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WAR REPORT
Yemen government forces make key gains against Qaeda
By Fawaz al-Haidari
Marib, Yemen (AFP) April 24, 2016


Differences persist as Yemen peace talks enter 4th day
Kuwait City (AFP) April 24, 2016 - UN-brokered Yemeni peace talks in Kuwait entered a fourth day Sunday with government and Shiite Huthi rebel delegations still far from reaching an agreement to end 13 months of war.

The delegations resumed "talks and started the plenary session," Charbel Raji, spokesman for the UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, told AFP without providing further details.

Sources close to the talks said on Saturday that the two sides had failed to reach an understanding on the need to firm up a fragile ceasefire in place since April 11.

Ould Cheikh Ahmed acknowledged the negotiations were difficult but expressed hopes for progress.

"The atmosphere of the talks is promising and there is common ground to build on in order to reconcile differences," the UN envoy said in a statement issued late Saturday.

The delegates had agreed to appoint two officials, one from each side, to make recommendations on how to sustain the ceasefire, he added.

But the two sides differ on priorities for the ceasefire.

The government delegation said overnight that the ceasefire should include opening safe passages to all besieged areas and releasing political prisoners as well as those abducted as part of confidence-building measures.

The Iran-backed Huthis are demanding an immediate halt to air strikes that a Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out since March 2015 in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

"The continuity of air strikes by targeting roads, bridges and homes like what happened yesterday... affirms that the announcement of cessation of military actions is baseless," said Mohamed Abdulsalam, the Huthi spokesman and head of delegation.

This meant that "the path of negotiations under aggression will not be different from previous rounds," Abdulsalam wrote on Facebook, in reference to the two failed rounds held in Switzerland late last year.

The two sides also differ on the way to tackle other central issues.

The government wants the discussions to start with the issue of a Huthi pullout from areas including the capital Sanaa and relinquishing heavy arms and missiles.

The Huthis want the political process and the establishment of a national unity government to be first, sources close to the talks told AFP.

The negotiations in Kuwait opened late Thursday after the delayed arrival of representatives of the Huthi rebels and allied forces loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Yemeni troops backed by Arab coalition air strikes on Sunday recaptured a southeastern provincial capital held by Al-Qaeda for the past year and an oil terminal, military sources told AFP.

The gains come after pro-government forces began an offensive aimed at securing parts of the country captured by jihadist militants who have exploited a 13-month war between Gulf-backed loyalists and rebels supported by Iran.

The offensive coincides with UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait after a ceasefire entered into effect on April 11, but from which jihadists groups are excluded.

"We entered the city centre (of Mukalla) and were met by no resistance from Al-Qaeda militants who withdrew west" towards the vast desert in Hadramawt and Shabwa provinces, a military officer told AFP by phone from the city the jihadists seized last April.

The officer, who requested anonymity, said residents of Mukalla, home to an estimated 200,000 people, had appealed to the jihadists to spare the city the destruction of fighting and to withdraw.

Yemeni military sources said Emirati military vehicles were used in the operation and that troops from the Gulf country, a key member of the Saudi-led coalition, were among the forces that entered Mukalla.

AFP could not immediately confirm these reports from officials in the United Arab Emirates.

The Arab coalition battling rebels in Yemen since March 2015 carried out air strikes against Al-Qaeda positions in Mukalla to pave the way for the ground troops, military sources said.

Troops also recaptured Mina al-Dhaba oil terminal in Shehr further east, the sources said.

Earlier Sunday, military sources said pro-government forces seized Riyan airport and an army brigade headquarters Al-Qaeda had held for a year on Mukalla's outskirts.

Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is regarded by Washington as the network's most dangerous branch, and has carried out deadly attacks on the West in the past.

Last month, a US air strike on an Al-Qaeda training camp in Hadramawt province killed dozens of fighters in a major blow to the jihadists.

A provincial official in Shabwa said jihadists also fled from the town of Azzan on Sunday which they seized in February.

- Bomb kills 7 troops -

As the anti-jihadist offensive gained momentum, a bomb-laden vehicle exploded Sunday, killing seven soldiers and wounding 14. They were in a convoy entering another southern jihadist stronghold -- Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, said military sources, blaming Al-Qaeda for the attack.

The coalition, led by Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia, has deployed Apache helicopters to support loyalists fighting on the ground.

Forces loyal to internationally recognised President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government have retreated from Zinjibar after entering it late Saturday, an officer in Abyan told AFP.

"The withdrawal was decided following information that Al-Qaeda was preparing other car-bomb attacks against our troops," added the officer who requested anonymity.

Government forces also launched an offensive Saturday to drive the jihadists from the neighbouring town of Jaar.

Fighting on Saturday killed 25 Al-Qaeda fighters and four soldiers as loyalists seized Al-Kud, five kilometres (three miles) south of Zinjibar, military and medical sources said.

"After our withdrawal, Apache helicopters will target Al-Qaeda positions to secure the town," said another officer, adding that helicopters had foiled two attempts to attack troops using vehicle bombs in Al-Kud.

Similar assaults have pushed the jihadists from other areas in the south in recent months.

Coalition-backed forces have driven militants from Aden, the southern city declared by Hadi as Yemen's temporary capital after the Shiite Huthi rebels overran Sanaa in September 2014.

And last week, government forces expelled AQAP militants from Huta, the provincial capital of Lahj.

When US President Barack Obama met Gulf leaders on Thursday in Saudi Arabia, they discussed the wars in Yemen and Syria.

During the visit, Ben Rhodes, one of Obama's closest advisers, urged all warring sides in Yemen to participate "constructively" in the Kuwait talks that began on Thursday, saying that a political solution would "allow for a focus on AQAP in Yemen".


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Previous Report
WAR REPORT
Yemen foes hold new talks under pressure to firm up truce
Kuwait City (AFP) April 23, 2016
Yemen's warring parties held a new session of peace talks in Kuwait on Saturday under pressure to firm up a fragile ceasefire that went into effect on April 11. "The meeting has started," Charbel Raji, spokesman for UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, told AFP, without providing details. Ould Cheikh Ahmed told a press conference on Friday that the delegations had "constructive" negotiatio ... read more


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