However, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was quick to add that an end to US support for the Saudi war against the Houthi rebels will not affect US operations against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

AQAP leader Khalid Batarfi was reportedly apprehended by Yemeni government security forces Feb. 5 in al-Mahrah governorate, and handed over to Saudi Arabia. His second in command, Saad bin Atef al-Awlaqi, reportedly lost his life during an operation in Ghayda City, al-Mahrah, in October. Born in Riyadh, Batarfi became leader of AQAP in early 2020, after his predecessor Qassim al-Rimi was killed by a US air-strike.

Nonetheless, following Biden’s move, the United Kingdom is under greater pressure to end its support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. Sarah Waldron of the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) said: “The US government is the biggest arms dealer in the world, so this could be an important step towards ending this terrible war.”

Italy has also halted arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in a move described as “historic” by the Italian Peace & Disarmament Network.

Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman, a co-winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her role in that year’s Arab Spring uprising, urged Biden to remain involved in peace efforts. “Deeper US engagement—and a refusal to side with dictators who have chosen bloodshed over democratic change—is vital so that the Yemeni people can return to the project of democracy,” Karman said in a statement.

Last month, Karman called on Biden to put “maximum pressure” the Houthi rebels, who have controlled the capital Sanaa since 2014, to “retreat from their coup,” while also stressing: “There is no problem in Yemen or Saudi Arabia right now that will be solved with more bombs.” A former member of the Saudi-backed Islah Party, Karman was suspended in 2018 over her criticism of the war effort. (Middle East Online, The Hill, Middle East Eye, MEE, MEE, Middle East Monitor)

Photo: OCHA

Hadi’s government had been based in Aden since Iran-backed Houthi rebels sezied the capital Sanaa in 2014. Aden had been the capital of South Yemen before it united with North Yemen in 1990. Hadi’s government characterized the STC’s seizure of Aden as a “coup.”  STC forces have since seized a number of military bases in southern Abyan province. (Al-Qaeda, Aug. 20; BBC News, Aug. 11)

In addition to Hadi’s government, the STC and the Houthis, militants of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) continue to wage an insurgency in the south. On Aug. 2, AQAP fighters stormed al-Mahfad base in Abyan province, remaining in control of the installation for several hours before reinforcements arrived. (Middle East Eye, Aug. 3; TRT World, Aug. 2)

See our last post on the impending balkanization of Yemen.

Map via  Perry-Castañeda Library

Anwar al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki was killed in a US drone strike in October 2011.

The Sanaa demonstration was called by the Shi'ite Houthi rebels that the Saudis are fighting (and who largely control the capital)—and they are also revealing themselves as a very nasty lot. Amnesty International is calling the Houthis to release 27 members of the minority Baha'i faith detained in Sanaa without charge. Armed officers in balaclavas from Yemen's National Security Bureau (NSB, apparently controlled by the Houthis), stormed a Baha'i youth workshop on Aug. 10 and arrested 65 people, including women and minors, Amnesty said. While some have been released, 27 remain held without charge, denied access to lawyers or family. More arrests were carried out this week. "The arbitrary arrests of Baha'i people for doing nothing more than attending a peaceful community event is completely unjustifiable," said Amnesty's Magdalena Mughrabi. (AFP, AI, Aug. 17)

Given the persecution of Baha'is in Iran, this news will strengthen the perception that the Houthis are an Iranian proxy force.

Saudi Arabia announced earlier this month that it plans to scale back military operations in Yemen after the death toll of a March 15 air-strike in rebel-held Mustaba, Hajja governorate, reached 119 people, including 22 children. (WP, March 17; BBC News, March 15)

Currently, 91 detainees remain in Guantánamo Bay, and 34 await resettlement in foreign countries. In November the US Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (PDF), which prohibits Guantánamo detainees from being transferred into the US. Obama signed the bill into law, despite the fact that it will delay his plan to close the prison. The NDAA comes after the Department of Defense said it was sending teams to review three Colorado prisons as part of Obama's efforts to close the Guantánamo Bay prison in October. The Guantánamo Review Task Force (GRTF) was created in response to a 2009 presidential executive order (PDF) to review the status of all detainees. There have been multiple detainees released from Guantánamo recently, following reports that 17 were scheduled for release last month.

From Jurist, Feb. 23. Used with permission.

Note: Republicans immediately and overwhelmingly rejected Obama's proposal, with presidential hopeful Ted Cruz saying: "Let me say this, Mr. President. Don't shut down Gitmo—expand it, and let's have some new terrorists there." Cruz said a "very high percentage" of released detainees "are going to return to waging jihad and trying to murder innocent Americans." (NBC, Feb. 23) Five years ago, a supposed 14% recidivism rate among released Gitmo detainees was widely reported, but there was some ambiguity on how "militant activity" was actually defined. Most significantly, ex-Gitmo detainee Said Ali al-Shihri was reported to have a leading position in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). More recently, ex-Gitmo detainee Ibrahim al-Qosi, AKA "Sheikh Khubayb al Sudani" was reported to have joined AQAP. (LWJ, Dec. 9)

Also on Nov. 17, the US Defense Department announced State Department approval for the sale of $380 million worth of Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) to the United Arab Emirates, which is part of the Saudi-led coalition conducting military operations in Yemen.

Congress was notified of the sale on Nov. 13, which started a countdown of 30 days to block the deal—which is considered unlikely. It appears set to go through this week as part of the Obama administration's pledge to boost military support for Gulf states, after negotiating a nuclear deal with regional rival Iran. (NPR, Dec. 8; HRW, Nov. 18)

The US State Department on June 19 released its "Country Reports on Terrorism 2014," finding that the number of terrorist attacks around the world rose by a third in 2014 compared with the previous year. The number of people killed in such attacks rose by 80%, to nearly 33,000. The sharp increase was largely due to the "unprecedented" seizure of territory in Iraq and Syria by ISIS, and the growith of Boko Haram in Nigeria. Terrorist groups used more aggressive tactics in 2014 than in previous years, such as beheadings and crucifixions. ISIS attacks on religious minorities like Christians and Yazidis are cited. Islamic State was particularly lethal. The reports says the June 2014 massacre at a prison in Mosul, Iraq, in which ISIS killed 670 Shi'ite prisoners "was the deadliest attack worldwide since September 11, 2001." The report notes the "central al-Qaeda leadership" has been weakened, but the network's regional affiliates have gained ground in places like Yemen and the Horn of Africa. (BBC News, Reuters, State Department, June 19)

The report, formerly called "Patterns of Global Terrorism," has been produced by the State Department every year since 2000, although it is now augmented by several such efforts from the private sector. Findings for 2013 similarly showed a significant increase in attacks over the previous year.

In Yemen, an ISIS affiliate on March 23 claimed responsibility for the mass killing of 29 soldiers in al-Houta, the southern city that has been taken over by the country's local al-Qaeda branch, AQAP. ISIS also claimed responsibility for suicide bombings two days earlier in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, that killed 137 people. ISIS likewise claimed its branch in Yemen's Lahj province, an AQAP stronghold just north of the port city of Aden, had assassinated two military officers. The officers were killed in early March by gunmen on motorbikes. AQAP has not claimed responsibility for these attacks. (CBS, March 23) 

In Afghanistan, Mohammed Omer Safi, the governor of Kunduz province, says his forces are under attack from a mixed force of local Taliban fighters and international ISIS volunteers from Chechnya and elsewhere. Afghan officials say some villages under rebel control are flying both the white flag of the Taliban and the black flag of ISIS. (PRI, May 7)

In Pakistan, jihadist leader Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, accused mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, was killed April 16 when a roadside bomb he was planting went off in the Khyber tribal agency. He had recently declared his allegiance to ISIS. Two militants also killed in the incident are believed to have been former commanders of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan who had recently defected to ISIS. (Zee News, April 17)

And the already-known ISIS franchise in Libya, which in February made headlines with a mass execution of Coptic Christians from Egypt, repeated the atrocity in April—killing 30 Ethiopian Christian migrants in a similarly video-released spectacle. The Ethiopian government has launched an evacuation mission in collaboration with Egyptian forces, repatriating hundreds of its citizens from Libya. (Sudan Tribune, May 7)

Syria: internationalizing the war
In the ISIS heartland of Syria and Iraq, the group continues its campaigns of extermination. Targeted bombings against Nowruz celebrations in Syria's northeastern city of al-Hasakah left up to 100 of dead and wounded, including women and children. The spring festival Nowruz is rejected by jihadists because of its pre-Islamic roots, and the attacks are believed to have been the work of ISIS. Al-Hasakah, a mostly Kurdish town, lies just outside ISIS-controlled territory. (UN News Centre, March 21)

ISIS is also said to have seized part of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, where they are battling for control with the Palestinian faction Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis. The camp remains under siege by Syrian government forces, and most of the residents have fled. (YNet, April 1) Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis is evidently distinct from the Sinai-based Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which has pledged loyalty to ISIS. Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis is said to be aligned with Hamas. (Newsweek, April 2) In another sign of ISIS-Hamas conflict, a group calling itself "Supporters of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in Jerusalem" took credit for a mortar attack on a Hamas base in the Gaza Strip on May 8. Earlier in the week, Hamas reportedly demolished a makeshift mosque erected by ISIS supporters in Deir el-Balah, Gaza. (JP, May 8)

Turkish officials have confirmed that Ankara has signed a pact with Saudi Arabia to help rebels fighting against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. The new strategic alliance will provide "logistical and financial support" to anti-Assad forces. While this presumably does not include ISIS, it will certainly be a boost to Islamist rebel groups at the expense of the secular opposition. (AP, May 7)

With world attention focused on ISIS, Assad's campaigns of mass murder also continue. One of the main hospitals in Aleppo has been forced to close indefinitely after being targeted by rockets and "barrel bombs" dropped by government aircraft, according to Doctors Without Borders. The May 5 report said the private al-Sakhour hospital, one of the only hospitals in east Aleppo, halted all activities after being bombed twice on consecutive days that week. (Al Jazeera, May 5) Amnesty International that same day issued a report citing evidence that the air campaign in Aleppo has "deliberately targeted civilians and civilian objects," constituting war crimes. "Such a systematic attack on the civilian population, when carried out as part of government policy as appears to have been the case in Aleppo, would also constitute a crime against humanity," the report added. (BBC News, May 5)

Iraq: sectarian, cultural cleansing
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was allegedly "incapacitated" by spinal injuries sustained in a US air-strike in northern Iraq in late April. Reports indicate this was admitted by ISIS leaders, who pledged international reprisals for the attack. The new ISIS commander is reportedly Abu Alaa Afri, although he has not been named "caliph." (The Independent, Daily Mail, May 1)

ISIS continues its campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Yazidi people, with 600 captives executed in Tal Afar district of Nineveh governorate on May 1. Local Peshmerga forces and Nineveh's governor said the 600 had been convicted of apostasy by an ISIS sharia court. Reports are unclear on whether the captives were civilians or fighters, but they appear to have been all or mostly men. ISIS militants apparently lined up hundreds of Yazidis in front of a ditch near a highway and mowed them down with gunfire. Some reports indicated women and children were among the slain. (Al Bawaba, May 3; ARA News, May 2)

ISIS also continued its campaign against Iraq's archaeological treasures. In late March, militants used bulldozers, sledge-hammers and assault rifles to destroy structures and artifacts at the ancient fortress city of Hatra, a UNESCO world heritage site in Nineveh governorate. A video showing some of the destruction was released by the group. (The Guardian, April 5)

In mid April, Iraqi government-aligned forces took the city of Tikrit from ISIS after a campaign of over a month. There was much controversy over the fact that the anti-ISIS offensive was led by Shi'ite militias, including the Badr Organization, Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, and the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades. Iranian Revolutionary Guards were also involved in the operation, with elite Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani said to be personally directing the fighting. Because of this involvement, the US initially did not aid the Tikrit operation, although it finally did launch air-strikes in support of the anti-ISIS forces on March 25. Although some Sunni militia were also in the anti-ISIS force, Tikrit has seen reprisal attacks against Sunni residents since ISIS was driven out, threatening the fragile coalition. (NYT, May 9; McClatchy, March 25; Long War Journal, March 4)