Offensive on Saleh Relatives, Party Leaders Leaves Several Dead

Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party issued a statement announcing that members of Guard Brigade Tareq Mohamed Abdullah Saleh were killed during clashes against Houthis on Thursday.

Houthis launched an armed attack, and clashes sparked due to targeting houses of the party leaders and relatives of Saleh, according to the statement that clarified that Saleh forces were shocked with the offensive.

The statement also hinted on Houthis not wanting to abide by the truce.

Yemen insurgents' clashes disclosed confessions of a Houthi figure that there are arms in a mosque in Sana’a. Meanwhile, internal clashes continued in Sana’a for the second day in a row.

Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat said that tribal mediation and other by Saleh Al-Samad, head of the Supreme Political Council, endeavored to alleviate the tension yet it continued to rise.

Disputes aggravated between Houthis and Saleh. Al Arabiya reported from sources in Sana’a that Houthi militias besieged the house of foreign minister in Hisham Sharaf government. Also blasts were heard near to houses of Saleh relatives.

The fake version of Saba News Agency accused Saleh forces of hiding arms including RBG.

Houthis justified their offensive on Saleh forces, saying that the security bodies found inside Saleh Mosque a number of repeaters for wireless telecommunication, which are only used by the state and its security and military bodies.

On the other hand, Yemen Gulf of Aden Ports Corporation accused a United Nations agency of spreading false information about the capacity of Aden Port, demanding it to update and adjust its information about Aden Port so that the reader, decision-maker, and media would know the truth away from deceit.

The corporation expressed surprise, in its letter to various UN agencies, towards the fact that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published a report that isn’t based on true information.

Meanwhile, some activists and staff in the aid sector criticized the contradiction in information that UN and international organizations are suffering from in Yemen. Activists urged these organizations to reconsider their work mechanism.

Dr. Samer al-Jutaily, official spokesperson for KSRelief, criticized the contradiction of UN organizations in Yemen and the way they are dealing with the events there, through getting information from one side only.

Jutaily gave an example about a high-rank official in the World Health Organization (WHO) who stated that cholera in Yemen is still wide-spread, while Doctors Without Borders announced shutting down more than 200 medical centers specialized in treating cholera since there is no more need for them.

Yemeni Political Analyst Abdullah Ismael saw that the striking discrepancy in the figures and information of international organizations regarding the Yemeni situation is a natural reflection of their ambiguous role in Yemen, which gives indications of the politicization of the humanitarian situation and attempts to exploit it.

Yemen Gulf of Aden Ports Corporation said that OCHA report mentioned that Aden capacity doesn’t exceed 230,000 tons (50,000 for fuel, 80,000 for food items and 100,000 for non-food items), and this isn’t true.

OCHA's report also tried to exaggerate the required aid needs to justify that Aden Port is unable to fulfill the aid needs and receive Yemen commercial imports. The report also tried to say that there are challenges that would hinder the arrival of packages from Port of Salalah or Port of Jizan through land facilities.

All this was only to conclude that the shutdown of Hodeidah Port and Saleef Port will subject Yemen to starvation.

Yemeni Minister of Local Administration Abdul-Raqib Fateh declared that the UN reports on the humanitarian condition in Yemen are deceitful and information about the capacity of ports is full of contradictions.