Wanderlust

Tag: War Conflict

  • James Mattis, defense secretary, makes surprise visit to war-weary Kabul

    U.S. Defense Secretary James N. Mattis arrived on a surprise visit to Afghanistan’s war-shattered capital on Friday, the U.S. command in Afghanistan said, just days after a suicide bomber killed 21 pe

    KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary James N. Mattis arrived on a surprise visit to Afghanistan’s war-shattered capital on Friday, the U.S. command in Afghanistan said, just days after a suicide bomber killed 21 people in the city and wounded 90 others.

    As helicopters patrolled the skies over Kabul, Mattis arrived accompanied by Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. He was expected to meet President Ashraf Ghani, presidential spokesman Mohammad Haroon Chakhansuri told The Associated Press. He was also expected to meet Afghan, U.S. and NATO military commanders.

    Mattis’ arrival comes amid brutal assaults against the country’s minority Shiites and a fresh round of insider attacks this week that have claimed the life of one American service member and eight local police.

    While in Kabul, Mattis is expected to discuss the escalating violence against both civilians and military personnel.

    The U.S. has been supporting Afghan forces in an aggressive campaign against Islamic State group insurgents in eastern Nangarhar province, yet the IS affiliate has repeatedly been able to carry out horrific and brazen attacks in the heavily fortified capital of Kabul.

    The victims have most often been Afghanistan’s minority Shiite Muslims. The radical Sunni Islamic state reviles Shiites as apostates.

    On Wednesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a wrestling center killing 21 people and wounding 90 others. Two of the dead were journalists who died when a second bomber blew himself up as first responders and journalists rushed to the scene.

    On Friday, Afghanistan’s Islamic State group affiliate issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack on the wrestling center. The statement was accompanied by a picture of a young man with a masked face, who was identified as suicide bomber Saber al-Khorasani.

    The second explosion was a vehicle filled with explosives, according to the statement, which could not be independently verified. The discrepancy between the IS account and the Afghan government’s initial report of two suicide bombers was not immediately clear.

    The Afghan affiliate is known as IS in Khorasan province, the ancient name of an area that once included parts of modern-day Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.

    Mattis’ visit to Kabul comes as Washington seems to be ramping up efforts for a negotiated end to Afghanistan’s protracted war and Washington’s longest military engagement.

    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced this week the appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad as Washington’s new point man for Afghan reconciliation. Khalilzad, a controversial figure in the region, is a former envoy to Afghanistan.

    Mattis arrives in Afghanistan fresh off earlier meetings in Pakistan where Pompeo said the U.S. wanted to “reset” its raucous relationship with Pakistan and newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed optimism, promising to work with Washington for peace. But Khan has repeatedly said Pakistan is no longer interested in partnering with the United States in war.

    “This is my promise – that Pakistan will never again fight someone else’s war,” Khan said on Thursday in a speech to mark Pakistan’s Defense Day. As an opposition leader Khan was a sharp critic of Pakistan’s participation in the U.S.-led war on terror.

    Still, Pakistan is seen as key to any negotiated end to the Afghan war because of its close relationship with the Taliban. Both Washington and Kabul have been harsh critics of Pakistan for allowing safe havens for Taliban fighters on its territory, a charge Islamabad has denied.

    Khalilzad’s appointment was also unwelcome news in Pakistan because of his outspoken attacks on its military and powerful ISI intelligence agency, even suggesting Washington should declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism.

    Washington last weekend announced it canceled a $300 million Coalition Support Fund payment to Pakistan, which is a payment for costs incurred by Pakistan’s military in the war on terror.

    ____

    Gannon reported from Islamabad, Pakistan. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed.

  • Iran summit holds key to looming battle in Syria’s Idlib

    The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey began a meeting Friday in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib.

    TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey began a meeting Friday in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib.

    The summit between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action. Even before it began, an airstrike early Friday struck Idlib’s southern edge, killing at least one person.

    Rouhani, hosting the meeting, made a point to call on the U.S. to end its intervention in Syria. There are some 2,000 American forces in the country.

    “The fires of war and bloodshed in Syria are reaching their end,” Rouhani said, while adding that terrorism must “be uprooted in Syria, particularly in Idlib.”

    Each of the three nations has its own interests in the yearslong war in Syria.

    Iran wants to keep its foothold in the Mediterranean nation neighboring Israel and Lebanon. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a flood of refugees fleeing a military offensive and destabilizing areas it now holds in Syria. And Russia wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by America’s long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict.

    Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people — nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants.

    For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syria’s civil war after Syrian troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Assad.

    A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalizing, and could hurt Russia’s longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syria’s postwar reconstruction.

    For Turkey, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Turkey already hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees and has sealed its borders to newcomers. It has also created zones of control in northern Syria and has several hundred troops deployed at 12 observation posts in Idlib. A government assault creates a nightmare scenario of potentially hundreds of thousands of people, including militants, fleeing toward its border and destabilizing towns and cities in northern Syria under its control.

    Naji al-Mustafa, a spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Front for Liberation, said Friday his fighters were prepared for a battle that they expect will spark a major humanitarian crisis.

    “The least the summit can do is to prevent this military war,” he said.

    Early on Friday, a series of airstrikes struck villages in southwest Idlib, targeting insurgent posts and killing a fighter, said Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Abdurrahman said suspected Russian warplanes carried out the attack.

    Turkey also doesn’t want to see another Kurdish-controlled area rise along its border, as it already faces in northern Iraq.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Zeina Karam and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

  • U.S. Navy seizes 1,000 smuggled rifles off war-torn Yemen

    The U.S. military said early Friday it seized over 1,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles being smuggled by small ships in the Gulf of Aden amid the ongoing war in nearby Yemen.

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military said early Friday it seized over 1,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles being smuggled by small ships in the Gulf of Aden amid the ongoing war in nearby Yemen.

    The seizure by the guided-missile destroyer USS Jason Dunham may mark the first such interdiction of weapons at sea bound for Yemen in years for American forces patrolling the region.

    However, the military did not say whom they suspected of smuggling the weapons.

    A short video released by the U.S. Navy it said was taken Monday appeared to show a skiff and a dhow, a traditional ship that commonly sails the waters of the Persian Gulf region. As the vessels bob in the high waves, people on the dhow toss large boxes into the skiff.

    The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, said sailors boarded the boats Tuesday, uncovering the arms cache. Photos released by the Navy showed what appeared to be new Kalashnikov rifles wrapped in plastic.

    It said those aboard the vessels were handed over to Yemeni forces loyal to its exiled government in Saudi Arabia.

    The U.S. military did not offer a location for the seizure in the Gulf of Aden, which has Yemen to its north and Somalia to its south. Smuggling of drugs, weapons and charcoal into and out of Somalia by criminal gangs and militant groups remains common.

    The 5th Fleet repeatedly has accused Iran of smuggling arms via the sea to Yemen’s Shiite Houthi rebels, who have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since September 2014. It points to seizures over a four-week period in early 2016, when coalition warships stopped three dhows in the Arabian Sea. The dhows carried thousands of Kalashnikov assault rifles as well as sniper rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, anti-tank missiles and other weapons.

    Iran denies arming the Houthis.

    One dhow carried 2,000 new assault rifles with serial numbers in sequential order, suggesting they came from a national stockpile, a report by the group Conflict Armament Research said. The rocket-propelled grenade launchers also bore hallmarks of being manufactured in Iran, the group said.

    The U.S. has supported a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis since March 2015.

  • Yemen conflict: ‘Children killed’ in bus attack

    Map of Yemen

    Children were killed or wounded in an assault on a bus in northern Yemen, the International Committee of the Pink Go says.

    The car was once vacationing via Dahyan market within the rebel-held province of Saada on the time.

    A TELEVISION station run through the rebellion Houthi movement stories that it was hit through a Saudi-led coalition air strike.

    There was once no instant remark from the coalition, that’s backing Yemen’s govt in a struggle with the Houthis.

    The coalition has insisted it by no means deliberately objectives civilians however human rights teams have accused it of bombing markets, faculties, hospitals and residential areas.

    Yemen warfare: What you need to grasp Yemen’s struggle in 400 phrases What life is like for children in Yemen

    In a message on Twitter, the World Committee of the Crimson Pass (ICRC) in Yemen mentioned a sanatorium it supports had gained dozens of casualties.

    The head of the ICRC’s delegation within the united states later said so much of the casualties had been below the age of 10, adding that the enterprise was once sending additional provides to hospitals in the area.

    The ICRC’s communication co-ordinator in Yemen confirmed the experiences to the BBC but didn’t be offering to any extent further details.

    Almost 10,000 other folks – -thirds of them civilians – were killed because the Houthi motion took control of much of the north of the rustic, together with the capital Sanaa, in 2014, forcing President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi into exile in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

    The following year, a coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia intervened in the battle.

    Speaking to the BBC remaining month, Mr Hadi mentioned that military intervention by the Saudi-led coalition had long past on longer than expected but the selection, he delivered, was once far worse.

  • Why is there a conflict in Syria?

    A father reacts after the death of two of his children by shellfire in the rebel-held al-Ansari area of Aleppo, Syria (3 January 2013)Image copyright Reuters

    What began as a calm uprising towards Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad 5 years ago became a full-scale civil warfare that has left greater than THREE HUNDRED,000 folks dead, devastated the country and drawn in international powers.

    Why is there a warfare in Syria?

    Long earlier than the war began, many Syrians complained about high unemployment, common corruption, an absence of political freedom and state repression underneath President Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded his father, Hafez, in 2000.

    In March 2011, pro-democracy demonstrations impressed by means of the Arab Spring erupted within the southern city of Deraa. The government’s use of fatal drive to overwhelm the dissent soon induced national protests hard the president’s resignation.

    Image copyright AP Image caption Protests in the southern city of Deraa in March 2011 had been suppressed by safety forces

    because the unrest spread, the crackdown intensified. Opposition supporters started to take up fingers, first to defend themselves and later to expel security forces from their native spaces. Mr Assad vowed to overwhelm “foreign-subsidized terrorism” and restore state control.

    Symbol copyright Reuters Image caption The Town of Homs, dubbed “the capital of the revolution” suffered well-liked destruction

    The violence swiftly escalated and the rustic descended into civil conflict as masses of rebellion brigades were formed to struggle govt forces for keep an eye on of the rustic.

    Image copyright AP Image caption Executive forces have lost keep an eye on of enormous swathes of the country to various armed teams

    In essence, it has develop into greater than just a battle between the ones for or against Mr Assad.

    A key issue has been the intervention of regional and world powers, together with Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States Of America. Their military, monetary and political fortify for the federal government and opposition has contributed on to the intensification and continuation of the preventing, and grew to become Syria right into a proxy battleground.

    Exterior powers have also been accused of fostering sectarianism in what used to be a widely secular state, pitching the country’s Sunni majority in opposition to the president’s Shia Alawite sect. Such divisions have inspired both sides to devote atrocities that have not only brought about loss of life but additionally torn aside communities, hardened positions and dimmed hopes for a political payment.

    Image copyright Reuters Image caption The northern Syrian town of Raqqa is the headquarters of the jihadist staff Islamic State (IS)

    Jihadist teams have additionally seized on the divisions, and their rise has introduced a further dimension to the struggle. Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which used to be referred to as al-Nusra Front till it announced it was once breaking off formal ties with al-Qaeda in July 2016, is part of a powerful riot alliance that controls much of the north-western province of Idlib.

    Meanwhile, so-known as Islamic State (IS), which controls huge swathes of northern and eastern Syria, is battling government forces, insurrection brigades and Kurdish teams, as well as going through air strikes through Russia and a US-led multinational coalition.

    Symbol copyright AFP Symbol caption Hundreds of Iranian-sponsored Shia militiamen are helping Syrian government forces

    Heaps of Shia militiamen from Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen say they are fighting alongside the Syrian army to protect holy sites.

    Why are such a lot of outside powers concerned?

    Image copyright Reuters Symbol caption Russia’s air campaign aimed to “stabilise” the government of President Bashar al-Assad

    Russia, for whom President Assad’s survival is critical to keeping up its interests in Syria, introduced an air campaign in September 2015 with the aim of “stabilising” the federal government after a sequence of defeats. Moscow stressed out that it could aim most effective “terrorists”, but activists mentioned its moves basically hit Western-subsidized riot teams.

    Six months later, having grew to become the tide of the warfare in his best friend’s favour, President Vladimir Putin ordered the “main part” of Russia’s forces to withdraw, saying their undertaking had “at the entire” been complete. Then Again, severe Russian air and missile strikes went directly to play a big function within the government’s siege of insurrection-held japanese Aleppo, which fell in December 2016.

    Symbol copyright Reuters Image caption Rebels have received handiest limited army the aid of Western powers

    Shia power Iran is believed to be spending billions of dollars a year to reinforce the Alawite-dominated govt, providing army advisers and subsidised weapons, as well as strains of credit score and oil transfers. it’s also extensively said to have deployed hundreds of battle troops in Syria.

    Mr Assad is Iran’s closest Arab best friend and Syria is the main transit aspect for Iranian weapons shipments to the Lebanese Shia Islamist motion Hezbollah, which has despatched thousands of opponents to beef up government forces.

    Image copyright Reuters Symbol caption A US-led coalition has been carrying out air moves on Islamic State militants in Syria considering the fact that 2014

    The U.s., which says President Assad is responsible for in style atrocities and will have to step down, has provided simplest restricted military help to “moderate” rebels, frightened that complex weapons might finally end up within the hands of jihadists. For The Reason That September 2014, the us has performed air moves on IS in Syria, but it surely has not deliberately attacked executive forces.

    Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, that’s looking to counter the affect of its rival Iran, has been a big provider of army and fiscal help to the rebels, including people with Islamist ideologies.

    Symbol copyright Reuters Symbol caption Turkish troops are backing a Syrian rebellion offensive to take regulate of a northern border house

    Turkey is another staunch supporter of the rebels, but it has additionally sought to contain US-subsidized Kurdish Widespread Coverage Gadgets (YPG) opponents who’re struggling with IS in northern Syria, accusing the YPG of being an extension of the banned Turkish Kurdistan Workers’ Birthday Celebration (PKK).

    In August 2016, Turkish troops subsidized a revolt offensive to pressure IS militants out of one of the ultimate ultimate stretches of the Syrian aspect of the border now not managed via the Kurds.

    What affect has the battle had?

    Image copyright Reuters Image caption There are no reliably accurate statistics at the choice of people killed or wounded in the fighting

    The UN says a minimum of 250,000 other people have been killed in the previous 5 years. Then Again, the organization stopped updating its figures in August 2015. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UNITED KINGDOM-primarily based monitoring staff, positioned the death toll at 310,000 in December 2016, even as a think-tank expected in February 2016 that the battle had led to 470,000 deaths, either directly or not directly.

    more than 4.8 million other folks – most of them girls and children – have fled Syria. Neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey have struggled to cope with one in every of the largest refugee exoduses in contemporary history.

    Image copyright Getty Pictures

    About 10% of Syrian refugees have sought protection in Europe, sowing political divisions as countries argue over sharing the load. a further 6.3 million people are internally displaced within Syria.

    The UN estimates it is going to need $3.4bn (£2.7bn) to help the 13.5 million individuals who would require some type of humanitarian help within Syria in 2017. more than 7 million individuals are suffering from food lack of confidence and 1.75 million children are out of college.

    Image copyright AFP Image caption Virtually 1/2 Syria’s pre-battle population of 23 million has been displaced through the conflict

    The warring parties have compounded the issues through refusing humanitarian companies access to many of the ones in want. Some 4.9 million people live in besieged or laborious-to-achieve spaces.

    What’s being performed to finish the struggle?

    Image copyright Reuters Image caption Earlier makes an attempt by means of the UN to broker a political cost have failed

    With neither side able to inflict a decisive defeat at the different, the world neighborhood way back concluded that just a political answer may just finish the conflict. The UN Security Council has called for the implementation of the 2012 Geneva Communique, which envisages a transitional governing frame with complete government powers “shaped at the foundation of mutual consent”.

    Peace talks in early 2014, known as Geneva II, broke down after only two rounds, with the UN blaming the Syrian govt’s refusal to discuss opposition demands.

    A yr later, the conflict with IS lent recent impetus to the search for a political solution in Syria. The U.s. and Russia persuaded representatives of the opponents to wait “proximity talks” in Geneva in January 2016 to discuss a security Council-counseled road map for peace, including a ceasefire and a transitional duration finishing with elections.

    Symbol copyright Reuters Symbol caption a local truce within the Homs suburb of al-Wair in December 2015 allowed rebels to be evacuated

    the first spherical broke down even as nonetheless within the “preparatory” phase, as executive forces launched an offensive round Aleppo. The talks resumed in March 2016, after the united states and Russia brokered a nationwide “cessation of hostilities”. However they collapsed the next month as preventing intensified.

    What is left of insurrection territory?

    Image copyright AFP Image caption A Number Of opposition-held districts and suburbs of Damascus are below siege

    the autumn of Aleppo method the federal government now controls Syria’s 4 biggest towns. But massive portions of the rustic are nonetheless held by other armed groups.

    Rise Up opponents and allied jihadists are estimated to regulate about 15% of Syrian territory, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

    US officers mentioned in early December 2016 that there were 50,000 or more “moderate” rebels, focused in the north-western province of Idlib and the western Aleppo geographical region.

    Image copyright Reuters Symbol caption Al-Qaeda-associated jihadists are a key part of the rebel alliance controlling Idlib province

    Rebels also regulate smaller spaces within the valuable province of Homs, the southern provinces of Deraa and Quneitra, and the jap Ghouta agricultural belt out of doors Damascus.

    Kurdish forces, who say they toughen neither the government nor the opposition, meanwhile control a lot of Syria’s border with Turkey, in addition as a large part of the rustic’s north-east.

    And although they’ve suffered extensive losses within the earlier years, IS militants nonetheless hold massive parts of crucial and northern Syria, together with the town of Raqqa.

  • Moscow lashes out at Washington for charging Russians with violating Syria sanctions

    Kremlin officials on Wednesday lashed out at the Justice Department’s move to charge Russians with violating U.S. sanctions on Syria, calling it an act of “political blindness” and hostility.

    Kremlin officials on Wednesday lashed out at the Justice Department’s move to charge Russians with violating U.S. sanctions on Syria, calling it an act of “political blindness” and hostility.

    On Tuesday at federal court in Washington, DOJ officials indicted five Russian employees of a Crimean-based shipping company, Sovfracht, for allegedly money laundering and supplying jet fuel to Syria — a violation of U.S. sanctions. Three Syrians were also charged.

    On Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry responded by saying: “Washington has again demonstrated its political blindness by accusing the staff of Sovfracht public joint stock company of shipping aviation fuel to Syria.”

    According to the Russian state new service Tass, foreign ministry officials denied the fuel was bound for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and was instead “intended for units of Russia’s Aerospace Force, which are helping to fight terrorist groupings on Syrian soil.”

    Syria has endured seven years of horrendous civil war. For the past three, Russia’s air force has flown missions in support of the Assad regime — which requested help in the fall of 2015 when almost collapsed.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has long called the assistance to Assad an operation against the Islamic State. Western military observers, however, have noted that Russians planes still target territory long abandoned by the Islamic State.

    “The new anti-Russian statement is a new confirmation that the US … does not want in any way to learn the lessons of history and again, as we have already noted, is looking for an enemy in areas other than where it is actually present,” the foreign ministry added.

    Along with the charges, the eight also face large fines. According to reports on Tuesday, the defendants had not yet entered a plea and face up to 25 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

  • Kim Jong-un accepts Donald Trump’s invite to Washington, North Korea state media says

    North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has accepted President Trump’s invitation to visit Washington, North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday night.

    North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has accepted President Trump’s invitation to visit Washington, North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday night.

    The report came on the heels of the two leaders met for the first time in Singapore Tuesday for an historic summit on eliminating North Korea’s nuclear weapons. Mr. Trump had said he intended to invite Mr. Kim to visit the White House.

    At the summit, the two leaders signed a two-page document committing Mr. Kim to denuclearization, while Mr. Trump agreed to provide security guarantees for North Korea.

  • Saudi-led forces begin assault on Yemen port city of Hodeida

    A Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s exiled government began an assault Wednesday on the port city of Hodeida, the main entry for food into a country already on the brink of famine, raising warnings

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s exiled government began an assault Wednesday on the port city of Hodeida, the main entry for food into a country already on the brink of famine, raising warnings from aid agencies that Yemen’s humanitarian disaster could deepen.

    The assault on the Red Sea port aims to drive out Iranian-aligned Shiite rebels known as Houthis and their allies, who have held Hodeida since 2015, and a victory could be a major shift in a war that has been stalemated. But it could bring the first major street-to-street fighting for the coalition, a potentially dragged out battle deadly for combatants and civilians alike.

    The fear is that a protracted fight could force a shutdown of Hodeida’s port at a time when a halt in aid risks tipping millions into starvation. Some 70 percent of Yemen’s food enters the country via the port, as well as the bulk of humanitarian aid and fuel supplies. Around two-thirds of the country’s population of 27 million relies on aid and 8.4 million are even worse off, at risk of starving already.

    Before dawn Wednesday, convoys of vehicles appeared to be heading toward the rebel-held city, according to videos posted on social media. The sound of heavy, sustained gunfire clearly could be heard in the background.

    Saudi-owned satellite news channels and later state media announced the battle had begun, citing military sources. They also reported coalition airstrikes and shelling by naval ships.

    The initial battle plan appeared to involve a pincer movement. Some 2,000 troops who crossed the Red Sea from an Emirati naval base in the African nation of Eritrea landed west of the city with plans to seize Hodeida’s port, Yemeni security officials said.

    Emirati forces with Yemeni troops moved in from the south near Hodeida’s airport, while others sought to cut off Houthi supply lines to the east, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to brief journalists.

    Yemen’s exiled government “has exhausted all peaceful and political means to remove the Houthi militia from the port of Hodeida,” it said in a statement. “Liberation of the port of Hodeida is a milestone in our struggle to regain Yemen from the militias.”

    The Houthi-run Al Masirah satellite news channel later acknowledged the offensive, claiming rebel forces hit a Saudi coalition ship near Hodeida with two missiles. Houthi forces have fired missiles at ships previously.

    “The targeted ship was carrying troops prepared for a landing on the coast of Hodeida,” the channel said.

    The Saudi-led coalition did not immediately acknowledge the incident. The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, whose area of responsibility includes the Red Sea, referred questions to the Pentagon, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Forces loyal to Yemen’s exiled government and irregular fighters led by Emirati troops had neared Hodeida in recent days. The port is some 150 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital held by the Houthis since they swept into the city in September 2014. The Saudi-led coalition entered the war in March 2015 and has received logistical support from the U.S.

    Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash earlier told French newspaper Le Figaro the deadline for a withdrawal from Hodeida by the Houthis expired early Wednesday morning.

    The United Nations and other aid groups already had pulled their international staff from Hodeida ahead of the rumored assault.

    However, so far, the port remains open, with supplies arriving. Several ships arrived in the past days, including oil tankers, and there has been no word from the coalition or U.N. to stop work, according to a senior port official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

    “If this vital route for supplying food, fuel and medicine is blocked, the result will be more hunger, more people without health care and more families burying their loved ones,” Oxfam’s country director in Yemen, Muhsin Siddiquey, warned last week.

    Over 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen’s civil war, which has displaced 2 million more and helped spawn a cholera epidemic. The Saudi-led coalition has been criticized for its airstrikes killing civilians. Meanwhile, the U.N. and Western nations say Iran has supplied the Houthis with weapons from assault rifles up to the ballistic missiles they have fired deep into Saudi Arabia, including at the capital, Riyadh.

    The war has also pushed Yemen into near famine. The coalition has blockaded most ports, letting supplies into Hodeida in coordination with the U.N. A Saudi-led airstrike in 2015 destroyed cranes at Hodeida. The United Nations in January shipped in mobile cranes to help unload ships there. The air campaign and fighting has also disrupted supply lines and caused an economic crisis that made food too expensive for many to buy.

    The U.N. says some 600,000 people live in and around Hodeida, and “as many as 250,000 people may lose everything – even their lives” in the assault. Already, Yemeni security officials said some were fleeing the fighting.

    “We hear sounds of explosions. We are concerned about missiles and shells. Some workers have left to their villages for fear of the war,” said Mohammed, a Hodeida resident who gave only his first name for fear of reprisals.

    Aid workers had similar fears.

    “We have had more than 30 airstrikes within 30 minutes this morning around the city. Some civilians are entrapped, others forced from their homes,” said Jolien Veldwijk, the acting country director of the aid group CARE International, which works in Hodeida. “We thought it could not get any worse, but unfortunately we were wrong.”

    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had said that U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths was in “intense negotiations” in an attempt to avoid a military confrontation. However, Griffiths’ recent appointment as envoy and his push for new negotiations may have encouraged the Saudi-led coalition to strengthen its hand ahead of any peace talks with the Houthis.

    The attack also comes as Washington has been focused on President Donald Trump’s recent summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. A statement from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday he spoke with Emirati officials and “made clear our desire to address their security concerns while preserving the free flow of humanitarian aid and life-saving commercial imports.”

    Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Monday acknowledged the U.S. continues to provide support to the Saudi-led coalition.

    “It’s providing any intel, or anything we can give to show no-fire areas where there are civilians, where there’s mosques, hospitals, that sort of thing – (and) aerial refueling, so nobody feels like I’ve got to drop the bomb and get back now,” he said.

    It wasn’t immediately clear what specific American support the coalition was receiving Wednesday.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Ahmed al-Haj in Sanaa, Yemen; Maggie Michael in Aden, Yemen; and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.

  • Cambodia scorns US sanctions against senior military officer

    Cambodian authorities reacted with scorn Wednesday to an announcement by the United States that it has blacklisted an important senior army officer over human rights abuses, blocking his access to any

    PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) – Cambodian authorities reacted with scorn Wednesday to an announcement by the United States that it has blacklisted an important senior army officer over human rights abuses, blocking his access to any assets in the U.S.

    The Treasury Department announced sanctions Tuesday against Gen. Hing Bun Hieng, commander of Cambodia’s Prime Minister Bodyguard Unit, which it said had been engaged in serious human rights violations for at least the past 21 years.

    A Cambodian Defense Ministry statement issued Wednesday regretted and condemned the U.S. action, which it described as unjust and not backed by any evidence. It said it was a “stupid decision that Cambodia cannot accept.”

    The U.S. move came just a little over a month before a general election in which the main and only credible opposition party will not take part because it was dissolved last year by Cambodian courts in what critics contend was a politically motivated move to ensure the continued rule of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Other moves to curb the opposition have included silencing most independent media.

    Bun Hieng, a four-star general, also holds the position of deputy commander of the armed forces. The bodyguard unit is an elite force with thousands of troops which is seen as being deeply involved in internal security matters and especially loyal to Hun Sen, who has held power for three decades.

    The Treasury Department announcement said the unit “has been implicated in multiple attacks on unarmed Cambodians over the span of many years” and is “connected to incidents where military force was used to menace gatherings of protesters and the political opposition going back at least to 1997, including an incident where a U.S. citizen received shrapnel wounds.”

    The 1997 incident involved grenades being thrown at a small political protest the opposition leader was attending in the middle of the capital city, Phnom Penh. Seventeen people were killed and about 150 wounded.

    The Treasury Department action also bars U.S. citizens generally from doing any transactions with Bun Hieng.

    Bun Hieng told The Associated Press that he had not committed any human rights abuses and held no property in the United States.

    “As an army commander, I have never committed anything that was contrary to the Cambodian Constitution and laws, therefore, I am not worried at all by the U.S. sanction,” he said by telephone. “The sanctions are laughable because I don’t have any property in the U.S. or deposited with any company there.”

    Additional statements decrying the U.S. action were issued by the Foreign Ministry and the offices of the Cabinet – which said it violated Cambodia’s sovereignty – and the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. The Foreign Ministry statement said it could be construed as part of a series of coordinated attacks on the government’s image ahead of next month’s polls.

    Washington’s move was applauded by others.

    “Hin Bun Hieng’s position as commander of PM Hun Sen’s bodyguards makes him one of the most feared men in Cambodia, and with good reason. It’s about time the U.S. finally recognized that it falls to a major global power to call out such a powerful figure on human rights grounds, and hold him accountable for the atrocities he’s committed,” said Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director for the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

    The Cambodian National Rescue Party, the opposition grouping that was dissolved last year, said it welcomed the U.S. action, calling it justified because Bun Hieng was, it charged, one of the country’s biggest human rights abusers.

    It said Washington’s move should serve as a warning to Cambodia’s government that it must cease its abuses or face punishment from the international community.

  • Vladimir Putin promises economic reforms as he takes oath of office

    Vladimir Putin took the oath of office for his fourth term as Russian president on Monday and promised to pursue an economic agenda that would boost living standards across the country.

    MOSCOW (AP) — Vladimir Putin took the oath of office for his fourth term as Russian president on Monday and promised to pursue an economic agenda that would boost living standards across the country.

    In a ceremony in an ornate Kremlin hall, Putin said improving Russia’s economy following a recession partly linked to international sanctions would be a primary goal of his next six-year term.

    “Now, we must use all existing possibilities, first of all for resolving internal urgent tasks of development, for economic and technological breakthroughs, for raising competitiveness in those spheres that determine the future,” he said in his speech to thousands of guests standing in the elaborate Andreevsky Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace and two adjacent halls.

    “A new quality of life, well-being, security and people’s health — that’s what’s primary today,” he said.

    Although Putin has restored Russia’s prominence on the world stage through military actions, he has been criticized for inadequate efforts to diversify Russia’s economy away from its dependence on oil and gas exports and to develop the manufacturing sector.

    Putin held onto the presidency in March’s election when he tallied 77 percent of the vote.

    Putin has effectively been the leader of Russia for all of the 21st century. He stepped down from the presidency in 2008 because of term limits, but was named prime minister and continued to steer the country until he returned as president in 2012.