Saudis 'in a panic mode' as Shi'ite rebels move North from Yemen

IBRIS

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LONDON — Jordan has sent several hundred troops from its special operations forces to help the Saudi military with its many Shi'ite units contain the Yemeni Shi'ite rebellion, which has spread deep into the Arab kingdom.

Western intelligence sources said Jordan's King Abdullah sent the SOF units to Saudi Arabia in November 2009. The sources said the Jordanian king was acting on an urgent request from his Saudi counterpart for elite soldiers who could hunt for Iranian-backed Shi'ite rebels in both Saudi Arabia and northern Yemen.
"The Saudis are in a panic mode and don't have the troops or capabilities to stop the Yemeni Shi'ites," an intelligence source said.

The sources said Riyad's need for foreign forces stemmed from a refusal by Shi'ite-dominated Saudi units to fight the Believing Youth. They said this has led to the dismantling of several local security units familiar with the Saudi-Yemeni border.

Saudi officials have not confirmed the assertion of the Western intelligence sources. But on Nov. 27, Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khaled Bin Sultan acknowledged that Yemeni Shi'ite fighters held at least two southern Saudi villages for nearly a month. Later, officials said 15,000 Saudis had been evacuated from their homes.

The sources said Jordan has been the only Arab League state to respond to Saudi appeals for help in fighting the Iranian-backed Believing Youth movement. Believing Youth has been fighting an intermittent war in northern Yemen since 2004, but in November 2009 invaded southern Saudi Arabia and captured several border villages.

"The Saudi air force has been heavily bombing villages inside Yemen, but this has not made a dent in the capabilities of the Shi'ite rebels," the source said. "They have been well-trained by Iran and Hizbullah and have moved steadily north in Saudi Arabia."

The Saudi military has focused on trying to impose a blockade on northern Yemen. The Royal Saudi Naval Forces has bolstered its presence with at least four fast attack craft and missile boats and reported the destruction of weapons smuggling ships from neighboring Somalia.

"The infiltrating terrorists intended to attack our nation when they encroached upon our territories and terrorized our peaceful people," King Abdullah said in an address to his troops. "Undeterred by religion or ethical values, the intruders shed the blood of the people."
Saudis 'in a panic mode' as Shi'ite rebels move North from Yemen
 

IBRIS

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Houthis officially take on Saudi forces

Houthi fighters say they have opened a front against Saudi Arabia in northern Yemen, as the Saudi invaders reportedly step up their offensives against the Shia population.

The fighters on Saturday said they had taken on Saudi forces in the northern Yemeni province of Al-Jawf. They added that locals had joined forces with the fighters to fend off the Saudi cross-border attacks.

Riyadh has recently reinforced Sana'a's offensives against Houthis, charging that the fighters had attacked one of its border checkpoints.

Already involved in defending the Shia minority in the northwestern Sa'ada Province from Yemeni soldiers, the fighters previously said they could not be interested in opening another front.

According to the Houthi website, however, Saudi fighter planes launched more than 13 assaults on Sa'ada throughout Saturday and Friday.

The aircraft released as many as 115 missiles, added the statement which also said four civilians, including a three-year-old child, had been killed in attacks on the northern Malahit and Saqain districts.

Besides inflicting civilian casualties, the state-led and Saudi aided offensives have forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.

The fighters say Saudi forces venture beyond Houthi positions targeting civilian areas. They have also been reportedly using unconventional weaponry including flesh-eating white phosphorus bombs.
Houthis officially take on Saudi forces
 

NSG_Blackcats

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Trouble in the Sa’ada mountains

Yemen, like Afghanistan, could emerge as a flashpoint, and that can have far-reaching regional and global consequences.

As fighting in the rugged Sa’ada mountains draws rapid speed, a variety of conflicting forces, internal and external, are posing a serious threat to the very survival of the Yemeni state, and to the region as a whole. This is a region that is already struggling to cope with the challenges posed by Islamic extremism and terrorism.

Given the strategic location of Yemen, which borders energy-rich Saudi Arabia to the north, Oman to the east, and significantly to the south, the Gulf of Aden — one of the principal gateways of international trade and energy transit — it is inevitable that turbulence in this country would attract serious international attention and possible intervention on a matching scale. Also in close proximity is Somalia, from where Islamic radicalism is permeating into Yemen, though it is unclear as to what extent it is influencing the insurgency in the country’s south.
 

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Houthi fighters down Yemeni warplane in Amran

Houthi fighters have reportedly shot down a Yemeni army aircraft as it sought to tighten the noose around Shia fighters and pound their positions in the northern province of Amran.

The military aircraft was brought down Monday evening by anti-aircraft fire near Khaiwan town in Amran Province — 50 miles (80 miles) north of the Yemeni capital, Sana'a.

The conflict in northern Yemen began in 2004 between Sana'a and Houthi fighters. The conflict intensified in August when the Yemeni army launched Operation Scorched Earth in an attempt to crush the fighters in the northern province of Sa'ada.

The Houthis accuse the Yemeni government of violation of their civil rights, political, economic and religious marginalization as well as large-scale corruption.

The Saudi air force has further complicated the conflict during the past fortnight by launching its own operations against Shia resistance fighters.

Houthi fighters say that Riyadh has been allowing Yemeni government troops to pound their positions and Saudi forces to strike Yemeni villages and indiscriminately target civilians. According to the fighters, Saudis use toxic materials including white phosphorous bombs against civilians in northern Yemen.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that since 2004 up to 175,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Sa'ada and take refuge at overcrowded camps set up by the United Nations.
Houthi fighters down Yemeni warplane in Amran
 

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The Saudis for decades have been outsorcing all activities in their country and looks like they need to outsource their defence forces too. Their troops have been equipped with the best equipment money could buy but they lack the most important thing-- motivation.

As you sow so shall you reap-- The land of the originator of Wahabism and the country where people have been funidng OBL, is now facing the threat from an insurgent group, the irony is too delicious to be missed. Serves them right.

After the Jordanians do we see Pakistani troops headed over the KSA.
 

F-14

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the saudi defense forces are an intresting subject this is the first time sinces the Unification wars in the early 20's and 30's that the saudi forces have faught a "war" on their own the best units of the saudi land component is the Saudi National Guard
which i doubt has been commited to this battle plan The combat strength of the Saudi Army consists of 4 armoured brigades, 17 mechanized infantry brigades, three light motorized rifle brigades, and one airborne brigade. It also has five independent artillery brigades and an aviation command. The Saudi Army deployed the 12th Armoured Brigade and 6th Mechanized Brigade at King Faisal Military City in the Tabuk area. It deployed the 4th Armoured Brigade, and 11th Mechanized Brigade at King Abdul Aziz Military City in the Khamis Mushayt area. It deployed the 20th Mechanized Brigade and 8th Mechanized Brigade at King Khalid Military City near Hafr al Batin. The 10th Mechanized Brigade is deployed at Sharawrah, which is near the border with Yemen and about 150 kilometers from Zamak
 

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US Special forces in Yemen

US 'sends special forces to Yemen' amid crisis

US special forces have reportedly been sent to Yemen to train its army, as the Yemeni military backed by the Saudi Arabian army has been fighting local Houthi fighters in the north of the country.

The development comes amid fears that foreign military intervention in the country has put Yemeni civilians in dire condition.

American officials told The Daily Telegraph on Sunday that US forces have been sent to Yemen to prevent the country from turning into a "reserve base" for al-Qaeda.

The move to strengthen Yemen's army comes at a time that the country's army is not fighting with al-Qaeda militants, which are based in the southern parts of the country.

The conflict in northern Yemen began in 2004 between Sana'a and Houthi fighters. The conflict intensified in August 2009 when the Yemeni army launched Operation Scorched Earth in an attempt to crush the Shia fighters in the northern province of Sa'ada.

The government claims that the fighters, who are named after their leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, seek to restore the Shia Zaidi imamate system, which was overthrown in a 1962 coup

The Houthis reject the claim and accuse the Yemeni government of violation of their civil rights, political, economic and religious marginalization as well as large-scale corruption.

The Saudi air force has further complicated the conflict by launching its own operations against Shia resistance fighters.

Saudi fighter jets are reportedly using phosphorus bombs against the Houthi fighters.

Houthi fighters on Sunday said that Saudi forces launched a major cross-border airstrike on Yemen, leaving at least 70 civilians dead and more than 100 others injured in the northern district of Razeh.

As Sana'a does not allow independent media into the conflict zone, there are no clear estimates available as to how many people have been killed in the Shia province of Sa'adah since the beginning of the conflict.
At this moment the role is just to train the Yemeni forces, but if the action escalates the US forces could get involved.
 

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34 killed in Yemen terror raids

(CNN) -- Security forces raided locations in two Yemeni provinces killing and arresting dozens of suspected terrorists, the state news agency SABA reported Thursday.

The raids took place in Yemen's capital Sanaa and the southern province of Abyan. Security forces killed 34 terrorists and and arrested 17 suspects that were linked to al Qaeda, the agency reported.

Al Qaeda in Yemen has been a growing concern for the country's government and the United States.

In late July, Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the U.S. Central Command, and an accompanying delegation met with Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

One of the topics of discussion was how to better combat terrorism, according to SABA.
34 killed in Yemen terror raids - CNN.com
 

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This is good news !!!

Its good that these ******* Saudis get a taste of their own medicine that they have been exporting slowly throughout the world disguised thru the Islamic Charities.

For years, the Saudi scumbags have been exporting their obscurant intolerant fascist Wahabbi idealogy to all muslim communities throughout the world in the form of aid thru charities, schools, etc.

They have radicalized moderate muslim communities and their rich sheiks have been quietly funding terror in many parts of the world , thanks in large part to their petro-dollars.

Now they are getting a finger in their own rear-end. This is good news indeed.
The less disposable income these *******s have, the less trouble for everyone else.
 

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From being a Suadi-Iranian spat, this looks like having all the hallmarks of a shadow boxing between the US and the Iranians.

AQ will also be itching to play their cards in a region which they consider as their backyard.
 

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Clashes kill 73 Saudi security force members, official says

(CNN) -- Fighting that has spilled from Yemen into Saudi Arabia has killed 73 members of the Saudi security forces since November 3, a Saudi spokesman said Tuesday.

Another 26 Saudi soldiers have been reported missing since clashes broke out between Saudi forces and Houthi rebels from northern Yemen, said Abdul-Rahman Al-Hazza, spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Information.

The assistant Saudi minister of defense, Prince Khaled bin Sultan, announced the casualty figures Tuesday, al-Hazza said.

The Houthi rebels have been battling the Yemeni government for five years. The rebels want greater control of their territory. They practice Shiite Islam in Yemen, where Sunni Muslims make up a majority.

Fighting in the Saada region of northern Yemen has spilled into Saudi Arabia, forcing schools to close and sending thousands of people fleeing, the United Nations has said.

In the last six weeks, Saudi forces have conducted air strikes and shelled targets to try to keep Houthi rebels off Saudi territory, said Chris Boucek, an associated in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Clashes kill 73 Saudi security force members, official says - CNN.com

Houthi conflict is getting intense as Houthi rebels have been battling the Yemeni government and Saudi army. Instigaters are having a good laugh in Teheran, while saada has been paralyzed by the rebel onslaught.
SAUDI's: "Reap what you Sow."
 

jakojako777

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The way I see it
NOTHING will stop now Iran ( Shiite) star from RISING
1st USA have destroyed Iraq and offered them Shiite part of Iraq
and now this!


History is in move we see 1st steps of new Muslim Shiite Superpower in creation
Once Western sponsored regimes in oil rich region start to fall nothing will stop
rise of Muslim Jihad...
This is just announcement of future conflict between West and Islam


.
 

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New Frontier for US War on Terror

Yemen: New frontier in US 'war on terror'

The increased violence in Yemen is a clear indication that military campaigns to crush al-Qaeda-inspired violence extend far beyond the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It also shows up hostile fault-lines within the Middle East, pitting mainly Shia Iran against Sunni Saudi Arabia, who condemn each other for taking sides in Yemen's long-running civil war.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Arab world with almost half its 24 million people living below the poverty line and an authoritarian government that has failed to win the trust of a substantive part of its own population.

This makes fertile ground for al-Qaeda. US intelligence agencies have determined that, along with Pakistan, Yemen is a key area on which to concentrate on al-Qaeda.More than 90 detainees still in America's Guantanamo Bay detention centre come from Yemen. That is nearly half the total.

Despite the policy to close Guantanamo, US authorities do not want to send them back for fear that they would boost al-Qaeda's operations and morale there.

The US has invested some $70m (£40m) in military aid in Yemen in the past year, believed to include training, the use of drones and intelligence to pinpoint al-Qaeda camps and activity.Much is classified because neither Yemen nor the US wants American activities there to stir up yet more dissent.

The instability in Yemen is becoming critical. Al-Qaeda has announced that its networks in Yemen and Saudi Arabia have merged to create al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular.The civil war is being waged by the Shia community in the north that borders Saudi Arabia. Saudi forces have actively intervened.In one case it was accused of bombing a market killing many civilians.

Iran has publicly warned against any foreign intervention.

And - although the phrase is now frowned upon - US intelligence agencies are keeping a closer and closer watch in this newly-emerging theatre in the "war on terror".
 

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U.S. quietly takes terror war to Yemen

Covert front against al-Qaida was opened a year ago, military officers say

By ERIC SCHMITT and ROBERT F. WORTH


WASHINGTON - In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against Al Qaeda in Yemen.

A year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency sent many field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country, according a former top agency official. At the same time, some of the most secretive Special Operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics, senior military officers said.

The Pentagon is spending more than $70 million over the next 18 months, and using teams of Special Forces, to train and equip Yemeni military, Interior Ministry and coast guard forces, more than doubling previous military aid levels.

As American investigators sought to corroborate the claims of a 23-year-old Nigerian man that Qaeda leaders in Yemen had trained and equipped him to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines jet on Christmas Day, the plot casts a spotlight on the Obama administration’s complicated relationship with Yemen.

Refuge for jihadistsThe country has long been a refuge for jihadists, in part because Yemen’s government welcomed returning Islamist fighters who had fought in Afghanistan during the 1980s. The Yemen port of Aden was the site of the audacious bombing of the American destroyer Cole in October 2000 by Qaeda militants, which killed 17 sailors.

But Qaeda militants have made much more focused efforts to build a base in Yemen in recent years, drawing recruits from throughout the region and mounting more frequent attacks on foreign embassies and other targets. The White House is seeking to nurture enduring ties with the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and prod him to combat the local Qaeda affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, even as his impoverished country grapples with seemingly intractable internal turmoil.

With fears also growing of a resurgent Islamist extremism in nearby Somalia and East Africa, administration officials and American lawmakers said Yemen could become Al Qaeda’s next operational and training hub, rivaling the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan where the organization’s top leaders operate.

“Yemen now becomes one of the centers of that fight,” said Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut and chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, who visited the country in August. “We have a growing presence there, and we have to, of Special Operations, Green Berets, intelligence,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Pivotal point
American and Yemeni officials said that a pivotal point in the relationship was reached in late summer after separate secret visits to Yemen by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American regional commander, and John O. Brennan, President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser.

President Saleh agreed to expanded overt and covert assistance in response to growing pressure from the United States and Yemen’s neighbors, notably Saudi Arabia, from which many Qaeda operatives had fled to Yemen, as well as a rising threat against the country’s political inner circle, the officials said.

“Yemen’s security problems won’t just stay in Yemen,” said Christopher Boucek, who studies Yemen as an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “They’re regional problems and they affect Western interests.”
Al Qaeda’s profile in Yemen rose sharply a year ago, when a former Guantánamo Bay detainee from Saudi Arabia, Said Ali al-Shihri, fled to Yemen to join Al Qaeda and appeared in a video posted online. Several other former Guantánamo detainees have also joined the group.

Yemen’s remote areas are notoriously lawless, but the country’s chaos has worsened in the past two years, as the government struggles with an armed rebellion in the northwest and a rising secessionist movement in the south. Yemen is running out of oil, and the government’s dwindling finances have affected its ability to strike Al Qaeda.

Ties to plots against U.S.
Meanwhile, there have been increasing Yemeni ties to plots against the United States. A Muslim man charged in the June 1 killing of a soldier at a recruiting center in a mall in Little Rock, Ark., had traveled to Yemen, prompting a review by the F.B.I. of other domestic extremists who had visited the country.

A radical cleric in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki, has been linked to numerous terrorism suspects, including Nidal Malik Hasan, the American Army major who faces murder charges in the shooting deaths of 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., in November.

In the latest issue of Sada al-Malahim, the Internet magazine of the Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, the group’s leader, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, praised the use of small bombs — not just big ones — to attack an enemy, in an eerie foreshadowing of Friday’s episode on the plane to Detroit.
NYT: U.S. quietly takes terror war to Yemen - The New York Times- msnbc.com
 

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In the latest issue of Sada al-Malahim, the Internet magazine of the Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, the group’s leader, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, praised the use of small bombs — not just big ones — to attack an enemy, in an eerie foreshadowing of Friday’s episode on the plane to Detroit.
Al Qaeda claims responsibility for failed terror attack

Romulus, Michigan (CNN) -- Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack on a plane about to land in the U.S., saying it was in retaliation for alleged U.S. strikes on Yemeni soil.

A suspect, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, is being held for allegedly trying to blow up the flight carrying 300 passengers.

A preliminary FBI analysis found that the device AbdulMutallab allegedly carried aboard the flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan, contained the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate, known as PETN.

The amount of explosive involved was sufficient to blow a hole in the side of the aircraft, a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN Sunday.

Authorities have focused their investigation on how AbdulMutallab, 23, allegedly smuggled the explosives aboard the flight and who might have helped him.

"We're ascertaining why it was that he was not flagged in a more specific way when he purchased his ticket, given the information that we think was available, allegedly was available," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CNN's "American Morning" Monday.

AbdulMutallab, a Nigerian who had a multiple-entry visa to the United States, had been added to a watch list of 550,000 potential terrorist threats after the information provided by his father was forwarded to the National Counter-Terrorism Center, a senior administration official said. But "the info on him was not deemed specific enough to pull his visa or put him on a no-fly list," the official said.

"Now, we are going to be looking at that process and how those lists are created, maintained, updated, exchanged and the like, because clearly this individual should not have been able to board this plane carrying that material," Napolitano said.
Al Qaeda claims responsibility for failed terror attack - CNN.com
 

IBRIS

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Jan 2, 7:25 PM EST

Yemen sends more troops to al-Qaida strongholds

By AHMED AL-HAJ and LEE KEATH
Associated Press Writers

SAN'A, Yemen (AP) -- Yemen deployed several hundred extra troops to two mountainous eastern provinces that are al-Qaida's main strongholds in the country and where the suspected would-be Christmas airplane bomber may have visited, security officials said Saturday.

The reinforcements, aiming to beef up the military's presence in a remote region where the government has little control, were Yemen's latest move in a stepped-up campaign to combat al-Qaida. The United States plans to more than double its counterterrorism aid to the impoverished, fragmented Arab nation in the coming year to boost the fight.

Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. general who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and who announced the increased aid, arrived in Yemen on Saturday and met with President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a Yemeni government official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
AP News | The Columbia Daily Tribune
 

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