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The attack, which struck a residential zone of the coastal city, also caused damage to several markets and homes in the Dar Saad neighborhood. Witnesses told EFE that the rockets were fired from the Yasuala zone, which is controlled by combatants with the Shiite Houthis and militias loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh who are fighting in the rebel ranks. ... The attack took place three days after the government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi announced the arrival in Aden of a ministerial delegation from Riyadh with the aim of reestablishing the government's seat in the city after...

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.

Houthi rebels in Yemen say they have shot down a Moroccan fighter jet that was taking part in Saudi-led coalition air strikes against them. Rebel-controlled Al-Masirah TV reported that the F-16 was hit as it flew over Saada province, and broadcast pictures of what it said was the wreckage. The Moroccan Royal Armed Forces earlier said one of its planes was missing. If confirmed, it would be the first aircraft lost by the coalition since its air campaign began on 26 March. The bombardment has been stepped up in recent days ahead of the start of a proposed five-day humanitarian...

US Secretary of State John Kerry urged the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen to participate in UN-brokered negotiations to end violence ravaging the country. “This has to be a two-way street,” Kerry told reporters in Canada after taking part in a summit of Arctic nations. “We need the Houthi and we need those that can influence them to make sure that they are prepared to try to move… to the negotiating table,” Kerry said. Yemen’s former President Ali Abdullah Saleh had called on Friday for all Yemenis to enter a political dialogue to end the conflict. …

With every day that passes, Operation Decisive Storm proves just how necessary, and hence, justifiable it is. The conspirators inside Yemen have made huge investments over the past few years in funding sectarian infrastructures, organizations, logistics, as well as tribal and interest-based relations woven with ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s “family-run militia.” The militia that has fought under his banner defends his interests and the interests of those he chooses to befriend today, only to turn on them tomorrow. These investments have been huge and long term. The investors are now well known and for a time this looked like nothing...

Cairo, Sana’a and Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat—In the latest sign of his growing rift with the Iran-backed Shi’ite Houthi movement, ousted former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh is proposing a peace initiative to stop the fighting in the country, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday. Saleh, who was ousted in 2012 after mass protests against his more than three decade rule, initially backed the Houthi coup in Yemen in February and their takeover of the capital Sana’a in September. Saleh allegedly helped ease the advance of the movement’s militias across the country, via elements in the Yemeni military and security establishments...

TOKYO — U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday that an Al-Qaida branch is making “great gains” on the ground amid the chaos in Yemen, and that the U.S. will have to rethink how it prevents the group from launching attacks in the West. Defence Secretary Ash Carter, in Tokyo to work on deepening the U.S.-Japan alliance, said the collapse of the central government in Yemen makes it harder to conduct counterterrorism operations against the group called Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t continue to take steps to protect ourselves. We have to do it...

Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S., a key ally of oil-rich Saudi Arabia, had also set up a coordination center in the Sunni Muslim kingdom, whose forces have led an air campaign against the Shi'ite Houthi group which rules most of Yemen. "Saudi Arabia is sending a strong message to the Houthis and their allies that they cannot overrun Yemen by force," he told reporters in the Saudi capital Riyadh. "As part of that effort, we have expedited weapons deliveries, we have increased our intelligence sharing, and we have established a joint coordination planning cell in the...

Saudi-led air strikes have failed to reverse the rebels' momentum Houthi militia inched closer Sunday to capturing the port city of Aden, where Saudi-backed forces loyal to Yemeni President Abdel Rabbo Mansour Hadi continue to hold out. The Shi‘ite rebels unleashed artillery barrages on residential areas in the city and targeted a pro-Hadi television station with mortar rounds, forcing it off the air, reports AFP. “There are bodies in the streets, and we can’t get close because there are Houthi snipers on the rooftops. Anything that gets near, they shoot at,” an unidentified medic told Reuters. Houthi militants continue to...

The Israeli intelligence blog Debka File reports that pro-Iranian Houthi troops have taken over control of the strategic straits (Bab el-Mandeb) at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. This choke point threatens all commercial and military maritime traffic from the oil rich nations bound for the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean. "Control of the Red Sea Bab el-Mandeb Straits passed Tuesday, March 31 to pro-Iranian Yemeni forces when the Yemeni Army’s 117th Brigade loyal to the former Yemeni President Ali Saleh handed positions guarding the waterway to two Houthi commando battalions trained by Iranian Revolutionary Guards. This is revealed...

Iran called for political talks between all parties in Yemen as the Saudi-led coalition on Tuesday extended its campaign of airstrikes against Houthi militants in provinces across the country. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said intervention in Yemen wouldn’t solve the country’s problems and that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies “were putting themselves in a very difficult position” by launching airstrikes. “We believe that the situation in Yemen should be resolved through political means only,” he said in a Monday interview with the Russian state-run news channel Russia Today, the first such Iranian comments since Saudi Arabia began...

(Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused Iran on Thursday of trying to dominate the Middle East and said its efforts have begun annoying Ankara, as well as Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab countries. Turkey earlier said it supports the Saudi-led military operation against Houthi rebels in Yemen and called on the militia group and its "foreign supporters" to abandon acts which threaten peace and security in the region. "Iran is trying to dominate the region," said Erdogan, who is due to visit Tehran in early April. "Could this be allowed? This has begun annoying us, Saudi Arabia and the...

Secret intelligence files held by Yemeni security forces and containing details of American intelligence operations in the country have been looted by Iran-backed militia leaders, exposing names of informants and plans for U.S.-backed counter-terrorism operations, U.S. officials say. U.S. intelligence officials believe additional files were handed directly to Iranian advisors by Yemeni officials who have sided with the Houthi militias that seized control of the capital of Sana last September and later toppled the U.S.-backed president. For American intelligence networks in Yemen, the damage has been severe. Until recently, U.S. forces deployed in Yemen had worked closely with President Abdu...

For far too long, the Iranian-backed Houthi movement was left to meddle in Yemen. Now, while one realizes that war should always be used as a last resort and that every effort to use political and peaceful means should be exhausted; the reality is time after time, Iran and its agents continue to prove that they can’t be trusted and that they will always behave as the rogue players that they are. Saudi Arabia and its allies – who up until now include all GCC states (excluding Oman), Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Morocco and Pakistan - answered the call with Operation:...

Airstrikes by Saudi Arabia against Iran-backed Shiite rebels in turbulent Yemen have added a regional dimension to the conflict in the Arab world’s poorest country. Five reasons why the world should care about what is happening there: Yemen is home to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, which Washington has viewed as the most lethal branch of the global network founded by Osama bin Laden. AQAP has been linked to several attempted attacks on the U.S., including the underwear bomb plot of December 2009, and it claimed the January killings at the offices of the French satirical weekly Charlie...

Saudi deploys 100 fighter jets, 150,000 soldiers for anti-Houthi campaign. Also from Al Arabiya: UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan Deploy Warplanes Against HouthisThe UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan have deployed fighter jets to join the Saudi air force in the ongoing air campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, Al Arabiya News Chanel reported. The UAE has deployed 30 fighter jets, Bahrain 15, Kuwait 15, Qatar 10 and Jordan 6 warplanes, according to the news channel. Pakistan and Egypt are also taking part in the military campaign, contribution with air and naval forces. Al Arabiya said Egypt, Pakistan and Sudan have...

US officials confirm to @NBCNews that Saudi Arabia has started bombing rebel positions inside #Yemen. NO indication of troops crossing in.

Yemen's crisis is getting worse and then some. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have started bombing rebel positions inside Yemen. The Sunni Kingdom added that it would do "anything necessary" to deter the Iran-backed Shiite rebels who are taking over Yemen and trying to oust US-backed President Abd Rabbah Mansur Hadi. A Saudi source told Reuters that ground troops might be needed in Yemen to "restore order." Saudi Arabia is reportedly contributing as many as 150,000 troops and 100 warplanes to the campaign against the Houthis.

Tehran: In what may intensify the Yemen crisis, Iran has termed Saudi Arabia's military intervention against the Houthi rebels as “dangerous”, reports said Thursday. Saudi Arabia which had earlier warned to act in the wake of continued advance of Houthis, on Wednesday started conducting air strikes against the rebels which it considers as being supported by rival Iran. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies believe the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, are tools for Iran to seize control of Yemen and say they intend to stop the takeover. The Houthis deny they are backed by Iran. Reacting to Saudi strikes,...

Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi fled the country by sea Wednesday on a boat from Aden, as Shiite rebels and their allies advanced on the southern port city where he had taken refuge, captured his defense minister and seized the city’s airport. Hadi’s departure marks a dramatic turn in Yemen’s turmoil and means a decisive collapse of what was left of his rule, which the United States and Gulf allies had hoped could stabilize the chronically chaotic nation and fight al-Qaida’s branch here after the 2011 ouster of longtime autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh. Over the past year, the Shiite...