Free Republic

Telecom firms linked to the UN-recognised Yemen government have said they fear Houthi rebels are planning to sabotage a network of submarine cables in the Red Sea critical to the functioning of the western internet and the transmission of financial data. The warning came after a Houthi-linked Telegram channel published a map of the cables running along the bed of the Red Sea. The image was accompanied by a message: “There are maps of international cables connecting all regions of the world through the sea. It seems that Yemen is in a strategic location, as internet lines that connect entire...

Houthi rebels have stormed the American embassy in Yemen and taken hostages, the Washington Free Beacon reported Thursday. State Department officials told the Free Beacon that “the majority of the detained have been released, but the Houthis continue to detain additional Yemeni employees of the embassy.” Houthi fighters reportedly took the compound on Wednesday, demanding “large quantities of equipment and materials,” per the Middle East Media Research Institute. Yemen has been embroiled in a brutal civil war between the Houthi rebels — who are backed, financed, and armed by the Iranian government —and the standing Yemeni government, which has the...

Jason Brodsky @JasonMBrodsky #BREAKING: U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet announces that the guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG 61) seized an illicit shipment of weapons from a stateless dhow in international water of the North Arabian Sea on May 6-7, 2021. VIDEO AT LINK......................... Navy 5th fleet makes major arms bust The U.S. Navy seizes thousands of weapons discovered aboard a vessel in the North Arabian Sea. “The cache of weapons included dozens of advanced Russian-made anti-tank guided missiles, thousands of Chinese Type 56 assault rifles, and hundreds of PKM machine guns, sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenades launchers. Other weapon components included...

TEL AVIV: Five days ago, an undisclosed intelligence agency intercepted a telephone call made by the head of Iran’s Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in which he was heard ordering his proxies in Iraq to attack the U.S embassy in Baghdad, as well as other Israeli and American targets, with the aim of taking hostages, Israeli sources say. It’s unclear whether this was a lapse in tradecraft on the part of the usually savvy Soleimani or whether the notorious Iranian military leader’s phone calls were being routinely intercepted. Nor is it clear whether it was the US or another...

RIYADH — The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen carried out several air strikes on Houthi targets in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Thursday after the Iranian-aligned militants claimed responsibility for drone attacks on Saudi oil installations. A coalition statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency said the air strikes were against a number of legitimate military targets, which military intelligence confirmed were military bases and facilities used by the Iranian-backed Houthi militias for weapons and ammunition storage. "The air operations achieved their objectives," statement added. The coalition stressed that the attacks by the Iranian-backed...

WASHINGTON — An American kidnapped two years ago in Yemen while helping coordinate aid for Unicef and the Red Cross also had a second, secret role: He was shipping materials for elite military commandos under a clandestine contract his employer had with the Pentagon. The arrangement with Special Operations forces has never been made public. {snip} Mr. Darden’s work offers a rare look into the shadowy world of military contractors that operate in lawless war zones like Yemen, Somalia and Libya. But arrangements like the one Transoceanic had with Special Operations forces can cast suspicion over aid workers, potentially putting...

The de facto threat to shipping through the Bab al-Mandab must not be allowed to stand With all the media focus on President Trump’s recent meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, a major event took place last week in the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, which received little notice. The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have acknowledged that they fired a missile supplied by Iran from the vicinity of the port city of Hodeida that hit a Saudi Aramco tanker. In response, even though there was little damage, Saudi Arabia has suspended all its shipping from transiting the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Journalists have established the authenticity of the first tranche of the top secret Saudi documents published by WikiLeaks, as Saudi Arabia has warned not to distribute them, spokesperson for the WikiLeaks told RT adding that ‘it’s just the beginning.’ “We are seeing how the oil money is being used to increase influence of Saudi Arabia which is substantial of course - this is ally of the US and the UK. And since this spring it has been waging war in neighboring Yemen,” Icelandic investigative journalist and spokesperson for the WikiLeaks organization Kristinn Hrafnsson told RT. On Friday, the whistleblowing website...

Houthi rebels have taken at least four Americans hostage in Yemen, The Washington Post reported Saturday. According to the report, three of the hostages were working in the private sector. The fourth is a dual citizen of Yemen and the US, whose job is unknown. An unnamed US official in the report said that a number of rescues operation have been attempted and failed.

For the first time in war, coalition troops enter port city of Aden; more on their way Saudi Arabia led at least 20 ground troops into Aden, Yemen Sunday to support loyalist militia fighting rebels, an official said. “A limited coalition force entered Aden and another force is on its way” to the southern port city, said the government official and militia commander. The Saudi-led coalition has been conducting an air war against the Houthi rebels and their allies since March 26 but this is the first reported ground deployment inside the country.