (or Egyptian Army, or whoever the Saudis can convince to stick their ground troops into the meat grinder) is wrecked by attempting to invade and occupy Yemen, leaving the invading nation more vulnerable to uprisings or cross-border threats,
-permanent radicalization of the Zaidi Muslims, leading to generations of terror and guerrilla war directed at Saudi Arabia and its allies,
-international condemnation directed at Saudi Arabia and its allies (including the US) for supporting genocide,
-Al Qaeda or ISIS sets up a Taliban-style state in South Yemen, and/or
-lost opportunity cost of resources committed to Yemen.

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Looks like the Saudi dictatorship finally had some sense pounded into their heads:"Yemen conflict: Saudi Arabia ends air campaign"

A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has ended its bombing campaign against rebels in Yemen having "achieved its military goals", officials say.

The month-long Decisive Storm campaign had targeted Houthi rebels but largely failed to halt their advance.

A new operation called Restoring Hope will focus on a political solution in Yemen and on counter-terrorism at home, the coalition said.