http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115785§ionid=351020206
Press TV January 10, 2010 'US to double its security funding to Yemen' The head of the US Central Command Gen. David Petraeus has declared that Washington is to double its security assistance funding to Yemen, from $70 million to more than $150. However the US has no plans to send ground troops to Yemen, Petraeus told CNN in an interview that will be aired on Sunday. .... The US claims its helping Sana'a to fight al-Qaeda militants in the southern parts of the country. But the remarks by the top US military General comes at a time when the Yemeni and Saudi militaries have been fighting an all-out war against Yemen's Shia minority in the north. Shia fighters in the north have repeatedly reported that US fighter jets have bombed the northwestern province of Sa'ada. Petraeus also noted that Saudi Arabia has allocated $2 billion and the United Arab Emirates at least $600 million to the Yemen government to fight "terror and promote development" within its borders. The conflict in northern Yemen began in 2004 between Sana'a and Houthi fighters. Relative peace had returned to the region until August 11, when the Yemeni army launched a major offensive, dubbed Operation Scorched Earth, against Sa'ada Province. The government claims that the fighters, who are named after their leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, seek to restore the Shia imamate system, which was overthrown in a 1962 military coup. The Houthis, however, say they are defending their people's civil rights, which the government has undermined under pressure from Saudi-backed Wahhabi extremists. Shia citizens of Yemen form the clear majority in the north and make up approximately half of the overall population. The United Nations, which according to its charter is set up "to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace," has failed to adopt any concrete measures to help end the bloody war. =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato Blog site: http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/ To subscribe, send an e-mail to: [email protected] or [email protected] Daily digest option available. ==============================
