Saudi warship hit by Houthi suicide attack returns to base

February 6, 2017

Jeddah, Feb 6: A Saudi warship targeted last month by Houthi suicide attackers returned to base on Sunday after completing its mission.

Southi

The Al-Madinah warship of the Royal Saudi Navy was in late January hit by a terrorist boat attack off the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, killing two crew members.

It returned early Sunday to the King Faisal Naval Base in Jeddah, after completing its duties according to the scheduled timeframe, without any delay as a result of the attack by the Iran-backed insurgents.

Senior officers welcomed the warship back to the naval base.

They included Lt. Gen. Abdul Rahman bin Saleh Al-Bunyan, chief of staff of the Saudi armed forces, Gen. Abdullah bin Sultan Al-Sultan, commander of the Royal Saudi Navy, and Western Fleet Commander Saeed bin Mohammed Al-Zahrani.

The chief of staff met with the ship’s crew and officers and conveyed to them the greetings of Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, second premier and minister of defense, who praised the crew’s courage in dealing with the attack.

Al-Bunyan listened to a briefing by the captain of the warship regarding the terrorist attack, how it was countered, and how a resulting fire was swiftly tackled.

He expressed pride in the members of the Royal Saudi Navy for participating in military operations carried out by the alliance to support legitimacy in Yemen.

Two Saudi crew members were killed and three others were injured in the suicide attack on the Saudi patrol frigate, the Arab coalition headquarters said last week.

The Saudi navy warship reacted to the attack as required, but one of the Houthi boats rear-ended the vessel, resulting in an explosion and fire at the rear of the Saudi ship, which was extinguished by the crew.

The frigate was patrolling the coast of Yemen when the attack by three suicide boats took pace, the coalition in support of the legitimate Yemeni government said earlier.

The warship’s mission involved protecting the territorial waters of the Kingdom and Yemen, in addition to ensuring the safety of international navigation lines in the strategic Bab Al-Mandab Strait.

Al-Bunyan stressed that the damage to the warship was limited to a small area at the back of the vessel, due to the collision with the terrorist’s boat.

He added that the incident will not prevent the coalition forces from continuing their military operations, until they achieve their key target of helping the Yemeni people and the legitimate government in restoring the state and protecting it from Houthi militias.

Retired Gen. Shami Al-Zahiri, who was the first captain of the frigate in 1985, recalled memories during his more than six years as commander of the ship.

“After spending all this time, it was painful for me to hear that this ship came under attack by Houthi militias,” he told Arab News.

The retired general defended the warship’s technical abilities and its ability to counter a terror attack of this nature.

“I heard how some media outlets have been criticizing the ship’s technical abilities and its leadership after the terrorist attack. I think they need to read more about the circumstances of the incident such as the weather condition and how the terrorist’s boat approached the ship before they make pre-judgmental accusations,” he said.

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Agencies
February 5,2020

Paris, Feb 5: Saudi Arabia has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus on a poultry farm, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Tuesday, February 4.

The outbreak, which occurred in the central Sudair region, killed 22,700 birds, the OIE said, citing a report from the Saudi agriculture ministry.

The other 385,300 birds in the flock were slaughtered, it said.

The case was the first outbreak of the H5N8 virus in Saudi Arabia since July 2018.

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Agencies
June 29,2020

Protests condemning the Israeli plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank are set to take place in the United States and Europe on the same day prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to begin the process.

The demonstrations will be held on Wednesday in Chicago, San Diego, Brooklyn, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Other Western cities will also witness similar protests, including Toronto, Madrid and Valencia.

Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, and American Muslims for Palestine are among the pro-Palestinian groups organizing the protests.

The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, one of the organizers, urged "direct actions and popular mobilizations in [Palestinian] refugee camps, cities and villages," and professed "loyalty to the martyrs" on its call for the events.

Another group, Al-Awda or the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition, decried "72 years of genocide, ethnic cleansing and dispossession" of Palestinians.

It also tied their demonstrations to the protests against anti-black racism in the US and beyond.

"We demand the defunding and dismantling of US police alongside the defunding and dismantling of Zionist colonialism and racist Israeli apartheid," Al-Awda said on its website.

Netanyahu has set July 1 as the date for the start of cabinet discussions on the annexation plan.

He has been driven ahead by US President Donald Trump, who unveiled a “peace” plan for the Middle East in January that effectively sidelines the Palestinians altogether.

The plan, which Trump himself has described as the “deal of the century,” envisions Jerusalem al-Quds as “Israel’s undivided capital” and allows the Tel Aviv regime to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Jordan Valley. The plan also denies Palestinian refugees the right of return to their homeland, among other controversial terms.

The Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

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Gulf News
April 12,2020

Hyderabad, Apr 12: In the backdrop of rising tide of anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobia on the social media, a company in Dubai sacked an employee from Hyderabad for his hate-filled posts on Facebook.

Bala Krishna Nakka from Hyderabad, who was working as Chief Accountant at Dubai’s Moro Hub Data Solutions Company, was sacked after his Facebook went viral evoking widespread condemnation. The man had posted images on his Facebook page which showed Muslims as suicide bombers wearing bombs in the form of coronavirus cells.

It triggered demands both on Facebook and Twitter for action against him. In a quick response the company announced that the person was being sacked from his job, as the company had zero tolerance towards hate propaganda.

Moro Hub said in a statement: “At Moro, we take a zero tolerance attitude to material that is or may be deemed Islamophoic or hate speech. The tweets that we have been alerted to do not, in any way, reflect Moro’s brand values.”

Since the outbreak of coronavirus in India, a more intense hate propaganda has been unleashed by right wing elements on social media targeting India’s Muslim minority, some of whom are based in Gulf region.

As both the mainstream media, especially Indian TV channels, as well as social media users, have unleashed a campaign linking the spread of virus to a Muslim missionary organisation, the Tableeghi Jamaat, in India, a fresh war of words has broken out on social media.

While some activists have taken up it on themselves to highlight the hate propaganda and draw the attention of employers to such hate mongers, the right wing social media handles have also launched their own counter-offensives against such activists.

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