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Yemeni Govt to Asharq Al-Awsat: Houthis Brought Catastrophe to the Country 

People gather on the rubble of a house hit by a US strike in Saada, Yemen March 16, 2025. (Reuters)
People gather on the rubble of a house hit by a US strike in Saada, Yemen March 16, 2025. (Reuters)
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Yemeni Govt to Asharq Al-Awsat: Houthis Brought Catastrophe to the Country 

People gather on the rubble of a house hit by a US strike in Saada, Yemen March 16, 2025. (Reuters)
People gather on the rubble of a house hit by a US strike in Saada, Yemen March 16, 2025. (Reuters)

The legitimate Yemeni government accused on Sunday the Iran-backed Houthi militias of dragging the people into a “reckless” war that the militants cannot wage.

In the first official remarks by the government since US President Donald Trump launched airstrikes to deter the Houthis from attacking military and commercial vessels in the Red Sea, deputy Foreign Minister Mustafa Numan said the militias believed their own delusions that they could confront the entire world.

“Instead, they have brought catastrophe to our country and innocent people,” he lamented to Asharq Al-Awsat.

He recalled the concessions his government had made to end the war and move forward towards peace. The Houthis, however, dismissed all of these efforts, “stalled and rejected Saudi attempts to end the war.”

“The Houthis have crossed all red lines and brazenly defied the international community by promoting attractive slogans that are in effect useless,” Numan said.

The United States and Houthis both vowed escalation after the US launched its airstrikes.

The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the overnight US strikes killed at least 53 people, including five women and two children, and wounded almost 100 in the capital of Sanaa and other provinces, including the northern province of Saada, the Houthi stronghold.

Trump on Saturday vowed to use “overwhelming lethal force” until the Houthis cease their attacks, and warned that Tehran would be held “fully accountable” for their actions.

The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea, sinking two vessels, in what they call acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally.

The attacks stopped when a Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in January — a day before Trump took office — but last week the Houthis said they would renew attacks against Israeli vessels after Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month.

There have been no Houthi attacks reported since then.

The Houthis on Sunday claimed to have targeted the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group with missiles and a drone.

Political researcher and academic Fares al-Beel said the strikes mark a shift in American strategy towards armed groups, specifically those allied with Iran.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US administration may take even firmer measures against the Houthis.

“The strikes are the beginning of indirect targeting of Iran and attempts to strip the Iranian regime of its remaining proxies in the region,” he added.

Observers have questioned, however, the effectiveness of the strikes if they are not coupled with any ground operation.

Yemeni political analyst Mohammed al-Saer said the American strikes are unlikely to stop the Houthi attacks, saying the Biden administration and Britain had both carried out similar attacks, but the militias remained undeterred in targeting Red Sea shipping.

He warned that the strikes and the recent sanctions imposed by Washington on Hodeidah port and banks held by the Houthis will only re-ignite the conflict in Yemen. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Houthis are still holding their positions in Marib and the west coast.

The Houthis will not back down, he added, especially since the legitimate forces remain ununited.

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Arab World

One Dead in Israeli Strike in South Lebanon

FILE PHOTO: People gather as smoke rises after Israeli strikes following Israeli military's evacuation orders, in Tayr Debba, southern Lebanon November 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ali Hankir/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People gather as smoke rises after Israeli strikes following Israeli military's evacuation orders, in Tayr Debba, southern Lebanon November 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ali Hankir/File Photo
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One Dead in Israeli Strike in South Lebanon

FILE PHOTO: People gather as smoke rises after Israeli strikes following Israeli military's evacuation orders, in Tayr Debba, southern Lebanon November 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ali Hankir/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People gather as smoke rises after Israeli strikes following Israeli military's evacuation orders, in Tayr Debba, southern Lebanon November 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ali Hankir/File Photo

An Israeli strike on a main highway in southern Lebanon killed one person Monday, the Lebanese health ministry said, as Israel intensifies attacks on the country.

Over the weekend, strikes killed five other people, with Israel accusing Hezbollah of rearming.

"An Israeli strike on a car in the area of Baissariyeh killed one person," the health ministry said Monday.

An AFP journalist saw a bombed out car on the road linking the cities of Sidon and Tyre, with traffic piling up as rescuers worked to retrieve the remains.

Despite a ceasefire in place since November 2024, Israel has kept up attacks on Lebanon, where it continues to hold five positions.

The European Union on Saturday joined a growing chorus of condemnation of Israel's intensified strikes, urging "to cease all actions that violate... the ceasefire agreement reached a year ago.”

Arab World

Egypt Begins Voting in Parliamentary Elections

Motorists drive past a campaign billboard in Giza for the Egyptian parliamentary elections. Khaled DESOUKI / AFP
Motorists drive past a campaign billboard in Giza for the Egyptian parliamentary elections. Khaled DESOUKI / AFP
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Egypt Begins Voting in Parliamentary Elections

Motorists drive past a campaign billboard in Giza for the Egyptian parliamentary elections. Khaled DESOUKI / AFP
Motorists drive past a campaign billboard in Giza for the Egyptian parliamentary elections. Khaled DESOUKI / AFP

Egyptians head to the polls on Monday to elect a new parliament.

The opening of polling stations at 9:00 am (0700 GMT) marks the start of a weeks-long process to fill 568 of the 596 seats in the lower house, with some provinces not voting for another two weeks.

The remaining 28 lawmakers will be appointed directly by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Egyptians abroad cast their ballots on Friday and Saturday. In regions such as Alexandria, voters have until Tuesday to cast their ballots in a first round. Some regions including Cairo will not vote until November 24.

Final results are expected by December 25.

Half of the seats will be filled through closed party lists and the other half by individual candidates, with a quarter of the seats reserved for women.

The parliamentary vote comes more than two months after elections for the senate, the upper chamber, which saw a low turnout of about 17 percent.

The pro-government "National List for Egypt" coalition swept that vote, running unopposed in the party list race.

The coalition is expected to dominate again.

The pro-Sisi Mostaqbal Watan (Nation's Future) party and the National Front party -- headed by former minister Essam al-Gazzar -- lead the 12-member coalition.

Gazzar's newly formed party brings together former government officials and has the financial backing of business tycoon Ibrahim al-Organi.

Opposition groups, meanwhile, remain divided. Some parties are running independently while others have joined pro-government lists.

Arab World

'Killed on Sight': Sudanese Fleeing El-Fasher Recall Ethnic Attacks

Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
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'Killed on Sight': Sudanese Fleeing El-Fasher Recall Ethnic Attacks

Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of army walks near a destroyed military vehicle and bombed buildings, as Sudan's army retakes ground and some displaced residents return to ravaged capital in the state of Khartoum Sudan March 26, 2025. (Reuters)

As he fled the Sudanese city of El-Fasher in terror, Hassan Osman said he saw ethnic attacks by paramilitary forces, with civilians targeted for their tribe and skin color.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been at war with the army since April 2023, captured the last military stronghold in western Darfur on October 26.

Reports of mass killings, ethnic violence, abductions and sexual assaults have since emerged.

AFP spoke to three survivors of the battle for El-Fasher, who are now seeking shelter in the nearby town of Tawila.

Rights organizations have echoed fears that ethnic killings are taking place in areas under the paramilitaries' control.

An RSF officer rejected the accusations as false.

Osman, a university student from El-Fasher, told AFP that paramilitary fighters singled people out according to their ethnicity.

"They judge you by your tribe, your skin color and where your family is from," he said.

"If you belong to certain tribes, they don't ask any questions, you are killed on sight."

He said the city's streets were "filled with bodies" when he escaped. "Some were slaughtered. Some were eaten by dogs."

Amna Haroun, from the Zaghawa African tribe, said she watched in horror as RSF fighters gunned down her husband and eldest son.

"They killed them right in front of my eyes, saying, 'We don't want you here'," she told AFP.

'Racial insults'

The conflict in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 12 million and triggered a hunger crisis.

Both sides have been accused of committing atrocities over the course of the war.

Darfur is home to several ethnic groups, including the Zaghawa, Fur, Berti and Masalit.

The RSF traces its origins to the Janjaweed, a militia accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago.

Between 2003 and 2008, an estimated 300,000 people were killed and nearly 2.7 million were displaced in those campaigns of ethnic violence.

According to the European Union Agency for Asylum, non-Arab or African groups represent between two-thirds and three-quarters of Darfur's population.

The Zaghawa, the dominant ethnic group in El-Fasher, have been fighting alongside the army since late 2023.

The group, which initially remained neutral when the war began, aligned with the military after the RSF carried out massacres against the Masalit tribe in West Darfur capital El-Geneina, killing up to 15,000 people.

Osman said residents with darker skin, especially Zaghawa civilians, were subjected to "racial insults, humiliation, degradation and physical and psychological violence" as they fled El-Fasher.

"If your skin is light, they might let you go," he said. "It's purely ethnic."

Osman, who is from the Berti tribe, said he himself was not subjected to ethnic violence because the RSF fighters' main enmity was with the Zaghawa, who are aligned with the army.

But Hussein, from the Fur tribe, said he was detained for several days with around 200 men in Garni, a town 25 kilometers (16 miles) northwest of El-Fasher, where they were beaten and insulted.

"They hit us with sticks and called us 'slaves'," Hussein, who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of reprisal, told AFP.

Osman also said RSF fighters demanded money from civilians -- often hundreds of dollars -- for safe passage, based on tribal identity and family origin.

"They ask where your family is from and set the amount accordingly," he said.

'Simply for being black'

An RSF officer, based in El-Fasher, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, denied the reported killings.

"We did not kill civilians or kill anyone because they belong to a (certain) tribe. These are just false accusations," the officer told AFP.

After the fall of El-Fasher, the paramilitary group issued a directive to its forces instructing them to "adhere strictly to the law, rules of conduct and military discipline during wartime", emphasizing the need to ensure the "protection of civilians".

Since El-Fasher's takeover, the United Nations and rights monitors have reported widespread atrocities, including ethnically-driven killings and abductions.

UN experts said Friday they were "appalled by credible reports" of RSF executions of civilians in El-Fasher, calling them war crimes that "may amount to crimes against humanity".

They said the attacks mirrored earlier RSF campaigns in the nearby Zamzam camp -- overrun by paramilitaries in April -- and El-Geneina, where thousands were killed, accusing the group of targeting Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa communities "with the intent of terrorizing, displacing and destroying them in whole or in part".

Sylvain Penicaud of MSF, who has been speaking to civilians fleeing El-Fasher in Tawila, told AFP that many of those fleeing said they were "targeted because of the color of their skin".

"For me, the most terrifying part was being hunted down while they were running for their lives. Being attacked simply for being black," Penicaud said.