Houthis Withdraw and the Saudis Continue to Bomb

By Hassan Al-Haifi

The Houthi fighters announced through their Media Office that they have withdrawn from all the positions they formerly occupied in Saudi Arabian territory and listed 44 positions including

outposts:
Al-Sabbah, Batul, Al-Irrah, Al-Mujda'a, Al-Jouf, Um Qam'a, Al-Gharisha, Jouf Al-Nuseiby, Al-Khaqaqa, Al-Jabiry Center, Al-Masayel, Qaim Al-Sayyab, Um Dahwah, Um Sharheil, Qarqa'iy, Ra'ashah, Al-'Aqam, Um Ruzmah, Dar Al-Nasr, Qam Qoub, Um Darmiyah, Qaim Sahah, Um Rasabah, Um Qaima, Al-Saibah, Al-Utaimy, Biyout Ahmed Hadi, Um Baisy.

Mountains:
Al-Qurhoum, Al-Hushkoul Al-A'ala, Al-Hushkoul Al-Asfal, Farisa, Al-Mudabba'a, Qumama, Malhamah, Twaibiq, Al-Sabadawy.

The recent battle grounds of Jabal-Al-Dukahn and Jabal Mudawwad were also withdrawn from.

In the meantime the announcement of the Media Office of Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi of Tuesday stated that the Saudis continued bombing and shooting rockets at villages inside Yemen with 9 air raids, one of which lead to the destruction of a house in which 5 were killed and 2 were injured in Mirran. there were 540 rockets shot at various districts in districts within the interior of Sa'ada Governorate.

The Saudi Arabian press did not disclose any official Saudi reaction to the offer made by Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, the Field Leader of the Houthis (see previous post), but attempted to impress upon the reader by quoting various "informed" sources that the Saudi forces have achieved the victory they have been pursuing, and that the withdrawals "actually occurred a month ago" (when Prince Khalid Bin Sultan, Assistant Defense Minister supposedly claimed that all Saudi territory had been liberated, without any confirmation from any independent sources, while the Houthis continued to claim ongoing air raids and failed ground assaults (with videos showing some of the battles, which the Saudis did not deny or falsify) against many of the outposts they were occupying long after the claim.
In addition, the Saudi prexs continued to try to establish some linkage between Al-Qaida and the Houthis, a claim that can not be substantiated by either ideological congruence or appraoach. In fact the Saudis are actually more closer to the AQ doctrinaire and methodology, since both are strong backers of Salafi/Wahhabi dogma, which is as far away from the Houthis as a bar mitzvah! In addition most financial support and personnel for AQ emanate from Saudi Arabia. But recently the Saudis have sought to show a disassociation between themselves and "terrorism" and for some logically inexplicable reasons to throw AQ with Shiites of Yemen, Lebanon and Iran, which most Moslems find rather intriguing. Even the Vocie of America wrongly makes this assertion in a picture caption in the Radio channels website (http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/-leader-of-a-six-year-insurgency-in-Yemen-announced-that-his-forces-will-pull-back-from-Saudi-Arabia-if-the-powerful-northern-neighbor-promises-to-stop-arming-and-fighting-alongside-the-Yemeni-government--82686477.html), which would seem puzzling.
There was no new announcement from the Houthis as of 0700 hrs Wednesday Morning.