A Planted Explosive Device Detonates, Killing Six Soldiers in South Yemen
A planted explosive device detonated and killed six soldiers belonging to a south Yemen-based successionist force on Monday. Mohamed al-Naqib, a spokesman for the Southern Armed Forces, the armed wing of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), said the explosion targeted a military vehicle in the Modiyah district of southern Abyan province. Al-Naqib blamed al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) for the attack and added that an additional 11 soldiers were also wounded in the explosion. Al-Qaeda's presence across the Middle East has broadly weakened over the last decade. However, AQAP remains one of the international terror group's most powerful cells, taking advantage of the chaos from Yemen's civil war.
A Greece-owned commercial vessel sustained damage in the Red Sea on Monday following a missile attack allegedly carried out by Houthis in Yemen, according to officials. The Houthis fired three anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM) and three UAVs from Yemen into the Red Sea towards MV Cyclades, a Malta-flagged, Greece-owned vessel on Monday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement. The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said the alleged attack had damaged the ship. The incident took place off the coast of Mokha, Yemen, according to UKMTO. Houthi spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said today they had attacked the MV Cyclades commercial vessel as well as two U.S. destroyers in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
Today, Tuesday, the Houthi group announced a new round of negotiations regarding the prisoner exchange file with the Yemeni government. The head of the prisoner exchange committee in the Houthi group, Abdul Qader Al-Murtada, said he discussed with the deputy UN envoy in today's meeting the file of the prisoner exchange and the obstacles that have prevented progress. He added the UN will invite the Yemeni parties to the conflict in the coming days to attend a new round of negotiations to agree on the deal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday to go ahead with a long-promised assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, whatever the response by Hamas to the latest proposals for a halt to the fighting and a return of Israeli hostages. Netanyahu said that with or without a deal, Israel intended to pursue the operation to destroy the remaining Hamas combat formations in Rafah, where more than 1 million Gaza Palestinians displaced from their homes amid Israeli military operations elsewhere since October have been seeking shelter. Pressure has been building for an agreement to stop the war that has devastated Gaza as it nears the end of its seventh month.
