Yemen Front Line

On Tuesday, regional media reported that a massive explosion had rocked a coalition headquarters in the Marib province. No further information was provided, and no group claimed responsibility for the incident. The Saudi-led coalition did not comment on the reports.

On Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition reported the destruction of three Houthi drones launched toward targets in the kingdom.

Yemen, the poorest county in the Middle East, has been in a state of foreign-backed civil war since 2014, after Houthi militia forces seized control of Yemen’s capital of Sanaa in a popular uprising sparked by the cancellation of fuel subsidies. Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi fled the country to Saudi Arabia, and in March of 2015, Riyadh and a coalition of mostly Gulf allies intervened to try to restore him to power, without success.

In March 2021, after the withdrawal of direct US military support, Saudi Arabia floated a new peace initiative, including a nationwide ceasefire, to end their attacks. The Houthis, however, demanded that Riyadh first lift the economic blockade in place against Yemeni ports and airports to help resolve the dire humanitarian situation in areas they control.

The war in Yemen is feared to have killed as many as 233,000 people, both in fighting and as a result of the humanitarian crisis caused by the conflict, and the Saudi-coalition blockade. The United Nations estimates that three quarters of Yemen’s population is in dire need of basic food and medical assistance.

The Houthis are a moderate Islamist political and militant movement that emerged from the Houthi tribe, predominant in northern Yemen. Achieving a measure of popularity with their anti-corruption, social justice, anti-imperialism, anti-Zionism and Yemeni nationalism campaigns, the group supports a non-sectarian and democratic form of republican governance in Yemen.

With assistance from his sponsors, the president-in-exile, Hadi, pieced together a unity coalition in late 2020, comprised of representatives of his government - now operating out of Riyadh - and the so-called Southern Transitional Council (STC), a secessionist force in Aden, southern Yemen, which previously fought both the Houthis and Hadi's forces.

Members of the new government arrived in Aden in December only to be targeted by a massive missile strike on the airport. Protesters stormed the presidential palace in the de facto Hadi government capital in March, forcing government forces and their foreign allies to beef  up their presence in the region. In recent weeks, Hadi, who remains in exile in Riyadh, and the STC have accused one another of reneging on a power-sharing agreement reached in late 2019, leading to renewed infighting.

 https://sputniknews.com/20210728/houthi-forces-reportedly-take-last-stronghold-of-pro-saudi-forces-in-southern-marib-province-1083480252.html#pv=g%3D1083480252%2Fp%3D1082359152

Yemen: the war keeps flaring, including among the southern Saudi-supported forces
Yemen: geographic information 

Basic data: population of Yemen (the whole country) 29,000,000 habs Area: 528,000 km2 
Population of the northern region controlled by houthis: aprox. 20,000,000 Population of the southern region (Aden and Hadramauth) formerly controlled by the Saudi supported government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and now disputed by the Southern Transitional Council (STC) : population aprox. 6,000,000 habs Area: 300,000 km2 
Population of Socotra island (politically a province of Southern Yemen): 40,000 habs Area: 3,800 km2 

Updating news of the war (June 21/2020)
 Yemen's internationally recognised government says Southern Transitional Council (STC) fighters have staged "a full-fledged coup" in the strategic island of Socotra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. "The militias of the so-called Transitional Council in the Socotra carried out a full-fledged coup that undermined state institutions in the province," Yemen's official news agency reported, quoting an unnamed government official. By the end of Saturday, the separatist group, which is backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), had taken control of most of the remote province from forces of Yemen's internationally recognised government headed by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. "These militias launched an attack with various medium and heavy weapons, targeting state institutions and citizens' properties, and stormed government camps and headquarters as well," the official said. "The government will not accept this absurdity." 
The secessionist STC also arrested several military personnel and civilians opposed to the presence of UAE-funded militias on Socotra, the officials said. Those arrested included Brigadier Abdel-Rahman al-Zafrani, commander of the air force in the province, they said. No casualties were reported, said the four security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media. The STC fighters were the on-the-ground allies of the UAE, once Saudi Arabia's main coalition partner in the years-long war against the Houthi rebels, who control vast swaths of territory in the country's north. 
The STC raises the flag of the former communist state in the south and has pushed to again split the war-torn country in two, as it was from 1967 to 1990. 

Socotra Governor Ramzi Mahrous condemned the separatist attacks in his province, saying from his home in the Indian Ocean island that his forces would fight back. He did not elaborate. On Friday, separatists seized several state buildings, including the governor's headquarters, as they pushed into the provincial capital, Hadibo, and engaged in fierce fighting with forces loyal to the government of exiled President Hadi. Self-rule in Yemen's south The fighting in Socotra threatens to cause irreversible damage to the World Heritage Site, which has rare dragon blood trees, plant species, spices and marine life, many of which are found nowhere else. Earlier this year, the separatists declared self-rule in Yemen's south and seized control of the city of Aden, a bid that sparked fears of fresh chaos in a country already embroiled in five years of conflict. Last week, the STC declared self-governance and a state of emergency in the temporary capital of Aden and southern provinces, which caused tensions in Socotra as well as other provinces in the south. The Yemeni government and provinces of Hadramout, Shabwa, al-Mahra, Abyan and the administration of Socotra have rejected the STC's move, which has also drawn widespread international criticism. Yemen has been devastated by a conflict that escalated in late 2014 when Houthi rebels, said to be linked to Iran, seized the capital Sanaa and forced Hadi to flee the country and take refuge in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi-led coalition launched a military offensive in support of Hadi in March 2015. Five years of conflict have left thousands of civilians dead and nearly 3.7 million internally displaced, according to the UN. The impact on the country's infrastructure has been devastating, with major overland routes and airports severely damaged. Last year, the UAE announced it was ending its role in the conflict. However, observers believe the Gulf country continues to be active through its proxies. Before its withdrawal, the UAE set up a military base in Socotra, which enjoys a strategic location overlooking a vital international shipping lane. It also awarded Emirati citizenship to hundreds of residents and has recruited many others to help consolidate its grip over the island, raising tensions with Hadi. 

Who are south Yemen's separatists? 
The Southern Transitional Council, backed by United Arab Emirates, is leading the separatist cause in Aden. by Linah Alsaafin 20 Sept 2019 Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Southern separatist fighters Fighting in south Yemen escalated dramatically last month as separatist militias seized the city of Aden from forces loyal to the internationally recognised government of President.
The clashes between the nominal partners in the anti-Houthi coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have exposed the divergent interests of the Gulf powers as well as their Yemeni allies. The separatist fighters in Aden are loyal to the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a political body established in Aden in 2017 that wants to restore independence in the south. The capture of Aden by secessionists has shifted the centre of the Yemen war to the south and brought renewed focus to the country's decades-old southern question. When the Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in March 2015 to fight Houthi rebels who had taken control of major cities in the country including Sanaa and Aden, the southern separatists and government-aligned forces joined the alliance. Aden was regained by Hadi's forces in July 2015, and began to function as the interim capital with the northern city of Sanaa firmly under Houthi control. Yet tensions in Aden rose in April 2017 when Hadi accused the city's governor, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, of disloyalty and dismissed him. On May 11, following mass protests against al-Zubaidi's removal, the Southern Transitional Council was formed, with the former Aden governor chosen to preside over the 26-seat council. The body immediately declared its intention to "reinstate the Southern State" - a reference to the former South Yemen republic, which existed from 1967 until 1990. "The STC wants to have authority over the territories they operate in," said Sama'a al-Hamdani, an independent Yemen analyst and non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute. "This could potentially mean sharing power with the government temporarily before asking for a referendum on secession," she continued. "They also want to be recognised internationally for their role in supporting the coalition and the Yemeni government throughout the war." Hadi, who fled to Saudi Arabia while the Houthis were still in control of Aden, immediately denounced the STC as illegitimate, but the wheels for southern independence have already been set in motion, Holly Topham from the Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies said. The STC was behaving akin to what Topham called a "government-in-waiting in the south with state-like characteristics and a would-be parliament, the National Assembly". Members of UAE-backed southern Yemeni separatist forces during clashes with government forces in Aden UAE role in south Yemen Since 2016, the United Arab Emirates has provided military and financial backing to the Security Belt, a now STC-dominated paramilitary group comprised of some 90,000 Yemeni fighters. In 2015, the coalition relied on the Security Belt to secure territories in the south and reinstate the government in Aden, with Hadi's forces regaining full control of the city in July. Human Rights Watch in 2017 alleged the militia had carried out abuses, including arbitrarily detaining people and forcibly disappearing dozens. "The STC was considered part of the [Saudi-UAE-led] coalition and a key partner to Hadi's government," al-Hamdani said. Yet the fighting between the UAE-backed Security Belt and government forces supported by Saudi Arabia has exposed divisions between the coalition's two key leaders. In January 2018, fighting between the two sides broke out, resulting in separatist forces seizing almost all of Aden while the presidential palace was surrounded. At least 38 people were killed in three days of fighting, before the Saudi-UAE-led coalition mediated to lift the siege, placing the city under government loyalist control. 
More than a year-and-a-half later, the STC regained control of Aden on August 10 after four days of fighting between separatists and Hadi's troops, which killed dozens and wounded more than 200. In the aftermath, Hadi's government accused the UAE of backing a "coup" and conducting air raids that reportedly killed and wounded 300 people in southern Yemen - though the numbers could not be independently verified. In late August, Hadi urged Saudi Arabia to intervene and halt the UAE's air raids on its forces. 
The UAE responded by saying it acted out of self-defence and carried out air attacks on "terrorist militias" - although it didn't identify them. To curry favour with the international community, Topham said the STC has been "claiming continued support for the Hadi government in public statements, while simultaneously embarking on an international lobbying offensive for its separatist cause". 
 But there are fears the UAE is using the southern separatist sentiment for its own geopolitical interests, especially given the fact the south is rich in natural resources. "The UAE has economic priority in south Yemen," Afrah Nasser, an independent Yemeni journalist and analyst, told Al Jazeera. "Their aspirations in the south has to do with their investment interests." "If the Houthis were in the south then the UAE would have struck an alliance with them also," she added, calling the STC-UAE relationship a "temporary marriage of convenience".
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/yemen-accuses-uae-backed-separatists-staging-coup-socotra-200621070336058.html

The control of Persian Gulf petroleum resources

What it is at stake in Yemen

D.Anton

The Persian (Arabian) Gulf produces about half of the oil sold in the petroleum international markets.

The Strait of Hormuz, is the only exit point of these oil and gas exports. The daily flow is about 17-20 million bbl/d, 35% of all seaborne traded oil and almost 20% of oil traded worldwide.

More than 85% of these crude oil exports went to Asian markets (Japan, India, South Korea, and China). The blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, even temporarily, could lead to serious economic consequences.

Although there are some pipelines that could bypass Hormuz they can only replace palrtially the Hormuz flow (the unused capacity of the Saudi Arabia and UAE pipelines is only 1 million bbl/day that could eventually be increased to 4 million bbl/day.

Still, in the near future most of the exported petroleum in the world will continue travelling through Hormuz.

The Hormuz strait is quite narrow. At its narrowest point it is 54 km wide. For this reason it has an enormous strategic importance.  

The Hormuz coastal countries are Iran, UAE and Oman. Potentially, Iran could easily block the strait. The likelihood of this blockade happening is extremely low but it still exists.

On the other hand, an important part of the petroleum exports going to Western Europe passes through the Red Sea and the Suez canal.

In order to get into the Red Sea ships must go through the strait of Bab el Mandeb. The Bab el Mandeb coastal countries are Yemen on its Asian side and Djibouti and Eritrea on the African coast.

Bab-el-Mandeb is a strategic link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean sea. An estimated 3.5-4 million barrels of oil pass through the strait each day, which is 10% of all petroleum moved by tankers.

The width of the strait is about 30 km from Ras Menheli in Yemen to Ras Siyyan in Djibouti.

As in Hormuz, the Bab el Mandeb strait is vulnerable because of its narrowness, and eventually could be threatened from coastal countries actions, particularly from Yemen which has shown high political instability.

Presently the Yemen government is controlled by the Houthis, a shia nationalistic organization, which is closely related to shia Iran.

Therefore, Iran, with the Houthi alliance, might be, if necessary,  in a position to threaten both the Hormuz and Bab el Mandeb straits, and therefore threaten the circulation of most petroleum exports of the world.

Neither Saudi Arabia nor the United States or the United Kingdom would allow this situation to prosper, and as a result Saudi Arabia, a sunni muslim state (enemy of the shia Irán), has been bombing Yemeni cities and killing people for almost two years (with the help fo the U.S. and the U.K.).

As it can be seen, the war in Yemen is also a result of the struggle for control of the Middle East petroleum resources. It does not seem to cease in the near future.

Again,the greed of petro-capitalism will continue killing innocent people in Yemen and elsewhere.

Three days in a Yemeni cholera camp

A nurse attends to a cholera-infected patient at treatment centre in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, Yemen on October 8, 2017 [File: Reuters/Abduljabbar Zeyad]

On April 18, I was sitting on a small chair next to bed number seven at the end of a stuffy hospital ward in Hodeidah, Yemen's key port city, thinking I was in the midst of a scene from a horror film.

I felt suffocating pain in my chest as I looked at my sleeping mother. She had come down with cholera.

As the woman in the nearby bed moved, I saw a hole in the middle of it. I thought it was broken until I realised each bed in the ward was like this and under each hole there was a bucket, which periodically was being emptied by hospital staff.

Everything had happened very quickly. I was in Sanaa when my mother called in the evening to tell me that she had had severe diarrhoea. She had taken medicine but had not felt better. In the early hours of the next day, my brothers called as well to tell me that my mother's condition had deteriorated considerably and that they had taken her to a private hospital.

Suspecting that she was infected with cholera, the hospital officials had refused to admit her and had sent her to the only medical facility that treated cholera patients: Al-Thawra Hospital.

I rushed back to Hodeidah. I was racing against death to see my mother. It took seven hours of travel by land to get back to my city. The war has closed off almost all routes. Had airports worked, it would have taken me half an hour.

At noon, I arrived and went straight to the hospital. At first, the guards did not allow me to enter because visits were not permitted at that time, but after listening to my tearful appeals, they let me in. They asked me to disinfect my hands in a chlorine tank and took me to the women's cholera ward.

OPINION

The nightmares of a Yemeni mother

by Manal Qaed Alwesabi

Once inside, I searched anxiously the faces of the women in the ward looking for my mother. I found her in the last bed at the end of the ward, looking extremely pale.

My mother received me in tears. She seemed devastated. "This is frightening. I have lost the ability to go to the bathroom. I am like a child. I cannot control myself," she said, with trembling lips.

I did not know much about cholera, except that it could be a fatal disease. When it first appeared in my city in 2016, we were told to be careful when washing fruits and vegetables and disinfect water tanks as often as possible. But as the war went on, destroying infrastructure, disrupting basic services and food provision, the disease spread and struck an increasing number of people.

Patients were initially kept in tents separate from the hospital, but as cases multiplied the hospital authorities had to transform the makeshift camp into a permanent ward. Since the beginning of the outbreak, Yemen has seen close to 1.5 million suspected cholera cases; in my city Hodeidah, there have been some 46,900 cases since the beginning of the year - one of them my own mother.

At first, she refused to let me stay with her at the ward, fearing that I would get infected. She was afraid that my pregnancy was making me more susceptible. She pointed to a pregnant woman called Mariam who was also getting treated at the ward; she could not take a full dose of medicine and, as a result, her health condition was deteriorating.

I asked the nurses how long a cholera patient would stay in the ward. They said that it ranged from three to 10 days, depending on the immunity of the patient, which is the weakest in pregnant women and children.

I decided to take the risk anyway and sit with my mother every day. My sister and I took shifts: I was there during the day and she was staying overnight.

It was painful to watch all these women struggle against this vile disease. It was eating away not only at their bodies but also at their spirit. On the third day, my mother's condition deteriorated after she refused to eat and take the medicine.

Overnight, she had seen Mariam, who was nine months pregnant, go into convulsions and a coma. It was with great difficulty that doctors and nurses were able to save her and stabilise her condition. My sister told me that my mother's eyes had been fixated on the pregnant woman's body as she feared she may be living her last moments.

It was as if my mother's fate was linked to Mariam's. I prayed for her; I felt her survival meant the survival of my mother.

By the evening, Mariam had improved significantly and was able to get out of bed. Her belly was very large and as she stood up, she swayed a bit but was able to keep her balance and go to the toilet by herself.

It was the first time in my life that I saw a miracle happen. My mother was so happy; she even cried when she saw Mariam stand up.

The people who made that miracle happen were the medical staff, who despite all the difficulties and dangers of their work, did their jobs with great devotion. The ward was staffed 24 hours a day, with nurses  doing 12-hour shifts for as little as $250 a month - a meagre remuneration for their heroic effort and the high risk of contracting a deadly disease they were exposed to on a daily basis. During the few days I spent at the ward, their work did not seem to slow down; they were admitting at least five people suspected of having cholera every day.

I was extremely happy when the next day the doctors finally told us that my mother has recovered enough to be able to go home. It was a great relief to finally be able to leave this scene of horror at the cholera ward.

War has devastated us and left us many paths to death, but only a narrow one to life. We do not wish onto anyone the pain that we have felt, but we do hope that those who have started this war will meet the fate they deserve for causing so much suffering and death to innocent men, women and children.

by Manal Oaed Alwesabi

Reference: aljazeera.com

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/days-yemeni-cholera-camp-190708101819348.html

'Worse than an oven': Saudi-funded camp won't be liveable soon

Yemenis fear they could suffocate due to intermittent electricity and soaring temperatures in new housing units.

Markazi refugee camp, Djibouti – He survived Saudi-led air raids, Houthi snipers and a perilous boat journey from Yemen to Djibouti. But for Ahmad Muhammed Ali, the next few months could be the toughest of his life.

For three years, he says he merely "existed" at one of the UN-funded tents in the Markazi refugee camp.

Surviving on meagre portions of food and routinely being stung by scorpions and bitten by snakes; he prayed for his family's circumstances to change.

The eldest of four children, Ali said it was his "duty" to look after his siblings and mother after their father passed away.

So, in November, when Saudi Arabia inaugurated 300 shipping-container style housing units, he thought his prayers had finally been answered.

A Ywmwni’s harrowing journey through the “ate of Tears”

In a ceremony marked with pomp and celebration, the Saudi and Djiboutian governments unveiled the units to accommodate around 1,200 Yemeni refugees

 at Markazi, along with a mosque, a school, and two medical centres.

Costing a reported $6.5m, less than the price of five Raytheon Tomahawk cruise missiles, Ali, like many of the camps residents rejoiced, hopeful that the project would generate more funding and development from the oil-rich kingdom.

But only three months in, temperatures inside Ali's unit are already exceeding 35 degrees, raising fears that intermittent supplies of electricity could make the steel units "worse than ovens," and potentially death traps.

"We get about four hours of electricity in the morning, and then another four hours in the evening," the 24-year-old told Al Jazeera, his brow dripping with sweat.

"The authorities switch off the power at around 1pm because of fears the generators might get hot and damaged.

"So we stay in indoors for about an hour after lunch, but once it gets really unbearable, we head outside. It's cooler outside than it is inside". 

Each air-conditioned residential unit includes a toilet, bedroom, living room and kitchen, along with cooking facilities [Faisal Edroos/Al Jazeera]

'I want to be resettled in Mexico or Brazil'

A tiny nation of around 800,000 people, Djibouti became a haven for Yemeni refugees in March 2015 after the country's civil war embroiled the region.

At the time, Saudi Arabia, alarmed that a Shia group with ties to Iran had taken over parts of their southern neighbour, intervened at the request of Yemen's President Abu-Rabby Manour Hadi

Expectations were high that a coalition assembled by Saudi Arabia, with all its military might, would crush the rag-tag alliance of Houthi fighters and army forces loyal to former President  Ali Abdullah Saleh within a matter of weeks.

Hyenas, wolver and disease “welcomñe” Yemenis fleeing war.

But after nearly four years of fighting, and an estimated 60,000 deaths, the coalition has failed to pave the way for the recapture of the capital Sanaa.

Instead, tens of thousands of Yemenis have fled on small rickety boats across the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, known as the Gate of Tears - a name derived from the long history of people perishing when trying to cross it.

At least 37,248 people have arrived in Djibouti, which sits just 32km from Yemen, with around 2,200 Yemenis currently registered at the Markazi camp.

For its part, the Djiboutian government has tried to welcome the Yemenis, introducing new laws making it easier for them to find work.

But with the unemployment rate hovering at around 45 percent, and few Yemenis speaking French, the local lingua franca, most have opted to either head to other countries or return home. 

With wind speeds as high as 60kph, this year's Khamsin dust storm coincides with the start of Ramadan [Faisal Edroos/Al Jazeera]

In an attempt to make the best of their situation, Ali said his mother sold all of her jewellery to start up a small business in their living room.

Sitting on a thin mattress in a bedroom that he shares with his younger brother, he signalled towards his mother Hayfa who was trying to sell cold drinks, cigarettes, and lollypops in their living room as the warm air carrying sand swept in through the door, lashing her face.

"She sacrificed everything to make our lives tolerable," he said, as his eyes drifted to a damaged TV playing a dance scene in Shah Rukh Khan's 2004 blockbuster Bollywood flick, Kal Hoh Naa Ho.

"She sold all her jewellery to start this shop and make it work. But I've had enough. I don't want to live here. "I want to be resettled in Mexico, Brazil or Canada. Somewhere where I'm free to do what I want. Or somewhere where it's cold".'Ramadan will be very bad'

Many of the residents told Al Jazeera they were dreading the summer months which are accompanied by the "khamsin", a ferociously hot sandstorm.

With temperatures reaching 50 degrees Celsius and wind speeds as high as 60kph, this year's dust storm coincides with the start of Ramadan, the daily fasting period that begins in May.

Refugees such as Ali will be hungry, hot and have little to do.

"When Ramadan comes it will be very bad," said Ali's mother Hayfa, as she served a customer two individual cigarettes.

"We started buying ice from the capital (two half hours away by boat), so God willing, the chocolates and cakes won't melt". The entire project cost a reported $6.5m, less than the price of five Raytheon Tomahawk cruise missiles [Faisal Edroos/Al Jazeera]

"We hope that there will be continuity and the people will stay in the units, and that there will be funding for electricity in the summer," Vanessa Panaligan, the UN's media relations officer in Djibouti told Al Jazeera. "But if the refugees head back to the tents they will have to contend with the Khamsin winds and the camps are not built to withstand that.

"The sand gets everywhere, so they should be better protected with the housing units against the hot winds, the sand and the elements".

Trying to keep a brave face, Hayfa said she hoped sustained media coverage would help shed a light on what was happening at the camp.

"I've spent a fortune starting this business, but for many reasons, I couldn't go forward. I was subject to harassment and people have tried to take advantage of me.

"I wanted to buy a house here, a car, to settle down with my children, But we can't because we're foreigners and refugees.

"Now, our only hope is that the war ends and some of the Arab countries take us in.

"We don't want to go to the West, we want our Arab and Muslim brothers to let us in."

by Faisal Edroos

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/oven-saudi-funded-camp-won-liveable-190301121224205.html

Attack on Hodeida, Yemen

'It was a massacre': Dozens killed in Saudi air raids on Hodeidah.

The attacks, which hit near the city's main public hospital, killed at least 55 and wounded 124, Houthi rebels say.

Bodies of people killed by an air attack on a fish market are laid out in plastic bags at a hospital in Hodeidah [Abduljabbar Zeyad/Reuters]

At least 55 people, including women and children, have been killed in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah in air raids carried out by a Saudi and UAE alliance battling Houthi rebels,  the rebel-run health ministry said.

In a statement issued late on Thursday, the ministry said the attacks, which targeted the city's Public al-Thawra Hospital and a busy fishing port, wounded at least 124 Yemenis.

The Reuters news agency put the death toll at 28 late on Thursday, while China's Xinhua said it stood at 70 early on Friday.

Taha al-Mutawakil, the Minister for Public Health and Population in the Houthi-led administration, said local authorities were struggling to cope with the number of casualties, and ambulances feared transporting the wounded to Sanaa or other provinces due to fears of being targeted by air attacks.

The International Red Cross, which supports the al-Thawra hospital, said it sent surgical supplies that will be enough to treat up to 50 patients who are in critical condition.

 "What we have seen in Hodeidah is a heinous crime," Mutawakil was quoted by the Houthi-run SABA news agency saying.

He added that US shared responsibility for the deaths.

With logistical support from the US, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been carrying out attacks inside Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to reinstate the internationally recognised government of President Abu Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

At least 10,000 people have been killed in the fighting and more than 100,000 children have died from extreme hunger and starvation.

For the last few weeks, the UN had been trying to broker a deal in a bid to avert an assault on the city, which it fears would further hinder Yemenis' access to food, fuel and medicine - worsening the world's most urgent humanitarian crisis.

Hodeidah has been under the control of the Houthis since 2014, and was responsible for delivering 70 percent of Yemen's imports - mostly humanitarian aid, food and fuel - pre-2015.

'Body parts scattered'

Mohamed al-Hasni, the head of Hodeidah's fishermen union, told Al Jazeera that there were no military targets in the area and "the targeting of fishermen was not expected".

"The port and market were full of people. It was a massacre," he said.

"There was no military presence in the area. No armed men were around at all. The targeting was aimed at spreading fear and terror.

Fatik al-Rodaini, a charity worker at Mona Relief, an aid group that operates in hard-to-reach areas of the country, said two civilians, one of whom was seeking medical treatment after being injured in the fish market raid, was among the fatalities.

The war in Yemen

The Saudi-led coalition bombing Yemen carried out at least 29 air strikes on Sanaa province, hours after Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile towards the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Residents told Al Jazeera that bombs "rained down" on several neighbourhoods of the capital on Sunday, targeting a stage in al-Sabeen square used by Houthi rebels for military parades, the nearby presidential palace, the national security headquarters and the interior ministry.

The Houthi-run Saba news agency reported more than 15 air strikes in Sanaa and a further 14 in the districts of Sinhan and Bani Bahloul.

Fatik al-Rodaini‏, an activist based in the capital, told Al Jazeera some of the raids targeted Sanaa's old city, a UNESCO world heritage site.

"I am fearing for my children's lives. They haven't gone outside all day. Just a few minutes ago I was thinking of letting them run to the shops but we heard another loud explosion and my wife said 'no'. "This is the worst day I've experienced since the start of the war," Rodaini said.

"The Saudis don't care about our children, our future, our lives. They know that civilians live in close proximity to government buildings yet they continue to target those areas - they just don't care."

Hours earlier, the Saudi military confirmed intercepting a ballistic missile that was fired from Yemeni territory towards the kingdom.

'Riyadh sleeps peacefully'

Colonel Turki al-Maliki said Saudi forces intercepted the ballistic missile with a surface-to-air Patriot missile, which caused it to shatter into fragments in an "uninhabited area" east of Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport.

The Houthis -  a group of rebels who control Saada province, the capital Sanaa, as well as other parts of central Yemen - claimed responsibility for the attack, vowing to target the capitals of all Arab countries that are bombing the country. 

"Riyadh slept in peace and comfort and last night due to the efforts of the Saudi armed forces," al-Maliki said.

"We will continue to target the Houthis and their missiles that are sponsored by the Iranians," he added.

In an interview with Al Jazeera earlier this month, Mohammed Abdul Salam, a spokesman for the Houthi rebels, threatened to escalate operations on the Yemeni-Saudi border and target deep inside the kingdom.

"The Saudis started the war. Our response will continue and increase, whether it's targeting deep inside Saudi Arabia, targeting military positions where Saudi jets fly from, or military bases inside Yemeni territory," Abdul Salam said.

"Abu Dhabi and others that target Yemen are - as far as we're concerned - a fair military target. Any country that targets Yemen will be struck by our missiles."

Yemen, which sits on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, has been engulfed in war since September 2014, when Houthi fighters swept into the capital and overthrew President Abd.Kabbu Manosur Hadi`s internationally recognised government.

Concerned by the rise of the Houthis, believed to be backed by regional rival Iran, Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Sunni Arab states launched an intervention in 2015 in the form of a massive air campaign aimed at reinstalling Hadi's government. 

Since then, the Houthis have been dislodged from most of the south, but remain in control of Sanaa and much of the north.

 From 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/worst-day-start-war-171105161451401.html

Yemern Houthis sent another missile to the Saudi capital

Yemeni Houthi forces that are resisting continuous bombing from Saudi forces and their allies have managed to strike the Riyadh airport with a missile. The missile which had a range of more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) was launched toward Riyadh on Saturday, November 5th, having flown more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) over the border.
At the same tiem the Yemeni rebels threatened to ‘target Saudi oil tankers’ if coalition attacks port of Hodeidah
Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority said on its official Twitter account that while "the rocket landed on the airport's premises," little damage was caused and all airport facilities were undamaged.
The King Khalid International Airport also posted a statement for passengers, saying that all flights are being operated normally and according to schedule.
Unverified videos have emerged on YouTube allegedly showing the aftermath of the incident. In one of the clips, people can be seen running in all directions, as what looks like smoke rises and some loud explosions and sirens are heard in the background.
Earlier this week, the Saudi-led coalition launched an airstrike on Yemen, hitting a market and a hotel building in the northern Saadah province. At least 26 people were killed in the raid, Reuters reported, citing medics and a witness. The coalition released a statement on Saturday claiming the site was a legitimate target, being a gathering point for Houthi fighters.

The control of Persian Gulf petroleum resources

What it is at stake in Yemen

D.Anton

The Persian (Arabian) Gulf produces about half of the oil sold in the petroleum international markets.

The Strait of Hormuz, is the only exit point of these oil and gas exports. The daily flow is about 17-20 million bbl/d, 35% of all seaborne traded oil and almost 20% of oil traded worldwide.

More than 85% of these crude oil exports went to Asian markets (Japan, India, South Korea, and China). The blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, even temporarily, could lead to serious economic consequences.

Although there are some pipelines that could bypass Hormuz they can only replace palrtially the Hormuz flow (the unused capacity of the Saudi Arabia and UAE pipelines is only 1 million bbl/day that could eventually be increased to 4 million bbl/day.

Still, in the near future most of the exported petroleum in the world will continue travelling through Hormuz.

The Hormuz strait is quite narrow. At its narrowest point it is 54 km wide. For this reason it has an enormous strategic importance.  

The Hormuz coastal countries are Iran, UAE and Oman. Potentially, Iran could easily block the strait. The likelihood of this blockade happening is extremely low but it still exists.

On the other hand, an important part of the petroleum exports going to Western Europe passes through the Red Sea and the Suez canal.

In order to get into the Red Sea ships must go through the strait of Bab el Mandeb. The Bab el Mandeb coastal countries are Yemen on its Asian side and Djibouti and Eritrea on the African coast.

Bab-el-Mandeb is a strategic link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean sea. An estimated 3.5-4 million barrels of oil pass through the strait each day, which is 10% of all petroleum moved by tankers.

The width of the strait is about 30 km from Ras Menheli in Yemen to Ras Siyyan in Djibouti.

As in Hormuz, the Bab el Mandeb strait is vulnerable because of its narrowness, and eventually could be threatened from coastal countries actions, particularly from Yemen which has shown high political instability.

Presently the Yemen government is controlled by the Houthis, a shia nationalistic organization, which is closely related to shia Iran.

Therefore, Iran, with the Houthy alliance, might be, if necessary,  in a position to threaten both the Hormuz and Bab el Mandeb straits, and therefore threaten the circulation of most petroleum exports of the world.

Neither Saudi Arabia nor the United States or the United Kingdom would allow this situation to prosper, and as a result Saudi Arabia, a sunni muslim state (enemy of the shia Irán), has been bombing Yemeni cities and killing people for almost two years (with the help fo the U.S. and the U.K.).

As it can be seen, the war in Yemen is also a result of the struggle for control of the Middle East petroleum resources. It does not seem to cease in the near future.

Again,the greed of petro-capitalism will continue killing innocent people in Yemen and elsewhere.