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IDF posts footage of medics saving Syrian rebel in Golan

9 Maggio 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

The IDF has captured rare footage of military medics performing a life-saving procedure on a severely wounded Syrian rebel in the Golan Heights.

The rebel, who belonged to an unnamed organization fighting against the Assad regime and its allies, was transferred to a secret location along Syria’s border with Israel by rebel forces working in conjunction with the IDF and treated by combat medics of the Givati infantry brigade in the Golan Heights, according to a Saturday report by Ynet.

The Syrian rebel, who was suffering from a gunshot wound to the stomach and shrapnel injuries to much of his body, was in critical condition and was later evacuated to a civilian hospital in the area.

“I have seen a lot of serious injuries in the past, but I have to note that this was one of the most severe injuries I have ever seen,” said Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Itzik Malka, the area’s chief medical officer.

“I am not sure that I would have believed that someone in his condition could have gotten here alive,” the lieutenant colonel said.

Following the surgery, the rebel returned to Syria after an unspecified amount of recovery time, according to the report.

Since start of the civil war in 2011, the IDF has treated an estimated 1,600 non-combatants and anti-Assad rebels.

While incidents like these have become a seemingly daily occurrence for soldiers and medical professionals stationed in the Golan Heights, the brutality of the four-year conflict has said to have affected many close to the situation.

“[Treating the wounded here] has personally affected me deeply… that is very difficult to deal with as a father of two children,” Malka said. “Especially when we treat a severely injured child… we always hope that children can successfully recover from their injuries.”

Although Israel’s treatment of militants from Syria — many of whom are believed to belong to Islamist organizations such as the al-Qaeda affiliated Nusra Front — may seem bizarre given the animosity these types of groups have expressed for the Jewish state in the past, Israel has approached the issue from a humanitarian point of view.

Malka was quick to mention that the majority of those from Syria treated in Israel have been women, children, the elderly and other non-combatants, and insisted that the country is merely playing a humanitarian role in the conflict, even when the wounded are combatants.

“In the past [Syrian rebels treated in Israel] were terrified, but as more and more people return home and talk of their time in Israel and the treatment they received, then that slowly begins to change their opinion [of Israel],” he said.

slamic State forces girls to undergo “virginity” surgery: UN official talks about the sex market of the IS insurgents

9 Maggio 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

Zainab Bangura, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, recently interviewed numerous women whom Islamic State (IS) militants had kidnapped and forced into sex slavery.

She found what others have previously discovered: rape, slavery, slave markets, and women undergoing surgery to ‘restore’ their virginity.

“Women and girls are at risk and under assault at every point of their lives,” she explained, adding that the threats lurk behind them “every step of the way… in the midst of active conflict, in areas under control of armed actors, at check-points and border crossings, and in detention facilities.”

She also told journalists about the sex markets the militants hold to sell women.

“Girls are literally being stripped naked and examined in slave bazaars,” she claimed, and said they were “categorised and shipped naked to Dohuk, Mosul or other locations to be distributed among IS leadership and fighters.”

In November, a video posted on YouTube showed IS militants laughing and joking while purchasing Yazidi slaves. The men acted as if bidding on objects rather than human beings. One man explained to the camera that eye color makes a difference to the price and the women must have all their teeth.

One enslaved woman phoned a Kurdish Peshmerga fighter to beg them and the West to designate as their next target the brothel where she being held. She said the terrorists “raped her 30 times in just a few hours.” She wanted the brothel bombed to kill the jihadists and end the women’s misery as sex slaves.

Bangura said the militants promised young girls to IS leaders. They also force the girls into prostitution, a way for the group to raise funds. She claims one woman was married off 20 times, and each time the militants forced her to undergo surgery to ‘repair’ her virginity.

Turkish news outlet Hurriyet Daily News interviewed Yazidi women and girls in Iraq about the horrific treatment they received at the hands of IS. Many are “ashamed and afraid” since they come from “a deeply traditional culture.” From The Sunday Times:

The magnitude of the crisis is such that Baba Sheikh, a prominent Yazidi religious leader, issued an unprecedented statement to the community. It declared the women were victims who had suffered through no fault of their own and should be supported, not ostracised.

Young women worry they will be stigmatised and become “unmarriageable” in a culture in which sexual intercourse before marriage is frowned upon.

Although abortion is illegal in Kurdistan, even for cases of rape, some doctors have secretly been performing terminations for those who have come back pregnant. Some returning Yazidi girls are also secretly seeking surgery to reverse the loss of virginity.

“IS have institutionalised sexual violence and the brutalization of women as a central aspect of their ideology and operations, using it as a tactic of terrorism to advance their key strategic objectives,” said Bangura.

Sarah, a 14-year-old girl The Sunday Times interviewed, is still traumatized. Two men offered their hands in marriage, but she refused.

“I refused both of them; I don’t want to fall in love,” she cried. “I don’t think I can. I don’t want to be married or have children — I am damaged goods.”

Hizbullah, Syrian Army Take Control of al-Qalamoun’s Juba

9 Maggio 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

Hizbullah fighters backed by the Syrian Army reportedly took control of new militant positions on the outskirts of the Syrian al-Qalamoun town, which borders Lebanon.

Al-Manar reported that Hizbullah and the Syrian forces completely seized the outskirts of al-Juba town, which compelled Islamists militants to flee the area towards Ras al-Maarah, Fleita and al-Rahwa, along the Lebanese border.

Voice of Lebanon (93.3) also said that Hizbullah and the Syrian troops took control of al-Mohmadat Hill, which oversees Wadi al-Zaaroura that links the outskirts of Brital with Juba.

Syrian jets also shelled the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal and flew over Lebanon’s Eastern Mountain range.

Later, VDL (93.3) reported that the two allies also captured Wadi al-Kneisseh crossing between al-Juba and Assal al-Wared.

Fighting has intensified in the past week in the mountainous al-Qalamoun region across the border from Lebanon, where militants from the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front are entrenched.

Hizbullah and Syrian government troops took control on Thursday of strategic heights in the Syrian region of al-Qalamoun that abuts Lebanon’s eastern border.

The control of the area on the outskirts of Assal al-Wared came following heavy clashes with al-Nusra Front.

Hizbullah stated on Friday that the number of fighters who were killed in Syria’s al-Qalamoun front were only three, denying media reports claiming otherwise.

Some media outlets said that more than 40 of Hizbullah fighters had died in fighting against Islamic militants near the border with Lebanon this week.

However, al-Nusra Front said in statement via Twitter: “A large number of Hizbullah and Syrian army members were killed and others wounded in fighting with al-Fatah al-Qalamoun army in Assal al-Wared.”

Hizbullah has been fighting alongside Assad’s forces against predominantly Sunni rebels and militants seeking to topple him.

On Friday, Hizbullah and the troops of Syrian President Bashar Assad attacked militant posts in al-Qalamoun’s Juba area after they compelled them to withdraw from the town of Assal al-Wared, which is near the Lebanese border enclave of Tufail, which is surrounded by Syrian lands to its north, east and south, and by the Lebanese villages of Ham, Maarboun and Brital to its west.

ISIS propaganda machine is sophisticated and prolific, US Officials say

8 Maggio 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

ISIS terrorists are expertly using hip hop music, video games and even children to successfully recruit young people to their violent cause. That assessment comes today from the FBI and from top U.S. counterterrorism officials, who say the ISIS social media machine is sophisticated, prolific, and unprecedented.

“They are shooting out into the ether-sphere thousands and thousands of messages a day, over 90,000 a day and it’s to millions of people across the globe,” John Carlin, the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division told ABC News Correspondent Pierre Thomas. “What they are trying to do is to convince young people to go slaughter civilians in a vicious war.”

The online messaging is slick — far broader and more subtle than the vicious beheading videos the public is too familiar with, according to Scott Talan, a social media and marketing professor at American University. Talan viewed about a dozen ISIS propaganda videos with ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, and said he is shocked by the quality of the messaging the terror group is putting out.

“This is sophisticated. It is Madison Avenue meets documentary film making meets news channel with sensibilities and marketing value,” Talan said.

In one video, ISIS produces its own, twisted version of the popular “Grand Theft Auto” video game. While ISIS fighters gun down victims on the screen, the message flashes, “Your games — We do the same actions on the battlefield.”

“So it’s the reverse of our culture, where we say ‘escape real life and play a game.’ They’re saying, ‘escape your life, come play a real game with real consequences,'” Talan said. “They are using products from American culture — video games — for their purposes, and taking and making a message that works for them.”

And of course Westerners going to fight against ISIS have learned the hard way that the consequences are very real. Many, including a few Americans, have been killed in action. Others have been turned into propaganda mouthpieces for ISIS, or forced into barbaric acts of violence, according to the Justice Department.

Talan said many of the ISIS messages are designed to appeal to young people who are craving acceptance. For example, he said, one hip hop music video pushed out by the terror group uses a doctored “Uncle Sam” poster to say “We want you.”

“For people on the edge, this could have a lot of resonance,” Talan said. “You’re speaking to them in a language they understand … video, imagery and music. Then this message comes in about ‘We want you.’ People do want to belong to tribes. This is saying, ‘join our tribe.'”

Talan noted that some of the ISIS videos make direct appeals to women to come to the “Caliphate.” In one, a male fighter says, in English, “Sisters, we have houses, we have security … come.”

But once there, life is unspeakably brutal for women, Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said, noting they are routinely forced into marriage or enslaved — and there is no coming home again.

“They are literally selling women and children into slavery, they are slaughtering innocent civilians,” Carlin said. “And once you are over there — for those who want to leave once they realize the dark reality of what’s taking place — they kill those who want to leave out of the group.”

Another Western advertising ploy that ISIS has adopted is the use — or perhaps the abuse — of children, Talan noted.

In one ISIS video posted on Twitter, soldiers hand out ice cream to a group of excited kids. A few scenes later, you see some of the young boys grabbing AK-47’s, waving them above their heads, and chanting ISIS slogans.

“It is disturbing, but there’s a reason children are used.” Talan said. “Madison Avenue uses it all the time. … It touches empathy. It gets people to say, ‘Aww.” It puts your defenses down — it makes you want to pay attention and feel human.”

But for the children of ISIS, the Justice Department’s John Carlin said, life is a grim series of bearing witness to barbaric atrocities and slaughter, and very often, the loss of family members and loved ones to the continuing violence.

But what’s frightening, Carlin said, is that despite ISIS’ well-documented brutality, its social media campaign seems to be working right here in the United States. New recruits inspired by ISIS messaging are being discovered in the U.S. with increasing frequency — at least 55 in the past two years, according to the Department of Justice. And Carlin said in most of these cases there is a common thread.

“In almost every one of these cases, we’ve seen social media involved.” he told Pierre Thomas. “Before the advent of social media … how would you reach into the basements and bedrooms of American homes?”

Counterterrorism officials acknowledge privately that the U.S. government is struggling to meet this new threat. But Carlin said he feels confident that ultimately, ISIS and its slick propaganda machine will be exposed by the ugly reality on the ground.

“Because when people know what this group is about and what this group is really doing — killing, enslaving, raping and stealing — they are not going to want to join.”

Iraqi forces launch major military operation in Fallujah against Islamic State

8 Maggio 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

The Iraqi army and volunteer forces have started a major military operation against the ISIL terrorists in the militant-besieged city of Fallujah in central Iraq, Press TV reports.

The operation began on Wednesday targeting the terrorist group, which wrested control of the city in June. Fallujah is considered to be one of the group’s strongholds in Anbar Province, which sprawls over much of Iraq’s western and central territory.

Volunteer forces have announced the killing of 30 ISIL terrorists in the operation, most of whom foreigners, after firing rockets and missiles towards their hideouts in a neighborhood southeast of Fallujah.

Officials have said the ISIL militants threw the bodies of the dead terrorists into the river in order to hide their identities.

“In the Anbar operations, the army is trying to move carefully and slowly for the geographic nature of the province is different from other areas in Iraq,” said political analyst Ahmad al-Sahrifi.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been in chaos since ISIL started its campaign of terror in early June 2014. The terrorists are in control of the major city of Mosul and have swept through parts of the country.

Iran bans ‘homosexual’ and ‘devil-worshipping’ haircuts under strict anti-Western rules. Forbidden also tattoos, solarium treatments and plucking eyebrows

8 Maggio 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

The country’s authorities have forbidden eccentric styles, terrified that spikey or feathered hair cuts might encourage homosexuality or Satanism. The strict regime has previously banned ponytails and mullets but rebellious teens moved on to alternative floppy fringes and eighties-style quiffs.

Beauty treatments, including tanning and hair removal, have also been outlawed under the outrageous orders. Mostafa Govahi, the head of Iran’s barbers’ union, said: “Devil-worshipping hairstyles are forbidden. “Any shop that cuts hair in the devil worshipping style will be harshly dealt with and their licence revoked.

“Tattoos, solarium treatments and plucking eyebrows are also forbidden.”

The Islamic authorities have a history of implementing strict rules on men and women deemed to be imitating Western trends. Barber shops cutting people’s hair in styles deemed unacceptable have been threatened with closure under the latest declaration.

In a separate interview, Govahi said: “Haircuts that show symbols or signs of devil worshippers or those adopted by homosexuals are banned. “I won’t allow such wrongful western styles as long as I’m in this position.”

Jihadi group claims mortar attack on Hamas Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza

8 Maggio 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

A jihadi group that recently emerged in the Gaza Strip claimed Friday a mortar attack on a base belonging to the Islamist Hamas movement in charge of the blockaded territory.

In a statement posted online, the group calling itself Supporters of ISIS in Jerusalem said it fired mortar rounds at a base used by Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

Witnesses told AFP they heard explosions close to Khan Yunis.

A bomb attack this week targeted Hamas’s security headquarters in Gaza after radical Islamists issued a threatening message calling for the release of prisoners.

Hamas security forces arrested a Salafist leader last month, alleging that he was a supporter of ISIS, which holds vast swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq.

Gazan jihadis have pledged allegiance to ISIS in the past, but there has been no confirmation from the group itself that it has a presence in the coastal enclave.

Is Turkey to send ground troops to Syria?

8 Maggio 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

Turkey officials said Saudi Arabia and Ankara formed an anti-Syrian government pact that might involve ground troops. The Turkish government is planning on sending ground troops into its neighboring country Syria, the Turkish opposition Republican’s People’s Party Deputy Chairman Gursel Tekin said in an interview Thursday with the Turkish Taraf newspaper.

The government denied the claims. Gursel said that the government led by the Justice and Development Party, or the AK party, was planning the intervention in northern Syria on Thursday or Friday after setting up a buffer zone from where the troops can safely operate. The opposition figure added that the ruling party’s popularity was declining and thus it sought to boost its approval rates by undergoing a military “adventure” in Syria. The Turkish general elections are scheduled for June, and the ruling Islamic-rooted AK party, who has been in power since 2001, aims to secure a majority at the parliament that would allow it to independently rewrite the country’s constitution. The recent claims by Turkey’s opposition comes as unnamed Turkish officials told the Associated Press on Thursday that Turkey and Saudi Arabia had formed a pact that would aim at supporting Islamist groups and Syrian rebels and removing the Syrian President Bashar Assad.

According to observers, the recent news about a Turkish-Saudi alliance against the Syrian president highlights their frustration by the United States policy in Syria that has no intention of removing Assad. In fact, the U.S. State Department Secretary John Kerry said last year that if any solution was to be reached to the Syrian crisis, Assad and the Syrian government had to be included. In the past several years, Saudi Arabia and Turkey went through tense diplomacy as they did not see eye-to-eye on certain regional issues. Turkey supported the Muslim Brotherhood party both in Syria and in Egypt, while Saudi Arabia and its late king Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud viewed them as a threat.

Turkey angered Saudi Arabia when it offered refuge to several high-level Muslim brotherhood members soon after the coup in Egypt against their party’s democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi by the military commander Abdel-FattAh el-Sisi in summer of 2013. However, critics argue that Saudi’s new king Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who became the head of the kingdom in January, has moved away from his predecessor’s policy against the Muslim Brotherhood. “It’s a different world now in Syria, because the Saudi pocketbook has opened and the Americans can’t tell them not to do it,” said Joshua Landis, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. “It’s quite clear that Salman has prioritized efforts against Iran over those against the Muslim Brotherhood.”

According to reports, the accord between Ankara and Riyadh was sealed at the beginning of March during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Saudi Arabia to congratulate the new king on his post. The agreement set in motion the groundwork for an alliance between several Islamist groups operating against the government in Syria. The alliance, calling itself the “Conquest Army” was formed at the end of March and, according to the Turkish officials, receives logistical and intelligence from Turkey, while Saudi Arabia provides the financial support for weaponry and operations. Some reports suggest that Turkey might also provide ground troops to support future airstrikes by the Saudis, supporting the claims by the opposition. Landis, however, warned that the recent pact could prove risky for both countries, especially for Turkey. “The cautionary tale is that every power in the Middle East has tried to harness the power of Islamists to their own ends,” he said, noting that Assad’s government also backed Islamists in Iraq who later turned their guns on him. “It always seems to blow back.”

Senior IDF source: If Lebanon war scenario becomes reality, soldiers will cross border

8 Maggio 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

The IDF held a series of intensive drills around the country in the past week, part of a directive issued by recently appointed Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, who placed war training back at the top of the military’s priorities.

One of the exercises took place in the Jordan Valley, where the Artillery Corps 282 Support Unit spent five days training for war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Although the unit of conscripts holds this type of drill annually, this year was different due to the scope and variety of live fire employed, according to a senior Artillery Corps officer who spoke to The Jerusalem Post.

“What is special in our unit is its fusion of a variety of surface- based firepower,” he said. The unit can deploy cannons to strike ground targets, precision- guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, and the Spike [Tamuz] electro-optical fireand- forget missile.

It can also employ a radar battalion that can look far beyond the immediate battle zone, to locate enemies, provide early warning of incoming fire, and pass on target coordinates for return fire in seconds.

All of this activity simulated a full-scale war in southern Lebanon, the source said. Until last week, “my battalions were in Judea and Samaria, doing daily security missions. On Saturday night, they switched to a livefire drill,” he said. Usually, a full-scale drill of this kind comes at the end of a gradually escalating exercise, involving more and more military units. This time around, the source said, the Artillery Corps flipped things around, and started with the biggest drill.

“Together with the Armored Corps’ 7 Brigade, we held two-division exercises. We want to create the most realistic simulation, so this had to involve live fire,” he said. The unit moved from Ma’aleh Efraim to Beit She’an, activating the full range of its fire power – the first time this has happened in a drill, the source said.

“Our vision is to be the main ground-based firepower effort. Anyone who wants our support – infantry or armored units – has to know how to talk to us very quickly. We have the Digital Ground Army [command and control network] for that. All of the ground forces operate under one network,” he said.

This means that a tank or an infantry unit can ask for and receive precise firepower in very little time.

“If they want to hit a person in a window, they can ask for a Tamuz missile strike. If they want to hit the house, the rocket unit will do this. If they want to attack big targets, or get to an enemy antitank cell hiding around them, the classic artillery guns will provide the big firepower,” the commander added.

“The firepower is available because of the Digital Ground Army network. In the exercise, within a day or two, we saw this in action, we saw the units talking to each other.”

Ultimately, the officer said, the Artillery Corps would like to create what he called a “canopy of firepower” over maneuvering forces that move in hostile territory.

To accomplish that, artillery units will have to accompany maneuvering forces over the border rather than hang back and provide supporting fire, as they did during the conflict with Hamas in Gaza last summer. “In the North, I can’t stay back. I have to advance with the forces, at their speed. The link between the Armored and Artillery Corps enabled us to learn how to cater to each other’s needs. They will guard my units from threats in Lebanon, and I will provide very deadly and powerful firepower,” the source said.

“This integration is vital. The message I want to pass on to my battalion is: Do not be confused by past wars. We will not be standing back on the international border and firing in the next round. We will, it seems, find ourselves maneuvering with the forces, and we have to know how to integrate with them.”

A second senior IDF source said Thursday that the past week was unusual due to the intensity of the exercises, but stressed that all of them had been planned well in advance and had no relation to any recent developments.

“The goal this week is to increase our training, with an emphasis on reserves,” the source said. One of the big exercises was held by the IDF Technology and Logistics Branch, which saw 240 vehicles taking part.

“They tested a new command and control center and checked their ability to deploy heavy vehicles to battle zones. Around 1,500 reservists were called up by the Transportation Center,” the source said.

An additional large drill involved the Northern Command’s 36th reserve Armored Division, which, like the 282 Artillery Support Unit, used the Jordan Valley to simulate a Lebanese battleground. In that drill, tank fire capabilities were put to the test.

A third exercise involved the reserves, the Infantry’s 16th Brigade, and was held on the Golan Heights. “This centered on the actions a reservist brigade will have to take when it is called into action,” the source said. “We want to reach a situation in which a battalion commander will know that if a drill is scheduled for six months from now, it will be held on time,” he said.

“We want to stick to the intense training plan for 2015. We are approaching levels of training that are higher than in past years. The aim is to allow a maximum number of exercises,” he added.

The IDF has so far stuck to this plan, and, barring any major surprise security escalations, it expects to continue to do so in the coming months, according to the source.

Yemen, coalition to target Houthi leaders

8 Maggio 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

Saudi-led forces said Thursday they would respond harshly against Yemen’s Houthi rebels following attacks on citizens in border areas, hours after the kingdom offered a five-day humanitarian truce if the militia stopped fighting.

Brig. Gen. Ahmad Asiri, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said the Houthis had changed the situation by targeting cities in recent days, and vowed that the coalition would go after leaders of the rebel group.

“The Houthis are now targeting the borders of the kingdom and the situation is that we will defend our citizens,” Asiri told Reuters, adding that 15 people were wounded in Houthi shelling on the city of Najran Thursday evening.

“Coalition forces will deliver a harsh response starting this moment, so that those who carried out this operation will pay the price,” Asiri said earlier on Saudi state television.

Asiri said Saudi-led forces would keep all options open, but declined to say if a ground offensive was being planned.

The remarks came hours after Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced at a joint news conference with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that the kingdom was ready to offer a five-day humanitarian cease-fire if the Houthis honored the truce.

“The pause will affect all of Yemen for a period of five days,” Jubeir said. “The actual date will be announced shortly as well as the requirements.

“This is all based on the Houthis complying with the cease-fire.”

International concern about Yemen’s dire humanitarian situation has grown as fighting, airstrikes and an arms embargo have caused civilian deaths, internal displacement, destruction of infrastructure and shortages of food, medicine and fuel.

The offer of a truce came days after the Houthis shelled Saudi border towns, prompting renewed coalition airstrikes in Yemen, and as the rebels advanced into a last central area of Aden, a city whose fate is seen as pivotal to Yemen’s civil war.

Kerry welcomed the Saudi truce offer and said neither Riyadh nor Washington was talking about sending ground troops to Yemen.

Air raids to suppress further Houthi shelling struck the group’s stronghold of Saada, near Yemen’s Saudi border, and the small port of Maidi Wednesday.

Houthi-linked Al-Masirah TV Thursday showed fighters in a key district of Aden, and reported that the presidential palace was in the insurgents’ hands.

In a letter to the United Nations, the Houthis called for international action to stop what they described as Saudi aggression and crimes against the Yemeni people.

Villagers from Yemen’s northern Hajah province say that many residents have left their homes because of the Saudi bombardment and are seeking refuge in other areas where they lack food.

Most of those displaced are from the Haradh district near the border with Saudi Arabia, an area which has come under heavy artillery and air attack since the Houthis shelled Saudi villages from there.

Earlier, the Houthi rebels said they had shelled a Saudi air defense facility north of Najran after killing eight people in the Saudi city Tuesday and Wednesday. Another two Saudis were killed by Houthi shells in Jizan province.

Fighting across Yemen Wednesday killed 120 people, mostly civilians, including at least 40 who were trying to flee Aden in a boat that was struck by Houthi shells, rescue workers and witnesses said.

Military and security officials said the rebel forces advanced on the suburb of Dar Saad, north of the strategic port city of Aden, while fighting intensified in the nearby provinces of Abyan and Taiz.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said a U.S. airstrike last month killed the senior figure who issued the group’s claim of responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, according to a report by SITE Intelligence Group.

Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi was killed with other fighters in Yemeni city of Mukalla.