Month: April 2015

By Rupam Jain Nair and Douglas Busvine NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s evacuation of more than 3,000 nationals from Yemen has been a triumph of improvisation, but some officials in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government say a slow response to the crisis has underlined the need for a full-time staff to protect Indians abroad. On Monday, India rescued more than 1,000 people by plane and ship, the most on a single day since Saudi Arabia launched air strikes against Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen on March 26. India has been asked by 26 nations – including the United States – to help get their citizens out of the conflict zone. An Indian navy patrol vessel made a first evacuation only on the following day.
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By Angus McDowall JIZAN, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Far from war-damaged Sanaa and Aden, Lieutenant Colonel Hamed al-Ahmari stood atop a Saudi border post and gestured across a valley to a Yemeni mountainside held by the Houthi militia, whose positions the kingdom’s jets have bombarded for 12 days. “We are in the front line,” said Ahmari, wearing the grey camouflage fatigues of the Border Guards, a force whose uniform has been augmented since the air strikes started on March 26 with a flak jacket and helmet. What once may have been a debatable point — Yemen’s messy war has many front lines — has gained credibility as the war has ground on: Three Saudi border guards have been killed along the frontier in that period, as the kingdom’s air strikes and artillery fire targeted Houthi positions near its territory, as well as forces elsewhere in Yemen. Concerns about the border with Yemen were central to the kingdom’s campaign to stop the Houthis controlling its southern neighbor, something Riyadh fears would strengthen its main foe, Iran, and heighten security risks.
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