Free Republic

A United Nations panel in a new report has concluded that Iran violated a UN arms embargo by directly or indirectly providing missiles and drones to Shi'ite rebels in Yemen, backing up accusations made repeatedly by the United States. (excerpt "The panel said it came to the conclusion that Iran had manufactured the weapons the Yemeni rebels fired at Saudi Arabia, which leads an Arab coalition fighting on the side of the government against the rebels in Yemen's civil war. The panel said it found that design features of the missile debris were "consistent with those of the Iranian-designed and...

Iran has stepped up weapons transfers to the Houthis, the militia fighting the Saudi-backed government in Yemen, U.S., Western and Iranian officials tell Reuters, a development that threatens to prolong and intensify the 19-month-old war. The increased pace of transfers in recent months, which officials said include missiles and small arms, could exacerbate a security headache for the United States, which last week struck Houthi targets with cruise missiles in retaliation for failed missile attacks on a U.S. Navy destroyer.

In significant news that has thus far either gone under or outright unreported by the media, U.S. military advisors have “boots on the ground” in Yemen, according to a recent report in the Washington Post by Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Missy Ryan: “The Pentagon has placed a small number of U.S. advisors on the ground in Yemen to support Arab forces battling al-Qaeda, military officials said on Friday, signaling a new American role in that country’s multi-sided civil war. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said U.S. personnel had been in the country for about two weeks, supporting Yemeni and...

The death toll from an air strike on a wedding party in Yemen has jumped to 131, medics said on Tuesday, in one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in Yemen's war that drew strong condemnation from the U.N. secretary-general.

Unseen by most of the world, the once tranquil port of Aden is being steadily infiltrated by jihadists from both al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) and the so-called Islamic State (IS). They are not in charge of the city, the military forces of the UAE are. But in the last few days disturbing reports have emerged of the summary executions of prisoners by the jihadists, along with their black flags hoisted onto public buildings.

Houthi rebels have taken at least four Americans hostage in Yemen, The Washington Post reported Saturday. According to the report, three of the hostages were working in the private sector. The fourth is a dual citizen of Yemen and the US, whose job is unknown. An unnamed US official in the report said that a number of rescues operation have been attempted and failed.

The rebel group that has seized power in Yemen has taken at least four U.S. citizens prisoner, according to U.S. officials who said that efforts to secure the Americans’ release have faltered. One of the prisoners had been cleared for release in recent days only to have that decision reversed by members of the Houthi rebellion that toppled the U.S.-backed government earlier this year and now controls most levers of power in Yemen.

Saudi-led air strikes hit three military bases in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Saturday and the Yemeni government in exile expressed reservations about United Nations-led talks aimed at ending the eight-week war. Residents said the air raids hit a munitions store in one of the bases, setting off a large explosion which sent rockets flying into the air and crashing down on civilian areas...   Yemen's exiled government in Saudi Arabia headed by President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi expressed reluctance to attend UN-sponsored peace talks set for May 28 in Geneva. A spokesman said on Saturday the Houthis and their powerful...

Powerful explosions rocked Yemen's capital on Monday as warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition targeted a rebel arms depot, with medics reporting five dead and 20 wounded in twin strikes. The raid on the depot in the Mount Noqum area on the eastern outskirts of Sanaa triggered several blasts, an AFP correspondent and witnesses said. ... Monday's attack came a day ahead of a hoped-for five-day humanitarian truce proposed by the Saudi-led coalition which launched strikes against rebels in late March in support of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi. The huge explosions sent artillery pieces flying, with one crashing into the...

A US air strike in Yemen has killed the senior Al-Qaeda official who appeared in a video claiming the deadly January attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo. Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, who was killed in the April strike along with his eldest son and other fighters in the port city of Mukalla, also appeared in Al-Qaeda videos claiming the holding and death of US hostage Luke Somers, SITE Intelligence Group said. The announcement of his death came in a video posted on Thursday on Twitter by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - which Washington considers the international terror network's deadliest...

oday in Djibouti, Secretary Kerry announced the United States is providing more than $68 million to help humanitarian organizations meet the needs of nearly 16 million people in need of assistance in Yemen, including 300,000 newly internally displaced persons. The funds will support the activities of the World Food Program, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN Children’s Fund, and other organizations, providing food, water, shelter, medical care, protection, and other assistance. With this announcement, U.S. funding for humanitarian assistance for Yemen in Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015 now totals more than $188 million.

As the conflict in Yemen intensifies, fully armed Royal Saudi Air Force F-15Cs are caught on video intercepting a civilian Airbus A310. The Mahan Air jet was en route from Iran to Yemen, supposedly on a relief mission to deliver humanitarian aid. Apparently the Saudis didn’t believe that. Iranians claim that proper clearance was acquired for the flight to Yemen via Oman and pilots ignored Saudi radio communications demanding the aircraft land at an alternate airport, one that just so happens to be under Saudi control.

Air raids, naval shelling and ground fighting shook Yemen on Sunday in some of the most widespread combat since a Saudi-led alliance intervened last month against Iranian-allied Houthi militia who have seized wide areas of the country. There were at least five air strikes on military positions and an area near the presidential palace compound in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa at dawn on Sunday, while warships pounded an area near the port of the southern city of Aden, residents said. "The explosions were so big they shook the house, waking us and our kids up. Life has really become unbearable...

A nine-ship Iranian convoy believed to be laden with weapons bound for rebels in Yemen turned around Thursday after being followed by U.S. warships stationed in the area to prevent arms shipments, multiple sources in the Pentagon told Fox News. The sources said the nine-ship convoy is south of Salalah, Oman, and now headed northeast in the Arabian Sea in the direction of home. The ships, which include seven freighters and two frigates, had sailed southwest along the coast of Yemen heading in the direction of Aden and the entrance to the Red Sea. They appeared to drop anchor in...

Senior U.S. officials pressed Saudi leaders for fear of making matters worse Senior U.S. officials pressed Saudi leaders in a series of messages to quickly wrap up their air campaign in Yemen for fear of making matters worse, people familiar with the matter said, before Riyadh declared Tuesday it was ending the offensive. Yet on Wednesday, Saudi airstrikes resumed in several parts of the country after Iranian-linked Houthi militants took over a military brigade in the southern city of Taiz, provincial security officials said. There was no sign of peace talks, though the Saudis had said they were shifting to...

Iranian Warships Arrive Near Yemen Comes just days after U.S. announced it would send its own warships A fleet of Iranian warships arrived near the southern coast of Yemen on Wednesday in a move likely to add greater tension in a developing U.S.-Iranian standoff in the region, according Iranian military leaders. Just days after the United States announced it would send its own warships to Yemen in order to prevent Iran from smuggling weapons to terror forces fighting there, a flotilla of Iranian destroyers docked in the same area. Iran’s military moves are likely to increase tensions between the two...

[Snip]...But Marie Harf, Queen of Nonsense, insists that the carrier group (carriers never travel alone, by the way, they keep missile frigates, destroyers, Aegis cruisers, tenders, and a few submarines around for security) is only there to “ensure the shipping lanes remain open and safe” — and “not to do anything in terms of those Iranian ships.” Any suggestion to the contrary is “blatantly untrue– so this discreet movement of U.S. assets is for a discreet purpose,” Harf said. To paraphrase what Teddy Roosevelt might say: W.T.F!?

Saudi-led coalition jets have bombed Houthi rebels in Yemen's third city of Taiz, hours after announcing the end of a military campaign against them. The strikes followed the fall of the base outside Taiz of an army unit loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. Fighting was also reported in the second city of Aden, Lahj's provincial capital Huta, and the town of Daleh. On Tuesday, Riyadh declared its month-long campaign, which sought to restore the president, had achieved its goals. But it warned that it would continue to take action against the Houthis as needed. The UN says at least...

Yemen remains unstable and much more work needs to be done in the region, despite a declared halt to the Saudi-led bombing campaign in the country, the White House said on Wednesday. "Obviously, the job is not done," Jen Psaki, White House communications director, said on CNN. Tuesday's announcement by Saudi Arabia that it would end its campaign of air strikes against the Iranian-allied Houthis drew positive responses from the White House and Tehran, as well as fresh calls for peace talks and for humanitarian aid. Saudi Arabia said its month-old campaign against the Houthis, who had seized large areas...

The Saudi-led coalition will now begin a new phase, titled 'Operation Restoring Hope', according to the statement of the Saudi defense ministry. Saudi-led coalition operations in Yemen are now entering a political phase. The airstrikes have eliminated all threats against the kingdom and the neighboring countries through the destruction of the heavy arms and ballistic missiles that were seized by the Houthi militias and pro-Saleh forces, according to a statement by the defense ministry. A coalition spokesman said the decision to end operation Firmness Storm followed a request from the Yemeni government.