TAIZ, YEMEN — A recent Saudi Coalition airstrike on the home of a prominent Yemeni businessman in Taiz destroyed not only a family home but also the hopes of the many Yemenis who rely on the generosity of philanthropic donors, as international aid agencies become increasingly beholden to the political interests of their largest benefactors.
SOCOTRA, YEMEN — A.S. al-Socotri remembers fondly the strange beauty of the quiet island of Socotra with its amazing dreamlike vegetation, with no boats in the sea, no lights, no planes in the sky. “Now,” al-Socotri, a resident of the island, tells MintPress, “a never-before-seen military build-up has changed the reality on this quiet Island.”
HODEIDA, YEMEN — News that a U.S. government drone was shot down over Yemen’s port city of Hodeida has provoked anger among local residents, who say it is clear evidence of direct U.S. involvement in a war which has resulted in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN, and has left almost 25 million people in need of aid.
HODEIDA, YEMEN — “This is our Eid gift from Saudi Arabia,” a visitor to a private hospital in Hodeida told MintPress as he pulled back a blood-soaked blue plastic cover draping the lifeless body of his child. The girl, whose torso and arms were dotted with holes from high-caliber bullets, did not make it to her second birthday — she was killed in a barrage of gunfire let loose by Saudi Coalition gunmen as they peppered residential neighborhoods on Al-Shuhada Street in the al Hali directorate of Hodeida.
SANA’A, YEMEN — Massive demonstrations took place across Yemen’s major provinces on Friday to oppose a meeting of leaders of Arab and Islamic countries who gathered in Saudi Arabia. Demonstrators also rallied against the Trump administration’s “Deal of the Century” — as Friday is also international “Quds Day,” when protests are held across the world to show solidarity with Palestinians.
SANA’A, YEMEN — “I struggled for 30 years to build a house and an airplane comes and destroys it in seconds,” 55-year-old Ahmed al-Sulmi al-Hubeishi told MintPress. Ahmed lost four of his children last week — Seham, Abdul Rahman, Khalid, and Waseem — when Saudi airstrikes targeted a residential neighborhood in Sana`a’s al-Ruguss district. “Now, there is nothing left — even the games that remind me of my children have been destroyed.”
NAJRAN-SAUDI ARABIA — The Saudi-led Coalition’s war on Yemen shows little sign of dwindling, and now over four years after it began, its borders are increasingly fluid as Yemen’s Houthi movement increasingly takes the fight to Saudi Arabia’s soil.
HAJJAH, YEMEN — Saudi Arabia has claimed that its air defenses shot down two ballistic missiles over the city of Taif, just 65 kilometers east of Mecca, in the early hours of Monday morning. Saudi officials claim that another missile was intercepted over the Haddah in western Saudi Arabia.
SANA’A, YEMEN — “Where am I?” muttered 50-year-old Ahmed Sharf al Adeini, as neighbors pulled him from the rubble of his home after it was hit by a Saudi airstrike. Al Adeini lost his wife and children in the attack and later died after succumbing to his injuries at the al Thwarah General Hospital.
A high-ranking Houthi military official speaking on condition of anonymity has confirmed to MintPress that Houthi forces successfully launched a major operation against a strategic economic target in Saudi Arabia. The operation, which saw seven unmanned drones carry out an attack on two oil pumping stations, came in retaliation for Saudi attacks on civilians as well as renewed Saudi-led Coalition attacks on Hodeida following a recent Houthi withdrawal.
