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Fighting has also been fierce outside of Sanaa, displacing up to three million Yemenis across the country. Molok, from Saada, had to flee with her children and grandchildren together with 460 families when their neighbourhood was bombed more than two years ago. She has been living in an informal settlement in Houth ever since. ALVHILD STROMME/NRC/AL JAZEERA

Ali Mothana Ali, 50, from al-Dhalea, was seriously wounded when his house was hit. "The air strike that hit my house, it caught me just outside my home. Shrapnel from the explosion hit me. I sustained facial injuries, splinters had to be extracted from my pelvis, and metal sliced off part of my leg. I survived because neighbours rushed me to a nearby village for treatment. With my injuries, I am disabled. I cannot work to feed my children. I am the only bread winner for my family, my oldest son is 10 years old." NUHA MOHAMMED/NRC/AL JAZEERA

A man walks by civilian houses destroyed in Sanaa. KARL SCHEMBRI/NRC/AL JAZEERA

A man points at his house destroyed by air strikes in Sanaa. Destruction in the Yemeni capital is everywhere: houses, health centres, wedding halls, and even children's playgrounds have been targeted by the raids. KARL SCHEMBRI/NRC/AL JAZEERA

Air strikes launched by the Saudi-led coalition have destroyed entire neighbourhoods in Sanaa and across Yemen. Yasser al Hibshi, 38, lost his house and three of his children in one of the first air raids. "I want to tell the world that we've had enough of the war. There is too much tragedy, so many families have been wiped out, for what? We hope that God will deliver Yemen and the Yemenis out of this situation." KARL SCHEMBRI/NRC/AL JAZEERA

Sanaa, Yemen - One thousand days of war in Yemen: thousands killed, tens of thousands wounded, and millions pushed towards famine.

The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is entirely man-made, the result of three years of brutal violence and insidious tactics that continue to deprive millions of people of basic supplies and services.

A staggering 1.2 million civil servants haven't received their salaries in more than a year, leaving health, education, and sanitation services without the people and resources needed to keep them running. Public infrastructure has been damaged and homes destroyed, forcing more than three million to flee their homes, most with only what they can carry. People living in congested conditions have too little access to money, food, water and medicine.

Prices are up but purchasing power is down, forcing people to make difficult choices with the few resources they have - water or transport to hospital? Medicine or food?

Wednesday marks (20/12/2017) 1,000 days since the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia began bombing rebel forces who seized the capital, Sanaa, and other territory during a lightning-quick offensive.

Today, the Saudi-led coalition's ongoing blockade on commercial fuel is choking a struggling population, and obstructions from the Houthi rebel authorities within Yemen prevent what there is from reaching people.

As a result, water pumps are switched off, hospital generators stop running, the cost of transport is out of reach and 22.2 million people in Yemen now depend on humanitarian aid.

About 16 million people cannot access safe water or healthcare, 4.5 million children are at risk of losing access to education, 8.4 million Yemenis are close to starvation.

The following photo story collected from Yemen by the Norwegian Refugee Council sheds light on the devastating impact of the last 1,000 days on ordinary Yemenis.

sources: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/yemen-1000-days-war-171219132557456.html

https://truththeory.com/2017/08/19/31-pictures-prove-yemen-literally-hell-earth-right-now/

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7011346

cc: lalasticlala

Show us the receipt

lordimmaogidi:
were de list na

There you have it

10. BENJAMIN TALLMADGE

While not a specific raid per se, the combined operations of Maj. Benjamin Tallmadge and his troop of 2nd Continental Light Dragoons caused mischief and mayhem among British troops during the American Revolution, raiding Redcoat convoys, burning supplies and even running an espionage ring in the Northeast.

In one famous operation, Tallmadge and his Dragoons rowed across Long Island sound, hiked 20 miles inland and assaulted the British fort at Manor St. George in New York. The colonial commandos killed two British troops and quickly subdued the fort in the dead of night in November 1780. Tallmadge and his Dragoons are also famous for holding off attempts by British commandos to assault Gen. George Washington and his staff, serving as Washington’s personal body guard.

Tallmadge also played a pivotal role in unmasking the treachery of Benedict Arnold and his spy ring.

The role of Tallmadge’s 2nd Continental Light Dragoons is noteworthy because at the time such special operations and covert assaults were frowned upon by many traditional military officers, and it is seen as a testament to Washington’s strategic thinking that he allowed Tallmadge and his patriot commandos to operate as they did

9. MOSCOW THEATER RESCUE

In one of the boldest terrorist hostage takings in history, Chechen separatists besieged a Moscow theater holding more than 800 people captive for nearly a week.

Up to 40 Chechen terrorists, including female suicide bombers strapped with explosives and detonators, held theatergoers for days, demanding the withdrawal of all Russian forces from the Republic of Chechnya. Negotiations broke down, two hostages were killed and the Russian government spooled up the elite Alpha Group of the Federation’s Spetznaz.

On October 26, 2002, using a specialized gas to knock out both the terrorist captors and their hostages pumped in through the theater’s air ducts, the Alpha troops stormed the theater guns blazing. No quarter was given to the terrorists, some of whom lay unconscious with bombs still strapped to them and thumbs on their detonators. The Spetznaz commandos shot nearly 40 Chechen terrorists and captured several more.

While most of the hostages were rescued, more than 130 eventually died from poor care after the assault, the gas causing many to suffocate. Some of the Alpha troops also suffered injuries due to exposure to the gas. The raid was aggressive, cunning and was the first known major commando assault to use a still unknown gas to suppress the target before the assault.

8. OPERATION NIMROD

British Special Air Service operators conducted an early evening assault on the Iranian embassy in London in front of hundreds of television cameras and reporters who broadcast the operation in real time.

Dubbed “Operation Nimrod,” the SAS assaulters repelled from the roof of the embassy and crashed through the ground floor to rescue 26 hostages taken by an extremist Arab independence group. For six days in April and May of 1980, a team of six terrorist besieged the embassy, deadlocking on negotiations with British officials.

On May 5, the SAS was called in after the terrorists killed one of their hostages and the raid was launched in broad daylight. More than 30 assaulters were involved in the raid, which killed all but one of the terrorists. One hostage was killed in the crossfire.
While the entire raid lasted only 17 minutes, the SAS was embroiled in controversy over its tactics, with some questioning whether the commandos used excessive force. One of the terrorists escaped with the hostages but was discovered by an SAS operator later and served a 27-year prison sentence.

7. OPERATION OAK

It was July 1943 and the Allies were beginning their push north from Sicily and bombing Rome. With the Nazis tied up in the epic battle of Kursk in Ukraine, Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini was left to his own devices after the Grand Fascist Council passed a no confidence vote on his leadership and he was arrested.

Eventually imprisoned at the Campo Imperatore ski resort high on a mountain in Gran Sasso, Italy, Mussolini was thought to be safe from any escape. But Hitler had other plans.

So on September 12, 1943, elite paratroopers from the German Fallschirmjager and Waffen SS commandos flew DFS 230 gliders to the mountaintop redoubt, landing atop the resort and subduing Mussolini’s 200 captors without firing a shot.

The Italian strongman was then whisked away aboard a short takeoff prop plane and eventually took up residence in Vienna, Austria, Dubbed “Operation Oak” by the German high command, the commando operation was bold and technically difficult given the remoteness and altitude of the Campo Imperatore resort, not to mention the compliment of 200 well-trained Carabinieri guards securing the site — all of whom surrendered to the elite German operators without a fight.

6. OPERATION FLIPPER

On the eve of a major offensive in North Africa against the German Afrika Corps, British generals planned a daring operation to assault Gen. Irwin Rommel’s headquarters and kill or capture the legendary Desert Fox.

Dubbed “Operation Flipper,” a team of nearly 60 soldiers from the #11 Scottish Commando and Special Boat Service were to make their way ashore on the coast of Libya and assault inland to Rommel’s headquarters near Apollonia. But the Nov. 10, 1941, mission was a disaster from the start.

Weather eventually forced much of the assault team to abandon the mission, leaving only 25 commandos to attack the objective. The team made it to Rommel’s headquarters but were shortly discovered by German staff and guards. The commando leader was shot and eventually died on the scene. And to make matters worse, Rommel was not at the headquarters.

The operation ended in total failure, with only two of the commandos and one of the SBS operators making it home alive. Nevertheless, Operation Flipper is seen as a bold and complex commando raid that combined covert insertion from a submarine, an arduous trek across miles of desert and a target whose death or capture could have decisively changed the direction of World War II.

5. THE RAID ON SON TAY PRISON CAMP

Dubbed “Operation Ivory Coast” and commanded by legendary Army Special Forces Col. Arthur D. “Bull” Simons, the commando raid on the Son Tay prison camp in North Vietnam ranks up with one of the riskiest missions in spec ops history. And while ultimately unsuccessful in its primary mission of rescuing the camp’s American prisoners of war, the mission serves as a prime example of joint special operations planning and support.

Planning for the mission began in early May 1970 after Air Force aerial photos confirmed the camp’s existence, which for years had been suspected of housing more than 60 POWs. Simons selected a team of 130 Special Forces Soldiers from about 500 volunteers to begin training at a secret base in Florida. Over several months, the commandos and Air Force Special Operations air crews flying HH-3E Jolly Green Giants rehearsed the raid on a scale model of the camp.

Finally, in the late hours of November 20, support aircraft including A-1 Skyraiders, F-4 Phantoms and F-105G Wild Weasels and the assault force of six Jolly Green Giant helicopters lifted off for the rescue from bases in Thailand and South Vietnam. At about 2:00am local time, the main assault force of some 50 Green Berets deliberately crash landed its helicopter into the main courtyard of the prison camp guns blazing. After a methodical search of the prison barracks and multiple engagements with guards, the assault force boarded a second helicopter for its exfiltration, empty handed.

Though the mission didn’t recover any of the POWs (intelligence later found they had been moved in July), the raid was a major success, involving a host of joint service assets — including a Navy decoy mission using A-7 Corsairs and A-6 Intruders that tied up North Vietnamese air defense assets as cover for the raid — and resulting in only one injury.

3. THE ENTEBBE RAID

A C-130 is seen parked on the runway at Entebbe airport in Uganda during a raid to free Israeli passengers of a hijacked Air France flight.

In one of the most iconic hostage rescues ever — and one that served to epitomize the cunning grit of the fledgling Jewish state — the operation by Israeli commandos to seize a hijacked Air France jetliner in the Ugandan city of Entebbe perhaps epitomizes how special ops could successfully blunt terrorist attacks.

On June 27, 1976, an Air France flight out of Tel Aviv bound for Paris was hijacked by four terrorists, including two West German revolutionaries and two attackers from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. After a brief stop in Athens and Tripoli the plane eventually landed into the open arms of Idi Amin’s Uganda. The terrorists demanded $5 million and the release of 40 Israeli-held Palestinian militants and threatened to kill the Israeli passengers of the flight.

When negotiations eventually broke down several days later, the Israeli military began planning a raid that would eventually involve nearly 100 men, including 29 assaulters from the legendary Sayeret Matkal — which was modeled off the British Special Air Service — who would fly into Entebbe airport via C-130 Hercules transports and rescue the hostages held in a nearby terminal building.

In the late hours of July 4, the C-130s carrying the assault team commanded by Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu lifted off from the Sinai bound for Entebbe. After landing at the Ugandan airport, the Sayeret Matkal assaulters stormed off the plane in a series of vehicles similar to a motorcade used by Idi Amin. The team eventually secured the hostages, killed the hijackers and held off Ugandan army attacks until they lifted off from Entebbe 90 minutes later.

In all, three hostages were killed, one Israeli commando was killed and five were wounded.

2. ASSAULT ON EBEN-EMAEL

The first modern military to embrace the concept of special operations, the German army of World War II conducted one of the first commando raids of the 20th Century in the opening days of the invasion of France. Rehearsed in minute detail over a year, the raid by German paratroopers, or Flieger-Jaeger, on the Belgian fortress at Eben Emael is still considered one of the most thoroughly-planned and executed commando operations in history.

A nearly 80-man team of specially-selected paratroopers, including engineers and assaulters commanded by Capt. S.A. Koch, flew aboard nine gliders to the heavily armed fortress built as a part of the famed Maginot Line intended to blunt an anticipated German invasion after World War I. In the early morning hours of May 10, 1940, and despite severe damage to their gliders from anti-aircraft fire and not a few servings of bad luck, the German commandos were able to neutralize the fort’s more than a dozen heavy guns. Though unable to penetrate the fort itself and forced to fight off harassing attacks for more than a day before the Belgians surrendered, the paratroopers rendered Eben Emael’s guns useless within minutes of the assault.

The paratroopers were eventually relieved by German infantry supported by Stuka dive bombers and each of the participants was awarded a medal of valor for the successful — and daring — rai

1. THE TROJAN HORSE

Perhaps one of the earliest examples of a successful commando raid can be found in the 12th century B.C. during the legendary siege of Troy. Though some historians doubt its certainty, both Homer’s Illiad and Virgil’s Aeneid histories point to a daring operation conducted by a select cadre of up to 30 Greek warriors who sealed themselves into the hollow body of an enormous wooden horse statue.

The symbol of the walled city of Troy, the horse was cunningly offered as a gift to the Trojans as the Greek fleet disembarked for home. Seen as a sign of good luck and an offering to the goddess Athena, King Priam of Troy accepted the gift over the objections of several in his court. That night, the Greek commandos emerged from the horse, opening the gates to the rest of the Greek army that clandestinely returned to shore and sacked the city.

Whether its truth or myth, the Greek raid of Troy using subterfuge and disguise still lives on as one of the most cunning and dangerous special operations raids of all time.

Special forces units are trained to conduct special operations being referred to as either special forces or special operations forces.

Here is a list of the most dangerous, carefully planned and successful special forces operations ever carried out.

source: https://scout.com/military/warrior/Article/The-10-Most-Daring-Commando-Raids-in-History-101455705

cc: lalasticlala

source: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-notorious-christmas-tragedies.php
cc: lalasticlala

10. THE CONGO MASSACRE

Tsunamis and earthquakes are horrible, but those are also natural disasters that we ultimately can’t do much about it. When humanity is the cause of its own devastation however, the effect is far worse, even if the body count is lower. That’s because, unlike a force of nature, there’s absolutely no good reason for human atrocities to happen, especially on Christmas.

There’s no real way to justify the 2008 Congo Christmas massacres by members of the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army. Starting on Christmas Day, the Army began going from church to church and village to village, slaughtering anyone they could find. Reports from the time indicate they hacked their victims to death with machetes, or mutilated them by cutting off their lips and ears. Others were forced at knifepoint to walk into burning buildings and be cooked to death, while children from the targeted villages were dragged away to be sold into sex slavery or used as soldiers .

Entire villages were destroyed and a minimum of 400 civilians died, though some put the number as high as 620. It was one of the most brutal, immoral, and evil acts ever committed on Christmas, and few of those involved were ever brought to justice. So this year, while you’re tucking into your Christmas dinner and relaxing in the warm, join us in sparing a thought for all the victims of Christmas tragedies past.

9. THE ASIAN TSUNAMI

The fatal tsunami of December 26th, 2004 was triggered by an earthquake that, according to National Geographic, contained the same amount of energy as 23,000 atomic bombs; in other words, it was big. But it was the following wave that really did the damage. All across the Indian Ocean and as far away as Africa, towns, cities, and villages were deluged with water. In some places, this took the form of waves over 50 feet high. In others, the ocean simply surged into the town, causing the same sort of damage as a sudden flood. Over 230,000 people were ultimately reported dead or missing, with millions more left homeless. Tourists on Christmas vacation, Indonesian locals, entire Thai cities, and Indian beach resorts were simply washed away, never to return.

It’s one of the very worst natural disasters in recorded history, and yet it’s only #2? What could possibly be worse than this? Buddy, you’re going to wish you hadn’t asked.

8. THE BAM EARTHQUAKE

Remember the fate of Darwin up there, wiped out in a matter of hours by a devastating cyclone? Well, it has nothing on that of the Iranian city of Bam. Around two in the morning on December 26th, 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake stuck the sleeping city. It lasted a mere 8 seconds. In that short time, enough damage was done to kill 26,271 people – most of whom were crushed as they slept – and destroy around 90% of the city’s buildings. 100,000 people were left homeless, 30,000 of whom were seriously injured on top of that. It was one of the single biggest earthquake disasters in history, and one of the largest even in earthquake-prone Iran.

7. THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN CRASH

The Tangiwai disaster was New Zealand’s worst-ever train crash, a 1951 rail accident that constituted a most horrific Christmas gift for hundreds of families. At about 10:30 on Christmas Eve, an express passenger train carrying some 285 people passed onto a bridge above the Whangaehu River. Unbeknownst to anyone onboard, a flash flood had washed away the bridge’s supports only a few minutes prior. As the train rolled out across the rushing water, the bridge simply gave way, plunging all five second-class carriages, and one first-class carriage, into the river.

In all, 151 people were killed. twenty of these people were simply swept away, their bodies never to be recovered. Only minutes from home and less than two hours from Christmas, their lives were unexpectedly destroyed by a culmination of events so unfair it seems like a giant middle finger from God.

6. THE CHRISTMAS RACE WAR

In late-December of 1896, the white citizens of Mayfield, Kentucky made the mistake of lynching one too many black men. Completely fed up, the black community got together and launched what was nearly the largest race war the state had ever seen. Black and white citizens alike armed themselves, with the whites barricading themselves into their homes while the black citizens marched on the town. Between December 23rd and 24th, the streets became a localized war zone. Hundreds of bullets were fired. Windows were smashed, houses were shot to pieces, and several people were gunned down.

It was only a timely intervention by people on both sides willing to negotiate that stopped the fight from ballooning into a mass-tragedy, but still plenty died that day. As befitting a significantly more callous age, the New York Times reported the whole thing with undisguised glee.

5. THE CHRISTMAS CYCLONE

When Cyclone Tracy made landfall in the early hours of Christmas Day 1974, no-one suspected the full extent of damage it would wreak. The city of Darwin , Australia had survived several cyclones already in recent years, with the result being that almost nobody bothered to evacuate or even prepare their homes.

The consequences of this almost-insane level of laziness would be devastating. In under half a day, Darwin went from being a bustling post-war reconstructed city of around 47,000 people, to teetering on the brink of extinction. 80 percent of all homes were destroyed, 70 percent of all buildings collapsed, and 41,000 people were left homeless and stranded in a storm-ravaged wasteland. Incredibly, only 71 people were actually killed, but the psychological devastation was unbelievable. Darwin was wiped out more thoroughly than it had been during the Japanese air-raids of WWII. In the course of a single Christmas, an entire city had all but vanished.

4. THE ITALIAN HALL DISASTER

Most of us have heard of the famous question regarding free speech: “is it ever OK to falsely shout ‘FIRE!’ in a crowded theater?” But what we probably don’t know is that such a scenario has really happened. In 1913, striking mine workers and their families were attending a Christmas party when someone – likely a stooge employed by the callous pit-owner – screamed “fire!” The effect was instantaneous. The hundreds of people assembled all began a stampede for the door, a tiny opening located at the foot of a steep flight of stairs. All in all, 73 people were trampled to death, 59 of them children. Many many more were badly injured. It was a tragedy on an epic scale, one that sent shockwaves through the local community.

To add insult to severe injury, the stooge who sparked the panic was never caught. To this day no one is quite sure who he was, or even what his motives were. Whatever reason he had for being there, his actions that day destroyed Christmas for 200+ families.