KSrelief: Houthis Hamper Access of 632 Ships, Trucks

KSrelief spokesman Dr. Samer Aljetaily during a news conference in Riyadh on Monday. Asharq Al-Awsat
KSrelief spokesman Dr. Samer Aljetaily during a news conference in Riyadh on Monday. Asharq Al-Awsat
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KSrelief: Houthis Hamper Access of 632 Ships, Trucks

KSrelief spokesman Dr. Samer Aljetaily during a news conference in Riyadh on Monday. Asharq Al-Awsat
KSrelief spokesman Dr. Samer Aljetaily during a news conference in Riyadh on Monday. Asharq Al-Awsat

An official from King Salman Center for Humanitarian Aid and Relief (KSrelief) revealed on Monday that Houthis blocked 65 relief ships at Hodeidah and Saleef ports in addition to 567 relief-loaded trucks in various Yemeni regions between April 2015 and December 2017. 

KSRelief spokesman Dr. Samer Aljetaily said during a news conference in Riyadh that Houthi militias confiscated during the past four months around 363 relief trucks, looted 6,315 relief baskets and traded them in the black market in areas controlled by the insurgents.

He added that KSrelief’s total number of aid projects worldwide stands at 308 with 119 partners at the value of $967m while the total number of projects in Yemen stands at 175, implemented in association with 77 partners at the cost of $821m.

During the past two years, he said, the center provided 7,590 people with relief assistance by air and that 364,000 people from 85 nationalities were evacuated from Yemen.

In the first half of 2017, Houthi militias recruited 568 Yemeni children under the age of 18, and more than 8,000 children since 2015, he said.

The center launched the third phase of its Yemeni children rehabilitation program for those recruited by the Houthis, he stated, adding that the program, which targets 2,000 children, aims to help them integrate into the Yemeni community.

Commenting on cholera updates, Aljetaily declared that no cholera-related deaths were recorded in the past weeks, affirming that several organizations shut down their private clinics in multiple Yemeni provinces in an indicator on the successful efforts to halt the spread of the disease.



US to Eventually Reduce Military Bases in Syria to One, Says US Envoy

A US patrol in Qamishli’s countryside in Hasakah on April 20, 2022. (AFP)
A US patrol in Qamishli’s countryside in Hasakah on April 20, 2022. (AFP)
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US to Eventually Reduce Military Bases in Syria to One, Says US Envoy

A US patrol in Qamishli’s countryside in Hasakah on April 20, 2022. (AFP)
A US patrol in Qamishli’s countryside in Hasakah on April 20, 2022. (AFP)

The United States has begun reducing its military presence in Syria with a view to eventually closing all but one of its bases there, the US envoy for the country has said in an interview.

Six months after the ouster of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, the United States is steadily drawing down its presence as part of Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), a military task force launched in 2014 to fight the ISIS.

"The reduction of our OIR engagement on a military basis is happening," the US envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, said in an interview with Türkiye's NTV late on Monday.

"We've gone from eight bases to five to three. We'll eventually go to one."

But he admitted Syria still faced major security challenges under interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose coalition toppled Assad in December.

Assad's ouster brought an end to Syria's bloody 14-year civil war, but the new authorities have struggled to contain recent bouts of sectarian violence.

Barrack, who is also the US ambassador to Turkey, called for the "integration" of the country's ethnic and religious groups.

"It's very tribal still. It's very difficult to bring it together," he said.

But "I think that will happen," he added.

The Pentagon announced in April that the United States would halve its troops in Syria to less than 1,000 in the coming months, saying the ISIS presence had been reduced to "remnants".