UN, US Request For Aid to Pour In Yemen as Houthi Support Truce

The Houti-controlled administration of Yemen accepted a 72-hour ceasefire beginning on Wednesday. The break in fighting is aimed to allow help to reach areas isolated by months of conflict. These places seriously require humanitarian aid.

A governing council comprised of the Iranian-aligned Houthi group and influential local allies insisted a Saudi-backed Arab coalition halt military attacks. They should also revoke restrictions on air, sea and land transport. It was the council’s first statement on the truce.

A cessation of hostilities between the warring factions will start at 2359 local time (2059 GMT) on Wednesday, the United Nations said on Monday. The truce raises hopes of an end to a conflict that has killed thousands of civilians and left people starving.

The council made know its “positive engagement” with the ceasefire plan. It added that Yemen needed an immediate, comprehensive, and lasting truce without preconditions. This includes what it called an end to the blockade of the Yemeni people.

During the ceasefire, aid agencies may attempt to get to families trapped in villages and towns. The areas where fighting and coalition-enforced travel restrictions left residents short of food and in critical need of medical supplies.

“Hopefully, this nationwide cessation will provide humanitarian agencies and organizations the opportunity to respond in areas that have been cut off or hard to reach in all of Yemen,” UN’s Yemen Humanitarian Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick said.

All combatants to cease hostilities and military movement

US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Washington that the ceasefire necessitates all parties to stop military activities. They should also help expedite the distribution of humanitarian assistance.

Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies have implemented air strikes and positioned troops in Yemen in backing the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The Houthi’s toppled Hadi’s administration in 2015.

The 19-month long war has worsened Yemen’s already critical humanitarian needs by raising levels of malnutrition and enlistment of child soldiers. Furthermore, the fighting inflicted damage on schools and infrastructure.

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Pentagon Casts Cautious Stance on Latest Yemen Missile Attack

The Pentagon refused to say on Monday whether the USS Mason was targeted again by missiles launched from Yemen on Saturday, as originally believed. It said an investigation was under way to find out what happened.

Any indication that the Houthis targeted the guided-missile destroyer on Saturday could have military ramifications. The United States has warned to strike back again should its ships come under fire from Houthi-controlled Yemen territory.

After two confirmed attempts to hit the USS Mason with coastal cruise missiles last week, the United States executed missile strikes on radar sites in Yemen on Thursday.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told a new briefing that they are still evaluating the situation. He said that there are still some aspects that they are trying to clarify given the potential threat to “our people.”

Chief of naval operations Admiral John Richardson revealed the latest incident on Saturday during an event in Baltimore. He said that the USS Mason appears to have come under attack once again in the Red Sea.

Cook acknowledged that the crew of the USS Mason responded appropriately when they detected what appeared to be a missile threat.

Nevertheless, US officials warned that facts from the incident were still under evaluation. It was not known when a conclusion might be made about how many, if any, missiles were fired at the destroyer.

The retaliatory missile strikes by the US on Thursday knocked out three coastal radar sites in Houthi territory. It was the first military action by Washington against suspected Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen’s conflict.

The war in Yemen between the Houthi group, backed by troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the Saudi Arabia-supported internationally recognized government of Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi, has been going on since March 2015.

The Houthi movement has denied firing on the USS Mason. However, it did promise to retaliate following a Saudi-led strike on a funeral assembled in Sanaa, Yemen’s Houthi-held capital, last week. the attack killed more than 140 people, according to one UN estimate.

The US has denounced the strike and vowed to reassess US military assistance to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen. Yemenis, closely associated the US military with the campaign.

On Saturday, a fact-finding body established by the Saudi-led coalition attributed a string of factors for the funeral strikes. The investigative body said the coalition received inaccurate information from Yemeni military officials that armed Houthi leaders were in the area at the time.

No justification for air-strike on 600 people

Rep. Ted Lieu, a leading campaigner in Congress for a pause in U.S. cooperation with the Saudi-led coalition, stated that explanation seemed to him like an acknowledgement of a war crime.

He said that even if some rebels had been present at the funeral, that would not justify an air-strike that targeted more than 600 civilians.

He added that the US also needs to instantly cease aiding and abetting a Saudi coalition that has committed war crimes.

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US Military Launches Missiles at Houthi Radar Sites

United States officials said the US military launched cruise missiles on Thursday to neutralize three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled Yemen territories. The attack was in retaliation to earlier failed missile strikes on a US Navy destroyer.

The Obama-authorized strikes signify Washington’s first direct military action against supposed Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen’s conflict.

Nevertheless, the Pentagon appeared to underscore the constrained nature of the strikes. The cruise missiles were aimed at radar that facilitated the launch of at least three missiles. The enemy missiles were  targeting the US Navy destroyer USS Mason on Sunday and Wednesday.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said that the limited self-defense strikes were carried out to defend “our personnel, our ships, and our freedom of navigation.”

The US Navy destroyer USS Nitze fired the Tomahawk cruise missiles around 4 a.m. (0100 GMT), US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

One of the officials said that the radars were active during earlier attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. He added that the targeted radar sites were in isolated areas where the risk of civilian casualties, therefore, was low.

The official ascertained the areas in Yemen where the radar was located as near Khoka, north of Mukha, and near Ras Isa.

The botched missile attacks on the USS Mason seemed to be part of the response to a suspected Saudi-led attack on mourners assembled in Sanaa, Yemen’s Houthi-held capital.

However, the Houthis denied any connection in Sunday’s attempt to strike the USS Mason.

Houthi’s deny missile attacks

The Houthis repeated a denial on Thursday that they carried out the strikes. A news agency regulated by the group reported a military source as saying that the missiles did not come from areas under their control.

Further, the accusations were false excuses, the source said, to intensify hostility and conceal crimes committed against the Yemeni people.

US officials have said there were mounting indications that Houthi forces were responsible for Sunday’s attempted strikes.

The missile attacks add to questions about safety of passage for military vessels near the Bab al-Mandab Strait. On October 1, a missile strike on a ship from the United Arab Emirates took place.

The Pentagon warned against any future attacks. “The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate,” Cook said.

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US Destroyer Attacked Again From Houthi Territory in Yemen

In a second incident in four days, a US Navy destroyer was targeted in a failed missile attack from Iran-aligned Houthi rebel territory in Yemen on Wednesday, the US military said.

The Pentagon said the USS Mason fired defensive salvos in retaliation to at least one missile. The missile did not hit the ship as it sailed north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait. There are signs that the second salvo brought down an incoming missile, one US official who requested anonymity said.

The latest stab at targeting the US Navy warship will add pressure on the US military to hit back. If that happens, that would signify the first direct US military action against Houthis in Yemen’s conflict. The Pentagon said it would respond in at the proper and in the proper manner.

Retaliation for Funeral Strike

The United States supplies US weapons to Saudi Arabia and provided aerial refueling to a Saudi-led coalition attacking Yemen. Washington Institute for Near East Policy analyst Michael Knights said the missile attacks seemed to be the Houthis response to a strike on funeral-goers assembled in Yemen’s Houthi-held capital Sanaa last weekend. The attack was broadly blamed on Saudi-led forces.

The US government says it is evaluating its support for Saudi-led forces in Yemen following Saturday’s strike. The attack killed more than 140 people.

Knight said the targeting of US warship indicated the Houthis could come to be more militarily affiliated with groups like Lebanon’s Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah.

The USS Mason was also the target of a botched missile strike off Yemen on Sunday.

Along with an October 1 attack on a vessel for the United Arab Emirates, the missile incidents raise uncertainties about safety of passage for military ships across the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

The Houthis denied any connection in the previous attempt to strike the USS Mason. But US officials said there are mounting indications that Houthi rebels were to blame for Sunday’s incident.

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Growing Evidence Points to Houthi Role in Attack On US Destroyer

Despite denials of accountability in Sunday’s missile attack on a Navy Destroyer off the Yemen coast, United States officials said that there are increasing signs that Iran-allied Houthi rebels are responsible.

The US officials are not allowed to speak publicly due to the ongoing investigation. They said that the rebels seemed to use small skiffs as spotters. These tiny vessels help lead a missile attack on the USS Mason.

The US is also investigating the likelihood that a Houthi radar station in Yemen may have also “painted” the warship.

The incident threatens to provoke the first US military action against Houti’s in Yemen’s conflict. However, neither of the two missiles launched from Houthi-controlled territory on Sunday hit the USS Mason.

Possible retaliatory strike

The Houthis have publicly denied any part in the strike. But details of Sunday’s incident that are coming out would provide added support to the Pentagon’s contentions that the facts point to Houthi involvement. The US military even implied on Tuesday at possible arrangements for a retaliatory strike.

The Pentagon declared, anybody who takes action against US Navy vessels in international waters do so at their own peril.

The US military has acknowledged that only the first of the two missiles came close enough to activate the USS Mason’s defenses. But it is still unclear if those defenses were needed to prevent a direct hit or whether they caused the missile to splash down early. It was also not known whether the missile would have fallen short anyway.

The second missile was fired an hour later. The USS Mason did not consider it necessary to use its defenses since the missile was far enough away from the warship.

The Houthis had previously avoided targeting US military ships.

The Zaydi fighters drove the Saudi Arabia-supported Yemen President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi from the capital in 2014. They are allied to Hadi’s predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh and have the support of several army units. They control most of North Yemen including its capital, Sanaa.

The conflict in Yemen killed more than 10,000 people so far. It also brought parts of the country to the verge of starvation.

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