Brian Moore, New York Police Officer Shot in the Head, Dies As NYT Rushes To Conclude "No Story Here" Concerning Targeting Police

 

Hundreds of police officers paid their respects to Officer Brian Moore outside Jamaica Hospital Medical Center on Monday as the officer's body was carried away by ambulance. Credit Uli Seit for The New York Times.

Officer Brian Moore followed his father into the New York Police Department, rose to the ranks of an elite plainclothes unit tasked with confronting the city’s most dangerous street crime and died on Monday, two days after a gunman opened fire on him in Queens.

At the time that Officer Moore, 25, was shot on Saturday evening, he was still young enough to be living in the Long Island home of his father, Raymond. Yet he was seasoned enough in the job he had been drawn to since childhood to have earned accolades from superiors and departmental medals for “meritorious” police work. He had made over 150 arrests since joining the department in July 2010.

“In his very brief career, he already proved himself to be an exceptional young officer,” the police commissioner, William J. Bratton, said in announcing Officer Moore’s death, outside Jamaica Hospital Medical Center on Monday afternoon.

“I did not know this officer in person in life,” a visibly shaken Mr. Bratton added. “I’ve only come to know him in death.”

Officer Moore’s death plunged the nation’s largest police force into mourning for the second time in six months. Though his wounds were grave from the moment the gunman’s bullet struck his face, officials had held out hope that he might survive. But on Monday his family made the decision to remove him from life support, prompting an outpouring of grief.

Shortly after Officer Moore’s death, the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said the charges against the man accused of opening fire, Demetrius Blackwell, 35, would be elevated to include first-degree murder.

“We lost one of the best amongst us, a young man who was called to do good for others,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at an evening news conference at Police Headquarters. “This was his dream because he had seen such extraordinary examples in his own family.” ”

At a time of low crime in the city and a national debate over deadly police actions, officials said Officer Moore’s death served as a reminder of the dangers inherent in everyday situations encountered by officers. The shooting erupted in an instant as the officers tried to question a person they deemed suspicious.

It differed, in that respect, from the targeted killing of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in December by a man who linked his actions to protests over police killings of unarmed black men in Missouri and on Staten Island. The police have said that no such political motive existed for Mr. Blackwell, whom they described as a “professional criminal.”

“Policing is never easy,” Mr. Bratton said at the evening news conference. “At this time in America, it’s even more difficult.”

For city officers, the story of the Moores was the story of many police families. Not only Officer Moore’s father but also his uncle and his cousin were New York City officers. Officer Moore grew up on Long Island, in a middle-class neighborhood filled with city workers. He attended a public high school, Plainedge, whose athletic field was named for Edward R. Byrne, another alumnus who followed his father into the city’s Police Department and was fatally shot on duty in Queens as a 22-year-old rookie in 1988.

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“Officer Moore was very proud of his father and uncle, and they were very proud of him,” said Lawrence Byrne, the deputy commissioner of legal matters and the brother of Edward Byrne.

Officer Moore worked in a department where his family name preceded him in some of the highest ranks. Officer Byrne knew Raymond Moore as a high school classmate at Plainedge High School, in North Massapequa; James P. O’Neill, the chief of department, worked with him in the warrants squad in the 1990s and on Monday called the Moores a “terrific family.”

On Monday evening, a candlelight vigil was to be held at the high school in honor of Officer Moore, the local schools superintendent said, to “remember the dedicated, courageous and kind young man he was.”

It was about 6:15 p.m. on Saturday when Officer Moore steered his unmarked police sedan toward a man whom he and his partner observed walking on a quiet street in Queens Village and adjusting his waistband in what the police said was a suspicious manner.

They pulled up behind him and as they began talking to him, the police said, the man turned and fired at the car. Officer Moore was struck in the cheek and had trauma to his brain, officials said. Officer Moore’s partner, Officer Erik Jansen, was not hit.

Ninety minutes after the shooting, officers arrested Mr. Blackwell at a house within view of the scene of the gunfire, near the corner of 212th Street and 104th Road. He had discarded the weapon, the police said, and tried to mix into a crowd of curious neighbors as heavily armed officers went house to house.

For more than a day, officers searched the backyards and rooftops for the gun used in the shooting. It was found by detectives on Monday morning under a box near a grill in a backyard that officials said was along the short route they suspected Mr. Blackwell took after the shooting. The gun, a silver .38-caliber, five-shot revolver, had two live rounds and three expended rounds..

The police said three .38-caliber rounds were fired at the officers, two striking their car and one hitting Officer Moore.

The gun was among 23 reported stolen in 2011 from a Georgia gun shop, the chief of detectives, Robert K. Boyce, said. Nine of those weapons, including the revolver, have been recovered in New York City by the police, he said.

On Monday afternoon, hundreds of officers looked on as an ambulance carrying Office Moore’s body left the hospital and headed to the morgue. Distraught relatives placed their hands on the vehicle. Along the route, firefighters at every station stood and saluted. At the morgue, a sea of blue formed.

Still others converged on the gray Cape Cod-style home where Officer Moore lived in North Massapequa. This week, thousands will gather for the familiar rituals of a police goodbye.[source]

Garland, Texas, Shooting Suspect Linked Himself To ISIS In Tweets

One of 2 armed Islamic terrorists responsible for attacking a Texas free speech event.

 

(CNN)They wore body armor. They carried assault rifles. And one had declared loyalty to ISIS.

A day after police killed two gunmen who tried to ambush a Garland, Texas, event featuring controversial cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, details began to emerge about the shooters.

One suspect, identified as Elton Simpson by a federal law enforcement source, linked himself to ISIS in a tweet posted just before the attack.

He also was no stranger to federal investigators. In 2011, he was convicted of making a false statement involving international and domestic terrorism.

The other suspect, identified as Nadir Soofi by two federal law enforcement officials, was Simpson's roommate in a Phoenix apartment.

He wasn't well-known to federal law enforcement and was not on the FBI's radar, one of the officials said. Investigators were combing through evidence retrieved from the shooters' Arizona home to help piece together a timeline of how their plot came together, the official said.

Authorities are still trying to determine the suspects' motives, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said Monday. At this point, he said, one thing appears clear: A quick-thinking police officer "likely saved a number of innocent lives."

Simpson and Soofi never made it inside the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, where in addition to the cartoon contest, a right-wing Dutch politician who's on an al Qaeda hit list was speaking Sunday evening.

A traffic officer working after-hours as security for the event and armed only with a service pistol killed both men, who were wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles, Garland Police Department spokesman Joe Harn told reporters Monday.

"We think their strategy was to get into the event center, and they were not able to get past our perimeter that we had set up," Harn said.

An unarmed security officer working with the patrol officer was shot in the ankle, police said. None of the approximately 200 people attending the event was hurt.

Harn declined to call the incident a terror attack, saying the motive was still under investigation.

"We don't know their intent, other than that they were willing to pull up and shoot police," Harn said.

Links to ISIS?

Investigators haven't revealed what they found in the suspects' apartment, but Simpson's social media footprint reveals one possible motive; he linked himself to ISIS in a tweet posted just before the attack.

"May Allah accept us as mujahideen," the tweet said, adding that Simpson and his fellow attacker had pledged loyalty to "Amirul Mu'mineen" (the leader of the faithful) -- a description that CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said likely refers to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

After the shooting, an ISIS propagandist that Simpson had earlier asked his readers to follow tweeted, "Allahu Akbar!!!! 2 of our brothers just opened fire" at the Texas event.

"If there is no check on the freedom of your speech, then let your hearts be open to the freedom of our actions," tweeted the propagandist, who was identified by two American groups that monitor jihadi websites as Junaid Hussain, a British ISIS fighter in Syria who goes by the name Abu Hussein al Britani.

In 2011, Simpson was sentenced to three years of probation after his conviction on the terror-related charge, court records show. Prosecutors said he told FBI agents that he had not discussed traveling to Somalia to engage in "violent jihad" when, in fact, he had, according to an indictment reviewed by CNN.

U.S. authorities are investigating whether Sunday's shooting has any link to international terrorism. Simpson's tweet could indicate the attack was inspired by ISIS, but not necessarily orchestrated by the group, sources said.

Similarities to attacks in Denmark, France

The incident bears similarities to attacks this year on events in France and Denmark featuring images of Mohammed, which some Muslims believe is blasphemous.

In January, gunmen attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine that has a controversial history of depicting Mohammed, and killed 12 people. The next month, a gunman attacked a free speech forum in Copenhagen, Denmark, featuring cartoonist Lars Vilks, who infuriated al Qaeda with his depictions of Mohammed.

Why Islam forbids images of Mohammed

The Sunday night event in Garland invited cartoonists to send in caricatures of Mohammed. It was organized by the American Freedom Defense Initiative -- considered an anti-Muslim group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

The keynote speaker was right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who's on an al Qaeda hit list.

Organizers said they received more than 350 submissions for the event.

The winning entry won $12,500. The black and white drawing shows a cartoonist's hands sketching a sword-wielding Mohammed, who is shouting, "You can't draw me!"

A speech bubble coming from the hands depicts the cartoonist's response: "That's why I draw you."

What is the American Freedom Defense Initiative?

"The Islamic jihadis are determined to suppress our freedom of speech violently." Pamela Geller, president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, told CNN. "They struck in Paris and Copenhagen recently, and now in Texas."

Responding Monday to criticisms of her group as anti-Islamic, she said, "There is a problem in Islam, as illustrated last night, and anyone that addresses it gets attacked in this same way."

Venue hosted anti-Islamaphobia event

The American Freedom Defense Initiative said it specifically picked the venue for Sunday's event, a school district-owned facility, because it had hosted an event denouncing Islamophobia in January.

SoundVision, the organizers of the January "Stand with the Prophet" event, denounced Sunday's attackers and also criticized Geller's organization for "hate mongering."

"Unfortunately, some insane persons, however, decided to give hate-mongers the attention they desired with their violent act. ... Once again, a bad name for the community," SoundVision said on its website. "We, the people of faith, must counter the war-terror-hate cycle with peace-love-respect."

Shortly after the Sunday night shooting, a prominent Muslim leader in Dallas tweeted about it.

"The community stayed away from event," Imam Zia Sheikh wrote. "Seems like a lone wolf type of attack. Just what we didn't want."

'A gentle person'

Members of a mosque the suspects attended, the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, are in shock about what happened, said its president, Usama Shami.

Simpson was a regular worshiper at the mosque until around 2010 or 2011, about the time the FBI arrested him on the false statement charges.

During that time, he offered no signal that he held radical views, Shami said.

"He was a gentle person," Shami said of Simpson. "He always had a good attitude, a good demeanor."

Soofi came to the mosque less frequently, Shami said. He owned a local pizza shop and would show up at the mosque with his young son.

"They didn't show any signs of radicalization or any signs of even thinking about those things in that manner. So when that happens it just shocks you," Shami said. "How good did you know these people, that's the question that people ask themselves."

Americans with links to ISIS

Texas crime scene after 2 armed Islamic terrorists tried to attack a free speech event.

'Freedom of speech is under violent assault'

Wilders, the Dutch politician who was the keynote speaker at the Garland event, is controversial for his anti-Islam views. He was placed on the al Qaeda hit list for his film "Fitna."

The film, which Wilders released online in March 2008 to international outcry, features disturbing images of terrorist acts superimposed over verses from the Quran in an apparent attempt to paint Islam as a threat to Western society.

In 2011, Wilders was cleared of charges of inciting discrimination and hatred with the movie.

"The day we give away humor and freedom of speech is the day that we cease to exist as a free and independent people," he told the attendees at the Garland event Sunday night.

The American Freedom Defense Initiative is also known for its anti-Muslim stance, with the Southern Poverty Law Center describing Geller as "the anti-Muslim movement's most visible and flamboyant figurehead," a description that she disputes.

The conservative blogger first gained national attention with her group, "Stop the Islamization of America," and its vocal opposition to an Islamic community center planned near the site of New York's ground zero, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by Islamist hijackers on September 11, 2001.

Geller said Sunday's attack showed how necessary the event was, adding that she plans to hold similar events in the future.

"The freedom of speech is under violent assault here in our nation," she said. "The question now before us: Will we stand and defend it or bow to violence, thuggery and savagery?"

CNN's Ed Lavandera reported from Garland and Joe Sutton from Atlanta, and Saeed Ahmed reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet, Kevin Conlon, Kristina Sgueglia, Vivian Kuo, Janet DiGiacomo, Chris Lett, Holly Yan, Pamela Brown, Jim Sciutto, John Couwels, Wolf Blitzer and Kyung Lah contributed to this report.[source]http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/04/us/garland-mohammed-drawing-contest-shooting/

Baltimore Meltdown: How Easily Witnesses Can Cause Yet Another Riot Under Analysis

Out of nowhere we are treated to breaking news about yet another Baltimore police shooting only days after the Freddie Gray funeral and riot. Since the turmoil there has been only temporarily mitigated after a few days of curfew enforcement began, the waters are still roiling with unrest, agitation, and hostility. This appears to be something that will cause the Md Nat'l Guard to put those boots back on again: So a very cool, calm, Mike Tobin from Fox News is reporting that he actually witnessed a young African American man get shot in the back by a Baltimore policeman on the street in broad daylight. Mike's eyewitness testimony references a handgun that fell when the African American started running away from the policeman. The on site testimony of a different supposed witness was a lot more emotional in what she thought she saw. She even started crying and was visibly distraught: Sounds pretty horrific, doesn't it? This young woman sounds ready to lead the charge herself against City Hall and beyond. But then we hear the correction. It turns out that this young African American wasn't shot in the back, and that he was provided hospitalization at the taxpayer's expense just to check him over for possible injuries. No one was shot: It's these kinds of things, which happen every day across America and the world, which make you appreciate the act of giving pause before rushing to conclusions. Especially if you're also the type to start swinging a bat and throwing Molotov Coctails. But when you see things like this that even dispassionate eyes see incorrectly, the type of witness who rushes past the facts to design the response...it's hard to imagine a great outcome for Baltimore anytime soon.

After Inmate Dies Under Suspicious Police Activity, Baltimore Riots, And Mayor Says They "Gave Room" To Those Seeking To Destroy

During a Saturday briefing, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said her city government “gave those who wished to destroy space to do that,” seemingly approving of the rioters who smashed the city’s police vehicles in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray.


Gray, a man with a drug rap sheet arrested on a weapons conviction, suffered a spinal cord injury–perhaps due to rough handling by police–and died on April 19. Reports are inconclusive, however, and the police are not talking. Rioters destroyed cop cars in a frenzy, while the police hung back. They attacked a wheelchair-bound woman, and a man wearing a #BlackLivesMatter shirt tried to stab a terrified bystander.

File image of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, self-proclaimed leader of ISIS.

By Pamela Engel

The head of the Islamic State is reportedly injured so badly he can barely move, Kareem Shaheen at The Guardian reports.
"Sources tell us Baghdadi is still alive, but still unable to move due to spinal injury sustained in the March air strike," Shaheen tweeted.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who last year declared himself "caliph" of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh), was reportedly wounded in a US-led air strike in March.
Martin Chulov at The Guardian, who last week broke the news of the air strike, also says his sources tell him that Baghdadi is still alive and is being treated by doctors from Mosul. He has reportedly suffered a spinal injury.
Information on Baghdadi's reported injury and the air strike that supposedly caused it is still sketchy.
Two officials, one Western and one Iraqi, confirmed to The Guardian that the air strike targeted multiple cars in the town of Baaj in northwestern Iraq on March 18, but the Pentagon said the air strike was not aimed at a high-value target and that they "have no reason to believe it was Baghdadi."
Chulov reports that officials didn't know that Baghdadi was in one of the cars targeted in the airstrike. He was reportedly staying in that area of Iraq because he "knew from the war that the Americans did not have much cover there," a source who is aware of Baghdadi's movements told The Guardian.
Baghdadi is reportedly recovering slowly but has not resumed day-to-day control of ISIS. A former physics teacher from Mosul was installed as ISIS's new temporary leader while Baghdadi recovers, an Iraqi government adviser told Newsweek last week.
ISIS control zones as of April 2015
Newsweek describes Abu Alaa Afri as a "rising star" within ISIS, and the Iraqi government adviser, Hisham al Hashimi, said Afri had become even more important than the injured "caliph" of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Afri will become ISIS' new permanent leader if Baghdadi dies, Hashimi said.
Having a caliph with a background of religious education is important to ISIS, which has shaped its self-proclaimed caliphate around a strict interpretation of sharia law. The group recruits people to come live in its territory by marketing it as an Islamic utopia.
Der Spiegel reported recently that early leaders of ISIS, many of whom are former Iraqi intelligence officers from ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, decided to make Baghdadi caliph because he, as an "educated cleric," would "give the group a religious face."[source]

Saudis Pound Arms Depots In Yemen As Bread, Medicine Run Short

People stand at the site of an air strike in Sanaa April 26, 2015. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah.

 (Reuters) - Saudi-led aircraft pounded Iran-allied Houthi militiamen and rebel army units in central Yemen and the capital Sanaa on Monday despite a formal end to the air strikes, residents said, and a humanitarian crisis worsened as both sides blocked aid.
Residents said warplanes flew between 15 and 20 sorties against groups of Houthi fighters and arms depots in the al-Dhalea provincial capital, Dhalea, and the nearby city of Qa'ataba, between dawn and 0900 local time (02:00 a.m. EDT), setting off a chain of explosions that lasted for two more hours.
Fighting intensified on Sunday, after a lull following an announcement by Riyadh last week that it was ending its nearly five-week-old bombing campaign except in places where the Houthis were advancing.
A coalition of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia, rattled by what they saw as expanding Iranian influence in the Arabian Peninsula, is trying to stop Houthi fighters and loyalists of former President Ali Abdullah Salah taking control of Yemen.
Vital aid was reported to be being held up by both sides. Houthis were stopping convoys of trucks reaching Aden and an arms blockade by Saudi-led coalition navies searching ships for weapons was holding up food deliveries by sea.
Telecommunications within Yemen and with the outside world could be cut within days due to a shortage of fuel, state-run news agency Saba quoted the director of telecommunications as saying. Fuel shortages were also preventing traders from moving food to market, the United Nations' World Food Programme said.[source]

Thousands of Saudi Forces Flee Bases, Refuse to Participate in Ground Assault on Yemen

Almost 4,000 Saudi forces fled their border bases in anticipation of Riyadh’s order for launching a ground assault on Yemen, European diplomatic sources said on Sunday.

 

By Fars News Agency

Global Research, April 26, 2015

FARS News

“The intel gathered by the western intelligence agencies showed that the Saudi military forces have fled their bases, military centers and bordering checkpoints near Yemen in groups,” diplomatic sources were quoted as saying by Iraq’s Arabic-language Nahrain Net news website.
The European sources said that the Saudi forces’ mass AWOL forced Riyadh to declare ceasefire and dissuaded it from launching ground attacks against Yemen.
Other reports also said that over 10,000 soldiers from different Saudi military units have fled the army battalions and the National Guard.
Experts believe that the Saudi army lacks strong morale to launch a ground invasion of Yemen and such an attack would be considered as a suicide for Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 32 days now to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 3,005 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.
Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by Ansarullah revolutionaries of the Houthi movement.
Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.
On Tuesday the monarchy declared end to Yemen airstrikes after four weeks of bombings, but airstrikes are still underway.[source]

Clinton Foundation Admits Making Mistakes On Taxes

(Reuters) - The Clinton Foundation's acting chief executive admitted on Sunday that the charity had made mistakes on how it listed government donors on its tax returns and said it was working to make sure it does not happen in the future.
The non-profit foundation and its list of donors have been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks. Republican critics say the foundation makes Hillary Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, vulnerable to undue influence.
After a Reuters review found errors in how the foundation reported government donors on its taxes, the charity said last week it would refile at least five annual tax returns.
"So yes, we made mistakes, as many organizations of our size do, but we are acting quickly to remedy them, and have taken steps to ensure they don't happen in the future," Clinton Foundation acting Chief Executive Officer Maura Pally said in a statement.
The errors appeared on the tax forms 990 that all non-profit organizations must file annually with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to maintain their tax-exempt status.
Pally said the foundation did accurately report its total revenue but government grants were mistakenly combined with other donations.[source]

Fighting Escalates Across Yemen, Air Strikes On Capital Sanaa

(Reuters) - Air raids, naval shelling and ground fighting shook Yemen on Sunday in some of the most widespread combat since a Saudi-led alliance intervened last month against Iranian-allied Houthi militia who have seized large tracts of the country.
There were at least five air strikes on military positions and an area near the presidential palace compound in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa at dawn on Sunday, while warships pounded an area near the port of the southern city of Aden, residents said.
"The explosions were so big they shook the house, waking us and our kids up. Life has really become unbearable in this city," a Sanaa resident who gave his name as Jamal told Reuters.
The strikes on Sanaa were the first since the Saudi-led coalition said last week it was scaling back a campaign against the Houthis. But the air raids soon resumed as the Houthis' nationwide gains had not been notably rolled back, and there has been no visible progress toward peace talks.
Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter and arch Sunni Muslim regional adversary of Shi'ite Muslim Iran, feels menaced by the Shi'ite Houthi advance across Yemen since last September, when the rebels captured the capital.
The Houthis later forced President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile. The Saudi-led intervention aims to restore Hadi and prevent Yemen disintegrating as a state, with al Qaeda militants thriving in the chaos and one of the world's busiest oil shipping lanes off the Yemeni coast at risk.
Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan visited King Fahd airbase in Saudi Arabia's Taif on Sunday and reaffirmed his country's commitment to the Saudi-led coalition. "Our only choice is victory in the test of Yemen," the official WAM news agency quoted him as saying.

WARSHIPS

Fighters loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have been battling alongside the Houthi rebels.
In London, Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yaseen rejected a call for peace talks issued by Saleh on Friday and said the Saudi-led military operation had not ended.
"These calls are unacceptable after all of the destruction Ali Abdullah Saleh has caused. There can be no place for Saleh in any future political talks," Yaseen told a news conference.
"There will be no deal with the Houthis whatsoever until they withdraw from areas under their control," Yaseen said.
Eyewitnesses in Aden said foreign warships shelled Houthi emplacements around the city's main commercial port and dockyard, the first time they had been targeted.
Aden residents reported heavy clashes between local armed militia from Yemen's Sunni south and Houthis backed up by army units loyal to Saleh.
Sources in the militia said they retaliated for the first time with tank and Katyusha rocket fire. Air strikes backed up local militia in clashes near Aden's international airport.
In the southern province of Dalea, militia said they had fought for hours to retake several rural districts from the Houthis with the help of air strikes. The fighting left around 25 Houthis and six local militiamen dead.
A grouping of armed tribesmen and Sunni Islamist fighters in the strategically important central Yemeni city of Taiz took back several districts from the Houthis in heavy fighting, according to residents there.
Medics reported that four civilians were killed when a rocket landed in a street and shelling damaged a main hospital.
The battlefield setbacks for the Houthis occurred in an area they held largely unopposed for more than a month, and suggest that the air campaign has emboldened armed opposition groups.
Other air strikes hit Houthi bastions in Saada province along Yemen's northern border with Saudi Arabia, and Saudi ground forces also shelled the city of Haradh in neighboring Hajja province, residents said.
Iran's navy chief said on Sunday that it would keep warships in the Gulf of Aden for at least several months, a stance that could harden U.S. concerns about Tehran trying to supply advanced weapons to the Houthis.
Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, quoted by the state news agency IRNA, said the ships had deployed to protect shipping routes against piracy. The Islamic Republic denies giving military support to the Houthis.
The United States sent an aircraft carrier and a missile cruiser to support seven U.S. warships already near the Gulf of Aden this week, and warned Iran not to send weapons to Yemen that could be used to threaten shipping traffic. [source]

Former U.N. Envoy Says Yemen Political Deal Was Close Before Saudi Airstrikes Began

A Houthi rebel in San’a, Yemen on Sunday walks past a building damaged by the Saudi-led air campaign against the Iranian-backed force. Photo: khaled abdullah/Reuters.

 

By Joe Lauria and Margaret Coker

Updated April 26, 2015 7:45 p.m. ET 

UNITED NATIONS—Yemen’s warring political factions were on the verge of a power-sharing deal when Saudi-led airstrikes began a month ago, derailing the negotiations, the United Nations envoy who mediated the talks said.
Jamal Benomar, who spearheaded the negotiations until he resigned last week, told The Wall Street Journal the Saudi bombing campaign against Iran-linked Houthi rebels has hardened positions on a key point—the composition of an executive body to lead Yemen’s stalled transition. This will complicate new attempts to reach a solution, he said.
“When this campaign started, one thing that was significant but went unnoticed is that the Yemenis were close to a deal that would institute power-sharing with all sides, including the Houthis,” said Mr. Benomar, a Moroccan diplomat.
Mr. Benomar is scheduled to address the U.N. Security Council behind closed doors on Monday and report on the suspended political talks.
Most Yemeni political factions agree talks were progressing in the run-up to the Saudi air campaign, but their views vary on Mr. Benomar’s assertion that a deal was close.
This round of U.N.-brokered talks—which began in January and included 12 political and tribal factions—represented a crucial part of a mission to install a unified government in Yemen, the poorest Arab country and home to al Qaeda’s most dangerous offshoot.
The Houthi rebels, who have overrun significant parts of the country in the past eight months, had agreed to remove their militias from the cities they were occupying under the deal that had been taking shape. The U.N. had worked out details of a new government force to replace them, Mr. Benomar said.
In exchange, Western-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who has since fled the country, would have been part of an executive body that would run the country temporarily, Mr. Benomar said.
The Houthis had agreed to that reduced role for Mr. Hadi until the Saudi military intervention began on March 26. At that point, the Houthis hardened their position on this key point and opposed any role for Mr. Hadi in government, Mr. Benomar said.
Saudi-backed factions have also hardened their positions, saying the Houthis shouldn’t be granted political power.
Several Yemeni political factions, which were also interested in power-sharing, said the military tensions in the capital led to feelings of unease during negotiations. In their takeover of the capital, the Houthis kidnapped members of rival political parties.
“We did not like the Houthi plan on the table, but we were willing to sign it since it reflected reality. It was either that or no deal,” said Mohammed Abulahoum, president of Yemen’s Justice and Building Party.
The air campaign transformed Yemen into a battlefield for a broader contest over regional power between Shiite Iran and Sunni countries led by Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis want to restore Mr. Hadi to the presidency and also support a separate armed political faction named Islah, which is anti-Houthi. Iran supports the Houthis, who abide by a Shiite offshoot of Islam. Many Yemenis accuse both countries of meddling in their affairs.
The Houthis took over the capital San’a and the government and then advanced on the south.As they approached the port city of Aden, where Mr. Hadi had taken refuge, he fled the country and ended up in Saudi Arabia.
Yemen’s troubles mark an abrupt turnabout from what the international community had once hailed as a success story.
The 2011 Arab Spring protests triggered political change in Yemen, a largely peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. Groups that felt oppressed or excluded for decades under the former regime, such as the Houthis, were supposed to take part in the new government.
But that transition stalled in 2014. In the two months leading up to the Saudi air campaign, the Houthis and other parties insisted on a reduced role for Mr. Hadi, blaming him for the slow pace of reform.
Mr. Hadi, his Saudi allies and other political factions opposed the terms for the presidency being hammered out by Mr. Benomar.
“A very detailed agreement was being worked out, but there was one important issue on which there was no agreement, and that was what to do with the presidency,” Mr. Benomar said. “We were under no illusion that implementation of this would be easy.”
Two other Arab states—Qatar and Morocco—were willing to host new rounds of Yemen peace talks. But after both countries joined the Saudi-led military coalition, the Houthis rejected those venues, according to Mr. Benomar.
President Hadi has suggested that talks resume in the Saudi capital of Riyadh under Saudi auspices. But that was a non-starter for the Houthis.
A senior diplomat familiar with the negotiations said the Saudis also intervened to prevent a power-sharing deal that would include the Houthis and that would give 30 % of the cabinet and parliament to women.
Saudi Arabia declared last week that it was shifting to a new phase in the Yemen campaign more focused on seeking a political solution. But it left open the option of continued military action, and has kept up airstrikes at a robust pace since the declaration.
Mr. Benomar said he would tell the Security Council on Monday that only U.N.-led talks in a neutral location can have any chance of success.
On Saturday, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania was named as the new U.N. envoy for Yemen.
On Sunday, Yemeni officials reported several apparent strikes by the Saudi coalition against Houthi targets amid deadly clashes between Houthi militants and forces aligned with Mr. Hadi.
Strikes hit the capital San’a as well as targets in energy-rich Marib province, officials said. Several southern provinces also saw strikes, including one that hit a convoy of Houthi fighters heading to the southern port city of Aden.[source]