Operation Blow to the Head | |||||||
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Part of the Houthi insurgency in Yemen (Operation Scorched Earth) | |||||||
A mud house in Saada. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Yemen | Ansar Allah | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Ali Abdullah Saleh Ali Raymi | Abdul-Malik al-Houthi | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
unknown | 24 killed 25 captured | ||||||
Operation Blow to the Head was a Yemeni military operation against the militants in the insurgent Yemeni town of Saada in the Saada Governorate. The Yemeni government troops began trying to capture the town on 13 January 2010. On that day, the Islamic militant Abdullah Mehdar was killed by Yemeni security forces. [2]
In June 2004, insurgency returned in Yemen. [3] The Yemeni government allegedly received help from the United States in controlling the insurgent force. From June to August 2004, Houthis battled with the Yemeni government under Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi. Hussein was killed in the insurgency by September. [4] His brother, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi took over command over the insurgents, and leads them today. The allies launched Operation Scorched Earth, but the rebels agreed to a short truce on 12 February 2010. [1]
The Yemeni government troops led a military operation against the insurgent town of Saada. Other Islamic rebels also fought against the Yemeni troops, with the fighting destroying much of the old Saada city.[ citation needed ] Many buildings were reduced to rubble. Abdullah Mehdar was killed in a gunfight with security forces on the opening day of the conflict. 15 Houthi fighters were killed in the next two days in the operation. On 19 January 2010, several rebels were killed by government forces in raids on Houthi hideouts in the old corner of the north. [2] The operation ended after a truce was declared by both sides on 12 February 2010. [1]
Saada, a city and ancient capital in the northwest of Yemen, is the capital and largest city of the governorate of the same name, and the seat of the eponymous district. The city is located in the mountains of Serat (Sarawat) at an altitude of about 1,800 meters. In 2004, it was the tenth-largest city in Yemen and had an estimated population of 51,870.
The Houthi insurgency, also known as the Houthi rebellion, the Sa'dah War, or the Sa'dah conflict, was a military rebellion pitting Zaidi Shia Houthis against the Yemeni military that began in Northern Yemen and has since escalated into a full-scale civil war. The conflict was sparked in 2004 by the government's attempt to arrest Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, a Zaidi religious leader of the Houthis and a former parliamentarian on whose head the government had placed a $55,000 bounty.
Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi was a Yemeni Zaidi religious, political and military leader, as well as former member of the Yemeni parliament for the Party of Truth between 1993 and 1997. He was instrumental in the Houthi insurgency against the Yemeni government, which began in 2004. Al-Houthi, who was a one-time rising political aspirant in Yemen, had wide religious and tribal backing in northern Yemen's mountainous regions. The Houthi movement took his name after his assassination in 2004.
The Houthi movement, officially known as Ansar Allah, is a Shia Islamist political and military organization that emerged from Yemen in the 1990s. It is predominantly made up of Zaidi Shias, with their namesake leadership being drawn largely from the Houthi tribe.
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Operation Scorched Earth was the code-name of a Yemeni military offensive in the Saada Governorate that began in August 2009. It marked the fifth wave of violence during the ongoing insurgency by the Houthis against the government. In November 2009, the conflict spread across the border into neighboring Saudi Arabia. This conflict led to the Saudi military's incursion into Yemen, marking the first military operation conducted by Saudi Arabia since 1991.
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Abdul-Malik Badruldeen al-Houthi, also known as Abu Jibril, is a Yemeni politician and religious leader who serves as the leader of the Houthi movement, a revolutionary movement principally made up of Zaidi Muslims. His brothers Yahia and Abdul-Karim are also leaders of the group, as were his late brothers Hussein, Ibrahim, and Abdulkhaliq. Abdul-Malik al-Houthi is the leading figure in the Yemeni Civil War which started with the Houthi takeover in Yemen in the Saada Governorate in northern Yemen.
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The 2012 Abyan offensive was an offensive by the Yemeni military against Islamist militant forces, possibly including elements of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), in the province of Abyan with the purpose of re-capturing the militant-held towns of Zinjibar and Jaʿār.
The Houthi takeover in Yemen, also known as the September 21 Revolution, or 2014–15 coup d'état, was a popular revolution against Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi led by the Houthis and their supporters that pushed the Yemeni government from power. It had origins in Houthi-led protests that began the previous month, and escalated when the Houthis stormed the Yemeni capital Sanaa on 21 September 2014, causing the resignation of Prime Minister Mohammed Basindawa, and later the resignation of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and his ministers on 22 January 2015 after Houthi forces seized the presidential palace, residence, and key military installations, and the formation of a ruling council by Houthi militants on 6 February 2015.
The following lists events that happened in 2015 in Yemen.
The Yemeni crisis began with the 2011–2012 revolution against President Abdullah Saleh, who had led Yemen for 33 years. After Saleh left office in early 2012 as part of a mediated agreement between the Yemeni government and opposition groups, the government led by Saleh's former vice president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, struggled to unite the fractious political landscape of the country and fend off threats both from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and from Houthi militants that had been waging a protracted insurgency in the north for years.
The Battle of Sanaa in 2014 marked the advance of the Houthis into Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, and heralded the beginning of the armed takeover of the government that unfolded over the following months. Fighting began on 9 September 2014, when pro-Houthi protesters under the command of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi marched on the cabinet office and were fired upon by security forces, leaving seven dead. The clashes escalated on 18 September, when 40 were killed in an armed confrontation between the Houthis led by military commander Mohammed Ali al-Houthi and supporters of the Sunni hardliner Islah Party when the Houthis tried to seize Yemen TV, and 19 September, with more than 60 killed in clashes between Houthi fighters and the military and police in northern Sanaa. By 21 September, the Houthis captured the government headquarters, marking the fall of Sanaa.
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