Religious nationalism

Fighting for a key port city on Yemen's Red Sea coast has left at least 40 rebel and pro-government fighters dead, military officials said Jan. 24.

Loyalist forces said on Jan. 23 that they had captured the port of Mokha, almost three weeks into an offensive to oust Shiite Houthi insurgents and their allies from Yemen's southwestern coast.

The Russian ambassador to Yemen has been shot and killed in Sanaa, according to reports coming from the Arab kingdom.

Vladimir Dedushkin was reportedly “keeping a close eye” in the war-torn country.

The diplomat was reportedly assassinated in the capital Sanaa.

The assassination was reported by Saudi Arabia’s Barq news agency.

U.S. naval forces in the Arabian Sea seized a shipment of weapons that the United States believes was sent from Iran and was bound for the Houthi rebels in Yemen, the Navy said April 4.

The patrol ship USS Sirocco intercepted and seized the shipment hidden aboard a small dhow on March 28.

A child prodigy who once dreamed of leading a Yemeni space programme, 15-year old Abdullah al-Sanabani may now lose his leg and fingers after a suspected Saudi-led air strike on a family wedding killed his relatives and left him badly burned. 

Germany defended on Oct. 23 a decision to allow the export of tanks and artillery to Qatar, saying it was confident the arms would not be used in a war in Yemen between government supporters and the Iran-allied Houthis. 

The newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Oct. 23 that four German Leopard 2 tanks and three howitzers had recently been shipped from Germany, bound for Qatar. 

Launching its manifesto for the snap Nov. 1 election, the Great Union Party (BBP) has vowed to completely abolish the already collapsed peace process that aimed to end three decade-old Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) insurgency. 

Six months of violence in Yemen has left at least 505 children dead, 702 injured and more than 1.7 million at risk of malnutrition, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Oct. 2.

"Across the country, nearly 10 million children -- 80 percent of the country's under-18 population -- need urgent humanitarian assistance," UNICEF said in a statement.

Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels have released six foreigners whom they were holding hostage and they are flying out of the country's capital Sanaa, airport officials and Houthi officials said on Sept.20. 

Contacts between major and minor political parties have intensified in recent days, amid preparations for Turkey?s upcoming snap Nov. 1 election.

President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an went on two important visits to regional capitals over the last two months: The first was to Riyadh on March 2, while the other was to Tehran on April 7.