Page 6 - aruba-today-20220414

A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 14 april 2022

U.S. Navy says new task force to patrol Red Sea amid Yemen war

DUBAI, United Arab Emir- mined previously. In 1984,
ates (AP) — The U.S. Navy some 19 ships reported
said Wednesday it will be- striking mines there, with
gin a new task force with only one ever being recov-
allied countries to patrol ered and disarmed, a U.N.
the Red Sea after a series panel said.
of attacks attributed to In Yemen's current war,
Yemen's Houthi rebels in a Houthi missile fire in the
waterway that's essential to Red Sea has come near
global trade. a American warship in the
Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, past. In October 2016, the
who oversees the Navy's U.S. Navy said the USS Ma-
Mideast-based 5th Fleet, son came under fire from
declined four times to two missiles launched out
directly name the Iran- of Yemen. Neither reached
backed Houthis in his re- the warship, though the
marks to journalists an- U.S. retaliated with Toma-
nouncing the task force. hawk cruise missile strikes
However, the Houthis have on three coastal radar sites
launched explosive-laden in Houthi-controlled terri-
drone boats and mines into tory.
the waters of the Red Sea, The week before, the Emi-
which runs from Egypt's In this photo released by the U.S. Navy, Boatswain's Mate 2nd Class Hunter Pemberton assigned rati vessel SWIFT-1 came
Suez Canal in the north, to the USS Cole takes part in an exercise on the Red Sea March 29, 2022. under Houthi missile attack.
down through the narrow Associated Press The Emirati government as-
Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the serted the SWIFT-1 at the
south that separates Africa side of the Persian Gulf. The their attacks. Weapons world's poorest nation to time carried humanitarian
from the Arabian Peninsula. new task force will be com- linked by the Navy and the brink of famine. A truce aid; U.N. experts later said
"In a macro sense, this re- missioned Sunday and will analysts to Iran have been around the holy Muslim of the claim that they were
gion literally and figura- see the USS Mount Whitney, intercepted in the region fasting month of Ramadan "unconvinced of its verac-
tively fuels the world," Coo- a Blue Ridge class amphibi- as well, likely on their way appears for now to be still ity." The vessel had been
per said. "The area is so ous command ship previ- to the Houthis. Yemen also be holding. sailing back and forth in
vast that we just can't do it ously part of the Navy's sees migrants from Africa The Red Sea is a vital ship- the Red Sea between an
alone so we're going to be African and European 6th try to cross its war-torn na- ping lane for both cargo Emirati troop base in Eritrea
at our best when we part- Fleet, join it. tion to reach jobs in Saudi and the global energy sup- and Yemen.
ner." Cooper said he hoped the Arabia and elsewhere. plies, making any mining of In April 2021, an Iranian car-
The Combined Maritime task force of two to eight The Houthis seized Yemen's the area a danger not only go ship that is said to serve
Forces command, a 34-na- ships at a time would tar- capital, Sanaa, in Septem- to Saudi Arabia but to the as a floating base for Iran's
tion organization which get those smuggling coal, ber 2014. A Saudi-led co- rest of the world. Mines can paramilitary Revolutionary
Cooper oversees from a drugs, weapons and peo- alition entered the war on enter the water and then Guard forces came under
base in Bahrain, already ple in the waterway. Coal the side of Yemen's exiled be carried away by the attack in the Red Sea —
has three task forces that smuggling has been used government in March 2015. currents, which change by likely part of a wider shad-
handle piracy and security by Somalia's al-Qaida- Years of inconclusive fight- the season in the Red Sea. ow war between Israel and
issues both inside and out- linked al-Shabab to fund ing has pushed the Arab The Red Sea has been Tehran.q

Union: El Salvador police pressured to meet arrest quotas

pressuring their officers to attributed to the country's The union has made formal
meet daily arrest quotas as powerful street gangs. Pres- complaints hoping to stop
part of the government's ident Nayib Bukele request- the "irregularities," he said.
crackdown on street gangs ed and received from con- Rank-and-file police offi-
that have yielded more gress a state of emergency cers agree with Bukele's de-
than 10,000 arrests, a po- that allows police to make cision to pursue the gangs,
lice union said Tuesday. arrests without explaining which have terrorized com-
Marvin Reyes, representa- the reason, not provide ac- munities for years, but "this
tive of the Salvadoran Po- cess to a lawyer and hold situation with the state of
lice Workers Union, said the suspects for 15 days with- emergency shouldn't lend
actions of some police of- out charge. The congress itself to abuses like the ones
ficials would result in arbi- has since passed addition- we're exposing," Reyes said.
trary arrests. He said com- al measures, including in- Elsewhere, police are en-
manders are telling officers creasing prison sentences. tering communities and
to give "false statements" In Cinquera, a remote town arresting gang members,
against some who have in central El Salvador of he said, but "the pressure
been arrested, but who some 1,000 residents with- from some bosses has gen-
An elderly woman watches as soldiers patrol in the San Jose del have nothing to do with out a known gang pres- erated fickleness in taking
Pino Community in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, Wednesday, April
6, 2022, during the government's unprecedented crackdown on gangs. Some officers were ence, police were told to people who have nothing
gangs. threatened with transfers make 30 arrests, Reyes said. to do with gangs."
Associated Press if they didn't follow orders, "They're doing it, knowing Bukele said recently that
he said. On March 26, au- perfectly well that there only 1% of those arrested
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador vilian Police commanders thorities reported 62 killings are no gangs in Cinquera," were not tied to gangs and
(AP) — Some National Ci- in El Salvador have been across El Salvador that they he said. would be released.q