Human Rights Network Documents 18,000 Houthi Abuses in Yemen’s Dhamar

A home destroyed by the Houthis in Yemen's Dhamar. (Social media)
A home destroyed by the Houthis in Yemen's Dhamar. (Social media)
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Human Rights Network Documents 18,000 Houthi Abuses in Yemen’s Dhamar

A home destroyed by the Houthis in Yemen's Dhamar. (Social media)
A home destroyed by the Houthis in Yemen's Dhamar. (Social media)

A Yemeni human rights report revealed on Tuesday that the Iran-backed Houthi militias have committed over 18,000 violations against civilians in the Dhamar governorate during seven years.

The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said that from December 1, 2014 to October 30, 2021, it documented 18,413 grave Houthi violations ranging from killings, physical assaults, kidnappings, raids, looting of public and private funds and other crimes.

Dhamar is located 100 kilometers south of the Houthi-held capital Sanaa.

The Network stated that during the past seven years, the Houthis committed 474 extrajudicial killings and injured 218 people in the governorate.

It documented 19 assassinations, 1,183 kidnappings, 72 enforced disappearances, 614 arbitrary arrests of travelers, 315 threats and exclusion from public office, nine cases of rape and forced prostitution, 274 cases of physical and psychological torture and 105 physical assaults of civilians.

It accused the militias of carrying out 48 bombings that affected houses, shops and places of worship, in addition to carrying out 1,459 raids and looting and burning of homes, 69 cases of confiscation and looting of private and public property, and 80 cases of appropriation of private lands and sale of state property.

In addition, the report documented 237 Houthi attacks on places of worship and educational and health facilities, and 24 cases of looting of party headquarters and charities.

“The Houthi militias forced more than 2,143 families to flee and they recruited 5,481 child soldiers in Dhamar, mainly orphans,” the Network report revealed, adding that the mentioned violations do not represent all the crimes that were committed by the Houthis in Dhamar.



Lebanon Hopes for Neighborly Relations in First Message to New Syria Government

Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeting with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeting with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
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Lebanon Hopes for Neighborly Relations in First Message to New Syria Government

Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeting with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeting with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)

Lebanon said on Thursday it was looking forward to having the best neighborly relations with Syria, in its first official message to the new administration in Damascus.

Lebanese caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib passed the message to his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, in a phone call, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said on X.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria's ousted President Bashar al-Assad through years of war, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel - a redeployment which weakened Syrian government lines.

Under Assad, Hezbollah used Syria to bring in weapons and other military equipment from Iran, through Iraq and Syria and into Lebanon. But on Dec. 6, anti-Assad fighters seized the border with Iraq and cut off that route, and two days later, opposition factions captured the capital Damascus.

Syria's new de-facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders after toppling Assad.