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Houthis step up drone attacks on Saudi Arabia after Washington says it will remove militant group from terrorist list
14 Feb, 2021 15:11
Houthi supporters hold up their weapons during a demonstration outside the US embassy in Sanaa, Yemen January 18, 2021. © REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
The Houthis have carried out a drone attack on an airport in Saudi Arabia, following similar attacks that have coincided with the Biden administration’s decision to lift the group’s terrorist designation.
A spokesman for the Iran-aligned Yemini group said that two drones launched on Sunday by its forces had hit Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport. The Saudi-led coalition claims that both projectiles were intercepted as they were heading towards civilian areas near Abha.
The airport has been repeatedly targeted by Houthi drones over the past several days. On Saturday, the Houthis announced that they had carried out a strike against the air hub with “high accuracy.” The Saudis disputed the claim, saying that they had destroyed the drone before it reached its target. Earlier, on Wednesday, Riyadh said that a Houthi air attack had caused a civilian aircraft at Abha to catch fire.
The Houthis have insisted that the attacks are a legitimate form of retaliation, noting that the airfield has been used by the Saudi coalition to carry out its bombing campaign inside Yemen.
The recent strikes have coincided with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Friday announcement that he will reverse the former Trump administration’s terrorist designation of the Houthis. The change is slated to take effect on February 16. The last-minute move by the Trump administration to label the Houthis as a terrorist outfit was widely criticized, with many arguing that the designation would hamper humanitarian efforts in war-torn Yemen.
However, Blinken said that senior members of the organization could still face targeted sanctions.
Saudi Arabia responded to the policy shift by stating that it would still view the Houthis as a terrorist organization and would use military force to counter it.
The Houthi movement began in northern Yemen in the 1990s in opposition to alleged American and Israeli influence in the region. The Islamic political group led protests in late 2014 that provided a route to the eventual overthrow of the government. In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition invaded Yemen in an attempt to push the Houthis out and reinstall the pro-Saudi president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.
President Joe Biden announced earlier this month that the US military would stop supporting the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen, but stressed that American forces would continue to help Riyadh defend its “sovereignty.”
Iran concealing weapons stockpiles in UN containers
at Damascus airport
Revolutionary Guards establish dummy container terminal adjacent to Damascus International Airport to store missiles, missile parts prior to their distribution to pro-Iranian militias across Syria, news site aligned with rebel fighters reports.
By Neta Bar, Israel Hayom
Published on 02-14-2021 15:08
A view of Damascus International Airport | Photo: Tim Brakemeier
Tehran is using UN containers to conceal weapons stockpiles at the Damascus International Airport, according to a report in the Voice of Damascus, a news site aligned with Syrian rebel fighters.
According to a source employed at private company, Iran's Revolutionary Guards have set up a dummy container terminal adjacent to the airport. Containers at the site bear the names of the UN and international shipping company DHL.
The Iranians are using the new terminal as a temporary distribution center for storing weapons, in particular missiles and missile parts, prior to their distribution throughout Syria. According to the source, the terminal is situated just 200 meters (yards) from the airport, which was targeted by Israel in the past for its use by the Revolutionary Guards to arm Hezbollah and other pro-Iranian militias and Hezbollah.
The facility is guarded by members of the Revolutionary Guards, according to the report, and airport workers are prevented from getting near the site. The terminal holds over 25 containers formerly used by the UN.
Wonder if it will still be there in the morning?
5-person ISIS cell in Germany plotted to kill YouTuber,
played paintball to hone attack skills – prosecutors
15 Feb, 2021 14:18
German police © REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
Five alleged members of the Islamic State who are suspected of plotting attacks and radicalizing Muslims have been indicted on weapons and terrorism charges in Germany, federal prosecutors said on Monday.
Four of the suspects, named only as Farhodshoh K., Muhammadali G., Azizjon B. and Sunatullokh K., were arrested in Germany on April 15, 2020, while the fifth person, Komron B. was detained on April 3.
The five in custody all hail from Tajikistan and were members of a terrorist cell in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a statement from the federal prosecutor's office said.
The group is alleged to have radicalized young Muslims and provided financial support for the cause of "IS in Khorasan Province," a regional wing of the terrorist group active in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Prosecutors claim the group honed their military skills at paintball games in preparation for planned attacks against 'infidels' in Germany as part of their alleged mission in Europe.
During these training sessions, the cell is said to have rubbed shoulders with associates of 20-year-old Kujtim Fejzullai, the Austrian-born gunman who killed four people in Vienna in November 2020 before being shot dead by police.
German prosecutors also said the suspects obtained instructions and the ingredients to produce "various explosives," including Molotov cocktails and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
They are also alleged to have taken on a contract kill on an Albanian businessmen for $40,000 – the proceeds of which were to be sent on to fund IS terrorists outside Germany.
But prosecutors said the assassination attempt failed due to the group not being able to identify the target, and the gun and silencer – procured from a Chechen contact in Austria – were to be used for another hit.
This new operation was to kill an "Islam-critical YouTuber" in the German city of Neuss, (a suburb of Dusseldorf) and pictures of his body were then to be posted online, as agreed with a high-ranking Afghan IS contact, according to prosecutors.
The would-be killers, Sunatullokh K. and Ravsan B., apparently tracked down their victim and found his home address, but the attack was foiled by German intelligence. The pair were arrested, and the weapon seized.
One member of the group in Germany allegedly organized for €18,000 ($25,000) to be taken by two couriers by plane to Turkey, where it would then be sent on to fund IS activities in Syria, prosecutors said.
Turkish president accuses US of supporting Kurdish PKK ‘terrorists’
after 13 killed in Iraq
15 Feb, 2021 13:59
FILE PHOTO. © Turkish National Defence Ministry / Handout / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the US of supporting PKK “terrorists” and other militant groups, dismissing America’s statement condemning the murder of thirteen Turks in Iraq as “ridiculous.”
The US condemned the killings of the Turkish kidnap victims on Sunday, with US State Department spokesman Ned Price stating that “The United States deplores the death of Turkish citizens in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq,” making clear that, if the PKK was responsible, the US condemns “this action in the strongest possible terms.”
Erdogan rejected America’s “ridiculous” statement and called on the US to stop supporting the “terrorist” PKK, as well as the YPG and PYD, which Ankara sees as linked to the PKK.
If we are to continue this union with you in the world, in NATO,
you will not stand by the terrorists.
Thirteen Turkish citizens were killed in northern Iraq last week by Kurdish fighters aligned with the PKK, according to Ankara’s military chief. The fatalities came after Turkey finished a military operation in the region, which killed 48 Kurds and three Turks during three days of fighting.
In a veiled attack on the United States and terrorist organizations that have threatened Ankara, the Turkish president warned that “there is neither a terrorist organization, nor a pawn power that can stand in front of the Turkish Army.”
Ankara wants the US to recognize the PKK as a terrorist organization, with Erdogan highlighting that this is “not the PKK’s first massacre of civilians.” The Biden administration has, so far, resisted these calls and continued the previous military support that America has given to the PKK and YPG.
During the war on ISIS in Iraq and Syria, America relied heavily on Kurds to do most of the 'boots on the ground' work. To abandon them now would seriously damage American credibility among its allies.
Following Erdogan’s declaration, Turkey summoned the US ambassador in the country to reiterate “in the strongest terms” the president’s feeling that America’s statement was “ridiculous”.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK, has sought to secure autonomy for Kurds in part of Turkey for several decades. The Turkish government sees the party as a terrorist organization and has sought to crack down on its leaders and supporters. Ankara’s leadership views the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in a similar manner, deeming it an offshoot of the PKK that operates in Syria.
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