Why the Massive Floating Bomb in the Red Sea Needs Urgent Attention

BY DR. IAN RALBY, DR. DAVID SOUD, AND ROHINI RALBY

A floating storage and offloading (FSO) terminal less than five miles off the coast of Yemen has turned into a massive bomb—capable of explosion due to its contents and lack of maintenance. The risk of explosion increases by the day, and if that were to happen, not only would it damage or sink any ships in the vicinity, but it would create an environmental crisis roughly four and a half times the size of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The consequences of that explosion and corresponding environmental devastation would likely be 1) to rupture the fragile aid-focused ceasefire in Hodeidah established under the December 2018 Stockholm Agreement; and 2) to accelerate the already dire humanitarian crisis in Yemen where roughly fourteen million people are on the brink of famine, surviving at the moment on international aid. There is nothing benign about this situation—even in a region with countless immediate needs, this matter is of the utmost urgency.

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Source: atlanticcouncil.org

Claims of British commandos shot on secret missions in Yemen dismissed

Lucy Fisher, Defence Correspondent

Senior defence sources today dismissed reports that five British special forces commandos were wounded in gun battles while on secret missions in Yemen.

Members of the Special Boat Service (SBS) were shot while fighting in the Saadah area in the north of the country, according to the Mail on Sunday.

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Source: thetimes.co.uk

Houthis push for military escalation in Yemen’s Hodeidah: gov’t official

ADEN, Yemen, March 20 (Xinhua) — Yemen’s government accused on Wednesday the Houthi rebels of pushing for a new escalation of armed confrontations in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah despite the cease-fire brokered by the United Nations.

The government’s spokesman, Rajeh Badi, announced during a press conference held in the southern port city of Aden that the Houthi rebels are continuing to dispatch military reinforcements into Hodeidah in an attempt to “spark the situation militarily again.”

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Source: xinhuanet.com

Houthis attack pro-gov’t military base in Yemen’s Hodeidah

ADEN, Yemen, March 13 (Xinhua) — Fighters of the Houthi group launched a missile attack against a pro-government military base in Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Wednesday evening, causing huge blasts, a security official told Xinhua.

The security source said on anonymity that “a missile fired by the Houthi rebels landed on Abu Musa Ashary army base in Alkhokha district of Hodeidah, killing two soldiers and injuring 18 others at the scene.”

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Source: xinhuanet.com