Bloody Entanglements: Saudi Arabia, Britain and Yemen

[Disir]

The case of Yemen suggests that amnesia is settling in over the entire landscape. The House of Saud is playing its cards well, conducting its relations with the West in a manner that combines disdain and grovelling in equal measure. There are enemies in Yemen it would like to vanquish, and so far, it has gotten some of what it wants. Not that its enemies are going into the night quietly.

Since the intervention began in March, Shiite Houthi rebels, who are assisted by military forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, continue to maintain their stronghold in the capital Sana’a. The Hadi government in exile functions in Aden, Saudi Arabia’s preferred choice. From the air, the Saudi forces pummel targets and have made a good go of pummelling the capital. On the ground, there are dangers of Islamic State suicide attacks. (In September, two suicide bombers detonated themselves in the Houthi-run Balili mosque in the capital, killing 29.)

The population are feeling, as they tend to in such situations, the greatest effects of the actions, with 60 percent, according to the World Food Programme, close to starvation. To date, the United Nations claims 5,800 people have perished in the conflict.

While the Saudi presence in attacks on Syria is minimal, it leads the mission against Yemen, supplemented by forces from the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain. It was recently reported by Amnesty International that the Saudi-led forces between August and October 2015 conducted five airstrikes that involved the deliberate targeting of schools. This led to the deaths of five civilians, injuries to 14 others and disruption to some 6,500 children.[1]

A range of other facilities connected with aid have also been hit by coalition forces with devastating effect: a relief warehouse run by Oxfam; two bases of the Save the Children Fund; and clinics operated by Médicins San Frontières.

The double bind of the Saudi relationship with other states, a good deal lathered in hypocrisy that it is, crops up whenever there are public discussion between Riyadh and other Western governments. This takes place on two levels – an internal one, given the Kingdom’s approach to human rights; and an external one, with its financial and military role behind global Sunni militancy.
Bloody Entanglements: Saudi Arabia, Britain and Yemen

You mean Britain's policy is just as hypocritical as Saudi Arabia? I am shocked. SHOCKED!

 

[tinydancer]

I want to bazooka barf every time I hear our candidates say that Iran is the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world. Yeah I know they support groups, but no one no one touches SA or Qatar. Sunni terrorism is number one on the planet.

 

[Vikrant]

I want to bazooka barf every time I hear our candidates say that Iran is the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world. Yeah I know they support groups, but no one no one touches SA or Qatar. Sunni terrorism is number one on the planet.

I will add Pakistan to that list.

 

[waltky]

Not the first time an MSF hospital has been hit...

Deadly strike on Yemeni MSF clinic condemned
Tue, Jan 12, 2016 - ‘WORRYING PATTERN’: It is not clear whether the clinic was hit in a Saudi-led coalition strike or by a ground-fired rocket, but it follows coalition bombings of other MSF facilities

A missile strike on a Doctors Without Borders clinic in Yemen killed at least four people on Sunday, the group said, condemning what it called a “worrying pattern” of such attacks. The raid was the third of its kind in four months in the war-ravaged country, where a Saudi-led coalition has been battling Shiite Houthi rebels who have seized territory from the internationally recognized government. It also follows a US strike in Afghanistan on a facility run by the Paris-based medical humanitarian organization, known by its French acronym MSF, which killed 42 people. MSF could not specify whether the medical facility was hit in an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition or by a rocket fired from the ground. Three MSF staff were among 10 people wounded in the Yemen strike, and two other members of staff were in “critical condition,” MSF said in a statement. “The numbers of casualties could rise as there could still be people trapped in the rubble,” it said, adding that the missile hit the medical facility in the Razeh district of Saada Province.

All staff and patients had been evacuated, with the patients being transferred to another MSF-supported hospital in Saada, it said. MSF director of operations Raquel Ayora denounced the strike and repeated that the organization constantly shares the coordinates of its facilities with those fighting in Yemen. “There is no way that anyone with the capacity to carry out an air strike or launch a rocket would not have known” that the clinic was a functioning health facility supported by MSF, Ayora said. “We strongly condemn this incident that confirms a worrying pattern of attacks to essential medical services and express our strongest outrage as this will leave a very fragile population without healthcare for weeks,” Ayora said. “Once more, it is civilians that bear the brunt of this war,” she added.

People shout anti-Saudi slogans and carry the remains of what appears to a US-made cluster bomb allegedly dropped during Saudi-led airstrikes, during a protest calling for an end to Saudi-led military operations, outside the UN offices in Sana’a, Yemen​

MSF last month accused the coalition of bombing its clinic in Taez, southwest Yemen, wounding nine people including two staff members. The coalition said it would investigate that claim although it has repeatedly insisted it does not attack civilians. In October, air strikes hit another hospital run by MSF near Saada, without causing any deaths. MSF facilities have also been hit elsewhere, with the deadliest recent strike coming during a US air raid on the hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz. Washington has said the October strike, which came as NATO-backed Afghan forces clashed with insurgents for control of the northern provincial capital, was “caused primarily by human error.”

The EU led international condemnation of the latest strike, describing it as an “unacceptable attack.” Saada is the heartland of the Shiite Houthi rebels that the coalition has been bombing since March in support of Yemen’s beleaguered government. More than 5,800 people have been killed in Yemen since the start of the bombing campaign, about half of them civilians, according to the UN. At least 27,000 people have been wounded and 80 percent of the population is in need of humanitarian aid, according to UN figures.

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How dey s'posed to know where not to bomb if dey don't have the right co-ordinates???

U.S. has wrong coordinates for several Afghanistan medical facilities, inspector says
Jan. 11, 2016 - The inspector said six of 32 Kabul area facilities are located more than six miles away from where U.S. officials say they are.

The special inspector general responsible for the oversight of rebuilding efforts in Afghanistan has determined that geographic coordinates given by U.S. officials for a handful of medical facilities there are inaccurate -- in some cases by miles. The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said six of the 32 Kabul area facilities funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Afghanistan are more than six miles away from where the agency says they are. One facility's coordinates are between three and six miles off the official specifications, and three are between a half mile and three miles off. The remaining 22 were found to be within a half mile of where USAID says they are.

An open-air kiln used to dispose medical waste is seen at a USAID-funded facility, identified as Facility 2921 by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. SIGAR said in a letter to USAID that coordinates to several of the U.S.-funded facilities in the Kabul area are inaccurate -- sometimes by more than five miles​

Further, inspectors said they weren't able to evaluate 10 facilities because they were missing location-specific technical data. "SIGAR found substantial inaccuracies in the geospatial coordinates USAID provided for many of these 32 health facilities and observed that not all had access to electricity and running water," SIGAR John F. Sopko wrote in a Jan. 5 letter to USAID administrators, noting that the inspections were the second in a series across the war-torn country. The reported inaccuracies came at a time when special investigators are still trying to determine why an errant U.S. airstrike leveled an Afghan clinic operated by Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders, in October.

The coordinates included in an Alert Letter from October, which was a direct result of the faulty airstrike, which killed between 20 and 30 people -- including medical personnel and patients. Sources said in November that the strike was the result of technical and human error, and led military officials to conclude that the clinic was a Taliban compound. The inspections were conducted between July and November. Sopko said inspectors were aided by a knowledge of the area and assistance from locals in the Kabul area. A different MSF facility in Yemen was struck Sunday. Six hundred Afghan medical facilities were funded by the $260 million Partnership Contracts for Health (PCH) program between 2008 and 2015.

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[waltky]

Saudi airstrike kills MFS ambulance driver...

MSF ambulance driver among dozens killed in Yemen air strikes
Friday, Jan. 22, 2016 - The medical charity MSF says that an ambulance for an MSF-supported hospital was hit in an airstrike in Yemen as rebels and security forces say dozens have been killed in one of the most intense 24 hours of airstrikes since the Saudi-led coalition began its military campaign.

MSF says that the ambulance driver was killed in an airstrike on the northern town of Dahyan on Thursday. The media centre of the Shiite Houthi rebels says that 26 people were killed during the bombing of Dahyan.

Officials say 22 were killed in strikes on the capital, Sanaa. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were authorized to speak to the press.

Since the beginning of the air campaign in March 2015, more than 5,800 people have been killed.

MSF ambulance driver among dozens killed in Yemen air strikes

 

[waltky]

US launches investigation into Saudi airstrikes in Yemen...

US: No 'blank check' for Saudi Arabia in Yemen
Sun October 9, 2016 - Saudi-led airstrikes hit a funeral home in the Yemeni capital; At least 155 people killed, health ministry officials say

The White House on Saturday condemned a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on a wake in Yemen that local health officials said killed at least 155 people.
"US security cooperation with Saudi Arabia is not a blank check," US National Security Council Spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. "Even as we assist Saudi Arabia regarding the defense of their territorial integrity, we have and will continue to express our serious concerns about the conflict in Yemen and how it has been waged."

Price added that the US would reevaluate its support for the coalition in its fight to prevent Houthi rebels allied with Iran and forces loyal to Yemen's deposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh from taking power. "In light of this and other recent incidents, we have initiated an immediate review of our already significantly reduced support to the Saudi-led coalition and are prepared to adjust our support so as to better align with US principles, values and interests, including achieving an immediate and durable end to Yemen's tragic conflict," he said.

Earlier Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition denied accusations that it was responsible for the attack. It later said it will "immediately investigate" reports that its warplanes were responsible for the airstrikes, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. "The coalition confirms that its troops have clear instructions not to target populated areas and to avoid civilians," SPA added.

'Too heavy a price'