 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Saudi army has lost 113 troops since the kingdom launched a sweeping offensive against neighboring Yemen's Shiite rebels in early November, a military commander said in comments published Thursday. The kingdom's well-funded but largely untested military joined the fray after Shiite rebels from Yemen crossed the border into Saudi Arabia on Nov. 5, killing two Saudi border guards. The Al Riyadh newspaper quoted Maj. Gen. Ali Zaid al-Khawaji as saying the dead include a senior Saudi officer whose body was found with those of two soldiers after a battle last week to drive rebels out of a border village. The latest toll is a significant jump from last week, when assistant defense minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan said the Saudis had 82 dead and 470 wounded. The mounting toll underscores the ferocity of the fighting with the poorly armed Yemeni Hawthi rebels, who have been battling their own government since 2004 over neglect and discrimination. The rebels have gained a reputation for being wily adversaries, taking full advantage of the rugged mountainous terrain of their homes in northern Yemen. The Saudis have been relying on artillery and air power to defeat the rebels without risking manpower, but the casualties mostly come from mob-up operations in rebel stronghold villages. Saudi chief of staff Gen. Saleh ben Ali Al-Mohaya said the war "is close to a guerrilla war." Al-Khawaji, the commander of the southern Saudi region, identified the dead officer as Lt. Col. Saeed Ma'tuq al-Omari from Saudi parachutist units and a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War. "There are field units searching for more bodies," al-Khawaji told the paper. The world's largest oil supplier, Saudi Arabia has used its military only once before since the kingdom was established in 1932. Saudi troops played a token role in the U.S.-led effort to drive Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in 1991. Yemen, the Arab world's poorest nation, has been in the limelight since a Yemen-based wing of al-Qaida said it was behind a failed Dec. 25 plot to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner. FoxNews
 SAN'A, Yemen — Yemen's government is escalating its internal conflicts that threaten to throw the country into greater chaos even as it ramps up the fight against Al Qaeda with U.S. help. The military says that Yemeni troops have launched new assaults against Shiite rebels in the north, killing dozens of rebels. The rebellion has been raging for years on the capital's northern doorstep. Also, lethal clashes erupted in the past week between protesters and security forces struggling to put an end to a secessionist movement in the once-independent south. The violence comes as counter-terror forces on Saturday conducted exercises outside San'a, attacking a mock Al Qaeda hideout and practicing a hostage-rescue operation. Foxnews
 SHI'ITE rebels battling government forces in north Yemen are ready for talks with Sanaa once the government declares an end to hostilities, a rebel spokesman says. "When the war stops we will be ready for dialogue,'' Mohammed Abelsalam told AFP in Dubai by telephone, adding that he was reacting to an appeal from President Ali Abdullah Saleh. In an article published yesterday to mark the new year, Saleh appealed for reason from the insurgents. He urged the Zaidi rebels to agree to the conditions laid down by the government for a return to peace, saying they should cease hostilities, withdraw from official buildings and respect the law. "If these elements accept this plea for peace, the state will offer the hand of peace,'' he wrote in the government daily Al-Thawra. Abdelsalam said the rebels would announce their acceptance of the government's terms once it "brings a definitive end'' to military operations against them in the north. Last August 11, government forces launched "Operation Scorched Earth,'' an all-out offensive to stamp out the uprising among the Zaidis, a minority in mainly Sunni Yemen but the majority group in the northern mountains. The Australian
 Click here for my second FrontPage Magazine article this week, this one discussing the dynamics of the war in Yemen. The Yemeni government (along with the Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians and Moroccans) are trying to fight back the Iranian-supported Houthi rebels, some of whom are being trained by the Revolutionary Guards in Eritrea. This is a full-blown proxy war. Now, at the same time, the already-stretched-thin Yemeni government is expected to fight Al-Qaeda, which it has tried to strike deals and truces with just like Pakistan has tried to do.
The Yemeni security forces has high-level sympathizers of Salafi extremism, and so the comparison is pretty solid.
If the U.S. wants Yemen to stop tolerating Al-Qaeda and other radical Sunni elements as a way of fighting the Shiite Houthis, then the U.S. will need to threaten the Yemenis as well as offer to be a far better partner than those militants ever could be. World Threats
 KARACHI, Pakistan — Authorities appealed for calm Tuesday after a bombing against a Shiite Muslim procession killed 43 in Pakistan's largest city of Karachi, setting off riots and igniting fears of sectarian unrest. Security was tight as thousands of people gathered in central Karachi for funerals of some of those killed in Monday's bombing of a Shiite procession marking the key holy day of Ashoura. The attack sparked riots as people rampaged through the city, setting fire to markets and stores. Firefighters were still battling the flames Tuesday, with authorities calling for reinforcements from the city of Hyderabad, 105 miles north of Karachi, Pakistan's main commercial hub. Karachi Mayor Mustafa Kamal said the city's largest wholesale market was on fire, and that hundreds of shops had been destroyed, with damages estimated to run into millions of dollars. Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who visited Karachi on Tuesday, said authorities were still trying to determine whether the attack had been carried out by a suicide bomber, as he had said Monday. "The investigation is still going on to determine whether it was a suicide attack or some improvised explosive device was used," said Malik, who appealed for calm and said he had ordered an investigation into who was behind the rioting. "If anyone is trying to cripple Karachi, then he is also trying to cripple Pakistan," the minister said. Senior health official Hashim Malik said the death toll increased to 43 on Tuesday. Many among the dozens wounded were critically hurt, and several died overnight and on Tuesday morning. Karachi has largely been spared the Taliban-linked violence that has struck much of the rest of the country, a fact that analysts believe is driven by the group's tendency to use the teeming metropolis as a place to rest and raise money. But the city has been the scene of frequent sectarian, ethnic and political violence. It was unclear who was behind Monday's bombing. Pakistani authorities say sectarian groups have teamed up with Taliban and al-Qaida militants waging war against the government in a joint effort to destabilize Pakistan. More than 500 people have been killed in attacks since mid-October when the army launched a major anti-Taliban offensive in the country's northwest. "A deliberate attempt seems to be afoot by the extremists to turn the fight against militants into a sectarian clash and make the people fight against one another," said President Asif Ali Zardari in a statement Monday. Monday's bombing struck at the start of a procession of Shiites marking Ashoura, the most important day of a monthlong mourning period for the seventh-century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein. Minority Shiites have suffered frequent attacks by Sunni extremist groups who regard them as heretical. "I fell down when the bomb went off with a big bang," said Naseem Raza, a 26-year-old who was marching in the procession. "I saw walls stained with blood and splashed with human flesh." Residents in apartments near the blast site tossed down body parts that had been cast into their homes from the explosion, while birds dove down to pick at the flesh amid damaged vehicles and motorbikes. More at FoxNews 
 THE death toll from a suicide attack outside a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Pakistani-administered Kashmir rose to seven after two people died overnight, officials say. The attack in Muzaffarabad came as Pakistan put tens of thousands of security forces on alert, fearing sectarian clashes and militant attacks as millions of Shi'ites mark the seventh-century killing of Imam Hussein.
Officials said the bomber tried to enter the mosque, which was crowded with Shi'ites gathering to pray on the eve of Ashura in Pakistan.
"The death toll has reached seven in the suicide blast. Two people died overnight in hospital," said deputy Muzaffarabad commissioner Chaudhry Imtiaz.
Rashid Shah, a police official, confirmed the toll, saying: "There are three policemen and four civilians among the dead."
During Ashura, worshippers clad in black march through the streets, flailing themselves with chains to commemorate the killing of Imam Hussein by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680.
 Basra was once a stronghold for the Shiite militias backed by Iran. Non-Shiites were persecuted, alcohol was banned, women dressing too Western were attacked, and a mini-theocracy had emerged. Then, al-Maliki took on these militias and the surge happened. Contrast this report with this one. MEMRI’s report is posted in full here: The absence of censorship over the sale of books, magazines, DVDs and CDs in Basra, the second largest city in Iraq, and across Iraq in general, has allowed bookstores to offer their customers all titles. Recently, secular and even pornographic books are selling at a more rapid pace than the religious Shi’a books published in Iran and Beirut, some of which advocate hatred and violence. The book by Sheikh ‘Abbas Abd Al-Nur (Egyptian) titled “My Ordeal with the Koran and Allah’s Ordeal in the Koran” which is banned in Cairo, Damascus and most Arab countries is selling in Basra “like ice cream in the summer.” Freedom is unlimited. The provincial governor has permitted the sale of alcoholic beverages because denying their sale will violate individual freedoms guaranteed under the constitution. Source: Sotiliraq, December 1, 2009 What’s important to notice is that armed extremists weren’t just defeated–their ideology was. This isn’t just a stunning turn-around in terms of security, but of culture and society. Word Threats
 After all, no one's actually tried to stop them yet. As elementary psychology observes, behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated. "Iran authorizes 10 new nuke plants, state media say," from CNN, November 29: (CNN) -- Iran's Cabinet has authorized the construction of another 10 uranium enrichment plants, its state news agency announced Sunday, further defying international calls to halt its production of nuclear fuel. The Iranian Cabinet approved existing plans for five more facilities similar to its current plant at Natanz and ordered planning for five more to begin, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The dispatch quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying that the new plants will be used to produce fuel for civilian nuclear power stations. The move comes two days after the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, passed a resolution demanding that Iran stop construction on a previously secret nuclear facility at Qom. The proximity to Qom is significant on more than one level: first, it reflects Ahmadinejad's obsession with the return of the Mahdi according to the Shi'ite tradition. But also, if Western powers were to attack the nuclear site, any collateral damage would be trumpeted as an act of brazen "Islamophobia" and used to drum up outrage and calls for revenge from Iran and the broader Islamic world. The IAEA also repeated calls for Iran to stop its uranium enrichment program. The agency said it would not comment on Sunday's announcement. Iran has said its uranium enrichment program is aimed at producing fuel for civilian power plants. But the United States and other countries have accused Tehran of working toward a nuclear bomb, and the IAEA's Friday resolution stated that Iran's refusal to comply with international demands "does not contribute to the building of confidence." Nor does the IAEA's track record of minimal, largely symbolic action. Thanks to JihadWatch
 BY HANIN GHADDAR The story of Hezbollah's halal hookups. Mohammad, a 40-year old Lebanese Shiite who lives in Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs, was holding forth on the virtues of resistance, loyalty, and sex. "You could create the most loyal army by providing political power, social services and fulfilling the desires of your men -- namely, sexual ones," he declared. "And Hezbollah has been very successful in this regard," Mohammad continued.
It is hard to disagree.
Hezbollah liberated South Lebanon from Israeli occupation, expanded the Shiite community's political power within the country, and has provided social services, such as health care and education, to its constituency since the 1980s. Today, it is also working to fulfill the sexual needs of its supporters, though a practice known as mutaa marriage. Mutaa is a form of "temporary marriage" only acceptable within Shiite communities, one that allows couples to have religiously sanctioned sex for a limited period of time, without any commitments, and without the obligatory involvement of religious figures.
In conservative Muslim societies known for their strict sense of propriety, mutaa offers an escape clause. The contract is very simple. The woman says: "I marry myself to you for [a specific period of time] and for [a specified dowry]" and the man says: "I accept." The period can range between one hour and a year, and is subject to renewal.
A Muslim woman can only marry a Muslim man, but a Muslim man can temporarily marry a Muslim, Christian, or Jewish woman, as long as she is a divorcée or a widow. However, those interviewed for this article confirmed that Hezbollah-the "Party of God"-has allowed the practice to spread to virgins or girls who have never married before, as long as the permission of her guardian (father or paternal grandfather) is obtained. Temporary marriage has long been practiced by Shiites around the world. However, it has recently become more commonplace in Lebanon, notably within Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs and in southern Lebanon after the 2006 war with Israel, Hezbollah's recent encouragement of this phenomenon highlights the compromises it had been required to make in order to remain the preeminent force among its domestic Shiite constituency. As the party gained strength due to its effectiveness in fighting Israel, it was forced to cope with the reality that many Lebanese Shiites did not share the Iranian-inspired religious beliefs of Hezbollah's leaders.
They came to dominate a community that was shaped by the secular leftist trends of the 1970s and 1980s, and the cosmopolitan culture embodied by Beirut. Today, Lebanese Shiites are exposed to pop icons such as sexpot singer Haifa Wehbe, countless Western advertisements and programs, and technological innovations such as online dating. More at Foreign Policy
 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia says nine of its soldiers fighting Yemeni rebels on the border are missing and the kingdom's monarch is vowing to defend the country. A defense ministry statement said the fate of the soldiers remains unknown.
The statement was a reaction to reports that the soldiers were captured by Yemeni rebels. Saudi Arabia has unleashed an offensive against Yemeni Shiite rebels who crossed into the kingdom and killed a Saudi soldier earlier this month.
The rebels have been fighting Yemen's central government for five years, destabilizing the already impoverished nation that has become fertile ground for Al Qaeda. Saudi King Abdullah said Friday his country will not allow anyone to "desecrate" its lands. FoxNews
 By Dr. Hamad Al-Majid The Iranian media chorus wishes to mislead the Arab and Islamic world into believing that the Saudi Arabian military conflict in its southern border region with the Huthi insurgents is nothing more than a sectarian conflict against the Zaidi Shiites.
According to Iranian publications and "Iranized" media, such as newspapers and Arab satellite channels, Saudi Arabia's defense of its national borders is being portrayed as a Salafi or Wahabi conflict against the oppressed Huthi Shiites. It does not require a lot of effort to disprove this and expose those who are promoting such false information as Saudi Arabia has been fighting a fierce war against extremists, takfiris, and terrorists, all of whom are either followers or ideological supporters of the Al Qaeda organization. These groups are undoubtedly cloaked in the Salafi ideology, however despite this the "Salafi" Saudi Arabia has not shown them any mercy, and has not hesitated to pursue and destroy them, both physically and ideologically.
This is because these groups have stepped over the line and threatened the country from within by targeting Saudi Arabia's security headquarters, economic infrastructure, and also its political figures.
Only a tiny minority of those with low self esteem in the Sunni Salafi Saudi Arabia sympathies with those who raise these Salafi slogans. Those who follow this ideology are psychologically troubled, and if they were free to do as they pleased, they would ultimately end up attacking one another, in the same way that fire consumes itself when it runs out of fuel. The Huthi insurgents and the Salafi takfirist terrorists are equally threatening. The former picked a quarrel in Saudi Arabia's border region and sent in armed fighters to infiltrate the Saudi interior, while the takfirists are comprised of psychologically disturbed [Saudi] citizens who want to destabilize the country from within. More at Asharq Alawsat
 by Stephen Brown While the fighting in Afghanistan continues to dominate news coverage, one Middle Eastern country has emerged as a leading flashpoint of Islamic terrorism. Yemen, most recently in the headlines as the home of Anwar al Awlaki, the exiled imam who fled to the country after inspiring Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hasan, has become a haven for al-Qaeda even as its internal turmoil has drawn in regional rivals like Iran and Saudi Arabia. Yemen is the poorest and most unstable of all Middle Eastern countries. Located in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, it occupies a strategic position that makes the country difficult to ignore.
At its south-western tip, Yemen straddles one side of the strategic, 20-mile wide Mandab Strait that connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea, a vital international shipping lane leading to the Suez Canal. Equally important for world commerce, Saudi Arabia’s oil fields lie just across Yemen’s northern border. It is Yemen’s northern area, particularly the Saada region, which is beginning to attract international attention. A bitter civil war there is threatening to turn into a regional conflict pitting Iran against Saudi Arabia. A rebellion among Saada’s Shiite tribes, called the Houthis (the name of the clan leading the revolt), against Yemen’s central government has seen the two rival Muslim states stake out sides in the conflict. Iran, which champions the Shiite cause throughout the Islamic world, has reportedly sent combatants from its own Revolutionary Guards as well as from Hezbollah, its proxy Shiite fighting force in Lebanon, to help the Houthis. Last month, Yemen’s navy exposed the extent of Iran’s involvement in the conflict when it seized a ship off its coast carrying Iranian arms for the Shiite rebels. Saudi Arabia, the leader of Islam’s majority Sunni branch and home of the intolerant and anti-Shiite Wahhabi doctrine, has been backing Yemen’s government with money and weapons of its own.
But a Houthi incursion across the porous and mountainous Saudi-Yemeni border earlier this month, in which three Saudi villages were seized and a border guard killed changed that.
The Saudi government reacted immediately to this escalation, sending warplanes to bomb Houthi positions in Yemen’s mountainous northern region and an army column across the border to confront the rebels directly. More at FrontPage Magazine
 BAGHDAD — A top aide to Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader on Friday urged the country's fractious political blocs to solve a crisis over a key election law that threatens to delay national polls planned for January. Sheik Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalaie, the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the holy city of Karbala, told worshippers during his regular Friday sermon that failure to break the deadlock could lead to a "constitutional vacuum" that would create "great dangers for Iraq." "I call upon all brothers in the political blocs to reach a reasonable solution so that elections can take place on time and avoid these consequences and dangers," al Karbalaie said. Parliament is to vote Saturday on how to resolve the crisis triggered by Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi's veto of the legislation earlier this week. Al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, wants more seats allocated for Iraqis living abroad, many of whom are Sunni. Lawmakers spent weeks wrangling over the long-delayed bill before finally passing it on Nov. 8, much to the relief of Iraqi leaders and the United States. But the veto threw into question whether the vote can be held by the end of January, as mandated in Iraq's constitution. While al-Sistani's words carry great weight with his fellow Shiites — most of whom support the election law — they hold no power over those who have objected to the election legislation — al-Hashemi and other Sunni Arab politicians, as well as Iraq's Kurds. Earlier this week, Kurdish leaders threatened to boycott the elections unless the three provinces they control in northern Iraq are guaranteed more seats in the next parliament, which will expand from the current 275 seats to 323. Lawmakers plan to vote on two options: sending the same election law back to the three-member presidency council, where it is likely to be vetoed again, or amending the law to address al-Hashemi's concerns. If the legislation is vetoed a second time, parliament can override it with a three-fifths majority. Washington has tied the pace of a major troop drawdown to the elections. So far, U.S. military commanders say their timetable for withdrawing all combat troops by the end of August 2010 are still on track. FoxNews
 Debka is reporting that IAEA inspectors turned up evidence that Iran has a plutonium program in addition to its uranium program fro making nuclear weapons. The IAEA experts discovered 30 metric tons-IS of heavy water hidden in 600 tanks, each holding 13 gallons, according to the report they handed in last week to agency headquarters in Vienna. From the shape of the tanks and other indications, the experts concluded that this stock had not come from the heavy water plant at Arak but was imported. Metric tons-IS measure the amount of energy a given quantity can release. The force and types of nuclear bombs are gauged in kilotons or megatons.
The American nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in World War II was equal to 20 kilotons of TNT. By this standard, the amount of heavy water discovered at Isfahan would be enough to make at least one plutonium bomb when the plutonium reactor under construction near the Arak heavy water facility is finished. Other than its civilian uses, heavy water may be used to produce tritium, which intensifies the explosive force of nuclear warheads.
The discovery of quantities of heavy water at Isfahan confirms the suspicions surrounding Iran’s nuclear program in three respects. Please read the entire article. Analysis. It’s about bloody time that people started talking about plutonium and Iran in the same sentence. There is little reason for the Iranians to have a heavy water reactor at Arak other than to make plutonium. So where did this plutonium come from? North Korea anyone?! We must always remember that the Iranian and North Korean WMD programs are two parts of the same program. Also, take a serious look at Ryan’s post on the current bloodletting in Yemen. The closer the Iranians get to creating another outpost on the western side of the Arabian peninsula, the closer we get to major war in the Middle East. I have little doubt that the Iranians are attempting to threaten the Saudi regime for religious reasons.
The Sunni-Shiite split that occurred at the death of Mohammad is rearing its ugly head again. World Threats
 BEIRUT -- The militant Hezbollah group announced Thursday that Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has been re-elected as the Shiite Muslim group's leader for a sixth term.
A Hezbollah statement didn't say when the group's top officials voted to re-elect Nasrallah, who has held the post since an Israeli helicopter gunship killed his predecessor, Sheik Abbas Musawi.
No one ran against Mr. Nasrallah. Naim Kassim also has been re-elected as Mr. Nasrallah's deputy, according to the statement. Hezbollah's leadership elections are usually held every three years but they were last held in 2004. A Hezbollah official said the two-year delay was caused by internal Lebanese differences and the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to speak to the media. Mr. Nasrallah, 49 years old, is a strong critic of the U.S., which lists his group as a terrorist organization. Under his leadership, Hezbollah became active in internal Lebanese politics and the group now has two Cabinet ministers and holds 11 of parliament's 128 seats. Founded in 1982, Hezbollah gained notoriety in the West when it was linked to the kidnapping of Western hostages and a series of bombings against Western targets. Hezbollah has over the years grown to run a network of interests -- clinics, schools, a TV station and a weekly newspaper. It caters mainly to Lebanon's 1.2 million Shiite Muslims, the country's largest single sect. WSJ
 by Ryan Mauro Iran is now waging a proxy war against Saudi Arabia and Yemen by supporting a radical sect of Zaydi Shiites described as the Houthis, after the founder of their movement. The Iranians aren’t merely trying to destabilize Arab countries that are aligned too closely to the U.S.; they are trying to create a Shiite empire extending from Iran through southern Iraq to Syria — where the Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Muslims, are in power — to Lebanon. Now Iran is trying to create a Shiite enclave in northern Yemen. If Iran gets nuclear weapons, it is easy to predict where they will go next: Bahrain, whose population is majority Shiite, and Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, which conveniently for Iran is 75% Shiite and is the location of 90% of the country’s oil. The fighting in northern Yemen between the rebels and the Yemeni government has sharply escalated in recent weeks, with violence spilling over the Saudi border.
The Saudis have responded by reclaiming their territory, bombing the rebels within a buffer zone six miles south of the border, and beginning a naval blockade in the area to prevent arms from flowing in from outside the peninsula.
There is also a report that the Saudis are sending thousands of troops to provide logistical support for the Yemeni military and are financing them with $5 million per day. Iran has reacted to the Saudi intervention by calling for a “collective approach” (read: negotiate with Iran for a settlement in their favor) in solving the crisis and offering its help in restoring stability, a not-so-subtle way of hinting that they hold the keys for a solution.
The unfortunate truth is that the Iranians aren’t bluffing. The Yemenis have captured an Iranian ship delivering weapons to the Houthi rebels and arrested the crewmen: four Iranians and one Indian. The Revolutionary Guards are reportedly training some of the rebels at camps in Eritrea and shipping arms to them via the port of Asab. A former Houthi official has confirmed that the rebels are receiving Iranian funding and training from the Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force and Hezbollah. He said that members of Hezbollah may have been killed in Yemen.
The rebels have fired Katyusha rockets, the same kind of weapon often used by Hezbollah, and even flew the terrorist group’s flag in 2004. The authorities have also closed a hospital in Sana after it was found to be used by the Iranians to fundraise for the rebels and to gather intelligence, and at least six arms depots containing Iranian-manufactured machine guns, rockets, and other weapons have been found. More at Pajamas Media
 The Long War Journal reports that the Arab press has a story about an Al-Qaeda camp that just opened in Al-Jaza in the district of Mudiyah in the province of Abyan, containing 400 militants. They report that a second camp opened in Abyan Province in the spring. Iran is supporting Al-Qaeda elements involved in fighting the Yemeni government as well as the Shiite Houthi rebels. Yemen apparently is supporting these same Al-Qaeda elements in order to use them to fight the Houthi rebels.
No one ever said Middle Eastern geopolitics wasn’t complicated. World Threats
 Fighting in northern Yemen has moved into Saudi Arabia, forcing school closures and sending thousands fleeing, according to the United Nations. "Fighting has now spilled into Saudi Arabia, reportedly causing 240 villages to be evacuated and more than 50 schools to be closed, " Sigrid Kaag of UNICEF said in a statement this week. "The total number of people displaced by the conflict since 2004 has gone up to more than 175,000, from an estimated 150,000 only a few weeks ago." Battles between Yemeni forces and Shiite Houthi rebels have raged intermittently for five years. A government offensive launched this summer has caused more bloodshed. The conflict is considered to be both separatist -- over who will assert authority in the area -- and sectarian -- whether Shiite Islam will dominate in majority Sunni Yemen. The rebels are supporters of slain Shiite cleric Hussein al-Houthi. As the fighting escalates, the situation is worsening for children, Kaag said. "During the past three months, children affected by the conflict in the north have seen all their basic rights violated. Lack of safe water, nutrition and hygiene is exerting a heavy toll on their health and well-being, and threatening their very survival," Kaag said. Kaag said some camps for displaced people are filled and thousands are living just outside the camp. Yemen's official news agency SABA reported Friday that it was working with the U.N. to create a new refugee camp in Amran. CNN
 By Amir Taheri The mausoleum of Hussein Ibn Ali, the third Imam of Shiism, in Karbala will soon have a new gate. It took dozens of Iranian artisans several years to make the gate that, according to experts, is a masterpiece of Persian handicraft. At first glance, there is nothing remarkable in that news item carried by Iranian media last week. After all, the mausoleum, like other Shiite places of pilgrimage in Iraq, was built by Iranians and maintained by their donations for centuries. What is remarkable is that the Iran's state-owned media have chosen to present the report in the section devoted to "domestic news." The official news agency, IRNA, carried the item in its section of "news from the provinces." Karbala, however, is located in Iraq, a country that, although a neighbor of Iran, has been an independent state for almost 90 years. It is clear that many within Iran's ruling elite have difficulty acknowledging that fact. To them, concepts like national sovereignty have little meaning. Official mullahs, such as Ahmad Khatami, a preacher at the Friday prayers at Tehran University, pretend to have never heard the word "Iraq." To them, Iraq is either "Bayn al-Nahrayn" (Mesopotamia) or "Atabat al-Aliyat" (The Holy shrines). Apparently, even the war that lasted eight years and left a million dead has not convinced them that Iraq is a sovereign state. Dominating Iraq has been an ambition of Iranian elites since the Ottomans drove Persia out in 1797, after the death of Karim Khan Zand. After the First World War and the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, the Shiite clergy tried to persuade the Qajar Shah in Tehran to annex the "holy" cities of Iraq. However, the Qajars, on their way to the graveyard of history, were in no position to dream of conquest. Once it became clear that Iraq would become independent with British support, the clergy decided to boycott the process and kept Iraqi Shiites on the sidelines. By the 1940s, the Iranian elite had more or less accepted independent Iraq as a fact. In the 1950s, an attempt to link the two countries through royal marriage, however, failed, when the Shah's daughter, Princess Shahnaz, and Iraq's King Faisal failed to develop enough chemistry for the plot to proceed. Read more,,, Source: Asharq Alawsat
 Shiite rebels in northern Yemen caught between a deadly government onslaught and air raids from across the border have claimed Saudi warplanes were using phosphorus bombs against them.
“The Saudi air raids resumed this morning. Saudi combat fighter jets launched intense raids against border areas inside Yemeni territory on Sunday night,” rebel spokesman Mohammad Abdessalam told AFP by telephone.
“The Saudi military used phosphorus bombs during those night raids, burning mountainous regions.”
He said that the raids targeted Malaheez, seven kilometres inside Yemen, as well as the border villages of Hassameh and Shida and several villages around Jebel al Dukhan mountain straddling the border.
The Saudi authorities insist that attacks by their forces are limited to targeting rebel locations inside Saudi territory. However, Riyadh has confirmed it launched reprisals against the Yemen-based Zaidi rebels also known as Huthis after they attacked Jebel al-Dukhan, killing one Saudi border guard and wounding 11 others.
The rebels have also accused the Sanaa military of using phosphorus bombs in Operation Scorched Earth, launched on August 11 against their stronghold in the country’s northern Saada province.
Sanaa says its forces do not possess such weapons in their arsenal. On Saturday the president Ali Abdullah Saleh said the campaign against the rebels was only just beginning.
“The real combat only started three days ago,” he said. Source: The National
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Saudi army has lost 113 troops since the kingdom launched a sweeping offensive against neighboring Yemen's Shiite rebels in early November, a military commander said in comments published Thursday. 
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