Saudi air strike kills Yemen rebels as US drawn into fight (second air strike in a week)

[IndianaGreen]

This is the second air strike within a week! We are killing Shia on behalf of Saudi Arabia in Yemen!

Saudi air strike kills Yemen rebels as US drawn into fight

Yemen's Houthi rebels claim a Saudi Arabia air strike on Sunday killed 54 people, including women and children. The US is increasingly concerned restive Yemen is becoming a haven for terrorism.

By Liam Stack / December 21, 2009

A Saudi air strike late Sunday has reportedly killed dozens, including women and children, in a north Yemen town known to support that country’s Houthi rebels. The strike highlights growing concern about stability on the Arabian peninsula as the US is reportedly becoming more involved in planning and executing strikes on Yemen’s anti-government militants.

A spokesman for the Houthis claimed that a Saudi “massacre” killed 54 people in the town of Al Nadheer in the northern province of Saada, reports Agence France-Presse. The group also claimed on Sunday night that Saudi forces were advancing on the nearby town of Zawa, also in Saada, and had launched “more than 200 shells.”

It is the second reported air strike on the border town of Razeh in a week, says Al Jazeera. An earlier air strike in a market there is said to have killed 70.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2009/1221/Saudi-air-strike-kills-Yemen-rebels-as-US-drawn-into-fight

[Captain Hilts]

1. Oh dear. nt

[ProSense]

2. This just proves that all the other reports were disinformation

The strikes comes just three days after The New York Times reported that the United States has provided weapons and logistical support to Yemeni government strikes against “suspected hide-outs of Al Qaeda within its borders.”

That involvement has raised questions over whether the US has been active in Yemen – and Saudi Arabia’s – fight against the Houthis as well. Hours after Sunday’s air strike, US Admiral Mike Mullen praised the attack and repeated worries that Yemen could become “another safe haven” for terrorism in remarks to the Associated Press. However, AP says he “refused to discuss whether the United States played an active role in the recent operation.”

The U.S. provides weapons and intelligence to a lot of countries.

[IndianaGreen]

3. You sure you didn't work for Rumsfeld?

Because that's the kind of bullshit spin that Rumsfeld's Pentagon used to put out.

[ClarkUSA]

17. Are you accusing ProSense of being a Republican?

You're one to accuse others of bullshit spin.

:rofl:

[IndianaGreen]

19. It is the same spin

and Obama has a Pentagon stuffed full with neocons.

[ClarkUSA]

20. No, it's a valid deduction given the fact that Yemen is becoming an Al-Qaeda reserve state.

BTW, this thread that doesn't belong in GDP.

[IndianaGreen]

22. Obama ordered our military intervention in Yemen

It sure belongs in this forum!

[Alamuti Lotus]

9. According to the dictator Saleh, all opposition is "suspected al-Qai'dah"

Southern Movement socialists? Messianic Zaidi Huthis? All "suspected of links to al-Qai'dah". The old goon knows how to tug at the purse strings, and has been backed into the unenviable position of pure US/KSA whore at this point.

[IndianaGreen]

10. And our troops have to fight for Saudi Arabia's interests in the peninsula

Wars for Oil! It was reprehensible under Bush, and it is reprehensible under Obama.

[Alamuti Lotus]

13. On the bright side, it shows how shaky they feel their footings

May these quivering pawns fall hard upon the wreckage of their own greed and failures.

[David Zephyr]

21. You are right. There is no difference.

And killing children "accidentally" in one's mission of war is just as evil under Bush as it is under Obama.

[timeforpeace]

4. You like war crimes tribunals? Better hope the next administration doesn't.

[IndianaGreen]

5. more info on the conflict in which US is doing Saudi Arabia's dirty work

That involvement has raised questions over whether the US has been active in Yemen – and Saudi Arabia’s – fight against the Houthis as well. Hours after Sunday’s air strike, US Admiral Mike Mullen praised the attack and repeated worries that Yemen could become “another safe haven” for terrorism in remarks to the Associated Press. However, AP says he “refused to discuss whether the United States played an active role in the recent operation.”

While both the Houthis and the government of Yemen insist their conflict is not sectarian, it has strong religious overtones, reports Al Jazeera.

The Houthis are members of the Zaidi sect – which, though an offshoot of Shiite Islam is in many ways closer to Sunni Islam. The sect's leaders ruled Yemen until its 1962 revolution. Since then they have felt socially and economically marginalized as the influence of Sunni Wahhabism, and its patron state Saudi Arabia, has grown.

According to Al Jazeera, the current conflict was restarted in 2004 when Yemeni officials tried to arrest a Zaidi religious leader and former member of parliament, Hussein Al Houthi, on whose head it had placed a $55,000 bounty.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2009/1221/Saudi-air-strike-kills-Yemen-rebels-as-US-drawn-into-fight

[spoony]

6. This country has learned nothing.

Nothing.

[Garam_Masala]

7. Are the Saudi's mainly Sunni?

Excuse my ignorance please.

[IndianaGreen]

8. Yes, they are Wahhabi Sunni, the same as Al-Qaeda and Taliban

Wahhabis see the Shia as heretics. Al-Qaeda killed a lot of Shia in Iraq.

[LooseWilly]

11. And bin Laden is a Saudi, a member of the rich bin Laden family... with Wahabi ties.

If I remember correctly, he was something of a play boy and womanizer until he went to Afghanistan to fight the Russians... at which point he became a "reborn" Wahabi Sunni... and "freedom fighter"/"terrorist"

The Wahabi are a particularly militant and xenophobic sect of Sunni Islam.

[LooseWilly]

12. I presume this is more Shia being killed by Saudis and US under the guise fo fighting al Qa'eda...

Next they'll be saying that al Qa'eda has training camps in Iran... ohh, wait, they've already tried saying that.

I guess they'll just try saying it again, and hope everyone's forgotten the difference...

[jeanpalmer]

14. According to one report, Obama personally issued

the order to bomb. "White House officials tell ABC News the orders for the US military to attack the suspected Al Qaeda sites in Yemen on Thursday came directly from the Oval Office."

And cruise missiles were used.

And after the attack: "ABC News cited White House officials as telling reporters that Obama contacted Yemen President Saleh after the blitz to 'congratulate' him on the attacks."

http://wsws.org/articles/2009/dec2009/yeme-d21.shtml

I wonder what Obama did to confirm these people were actually al-Qaeda? Or did he just take Saleh's word for it? Maybe they were wearing white bandanas and had camels in tow.

Not the kind of change I was looking for.

[bahrbearian]

15. He hoped they where al-Qaeda

[IndianaGreen]

16. Yemen President Saleh is a dictator and a Saudi puppet

What's next for the Obama Administration? Reestablish a chain of rightwing dictatorships in Latin America to protect US corporate interests?

[ShortnFiery]

18. Gee, and we "average Americans" WONDER why the peoples of the ME loathe our government?

Watch out for that damn BLOWBACK that not even our self-acclaimed DU Intelligentsia will be able to predict.

Remember, if we didn't need to tear ass around the ME blowing up SHIT (and innocents and goats), they just may not HATE US so much?

[IndianaGreen]

23. Yemen Is Growing Front In al-Qaida Battle

Just as 1984's Big Brother used the bogeyman of Emmanuel Goldstein to justify repression at home and wars abroad, the US has used the "War on Terror" and the "War on Drugs" as a pretext for imperialist expansion. Whe it comes to Yemen, looks like the US is doing Saudi Arabia's dirty work, and it prepping for a future war against Iran.

Yemen Is Growing Front In al-Qaida Battle

Others, however, acknowledge U.S. involvement in the bombing, and say that the U.S. is providing increased logistical and surveillance support to Yemen in its campaign to stamp out the resurgent al-Qaida militancy in the vast ungoverned spaces.

The operation is the culmination of a strategy shift that occurred about a year ago, when the United States determined that the two key centers in the fight against al-Qaida are Yemen, located on the southern tip of the Saudi Arabian peninsula, and Pakistan, a military official with direct knowledge of the strategy told The Associated Press.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secretive nature of the operations, say the support comes at the request of Yemen.

Crowley flatly denied suggestions that the U.S. is getting involved in Yemen's internal war with Shiite Hawthi rebels in the north, saying "we have no direct role in what's happening along the border."

Saudi Arabia launched an air and ground offensive in the north against the Yemeni rebels on November 5, after skirmishes along the border.

Many believe that conflict has evolved into a clash between U.S. ally Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, who Yemen accuses of backing the rebels. The Shiite rebels charge that the Yemeni government is allied with hardline Sunnis. Tehran has denied any involvement.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/23/yemen-is-growing-front-in_n_402389.html

[ShortnFiery]

24. Yes, we've always been at war with Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, & YEMEN.

:crazy: :nuke: :crazy:

[Douglas Carpenter]

25. AlJazeeraEnglish - Inside Story - Foreign intervention in Yemen - a 25 min. report on youtube

AlJazeeraEnglish in this detailed 25 minute program presents different views on the nature of the current conflict in Yemen. I must say AlJazeeraEnglish, truly makes an honest attempt at balanced reporting on the conflict in northern Yemen - a conflict which has many Middle East watchers both troubled and confused.

link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x416000

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCmRjnlNebg



Perhaps the biggest basic question, "is Iran actually actively arming and supporting the Houthi rebels and if they are, to what extent?"

There is no doubt a number of people genuinely believe that they are. But it would be as naive to deny the political agenda of those promoting this notion as it would be to assume that this charge is only Saudi or American propaganda. It is certainly possible that they are. But as one of those interviewed in this report - or actually two of those, an academic from the University of Tehran and another academic from the University of Yemen - pointed out, there has so far been no direct neutral third party who has confirmed this charge and no hard evidence has, so far been made public to support the assertion that Iran is actively arming and actively supporting the Houthi rebels to a major and significant degree. That is not to say that it is impossible or implausible. The Iranian state media and official pronouncements out of Tehran certainly sound sympathetic to the Houthi rebels and highly censorious of both the Yemeni government and Saudi involvement. It is just to say that independent confirmation of substantial direct Iranian involvement is lacking, at least so far.

One little note about the Zaidi sect who comprise most or all of the Houthi rebels. Zaidi are not mainstream Shiites. As with the Alawi sect they are frequently called Shiites by Sunni Muslims and other outsiders, but are more of a breakaway from the Shiites then a sect of Shiites given that many of their core beliefs depart completely from Shiite beliefs. They comprise between 40% and 45% of the population of Yemen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaidiyyah


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