Aden: Yemen’s deputy chief of staff was killed yesterday when Al Houthi militia battling government forces fired a ballistic missile at an army camp on the Red Sea coast, according to a military source.

Army deputy chief of staff Major General Ahmad Saif Al Yafii was killed by a heat-seeking missile on the outskirts of the strategic coastal town of Mocha, the source told AFP.

“Major General Ahmad Saif Al Yafei was killed along with several others when the missile hit the camp near Al [Mocha] city early this morning,” a military source, who is also a member of the general’s family, told Reuters.

Yemeni government forces captured Mocha from the Iran-allied Al Houthis last month.It was their biggest success in months. The town lies close to the Bab Al Mandab strait.

The rebels still hold the capital, Sana’a, and much of the central and northern highlands as well as the coast around Hodeida.

Before the 19th Century, Mocha was Yemen’s main port and export hub for coffee grown in the highlands, and its historical symbolism meant it was fiercely fought over.

Its role was overtaken by Hodeida and second city, Aden, where the government is based.

Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) humanitarian coordinator in the country warned on Tuesday that seven million Yemenis are closer than ever to starvation.

“Seven million Yemenis do not know where their next meal will come from and are ever closer to starvation” in the country of 27 million people, Jamie McGoldrick said.

“Over 17 million people are currently unable to adequately feed themselves and are frequently forced to skip meals — women and girls eat the least and last,” he said in a statement.

Yemen’s war pits the internationally recognised government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi against Al Houthi rebels allied with forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

A military coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, intervened in Yemen’s civil war nearly two years ago to back President Hadi after he was ousted from the capital, Sana’a, by Houthi forces.

The fighting has intensified since the coalition intervened in March 2015.

Since early January, pro-government forces have pressed a major offensive aimed at recapturing Yemen’s Red Sea coastline, and retook the southwestern port of Mocha earlier this month.

“I am deeply concerned with the escalation of conflict and militarisation of Yemen’s western coast.

“It is coming at a great cost to civilians,” McGoldrick said.

Unexploded rockets have landed inside the rebel-held port of Hodeida, he said, “reducing even further the number of ships and imports” vital for Yemen’s food supplies.

“Given that the country is 80-90 per cent dependent on imported food staples, I am compelled to raise the alarm,” the UN official said.

“If left unabated, these factors combined could accelerate the onset of famine.”

Also on Tuesday, the United Nations children’s agency warned that 462,000 children were suffering from acute malnutrition.

The UN aid chief warned last month that the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country was sliding deeper into humanitarian crisis and could face famine this year.

Stephen O’Brien said that without “immediate action”, famine was “a possible scenario for 2017.”

More than 7,400 people have been killed since the intervention began nearly two years ago, including around 1,400 children, according to the United Nations. </s> UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N.’s special envoy for Yemen says an announcement by the Houthi rebels and allies from the ousted president’s party to unilaterally declare the formation of a new government in Sanaa is an obstacle to the peace process.

Former president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s General People’s Congress and Ansar Allah, the political arm of the Shiite rebels known as Houthis, announced the agreement Monday.

U.N. Special Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement Tuesday that the announcement “does not serve the interests of the people of Yemen in these difficult times.” The announcement came at a time that U.S.-backed, U.N.-mediated peace efforts have faltered.

The Houthis have been fighting forces loyal to the internationally recognized government based in Aden. The pro-government forces are backed by a Saudi-led coalition. </s> The internationally-recognized Yemeni prime minister and 13 ministers of his government are preparing to leave the presidential palace in the southern city of Aden and head westwards to a military base of the Saudi Arabia-led Arab coalition amid a separatist revolt, a government source told EFE on Tuesday.

This step comes after southern Yemeni separatists, who are backed by the United Arab Emirates, wrested control of much of the city from forces loyal to the Riyadh-exiled President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, whose government had moved its base to Aden when the Houthi rebel insurgency took over the capital Sanaa. </s> Yemeni security officials say the country's prime minister is preparing to flee after separatists seized the presidential palace in the southern port city of Aden in fierce battles overnight.

The officials say fighters loyal to the so-called Southern Transitional Council fought all way to the gates of the Palace of Maashiq — Arabic for "lovers" — in the district of Crater in Aden. The palace is the seat of Yemen's internationally backed government.

They say Prime Minister Ahmed Obaid Bin Daghar is to leave the country imminently. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under regulations.

The fighting in Aden first erupted on Sunday, when a deadline issued by the separatists for the government to resign expired.

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has described the separatists' action as a "coup." </s> ADEN: A senior Yemeni general was killed on Wednesday when Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile at an army camp in southern Yemen, according to a military source.

"Major General Ahmed Saif al-Yafei, deputy chief of general staff, was killed along with several others when the missile hit the camp near al-Mokha city early this morning," the source, a member of the general's family who declined to be named, told Reuters.

The Red Sea port of Al-Mokha, close to the Bab al-Mandab shipping lane through which much of the world's oil passes, has been the scene of heavy fighting between the Iran-allied Houthis and Gulf-backed Yemeni forces fighting on behalf of president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. </s> DUBAI (Reuters) - Yemen’s ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s party named a new leader after he was killed by his one-time allies in the country’s civil war, the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, last month.

The General People’s Congress party said Sadeq Amin Abou Rass, a former agriculture minister, had succeeded Saleh. The Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis had received backing from army units loyal to Saleh, which it hoped would help it gain a major edge in the three-year conflict.

Sunday’s announcement criticized Saudi “aggression” and said the party would keep resisting, but did not mention the Houthis. </s> Al Mukalla: Yemen government forces and allied resistance fighters on Sunday retook control of most areas on the outskirts of Mocha, a key Red Sea port town that is under Al Houthi militant control.

The Iran-backed rebels have received weapons shipments from Iran through this port and liberating it will deliver a major blow to the militants.

Yemeni forces are currently battling the rebels on the edges of the strategic town, army commanders and government officials said.

Al Houthis have suffered heavy setbacks along the country’s western coast since January when the government forces gained control of major regions on the Red Sea, denying the rebel movement from using these areas for smuggling arms into the country.

Yemen army spokesperson, Abdo Majili, told Gulf News on Sunday that government forces stormed a small area called Abu Razeq before advancing further towards Mocha.

“Government forces have cautiously targeted Al Houthi military sites in the town to avoid hitting civilians. This is an inhabitant area and the civilians would be harmed if we bombarded it heavily.”

Mocha has long been famous for its seaport where the country’s internationally-renowned coffee is shipped from.

The government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi has accused the rebels of using the seaport to ship in their Iran-sourced weapons.

Army commanders expect tough battles inside the town as rebels have infiltrated residential areas, making it harder to easily target them.

For more than two weeks, government forces along with a number of military advisers from the Saudi-led Arab coalition have battled Al Houthis and renegade army units loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

To slow the government forces’ advances, retreating Al Houthi militants have left behind thousands of landmines, army commanders told Gulf News on Saturday.

The militants have endured heavy losses since Operation Golden Arrow was launched two weeks ago, aimed at liberating the entire Taiz province and cutting off Al Houthis’ arms supplies.

Even as the rebels are virtually on their last legs, Al Houthi media claimed that the leader of the militia’s political council, Saleh Al Samad, had recently met with tribal leaders in Mocha securing a pledge from them to help them fight against government forces.

Meanwhile, UN special envoy to Yemen, Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad, arrived in the Yemeni capital on Sunday to push for a new round of peace talks between the internationally-recognised government and the rebels.

Ould Shaikh Ahmad is expected to meet with senior leaders in the Al Houthi dispensation as well as Saleh’s party. Last week, he briefly visited the port city of Aden where he suggested a new roadmap to Hadi and his government.

Under the new plan, Hadi would retain his powers as president until Al Houthis fully withdraw from occupied territory and disarm. </s> SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A bomb-laden drone launched by Yemen's Shiite rebels exploded over a military parade Thursday for the Saudi-led coalition, killing at least six people in a brazen attack threatening an uneasy U.N.-brokered peace in the Arab world's poorest nation.

The attack at the Al-Anad Air Base showed the unwillingness of Yemen's Houthi rebels to halt fighting in the civil war, even if it doesn't violate a peace deal reached last month in Sweden between them and Yemen's internationally recognized government.

The Houthi attack near the southern port city of Aden with a new drone variant also raised more questions about Iran's alleged role in arming the rebels with drone and ballistic missile technology, something long denied by Tehran despite researchers and U.N. experts linking the weapons to the Islamic Republic.

The assault shocked the pro-government troops, who carried away the dead and wounded, their fatigues stained with blood. All the victims were government forces, officials said.

"We were under the impression that the coalition has a tight control over airspace and there is no way the Houthis can send drones or planes to attack us in the south," said Mohammed Ali, a solider in Al-Annad 2nd Brigade guarding the parade.

Yemeni army spokesman Mohammed al-Naqib was speaking at a podium during the parade, with photos of Yemen's president and Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia's crown princes behind him, when a high-pitched whine drew his attention and others. A moment later, the drone exploded overhead, pelting him and others with shrapnel.

In the chaotic aftermath, soldiers carried away a severely wounded comrade. A pool of blood collected in front of the plush seats set aside for high-ranking military officials.

At least six people were killed, medical officials said. Among the wounded were Yemeni Military Intelligence Service chief Mohammad Saleh Tamah; Deputy Chief of Staff Saleh al-Zindani; senior military commander Mohammad Jawas; and Lahj Gov. Ahmed al-Turki, Yemeni officials said. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.

The Houthis immediately claimed the attack in the southern province of Lahj at a base where U.S. special forces once led their own drone war against Yemen's al-Qaida branch.

Although the attack did not technically violate a cease-fire negotiated last month for the port of Hodeida, it was hoped that deal might eventually lead to a general de-escalation in the fighting.

"Once again this proves that the Houthi criminal militias are not ready for peace and that they are exploiting truces," said Moammar al-Eryani, the information minister of Yemen's internationally recognized government. "Here the Houthi militias are sending Iranians plane carrying explosives to prove to the world that they're not serious about peace and they only understands the language of force."

The government described the attack as "a message of blatant defiance to the international community and outright rejection to peace efforts." It blamed the U.N. for its "silence and leniency" toward the Houthis, saying that has encouraged the rebels to continue "barbaric and aggressive practices ... threatening the regional security."

Yahia al-Sarei, a spokesman for Houthi-affiliated forces, called the drone attack a response to the coalition's continuation of "airstrikes and targeting innocent civilians and the escalation of the mercenaries across all front lines."

Yemen plunged into civil war in 2014 when rebels captured the capital of Sanaa. A coalition led by Saudi Arabia entered the war in March 2015 as government forces looked poised to lose Aden to the Houthi advance. The U.S. supported the coalition for years despite its airstrikes killing civilians, and is only recently beginning to step back after the October killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by Saudi agents.

The two sides last month agreed to a prisoner swap and cease-fire in Hodeida, a port of entry for much of the humanitarian aid to Yemen, to try to provide relief to a population pushed to the brink of famine by the war.

Fighting has largely abated in Hodeida but progress on the withdrawal has been slow. The U.N. humanitarian aid chief on Wednesday accused the rebels of blocking humanitarian supplies traveling from areas under their control to government-held areas.

The use of a drone also raised new concerns over Iran's influence in the conflict. Officials in the coalition have shown journalists a series of drones they said showed a growing sophistication by the Houthis, starting first with plastic foam models that could be built by a hobby kit to one captured in April that closely resembled an Iranian-made drone.

Those drones have been flown into the radar arrays of Saudi Arabia's Patriot missile batteries, according to the research group Conflict Armament Research, disabling them and allowing the Houthis to fire ballistic missiles into the kingdom unchallenged.

Iran has been accused by the U.S. and the U.N. of supplying ballistic missile technology and arms to the Houthis, which Tehran denies.

Houthi media quoted its military describing the drone as a new variant of its Qasef, or "Striker," drone. The Qasef-2K has been designed to explode at a height of 20 meters (about 65 feet) and rain shrapnel on its target, according to the Houthis.

A U.N. panel of experts on Yemen issued a report in 2018 noting that the Houthis' Qasef-1 drone "is virtually identical in design, dimensions and capability to that of the Ababil-T, manufactured by the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries." The Ababil-T can deliver up to a 45-kilogram (100-pound) warhead up to 150 kilometers (95 miles) away.

Such drones remain difficult to shoot down with either light or heavy weapons. Iraqi forces learned from driving out the Islamic State group from northern Iraq, where the extremists would load drones with grenades or simple explosives to target their forces.

Qasef drones are launched with pre-programmed coordinates to follow, unlike other drones where a pilot flies it via a video link, said Jeremy Binnie, a weapons expert who works as the Middle East and Africa editor at Jane's Defence Weekly.

"They're like slow missiles. Once they are launched, there is no control," Binnie said. "They do have excellent intelligence on the ground. They needed to specifically know when those guys are in the stands to be able to target."

Associated Press writers Brian Rohan and Maggie Michael in Cairo and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed. </s> Houthi rebels used an explosive-packed drone to target Yemen’s military leaders at an army parade on Thursday, killing six soldiers and wounding several senior officers.

The Iranian-backed rebels detonated the drone above a ceremonial dais, spraying Yemeni officers with shrapnel and causing the ceremony to dissolve into chaos.

The attack showed a surprising level of sophistication for the Houthi rebels and is likely to further undermine UN efforts to broker a peace deal to end the Yemen’s brutal four-year war.

Video of the attack showed the drone screeching down from the cloudy sky and exploding a few metres above the dais where Yemeni officers were watching the military parade. Six soldiers were killed in the blast.

Ahmed al-Turki, governor of Lahj province, was wounded in the attack along with several senior military and intelligence officers. General Abdullah al-Nakhi, the army chief of staff, was at the parade but appears to have escaped unarmed.
Yemeni Vice President Lt. Gen Ali Mohsen Saleh says a plot to overthrow the internationally recognised government by Iran and Houthi rebels has been foiled.