Israeli war crimes

 

Getting a jump on WWIII.  

Israeli monsters

 

Kinzinger spells it out

 

I missed that we're no longer bombing Yemen.  Did we lose too many planes?

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he’s ordering a halt to nearly two months of U.S. airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthis, saying the Iran-backed rebels have indicated that “they don’t want to fight anymore” and have pledged to stop attacking ships along a vital global trade route.

[...]

Trump said the Houthis had indicated to U.S. officials that “they don’t want to fight anymore. They just don’t want to fight. And we will honor that, and we will stop the bombings.”

  AP News

Oh yeah, I'm sure that's what happened. LOL.

“We’re going to stop the bombing of the Houthis, effective immediately,” Trump said at the start of his Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

They were kicking our butt.

That likely means an abrupt end to a campaign of airstrikes that began in March, when Trump promised to use “overwhelming lethal force” after the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli vessels sailing off Yemen in response to Israel’s mounting another blockade on the Gaza Strip.

[...]

A U.S. official said the administration had not notified Israel of the agreement with the Houthis before Trump talked about it publicly.

Israel, according to this official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic talks, was irked by the unexpected news — particularly because the Houthis have continued to launch attacks on Israel proper and other Israeli targets.

[...]

Trump was asked about the possibility that the Houthis would continue to attack Israel and responded, “I don’t know about that, frankly.”

“But I know one thing, they want nothing to do with us,” Trump said. “And they’ve let that be known through all of their surrogates and very strongly.”

[...]

In his comments during the earlier meeting with Carney, Trump said the Houthis had “capitulated but, more importantly, we will take their word that they say they will not be blowing up ships anymore. And that’s what the purpose of what we were doing.”

“I think that’s very positive,” Trump added. “They were knocking out a lot of ships.”

Their attacks caused us to lose three planes into the drink. He couldn't take the publicity.

Asked how the Houthis had communicated that they were looking to stop being targeted by U.S. bombs, Trump offered few details, saying only with a chuckle that the information came from a “very good source.”

LOLOLOLOL. Could it have been John Barron?

The costs of the U.S. munitions used against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen in daily attacks since March 15 have totaled more than $750 million, another U.S. official said. The Trump administration has dropped more than 2,000 munitions on more than 1,000 targets, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide additional details on the strikes.

The total is only a fraction of the total costs of the operation. It doesn’t account for the costs of operating two aircraft carriers, their accompanying warships or the flight hours of the aircraft.

[...]

It also doesn’t include the Houthis destroying seven U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones, at a cost of more than $30 million apiece, or the loss of an F/A-18 fighter jet and tug from the carrier USS Harry S. Truman when it maneuvered to avoid a Houthi missile and the jet fell off the carrier.

Or the two subsequent F/A-18s.

And, good grief, what DOES it include?

Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, confirmed that the U.S. bombing campaign was ending, posting on X that discussions involving the U.S. and Oman, as well as negotiators in Yemen, “have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides.”

“In the future, neither side will target the other, including American vessels, in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping,” he wrote, calling the agreement a “welcome outcome.”

Whatever dude. Israel is still attacking them.

“As to the Houthis continuing to attack Israel - they do so at Iran’s own peril,” Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on social media.

Sit down, Lindsey. You fool.

The Houthis had been waging persistent missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

From November 2023 until January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The Houthis paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the U.S. launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March.

Nice job, Pete.

UPDATE 05/13/2025:

Another military jet dumped at sea

 

Another F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier has been lost in the Red Sea, the second jet lost from the carrier in just over a week.

[...]

It is not entirely clear what happened yet, as the investigation is ongoing, but two of the people said there was some kind of arrestment failure as the jet was trying to land on the carrier and the pilot and weapons systems officer had to eject. They were recovered by a rescue helicopter and are both alive, but they suffered minor injuries.

[...]

The jet crashed into the sea and has not been recovered.

[...]

Separately, the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group “took a shot” at the Truman on Tuesday, four of the people said, despite President Donald Trump announcing an apparent ceasefire with the group hours earlier. It is not clear whether the two incidents are related.

[...]

The loss of the fighter jet comes one week after another F/A-18 jet fell overboard the Truman. That time, initial reports indicated that the Truman made a hard turn to evade Houthi fire, which contributed to the fighter jet falling overboard.

An individual F/A-18 fighter jet costs more than $60 million, according to the Navy.

  CNN

And...

Is everybody getting high?  Are we getting careless?

Or maybe everyone is too stressed by Trump 2.0.

UPDATE 05/07/2025:  I know that plane incident had nothing to do with air traffic control.  Nevertheless, this doesn't look like a great idea...

 

For the past several months, the U.S. military has been carrying out a bombing campaign in Yemen ostensibly aimed at forcing the militant group Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, to stop their military intervention on behalf of Palestinians under Israeli assault in Gaza. This campaign has conducted strikes against more than 800 targets, as well as verified claims of civilian harm, including, most recently, a strike against a detention facility housing African migrants that killed dozens of people.

[...]

[S]erious allegations have emerged that the U.S. military has been relying, in part, on anonymous X accounts who post coordinates that they dubiously claim contain military assets.

This week, U.S. warplanes bombed a location alleged by two such amateur open-source intelligence accounts to be a Houthi stronghold, killing innocent bystanders in the process.

A Twitter account—operated by an individual whose bio says they are based in the Netherlands, using the handle @VleckieHond—apologized this week after the U.S. struck coordinates she erroneously suggested, in early April, were the location of an underground Houthi military position; it was not a military site. “Allright, time for me to go through the mud,” Vleckie posted. “Based on satellite imagery I'd marked this quarry as an underground base, and tweeted is out as such. I'm fairly certain Centcom doesn't take their targeting data from Twitter, but this still is a very severe mistake.” Vleckie had highlighted the coordinates in a thread that claimed to have uncovered a Houthi base, and they had relied, in part, on a secondary account, @Galal_Alsalahi, whose bio suggests they are based in Houston. That account, which is hostile to the Houthis, claimed to have discovered a Houthi missile launcher at the coordinates.

The strike that took place on April 28 reportedly killed eight civilians in their homes on the outskirts of the capital of Sana’a. Vleckie’s reading of satellite imagery, the account later said, was incomplete—they said they had privately marked the target as only “possible”—and they would strive to do better in the future, while posting a screenshot of a 500 Euro donation to charity that she had made as penance. “I should never have posted it,” they added.

[...]

To be sure, it may be a mere coincidence that the amateur sleuths identified the location before CENTCOM struck it, but the account used for the Sana’a strike is known to officials in the military, increasing the potential likelihood that it was relied on—at least, in part—for the tragic targeting.

  Dropsite News

Jesus Tapdancing Christ.

More innocent Yemeni civilians are about to be slaughtered

 

Second time Harry Truman dropped something.  

Aren't those things tied down while in transit?  Maybe it just landed and they were in the process of anchoring it.

This embarrassment will cost more innocent Yemeni lives.

UPDATE 05/07/2025:  Another jet dumped into the sea from the USS HSTruman.

US war crimes in Yemen

 

US continues war crimes in Yemen

 Apparently, Israel and the US are allowed to target civilians.

Waste, fraud and abuse

 Pete Hegseth doing the "warfighter" thing (of course, at Trump's bidding).

US air strikes in Yemen

Dropsite needs a grammar cop.  The warplanes, obviously, were not carrying out any humanitarian duties.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Trump said he was going to get us out of all wars.

This is a blatant war crime.

Making room for Trump Gaza

 

Did anyone even notice they'd stopped?

And, in related news...

Sure.

UPDATE 03/18/2025:

Not because Netanyahu needed Washington's blessing, but because he needed Trump to know what his role is.

WWIII, anyone?

 

The GOP has wanted to take on Iran for decades.  Looks like Dumbfuck may be presenting them their shot. 

And, glad he signed it POTUS, in case we thought Elon really is.

Wait. What?

Bullies don't pick on someone their own size.

And here I  thought  Trump was going to end US wars. 

 

We needed it to get worse

The rebel strike on Tel Aviv killed one person and injured 10.  The Israeli strikes hit a refinery and electricity infrastructure.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said later in the evening that the port was targeted as it was used “for military purposes”.

The strike, he added, “makes it clear to our enemies that there is no place that the long arm of the state of Israel will not reach”.

Defence minister Yoav Gallant said “the fire that is currently burning in Hodeidah is seen across the Middle East and the significance is clear … The first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them. And we will do this in any place where it may be required.”

[...]

British and US forces have carried out repeated strikes on Hodeidah, as recently as last month.

The Saudi Arabian outlet Al Arabiya, citing unnamed sources, said the strikes targeting a fuel depot and oil refineries at the port were carried out in a joint operation by Israel, the US and the UK.

  Guardian

Don't forget, Netanyahu is supposed to address Congress on the 24th, and it's been reported that Biden wouldn't even think of stepping aside until after that, because...animosity between the two.  Seriously?  He's been 110% on Israel's side arming them, and he never wavers from claiming solidarity.  

Heaven  help us. 

And, in related news...

In the months before the Israeli invasion, Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah was a lifeline, a place where thousands sought shelter or scrabbled to raise funds to cross into neighbouring Egypt.

Now satellite images and social media video uploaded by Israeli soldiers stationed around the city show roads widened for armoured vehicles surrounded by total destruction, including buildings razed to the ground in the once bustling city.

[...]

Rafah, previously a city of about 200,000 people, swelled as more than a million more sought shelter, huddling close to Gaza’s sole southern crossing point, a beacon for those able to leave until Israeli forces took control and then destroyed the crossing. This choked off the supply of aid that flowed in through southern Gaza. Since early May, no aid trucks have entered Rafah, while UN data shows that fewer than 2,500 trucks have entered the enclave in three months, a fraction of the relief required.

[...]

Social media video and satellite images show the destruction of the Rafah crossing point, previously the last remaining passenger route out of Gaza, after Israeli forces seized control of the area in early May. Soon afterwards, Israel said it had “operational control” of the entire Philadelphi corridor, a slim strip of land that runs next to the border with Egypt, where an Israeli presence is prohibited by the 1979 peace treaty between the two nations.

Israeli forces also built a new road between the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossing points, known as David’s Pass, and widened parts of the road running along the Philadelphi corridor, to smooth the way for military vehicles.

[...]

The moves appear designed to support the long-term presence of Israeli troops in Gaza.

  Guardian

Only suckers honor treaties.

Meanwhile in Yemen

Well, I guess we fixed THAT problem.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Ramping up in Yemen

UPDATE 01/26/2024:

All in

The US has carried out fresh strikes on Yemen, a day after a first raid triggered mass protests in the country’s capital and other Middle Eastern countries voiced concern that the attacks could trigger further unrest in the region.

[...]

Earlier on Friday, the director of the US joint staff, Lieut Gen Douglas Sims, told journalists the Houthis had launched an anti-ship ballistic missile in retaliation for Thursday night’s strikes but it had not hit a vessel.

“All American-British interests have become legitimate targets” for the Houthis following the strikes, the rebels’ Supreme Political Council said, while Hussein al-Ezzi, the rebels’ deputy foreign minister, said the US and Britain must “prepare to pay a heavy price”.

  Guardian

American-British interests are sacrosanct.

The UK and US defended [their earlier] attacks, which marked a major escalation of the crisis in the Middle East triggered by the Israel-Gaza war, but leaders in the region condemned them for inflaming tensions in an already volatile climate.

[...]

The bombing was justified because the Houthis were deterring merchant shipping from using the busy international waterway,[tThe UK prime minister, Rishi] Sunak said. “People can’t act like this with impunity and that’s why together with allies we’ve decided to take this action,” he said.

[...]

The US on Friday said that 28 locations had been hit in the initial strikes, using more than 150 munitions, while Britain’s Royal Air Force bombed two, a sweeping bombing campaign intended to halt a spate of Houthi attacks on shipping in the southern Red Sea that has disrupted world trade and threatened to push up inflation.

And in an election year!

In a letter to congress, president Joe Biden said that he ordered the strikes to protect US personnel, and disrupt the Houthis’ ability to carry out future attacks in the Red Sea.

Sure. That's why.

The White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, told MSNBC [...] “We’re not looking for conflict with Iran. We’re not looking to escalate and there’s no reason for it to escalate beyond what happened over the last few days,” he said.

No reason other than Iran is supporting the Houthis who are supporting the Palestinians in Gaza against Israel.

Many of the [Houthi's Red Sea attacks] have been directed at merchant ships without Israeli links, prompting the US and a coalition of allies to dispatch warships to the Red Sea to protect shipping lanes, see off raiding boats and shoot down missiles and drones when necessary.

The White House said Biden had decided to bomb targets in Yemen on Tuesday, shortly after the Houthis attacked a fleet of US and UK warships with 18 drones and three missiles. Once that attack was repelled, the US president directed the country’s military to respond, and Sunak decided to join in soon.

[...]

No other country was prepared to participate in the US-UK bombing, although it received help from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands. Denmark, Germany, New Zealand and South Korea signed a statement in support of the action, and France said the Houthis were to blame for the escalation.

[...]

The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, also said that Iran could de-escalate tensions. Asked his message to Tehran in an interview with the Telegraph, he said: “You must get the Houthi rebels, others who are acting as proxies for you, Lebanese Hezbollah are obvious examples, [and] some in Iraq and Syria, you must get these different organisations to cease and desist because we are, the world is, running out of patience.”

Arrogant much?

Aid agencies said they were alarmed by the prospect of further fighting in a country just emerging from a nine-year civil war and called for de-escalation. An Oxfam spokesperson said: “The humanitarian situation in Yemen remains dire with almost 21 million people in desperate need of food, water and life-saving aid. It is vital that peace is restored and further suffering prevented.”

It's obvious from the US support of Israel's genocide in Gaza that we don't give a rat's ass about suffering.

Multi-national.  US and Great Britain.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Fallout from Israel's war on Gaza reaches Yemen

The US and UK have launched airstrikes on more than a dozen sites used by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen.

[...]

The strikes are the most significant military response to the Houthis’ persistent campaign of drone and missile attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, which began after Israel’s war in Gaza broke out. Here’s how we got here:

  Guardian

Continue reading.

World reactions to the bombings.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Meanwhile in Iran

About Yemen

In February, US President Joe Biden announced a new Yemen strategy, giving momentum to the search for a ceasefire and eventual political solution. There are few concrete details yet of his policy, but central to his announcement was the US' withdrawal of offensive support for Saudi Arabia.

[...]

Biden also appointed a special envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, who is wrapping up a two-week visit to region, trying to engage different parties and give mediation efforts a reboot.

[...]

The World Health Organization, which provides critical funding to hospitals and clinics, says it has been left with no funding at all to secure fuel to carry out its services across Yemen.

"From March 2021, WHO will have to stop distributing fuel to 206 facilities across the country, over 60 percent are hospitals providing services not available at the already fragile primary level. This will lead to the stoppage of life-saving services, such as emergency rooms and intensive care units, including COVID-19 ICUs. Over 9 million people will be affected," it said in a document, shared with CNN.

[...]

Nearly three years ago the UN Security Council criminalized "intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare," and demanded that "access to supplies that are necessary for food preparation, including water and fuel" be kept intact in northern Yemen.

[...]

Saudi warships have not allowed any oil tankers to berth at Hodeidah since the start of the year, the Houthis say, an assertion backed by the World Food Programme. The practice is starving the north of much-needed fuel.

[...]

Every month, this hospital's pediatric ward takes in more patients than its capacity of 50, sometimes twice as many. Around 12 children die there each month, Salah said. He and his staff are running on empty -- they haven't been paid for more than half a year.

Yemen has stepped up to the precipice of famine, and back again, many times over its six years of war. Now, famine conditions not seen in the country for two years have returned to pockets of the country.

[...]

The rapidly deteriorating situation is the result mostly of funding cuts that have battered activities by agencies like the World Food Programme, which is struggling now to meet the most basic of needs for millions of Yemenis, particularly in the country's north. But it has also been exacerbated by a mounting fuel crisis.

[...]

"If fuel were easily available on the market, the number of cases we are seeing in the hospital would be much higher, because at the moment, there are patients who are staying at home, because of the challenges and expenses of traveling to the hospital," Dr. Salah said. As a result, said Dr. Salah, children are simply dying in their homes.

[...]

CNN obtained documents from the port's arrival log showing that 14 vessels had been cleared by the UN's verification and inspection body to carry fuel to the country. The tracking website MarineTraffic.com shows those vessels are now sitting in the Red Sea between the Saudi-Yemen border and Eritrea, unable to unload their fuel.

[...]

On the back of his Gulf trip, Lenderking told CNN that Saudi Arabia and its allied Yemeni government were ready to agree to a ceasefire, and called on the Houthis to end their cross-border strikes and assault on Marib.

[...]

"Ultimately, until there's an end to the war, we are doing what we can to save lives. But Yemen needs peace," said the World Food Programme's Yemen spokesperson Annabel Symington.

In April last year, the WFP said it was forced to cut every second monthly food aid delivery to 8 million people in Yemen's north. It's now hoping to raise $1.9 billion, which will be enough just to avert widescale famine.

The WFP and most agencies don't know how much money they will get this year, but it isn't looking good. A pledging conference on March 1 garnered less than half the $3.85 billion the UN estimates it needs just to keep the country fed and running.

[...]

When asked about US support for Saudi Arabia while the country was blocking fuel deliveries to Hodeidah, Lenderking said the situation was "complex."

  CNN