Kuwait gives Yemen’s national airline three aircraft, two engines

A Yemen Airways plane is greeted with water canon salute at Sanaa Airport after the resumption of commercial flights, Sanaa, Yemen, May 16, 2022. (Reuters)
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Updated 01 July 2024
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Kuwait gives Yemen’s national airline three aircraft, two engines

  • The agreement, after a request from the chair of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, comes days after the Houthis seized four of Yemenia’s aircraft
  • Prisoner-exchange talks between government and Houthis continue; judge held by militia for 5 months says group attacked his home, terrorized his family

AL-MUKALLA: Kuwait has agreed to provide Yemenia, Yemen’s national air carrier, with three aircraft and two engines to supplement its limited fleet, days after the Houthis seized four of the airline’s planes.

Yemen’s government said authorities in Kuwait notified the Yemeni embassy in Kuwait on Sunday that they have agreed to a request from Rashad Al-Alimi, chairperson of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, to assist Yemenia.

“This generous support adds to the lengthy legacy of the State of Kuwait’s dignified positions and generous humanitarian interventions at different stages and situations alongside our Yemeni people,” Al-Alimi said in a message posted on social media platform X.

Yemenis responded on social media with praise for Kuwait and hopes that the aircraft will allow Yemenia to provide flights to new locations or step up services to existing destinations. Yemenia offers flights to Jeddah, Riyadh, Amman, Cairo and Delhi, and plans to add services to Dubai and Kuwait.

The assistance from Kuwait came less than a week after Yemenia reported that the Houthis seized four of seven aircraft at Sanaa airport, preventing them from flying pilgrims to and from Saudi Arabia. The Yemeni government said at least 1,000 pilgrims were stranded in Saudi Arabia as a result.

The Houthis refused to release the aircraft and said last week that they would take administrative control of Yemenia, seize repair facilities at Sanaa Airport, and reschedule flights from Sanaa and other airports in Yemen, including those held by the Yemeni government.

Meanwhile, prisoner-exchange discussions between the Yemeni government and the Houthis continued on Monday for a second day without any reports of progress being made toward a fresh agreement that might result in hundreds of war detainees being freed.

“The discussions are ongoing and intense,” Yahya Kazman, the head of the Yemeni government delegation involved in the talks, told Arab News.

Abdul Wahab Qatran, a prominent, outspoken judge who was released from a Houthi prison on June 12, said that members of the group had attacked his home, terrorized his family and imprisoned him for months for exposing Houthi corruption and denouncing the actions of the militia.

“What happened to me and my whole family is terrible. No judge in Yemen’s history has ever experienced this,” he said in his first public statement since his release.

In a lengthy message posted on his son’s Facebook page on Sunday night, accompanied by a photograph of himself with tape covering his mouth, Qatran said more than 40 armed Houthis and six female intelligence agents surrounded his home in Sanaa on Jan. 2 while he his family slept, before breaking down doors and entering.

The judge said he and his family were held for hours as the Houthis looted the house. They took paperwork, cell phones, laptops, a hard drive containing 17 years of family memories, and other electronic devices including those belonging to his children.

“They stole my passport, my personal and judicial cards, my lawyer’s cards, as well as all my books and notebooks, including the notebook where I wrote down the passwords to my emails, Facebook and Twitter accounts,” Qatran added.

He said the Houthis ignored his pleas for them to respect his position as a judge and the immunity that should come with it and added: “They abducted me and threw me into an armored truck, along with my two adult children. The females put my wife and children under house arrest in a room and then occupied my home for eight hours.”

The Houthis took him to a jail in Sanaa, he said, and initially held him in isolation there for 40 days. Before releasing him this month, the Houthis ordered him to make a written pledge not to “undermine security and stability” and said he should notify their intelligence and security authorities if he needed a new cellphone SIM card.

“They have not returned any of the looted items to me yet,” he said. “They still have my phones and those of my children and relatives.”


Fifty-four children swim from Morocco to Spanish enclave Ceuta

Updated 50 min 2 sec ago
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Fifty-four children swim from Morocco to Spanish enclave Ceuta

  • The children, who were mostly Moroccan, were taken to temporary centers in Ceuta
  • On Aug. 26 last year, hundreds of migrants took advantage of a thick mist to swim to Ceuta from neighboring Morocco

MADRID: At least 54 children and about 30 adults swam from Morocco to Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta in rough seas and fog, Spanish television reported on Saturday.

Video footage on Spanish television channel RTVE showed Civil Guard launches making repeated rescue attempts to bring some of the swimmers to safety, while others swam across to the enclave.

The children, who were mostly Moroccan, were taken to temporary centers in Ceuta, where authorities called for help from the central government in dealing with the latest arrivals.

“Don’t leave us alone. This is a matter of state. This has to be resolved,” Juan Rivas of the Ceuta regional government told reporters on Saturday.

On August 26 last year, hundreds of migrants took advantage of a thick mist to swim to Ceuta from neighboring Morocco, local police said. In 2021, one boy was seen floating on empty plastic bottles in his attempt to reach Ceuta.

Spain’s two enclaves on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, Ceuta and Melilla, share the European Union’s only land borders with Africa. The enclaves sporadically experience waves of attempted crossings by migrants trying to reach Europe.

Moroccan nationals detained during the crossings are immediately sent back to Morocco unless they are underage or seeking asylum.

People from other nationalities are taken to special centers where they are given shelter and released after a few days.

Three years ago, at least 23 people died in a stampede when about 2,000 migrants tried to storm into Melilla, pushing down the border fence.


Britain ‘taking forward’ Gaza food airdrop plan: PM Starmer’s office

Updated 26 July 2025
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Britain ‘taking forward’ Gaza food airdrop plan: PM Starmer’s office

  • The UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid

LONDON: British Prime minister Keir Starmer on Saturday spoke to his French and German counterparts and outlined UK plans to get aid to people in Gaza and evacuate sick and injured children, his office said.

“The prime minister set out how the UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance,” a statement said.


Libya detains 1,500 undocumented migrant workers in raid near Tripoli

Updated 26 July 2025
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Libya detains 1,500 undocumented migrant workers in raid near Tripoli

  • Al-Abed said: “These workers, of various nationalities, had no residency permits, no official passports, and not even health records“
  • The detained migrant workers will be “transferred to centers run by the Anti-Illegal Immigration Authority”

TRIPOLI: Libyan authorities detained on Saturday some 1,500 undocumented migrant workers in a raid on a neighborhood housing them east of the capital Tripoli, an AFP reporter saw.

“Saturday’s inspections uncovered housing units where undocumented foreign workers were living,” Libyan labor minister Ali Al-Abed, who was present during the raid, told reporters.

“These workers, of various nationalities, had no residency permits, no official passports, and not even health records.”

Libya has been gripped by conflict since the 2011 overthrow and killing of longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising.

The country remains split between Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah’s government based in Tripoli and a rival administration based in the east.

With Italy some 300 kilometers (186 miles) away, Libya has become a key launchpad for tens of thousands of migrants who risk their lives at sea trying to reach Europe.

The area targeted in the sweep east of Tripoli housed makeshift encampments surrounded by high walls and a large gate.

Hundreds of migrants — mostly Egyptians and sub-Saharan Africans — were said to have lived there.

Inside the compound, an AFP journalist saw a small grocery store, a butcher shop and vegetable vendors.

The labor minister said the site had “unregulated housing that fails to meet basic requirements for decent accommodation, health and workplace safety.”

The detained migrant workers will be “transferred to centers run by the Anti-Illegal Immigration Authority, and legal proceedings will be initiated against them according to national regulations,” Abed said.

It remained unclear whether the migrants would be immediately deported.

Earlier this month, a European Union commissioner and ministers from Greece, Italy and Malta were in Libya to discuss irregular migration from the North African country.

Migrants intercepted by Libyan authorities, including in international waters before reaching the Italian coast, are forcibly returned to Libya and held in detention under harsh conditions frequently condemned by the United Nations.


Nine killed in courthouse attack in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province, Iranian media report

Updated 9 min 42 sec ago
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Nine killed in courthouse attack in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province, Iranian media report

  • Jaish Al-Adl claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Telegram account
  • Sistan-Baluchestan is home to Iran’s Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, who have long complained of economic marginalization and political exclusion

At least nine people were killed in an armed attack by the Sunni Jaish Al-Adl Baluch group on a courthouse in Iran’s restive Sistan-Baluchistan province on Saturday, including three of the assailants, state media reported.

Another 22 were injured, according to the report.

Jaish Al-Adl confirmed the deaths of its three members in the clashes with security forces in Zahedan, the capital of the far southeastern province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan. Sistan-Baluchistan is home to Iran’s Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, who have long complained of economic marginalization and political exclusion.

A toddler and a 60-year-old woman were among those killed, as well as three soldiers and law enforcement personnel assigned to the courthouse, the head of the province’s judiciary told IRNA. He did not identify the sixth dead person. He said the attackers wore explosive vests and carried grenades. It was not clear if they had detonated them.

Jaish Al-Adl, which claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Telegram account, said it had killed at least 30 members of the judiciary and security forces. It said it targeted judges and court personnel, whom it accused of issuing death sentences and house demolition orders to Baluch citizens.

“We warn all judges and employees of the judiciary that Baluchistan will no longer be a safe place for them and death will follow them like terrifying shadows until retribution,” the group said in its statement.

It blamed security forces for the deaths of civilians, saying they had fired indiscriminately.

The Baluch human rights group HAALVSH, quoting eyewitnesses, said several judiciary staff members and security personnel were killed or wounded when the assailants stormed the judges’ chambers.

Sistan-Baluchistan is frequently hit by clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy. Tehran accuses some of them of ties to foreign powers and involvement in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.


Five civilians, three gunmen killed in ‘terrorist’ attack in southeast Iran

Updated 26 July 2025
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Five civilians, three gunmen killed in ‘terrorist’ attack in southeast Iran

  • Jaish Al-Adl group, operating from borderlands between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, claimed the attack
  • The region has been the scene of recurring clashes between Iranian security forces, various militant outfits

TEHRAN: Gunmen killed five civilians during a “terrorist attack” on a judiciary building in southeast Iran on Saturday before being killed themselves, state media reported.

“Unknown gunmen attacked the judiciary center in Zahedan,” the capital of southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, the judiciary’s Mizan Online said.

“Five people have been killed and 13 injured in this terrorist attack,” the report said while adding that the counts are “preliminary” and the toll may rise.

Separately, the official IRNA news agency reported that three of the attackers were killed during the assault, citing the regional headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

According to Alireza Daliri, deputy police commander of Sistan-Baluchistan province, the attackers attempted to enter the building disguised as visitors.

The assailants threw a grenade into the building, Daliri said, killing several people inside, including a one-year-old baby and the child’s mother.

Jaish Al-Adl (Arabic for ‘Army of Justice’), a Baloch militant group operating from the borderlands between Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, mainly the Sistan-Balochistan triangle, but active inside Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Located about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran, the restive province shares a long border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The area has been the scene of recurring clashes between Iranian security forces, including the IRGC, and rebels from the Baluch minority, radical Sunni groups, and drug traffickers.

In one of the deadliest incidents in the region, ten police officers were killed in October in what authorities also described as a “terrorist” attack.