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Yemen car bombing in Arden kills a Governor.

 

AL MUKALLA, Yemen — The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a powerful car bomb that killed the provincial governor in the southern port of Aden early Sunday, raising concerns that hard-line Sunni militants were gaining a foothold in one of Yemen’s largest cities.

The governor, Jaafar Mohamed Saad, was the most senior official to be killed in Aden during a series of assassinations that have signaled the growing strength of Sunni extremists in Yemen’s nine-month civil war. The extremists include militants with Al Qaeda, but more ominously, analysts say, also an increasingly assertive and lethal branch of the transnational Islamic State.

Hours after the blast, in Aden’s Tawahi district, the Islamic State released a statement claiming responsibility, as well as photographs purportedly showing the explosion. The group said it had killed eight of Mr. Saad’s bodyguards.

Aden has been a crucible of fighting in the broader conflict between Houthi rebels from northern Yemen and the government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which the Houthis drove into exile this year. A Saudi-led military coalition that supports Mr. Hadi began an aerial bombing campaign against the Houthis in March.

The coalition, which receives military support from the United States, captured Aden from the Houthis in July. Since then, Mr. Hadi and other officials in his government have returned to the city, making it their base of operations while the Houthis remain in control of Sana, Yemen’s capital.

Even as the daily fighting in Aden has subsided, the city remains insecure. As coalition forces have focused on vanquishing the rebels — fighting the Houthis in the city of Taiz, and in Marib, east of Sana — the advance appears to have left the south exposed. There have been mounting signs that Sunni militants who had fought alongside the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis are now moving to exploit a power vacuum in Aden and nearby provinces, and carrying out increasingly daring attacks.

In October, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for twin bombings in Aden that targeted a hotel housing members of the Yemeni government, as well as a base used as a headquarters by coalition soldiers. Last week, Qaeda militants briefly overran two towns in Abyan Province, about 20 miles from Aden.

And on Saturday, masked gunmen on motorcycles assassinated a senior judge in Aden who presided over terrorism cases, according to a security official in the city.

Mr. Saad, the governor who was killed, was a retired army general who returned to Yemen from exile in Britain after the Houthis were driven out of Aden. He and his bodyguards had visited a primary school in the city on Sunday morning, and were returning to work when the explosion occurred, according to Mohamed Mousaed, Aden’s security chief.

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/world/middleeast/car-bomb-kills-governor-in-aden-yemeni-security-official-says.html?_r=0

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Posted

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/dec/09/australian-mercenary-reportedly-killed-yemen-clashes

 

"An Australian mercenary has reportedly been killed in clashes in Yemen, alongside six Colombian troops.

 

Guardian Australia understands the Australian commander was named Philip Stitman."

 

Article notes these were Saudi hired Blackwater (?) operators. Pretty sure Russell Crowe made this as a movie awhile back.

Posted

Yeah, sounds like someone watched the film and made it into a tabloid story.

 

Blackwater is now a fashion business label. Really, you can buy apparel now. T-shirts, baseball caps etc.

 

The mercenary firm changed its name so often I lost track. Xe Services now Academi. Probably changed the name again in the meantime. <_<

Posted (edited)

Remarkably competent for a bumfakistan to say at least...

Edited by bojan
Posted

US trained Presidential Guard acting as cadre and voenspets. Ali Abdullah Salleh's people. Plus decades of war with the South.

Posted

The fighting just outside Sanaa is heating up:

 

 

Aden (AFP) - Yemeni loyalists killed at least 20 Iran-backed rebels Saturday in a pushback against insurgents seeking to retake positions to the northeast of the capital they control, military sources said.

 

"The Huthis (rebels) on Friday launched an offensive in the direction of Jabal al-Salb in Nihm" district of Sanaa province, "but were repelled on Saturday morning," a loyalist commander told AFP.

 

"At least 20 Huthis were killed" since Friday night, another military source said, adding that an unspecified number of loyalist troops also died in the fighting.

 

Last week, pro-government forces captured the Jabal al-Salb area 40 kilometres (25 miles) outside Sanaa.

 

Forces loyal to Yemeni President Abdedrabbo Mansour Hadi and the Saudi-led military coalition supporting them have sent troops and armoured vehicles to reinforce the district.

 

Another six loyalists were killed on Saturday in a rebel rocket attack on the presidential palace in Marib, a town east of Sanaa under loyalist control, a pro-government military source said.

 

A photo from the article of a loyalist rocket launcher in action:

 

 

Another story about a Scud fired from inside Sanaa being shot down by Saudi-manned Patriot ABMs has this photo of Houthi militiamen at a rally inside the city carrying SKS rifles with flags attached through the barrel loop on the rifle's folding bayonet:

 

Posted (edited)

 

I remember reading that these were supplied via Croatia... Just can't remember where I read that... Mycity military forum, maybe.

 

EDIT: Actually, I think that was about M63 being supplied to Peshmerga. My memory is really not what it used to be.

Edited by ink
Posted

Is there even any fighting going on near there? Or are they just deliberately poking the bear?

Posted

Is there even any fighting going on near there? Or are they just deliberately poking the bear?

 

Payback for being provoked into sending their tankers into Yemen to fight Iranian backed rebels. Rebels that caused the US to escape from Yemen. So the US probably won't care too much.

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