ADEN:
A series of explosions rocked an arms depot in Yemen’s second city of Aden Saturday, killing at least 14 people as looters swarmed the facility, witnesses and an official said.
The blasts were heard across the city and pillars of smoke rose from the depot, where looting had broken out a day earlier, a foreign sources correspondent reported.
The depot is at the foot of Jabal Hadid mountain overlooking the port, and a large amount of weapons dating back to the Soviet era were stored in a cave there.
Troops guarding the depot abandoned their posts this week after their commanders fled as chaos tightened its grip on the war-torn country.
Houses shook, windows were shattered and several nearby buildings were destroyed in Saturday’s explosions, residents said.
“We have so far retrieved 14 charred bodies,” health department director Al-Kheder Lassouar said.
“We have information that there are more bodies inside that we were not able to reach” as smoke engulfed the area, he added.
Many people were inside or on Jabal Hadid when the explosions took place, witnesses said, reporting that several had died in the looting even before the blasts.
One resident who was at the mountain earlier on Saturday before the explosions told foreign sources that “there were many dead bodies in the cave”.
“People entering to take weapons were killed by others who didn’t find what they were looking for,” he said.
Others reported seeing several people die of suffocation after inhaling toxic gases released from gunpowder stored deep inside the cave.
Several others were stabbed, residents say.
Foreign sources could not confirm these reports from official sources as fighting between local militias and Shiite rebels, under fire from a Saudi-led coalition elsewhere, killed 61 people in three days, according to Lassouar.
Later Saturday, local anti-rebel popular committees forces seized full control of Aden international airport, following clashes with Huthis in which both sides used tanks and in which medics said the popular committees lost five men.
Special forces officials close the Huthis said nine men on their side were killed.
President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi took refuge in Aden after fleeing the rebel-held capital last month.
He left this week for Saudi Arabia before heading to Egypt for an Arab League summit with the Yemen crisis high on the agenda.
As announced by the Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, after two days of deliberations by Arab League envoys at Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, the leaders have agreed to form a joint military force. It was really surprising that despite the abundant wealth of the rulers in the region, and large army and manpower of Egypt, such a force was not formed earlier. The obvious factor which prevented such a move earlier was the state of rivalry between different rulers in the region. With the formation of such a force, it should be possible to deal effectively with the disruptive forces like Daesh which are playing havoc in the region, apart from dealing with the situation in Yemen which is seen as an immediate threat to Saudi Arabia.
Welcome as the move may be, it is still only the first step towards the problems faced by Muslim states as it deals only with Arab League member countries. Unfortunately for the Ummah, a lot of problems faced by some countries can be traced back to the unfortunate strife between Sunnis and Shias for expanding their sphere of influence, with the main players being Saudi Arabia and Iran. This Shia-Sunni tussle is at the heart of the problems in Yemen where Iran is busy increasing its influence through Shia community there, taking Irani influence right up to Saudi Arabian border while Saudi Arabia fears that unless it prevents Iran's takeover of Yemen, the next Irani target could be Saudi Arabia itself where Iran could instigate trouble through small Shia minority in the country.
It is really unfortunate that we have a tiny state Israel which continues its atrocities and inhuman treatment of Palestinians, and continues occupying more and more of the Palestinian land, in addition to its occupation of Syrian and Jordanian territory.
Additionally, Israeli bought, owned and operated leaders former US president George Bush and ex-British prime Minister Tony Blair invaded Iraq on fabricated grounds and apart from causing the death of nearly a million innocent Iraqis, disturbed the fine balance firm but secular leader Saddam Hussain had maintained between Sunnis and Shias. His removal from the scene expanded Iranian influence in Iraq and all the way up to Syria, and also gave rise to demons like Daesh. And interference by United States and its allies, including some Muslim countries, in Libya and Syria, has completed the destabilization of the whole region. And while Muslim States suffer at the hands of their traditional enemies, the Sunni-Shia ongoing war completes the destruction.
Having taken the first step through the Arab League resolution for the formation of an Arab military force, the logical next step would be for the Muslim states, both Sunni and Shia, to gather under the banner of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and agree to live side by side in an atmosphere of peace and cooperation. While this sectarian war may bring temporary benefits to some states, in the long run, it will destroy them all.
Do we Muslims, Sunnis and Shias, have to exist in a permanent state of confrontation, and thus move towards an outcome which may result in our collective suicide? With better options of living in a state of peace and mutual cooperation available, why rush headlong into disaster?
Karachi
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