Yemen denies US involvement in Saada raid

By Faisal Darem in Sanaa
For Al-Shorfa.com
2009-12-17

[KHALED FAZAA/AFP/Getty Images] The Yemeni army has its own air force to carry out operations, officials said.

US forces were not involved in an aerial attack on a Houthi rebel base north of Yemen, an army spokesman told Al-Shorfa on Thursday (December 17th).

"There are no American or foreign planes participating in the war that the army is fighting against the Houthi rebels", Askar Zuail, official spokesman for the Yemeni army said. "The Yemeni army has [its own] air force to carry out such operations."

Zuail said he "categorically rejects" these accusations.

A statement attributed to Houthi rebels on Tuesday announced the killing of 120 prisoners and the injuring of more than 44 civilians in an air raid targeting a prisoner camp. They demanded that the Yemeni authorities "bear their historical responsibility for the extermination of civilians at the hands of American and Saudi Arabian air forces".

The rebels also accused the US of bombing two mosques in the city of Al-Talh north of Saada city, in addition to carrying out "more than 13 air raids" in the cities of Dahyan and Saqin.

The statement was carried by Iranian media, which Yemen officials accuse of inciting the rebels in the north. Zuail said the latest accusations were "part of an Iranian propaganda campaign."

Political analysts in Yemen believe the motivation behind the Houthi accusations is to exaggerate their strength, in addition to gaining popular support.

"These accusations are baseless," said Dr. Faris al-Saqaf, President of the Future Studies Centre. "Their aim is to deliver a number of media messages, including a claim that the war they are fighting has become international, having made it regional by drawing Saudi Arabia into the battle."

Al-Saqaf added that "the Houthis are near defeat", saying that "they are claiming to be fighting a great power to justify their closely anticipated defeat".

Meanwhile political analyst Said Thabit said that the Houthi accusation against the Americans "is merely a new tactic to justify to their supporters the painful blows they received from the Saudi Arabian air force, and to claim that they are facing an international power rather than a local one".

"The Houthi accusations are unrealistic for three reasons: The first is that the United States has not announced that it considers the Houthis an enemy, or described them as a terrorist group as happened with Al-Qaeda," Thabit told Al-Shorfa. "Secondly, Yemen and Saudi Arabia are carrying out the campaign against the Houthis, and both of them, Saudi Arabia in particular, have effective air weaponry. The third reason is that the Americans do not want to be involved in a military air operations carried out in Yemen."

Meanwhile, Zuail said the army is continuing its campaign of combing neighbourhoods in Saada. "The army has completed combing 10 out of 12 areas in the old city of Saada. The military clampdown is also nearing its end in the Harf Sufyan and Al-Malahiz areas," he said.

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