Saudi-led tactical air campaign targeting, Yemen conflict

Photos depicting recent Saudi-led tactical air campaign targeting during Yemen conflict:

Yemeni Air Force Ilyushin Il-76TD "Candid" strategic airlifter targeted by Saudi-led tactical airpower at Sana'a International Airport (SAH / OYSN).

Destroyed Yemeni Air Force Ilyushin Il-76TD

Photo claiming to depict a truck carrying humanitarian relief supplies, targeted by Saudi-led tactical airpower

Details of claimed food relief supplies intended for Yemeni civilians, depicted as interdicted by Saudi-led tactical airpower.

Photo evidence of expended BLU-108 canister from a CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon found in the al-Amar area of al-Safraa, Saada governorate on 17APR15; attributed delivery by RSAF tactical aviation.

Suicide Blast Hits Damascus

Al-Nusra Front (ANF), the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, today claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a regime-controlled neighborhood in Damascus, AFP reported.

AFP quoted a Syrian security official as saying that on Monday morning, a group of insurgents on motorcycles attacked Rukn Al-Din neighborhood and detonated a suicide bomb when Syrian security forces came near.

The neighborhood is well guarded and is home to many military officers. The attack took place near a military building used by the army’s logistics directorate.

“With the help of God, three of our lions were able to infiltrate the logistics building,” ANF posted on twitter. (AFP, 4 May)

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast has wounded General Mohammad Eid, the commanding general of Syrian army logistics.

The ability of Al-Nusra to penetrate one of the safest neighborhoods in Damascus, not far from the Presidential Palace, and launch an attack and detonated a bomb inside an army building is very concerning. ANF and its allies have in recent weeks captured practically all of Idilb province and are threatening a highway that links Idilb with Latakia, the principal seaport in the country.

Photo credit: Photo released by official Syrian news ageny SANA shows damaged cars and a motorcycle after a bombing attack in Ruk al-Din neighborhood of Damascus, 4 May 2015 (AP)

Iraqi Forces Besieged at Baiji Oil Refinery

ISIL Insurgents Deep Into Compound

Iraqi forces besieged inside the country’s largest oil refinery are running low on food and ammunition and are pleading for reinforcement to save them from Islamic State insurgents who have advanced deep into the compound in the past week, Reuters reported on Monday. They hold large sections of the sprawling refinery complex where some 200 elite special forces, soldiers and federal police are holding out.

“We are surrounded by Daesh (ISIL) from all sides… We can hear Daesh fighters shouting and threatening to behead anyone they catch. We are running short of ammunition, food and drinking water. We eat only one meal a day. We tear our uniforms to bandage other solders’ and policemen’s wound,” said Mohanad, a policeman speaking via telephone from the refinery where his unit has taken up defensive positions inside the complex. (Reuters, 4 May)

The refinery has been for all practical purposes destroyed during the fighting, but remains one of the most fiercely contested spots in Iraq. The Iraqi security forces are as fiercely battling ISIL nearby to secure a highway leading to the refinery to send reinforcement and supplies.

On 18 April, Iraqi officials said they were fully in control of the compound, but the insurgents have since gained ground and capture large portions of the complex.

File photo: Baiji oil refinery complex (Reuter) 

Maersk Meets Iran Officials over Seizure of Vessel

No Progress Reported

Maersk Line said on Monday it had met with Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) regarding the seizure of the vessel Maersk Tigris but has yet to receive any official documents from Iranian authorities.

“We have yet to receive any written notifications, court ruling, arrest order or similar, pertaining to the seizure of Maersk Tigris or the cargo case,” Maersk said in a written statement. (Reuters, 4 May)

Iran has said the seizure of the vessel at he Strait of Hormuz by the IRGC Navy concerns a years-old case over uncollected cargo and an unpaid bill. Iran took the unusual step of seizing the vessel at sea and forcing it to sail to an Iranian port. For safety reasons, commercial ships involved in legal disputes are arrested while already docked at a port.

The Maersk Tigris is not owned by the Danish shipping giant. Maersk had chartered the vessel, which is owned by Singapore’s Rickmer Shipmanagement. 

Maersk called again for the crew and the vessel to be released immediately.

File photo: The Maersk Tigris (abc)

Arab Coalition Special Forces Deployed to Aden

UPDATE: Heavy Clashes in Aden Airport

UPDATE: Yemen’s exiled foreign minister Reyad Yassin Abdulla told reporters on Monday that special forces troops deployed to Aden were Yemenis organized by the Arab coalition to fight the Huthis. Abdullah added that more of the Yemeni fighters will be deployed to Aden.

*****

News agencies are reporting that Saudi-led Arab coalition ground troops have been deployed to Aden. The Anadolu Agency said Arab soldiers, probably special forces, reached the coast of Al-Buraiqeh by inflatable boats. AP said the black-clad and masked troops landed Sunday in a central area between the city’s al-Mansoura neighborhood and the airport. The witnesses said helicopter gunships hovered above the landing area.

Reuters quoting a spokesman for the Southern Popular Resistance, the anti-Huthi militia force in Aden, reported that 40-50 Arab special forces are deployed and are now engaged in fighting in the area around Aden airport. 

Yemen’s Aden al-Ghad newspaper reported that an Arab ground force arrived in Aden on Sunday and started fighting Huthi forces.

“The first push of Arab ground force arrived on Sunday morning in Aden and began to take part in battle,” the newspaper said.

AFP reported that a limited number of Saudi-led ground troops deployed in Aden on Sunday, with another force on its way.

This is the first deployment of ground troops in Yemen since the coalition launched its campaign against the Huthi insurgents in late March.

UPDATE: Turkey’s state-run Anadolu press agency reported today that the Arab coalition special forces deployed to Aden today had sailed off from the Red Sea Port of Djibouti. Anadolu quoted an unnamed western diplomat as saying that the coalition’s ground troops will attempt to create a “safe zone” in Aden to be utilized as a base for Arab troops. The Western diplomat told Anadolu that the plans call for deployment of “several thousands” of Arab troop. (Anadolu, 3 May)

UPDATE: Reuters reports heavy clashes in Aden Airport on Sunday afternoon. Special forces deployed today probably spearheading the fight.

UPDATE: Saudi Arabia denied that a "major ground operation" is under way by the Arab coalition, but coalition spokesman declined to comment on the deployment of special forces for Aden. (Reuters)

File photo: Aden, Yemen's principal port city (yementhroughoureyes)

ISIL Pushing to Capture Iraq Refinery at Baiji

Islamic State insurgents have taken control of half Iraq’s largest oil refinery in Baiji, and have cut supply line to the government troops who are holding out inside the sprawling facility. Last November, Iraqi Security Forces broke a month-long siege of the refinery by ISIL fighters. But they returned and are now on the verge of capturing the refinery.

ISIL now controls “all the major buildings” at Baiji complex, an Iraqi officer told a reporter at McClatchy. 80 percent of the watch towers around the facility is also captured by ISIL fighters, and they have flanked government positions with “snipers and suicide bombers.” (McClatchy, 2 May)

The push by ISIL is an indication of the precarious security situation in Iraq and the fact that the security forces are spread too thin. The refinery has been shut down for a while, but the loss of the facility would be a blow to the government and a huge success for ISIL.

Meanwhile, ISIL took responsibility for late-night car bomb attacks late Saturday in the Karrada district, in the heart of Baghdad, killing at least 19 people. Police said the dead and wounded were mainly shoppers and people commemorating the death of Imam Ali, the key figure in Shia Islam. There has been a major spike in car bombs in Baghdad over the past week, leading to speculations that the insurgents have infiltrated the capital by hiding among thousands of the displaced persons fleeing the fighting in Ramadi.

File photo: Baiji Oil Refinery during its better days (The Guardian)

U.S. Navy Accompanies Ships through Strait of Hormuz

U.S. Navy on Thursday accompanied four American ships and a British vessel moving through the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon announced. Officials said U.S. will offer the aid to any other nation concerned about interference from Iranian navy. The policy was adopted after IRGC Navy seized a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship earlier this week at the Strait of Hormuz. (AP, 1 May)

File photo: The USS Farragut (Aaron Chase/U.S. Navy/Reuters)

Oil Off 2015 Highs on Iraq Export Record

Iraq said today its crude oil exports hit a historic record in April, to 3.08 million bpd. OPEC supply in April also rose to its highest in more than two years at 31.04 million bpd, Reuters reported.  

The Brent crude oil for June delivery fell below 2015 highs and settled at $66.46 a barrel. Brent jumped 21 percent in April.

Iran-backed Shia militias reportedly poised to join Anbar campaign

Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (Shia militia forces) in training

According to Reuters:

Shi'ite paramilitaries have already played a central, if controversial, role alongside regular army units in recent months in the Iraqi government's first major successful campaign against Islamic State fighters, helping to capture Saddam Hussein's home town Tikrit on the Tigris River north of Baghdad.

So far, however, the government has avoided deploying the militia in the Euphrates River valley province of Anbar west of the capital, a vast Sunni tribal homeland that strides the main routes to Jordan and Syria. Baghdad considers Anbar the next target in its campaign to retake territory from the militants.

But with the army advance having faltered, officials are now speaking openly about dispatching the militia, organized under the umbrella of "Hashid Shaabi" - "Popular Mobilisation".

[…]

Baghdad-based analyst Jasim al-Bahadli, an expert on Shi’ite armed groups, said deploying the Hashid Shaabi to Anbar would make both military and political sense for Abadi.

"Excluding them will have undesired consequences and give an opportunity for the Hashid to show clear opposition to Abadi’s government," Bahadli said. "That is the last thing Abadi needs."

Hadi al-Amiri, a Shi'ite lawmaker who heads the most powerful armed faction within the Hashid Shaabi, dismissed the objections and said he had a mandate from eighty Anbar tribal leaders to join the fight in the province.

"We will fight in Anbar without waiting for permission from anyone," Amiri told state TV on Wednesday. "We will go, not as a favor, but as a patriotic, ethical and religious duty towards our people in Anbar."

COMMENTARY: There had been enormous political pressure on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, wedged as he was between competing U.S. and Iranian interests during the Battle of Tikrit, with a battlefield victory deemed politically essential. That level of pressure is again on the prime minister, in addition to the pressure being applied by ISIL at Anbar.

Following the recent Salahaddin military campaign and the command dispute between Iran and the United States, it was reported another dispute arose between Iraqi and the American military leadership over the next objective in the war against ISIL. Iraq (and Iran had) wanted Anbar to be the focus of the next military campaign, while the United States preferred Nineveh.

With ISIL having managed to regain the initiative and the the Iraqi Army facing difficulties in its push at Anbar, the assistance of Iran-backed forces now appears being contemplated. This week Iraqi Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi publicly stated he’s received multiple requests from politicians and tribal leaders to send in the Shia militias.

Meanwhile there's been a noticeable uptick in reported U.S.-led tactical airstrikes being flown against ISIL targets in Iraq.