PICS: Lions barely recognisable in war-torn Yemen zoo - Not for sensitive viewers

[Sally]

It's great that there are these rescue organization arround trying to help these abused animals.


PICS: Lions barely recognisable in war-torn Yemen zoo - Not for sensitive viewers
2016-02-08 20:00 - Sam Smith

Cape Town - War-torn Yemen has left up to 20 zoo lions to starve and wither away - stranded in cages at the zoo.

The lions, found barely alive, severely ill and malnourished have been taken into care by animal-aid agencies who now work desperately to save them from death, a conservationist involved in the case told SA People. The lions were left in the town of Taiz, which has been under siege by Houthi rebels for many months now.

Sadly the animals are not the only ones suffering from neglect - as many people in Yemen continue to be murdered by rebel forces.

Drew Abrahamson, who has experience with rescue lions, explained that the lions were literally starving. Pictures of the animals have emerged on social media - showing the animals skin and bones and lifeless.

The harsh reality of the matter in Yemen, Abrahamson explained was, is that “in a country ravaged by conflict, the animals come second,” she added.

Animal Rescue agency, Four Paws International is negotiating to get into the zoo and examine the animals. They are also working on getting starving and abused animals out of the zoos in Gaza, Palestine.

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PICS: Lions barely recognisable in war-torn Yemen zoo - Not for sensitive viewers?

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - just `cause we left don't mean we still ain't involved...

U.S. Stays Off Battlefield, Yet Is Drawn Into Saudi War in Yemen
MARCH 13, 2016 | WASHINGTON — Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s urbane, well-connected ambassador to Washington, arrived at the White House last March with the urgent hope of getting President Obama’s support for a new war in the Middle East.

Iran had moved into Saudi Arabia’s backyard, Mr. Jubeir told Mr. Obama’s senior advisers, and was aiding rebels in Yemen who had overrun the country’s capital and were trying to set up ballistic missile sites in range of Saudi cities. Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf neighbors were poised to begin a campaign in support of Yemen’s impotent government — an offensive Mr. Jubeir said could be relatively swift. Two days of discussions in the West Wing followed, but there was little real debate. Among other reasons, the White House needed to placate the Saudis as the administration completed a nuclear deal with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s archenemy. That fact alone eclipsed concerns among many of the president’s advisers that the Saudi-led offensive would be long, bloody and indecisive.

Fighters loyal to the Saudi-backed Yemeni government celebrated after clashes with Houthi rebels and their allies in Taiz, Yemen​

Mr. Obama soon gave his approval for the Pentagon to support the impending military campaign. A year later, the war has been a humanitarian disaster for Yemen and a study in the perils of the Obama administration’s push to get Middle Eastern countries to take on bigger military roles in their neighborhood. Thousands of Yemeni civilians have been killed, many by Saudi jets flying too high to accurately deliver the bombs to their targets. Peace talks have been stalled for months. American spy agencies have concluded that Yemen’s branch of Al Qaeda has only grown more powerful in the chaos. The Obama administration has in the meantime been whipsawed by criticism from all sides. Although the United States has provided the Saudi-led coalition with intelligence, airborne fuel tankers and thousands of advanced munitions, Arab allies have at times complained that the support is halfhearted and freighted with too many restrictions.

Critics of the American involvement argue that the White House should not be giving any military assistance at all to what they call a reckless, incoherent war. “As I read the conflict in Yemen, I have a hard time figuring out what the U.S. national security interests are,” Senator Christopher S. Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said during a congressional hearing this year. He added that “the result of the coalition campaign has been to kill a lot of civilians, has been to sow the seeds of humanitarian crisis, and to create space for these groups — these very extremist groups that we claim to be our priority in the region — to grow.”

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[waltky]

1 year anniversary of Yemeni war celebrated with triple bombing...

Tens of thousands of Yemenis mark a year of war, denounce Saudi-led offensive
Sat Mar 26, 2016 - Tens of thousands of Yemenis took to the streets of the capital Sanaa on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of the war between a coalition led by Saudi Arabia against Iran-allied fighters who had overthrown the government.

More than 6,200 people have been killed since the coalition joined the war to try to stop the Houthis from taking control of Yemen the country and to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power. Hadi had been ousted after Houthi forces took over the capital Sanaa in September 2014. Saudi-led foreign forces intervened on the side of fighters loyal to Hadi six months later. The demonstration, one of the biggest in Yemen since mass protests in 2011 forced President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down, took place ahead of a ceasefire and U.N.-sponsored peace talks next month.

Saleh, an ally of the Houthis, made a rare appearance at the demonstration, his first since the war began, offering an olive branch to the Saudi-led coalition. "We extend a hand of peace, the peace of the brave, for the direct talks with the Saudi regime without a return to the (U.N.) Security Council, which is incapable of resolving anything," Saleh told flag-waving supporters who also held up large posters of the former president. The United Nations says the war has displaced some 2.3 million people and precipitated a humanitarian disaster across large parts of the Arab world's poorest country. "We came out today to tell the world, that the Yemeni people remain steadfast, that we have endured a whole year despite the siege and the hunger and the airstrikes and the planes," said one participant, named Kamel al-Khodani.

Supporters of Yemen's former President Ali Abdullah Saleh climb pillars of the Unknown Soldier Monument during a rally marking one year of Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen's capital Sanaa​

The United Nations envoy announced this week that the warring parties had agreed to a cessation of hostilities starting at midnight on April 10 followed by peace talks in Kuwait from April 18 as part of a fresh push to end the crisis following two rounds of failed talks last year. Later on Saturday, Houthi supporters also held a separate protest to mark the anniversary. "Today, all Yemenis, from all different sects, and regardless of their political affiliations, came out today in the masses to show the world that the Yemeni people can never be shaken nor defeated," said Houthi leader Ibrahim al Ubaidi.

The leader of Yemen's Houthi rebel movement said on Friday he wanted efforts to end a year-long war to succeed but his group was ready to confront its enemies if violence persisted. "We hope that efforts to end the aggression will be successful, it is in the interest, and a demand, of our people" Abdel-Malek al-Houthi said in a televised speech. "If those efforts do not succeed, we are ready to make sacrifices...it is important to confront aggression if it continues." The coalition is trying to prevent the Houthis and forces loyal to Saleh from taking full control of Yemen. Despite a year of conflict, the Houthis maintain control of the capital Sanaa, while Hadi loyalists are based in the southern port of Aden.

Tens of thousands of Yemenis mark a year of war, denounce Saudi-led offensive

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Triple bombings kill 22 in Aden
Sun, Mar 27, 2016 - ‘MARTYRDOM’: Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the attacks, which came after an Arab coalition launched an air campaign in support of the president

Three suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group on Friday struck checkpoints of Yemeni loyalist forces in Aden, killing 22 people, including 10 civilians, a security official said. The bombings were followed by an attempt to attack a nearby large base of the Saudi-led Arab pro-government coalition that recently turned its guns on militants in southern Yemen. The attacks came a year after the coalition launched on March 26 last year an air campaign against Shiite rebels in support of internationally backed Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The Islamic State-affiliated Amaq news agency said in an online report that “IS fighters have launched three martyrdom operations and an attack on a base of the coalition in Aden.”

Two bombs went off simultaneously at separate checkpoints in Shaab District on Aden’s western outskirts, before gunmen launched an attack on the nearby base of the military coalition, an official said. Apache helicopters belonging to the coalition carried out strikes on positions of gunmen in the surrounding area as the assailants tried to advance toward the base. A third explosive device planted in an ambulance was detonated at checkpoint near Mansura, in central Aden, the official said. The Arab coalition waging the year-long bombing campaign against Shiite Houthi rebels only began targeting Islamic State militants for the first time last week in Aden.

The Islamic State and al-Qaeda have exploited the chaos, widening their footholds in the south and carrying out deadly attacks, mostly against forces loyal to Hadi. A US airstrike on Tuesday on an al-Qaeda training camp in the southeastern province of Hadramawt killed more than 70 fighters in a major blow to the extremist group. Al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen is considered by Washington to be the most dangerous affiliate of the international terror organization. The Arab coalition launched its air campaign against the Houthis in March last year, as the Iran-backed rebels advanced on Hadi’s refuge in Aden and forced him to flee to Riyadh.

Loyalists have since managed to drive the rebels out of Aden and four other southern provinces, thanks to the military support of the coalition. However, the coalition has failed to deal a decisive blow to the rebels and their allies, who continue to control large parts of Yemen, including the capital, Sana’a, which they seized in September 2014. The UN says about 6,300 people have been killed since March last year, with civilians accounting for more than half. New hopes for a breakthrough in the conflict surfaced on Wednesday when UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said warring parties had agreed on a ceasefire that would be observed before peace talks start on April 18. Previous negotiations have failed and several ceasefires were never respected.

Triple bombings kill 22 in Aden - Taipei Times

 

[waltky]

Boots onna ground in Yemen to stay awhile...

US Troops Staying in Yemen for Now, Pentagon Official Says
May 09, 2016 | The small contingent of U.S. troops sent into Yemen as a "liaison team" in the multi-sided civil war will be staying there for a while, with no plans for an immediate pullout, the Pentagon said Monday.

"It's going to be a limited period of time, but I don't have a particular deadline" for the withdrawal of the troops who were believed to be from the Special Forces, said Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook. In disclosing the presence of the U.S. troops in Yemen, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said Friday the troops had been in the country for about two weeks and their stay was expected to be on a "short-term" basis. Their mission was mainly to coordinate intelligence and surveillance for forces of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and troops loyal to the Yemeni government, in a drive against the al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula terror group.

Davis would not say how many U.S. troops were on the ground and neither would Cook. The amphibious assault ship USS Boxer with Marines from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Group aboard and the guided-missile destroyers USS Gravely and USS Gonzalez were positioned off the Yemeni port of Mukalla. Fighters affiliated with al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula reportedly have been driven out of Mukalla by the Arab coalition forces led by Saudi Arabia. However, Cook said at a Pentagon briefing the U.S. troops in Yemen were "still in country, still providing that liaison role, particularly in support of intelligence sharing."

Staff Sgt Jeffrey S. Ray, a drill Instructor at MCRD Parris Island S.C., speaks to a delegation of officers from Yemen.​

Yemen's civil war began in March 2015 when Shia Houthi tribesmen overran the capital of Sanaa and ousted the Sunni-led government. About 125 U.S. Special Operations troops, who had been in Yemen for action against AQAP, were withdrawn from the country as Sanaa fell. In addition to the small team of U.S. forces on the ground, the U.S. military is also providing the Arab coalition with intelligence support, advice and assistance with operational planning, maritime interdiction and security operations, medical support and aerial refueling, Davis said last week.

The Houthis, who are backed by Iran, and the Saudi-led Arab coalition and the Yemeni government in exile have been involved in peace talks in Kuwait for several weeks. The Saudi state news agency SPA reported Monday that Saudi air defenses intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Yemen, but Saudi officials pledged to continue the peace talks despite the "serious escalation," Reuters reported.

US Troops Staying in Yemen for Now, Pentagon Official Says | Military.com