So We Got Egyptian Ground Forces in KSA !? A Little Transparency Please !!!!

The news came from Saudi Arabia as usual not from Egypt. It came from the State-owned Saudi Press Agency “SPA” and not from the the official Facebook page of the Egyptian armed forces Spokesperson Brigadier General Ahmad Samir.

According to SPA news published on Thursday Egypt's minister of defense Sedky Sobhy met with his Saudi counterpart Prince Mohamed Bin Salman in Riyadh to discuss the latest developments of Operation Decisive storm after the visit of Sedky to Pakistan.

The Saudi news agency mentioned in the end of its news that the meeting was attended by the Head of the Egyptian Reinforcement authority Major General Abdel Mohsen Mossa El-Shabarawy and the commander of the Egyptian force participating in the Saudi-led Coalition Brigadier General Rafik Rafaat Arafat and the Egyptian military attaché to Riyadh Colonel Mohamed Abdel Fatttah Abu Bakr.
Egypt’s armed forces Spox did not mention those names in his short statement about the minister of defense’s short visit to the Kingdom in that critical time.

بعد زيارته الناجحة لباكستان.. الفريق أول/صدقى صبحى يتوجه إلى المملكة العربية السعودية..ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ...
Posted by ‎الصفحة الرسمية للمتحدث العسكري للقوات المسلحة‎ on Thursday, April 9, 2015

On Saturday we found Saudi news websites sharing the photo of Brigadier General Rafik Rafaat Arafat.

Brigadier General Rafik Arafat wearing the ground
forces uniform "paratroopers if I am not mistaken" 

Once again We know the news of our country’s army from abroad as it seems !! 
It is worth to mention that only on April 10 Saturday the Spokesperson of the Saudi coalition announced that an Egyptian fighter jets participated in at least one air strikes on Yemen.
I do not know till when we are going to suffer from this lack of transparency. It is enough that we do not know for real the progress of that endless military operation in North Sinai so we would stumble in another military operation across seas. Speaking  about Sinai , I wanted to raise this matter up but I was lost with all the updates in Yemen.

Blood Moon in Egypt ?

Those photos are taken from Ain El-Sokhana , Suez governorate tonight. I though that Egypt would miss the Blood Moon which appeared for few minutes before the Moon would become what would refer to “ a 14th Night Full Moon” in our Egyptian culture. It is so bright right now.

April 05, 2015 at 12:49PM

Egypt's Renaissance " Nahdet Misr" statue made by Mahmoud Mokhtar in #Giza #Egypt #Blogger #Photo April 05, 2015 at 12:49PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1a3P51s

April 05, 2015 at 12:10PM

#Spring is here #Photo #Giza #Blogger #Egypt April 05, 2015 at 12:10PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1axDJne

Random Notes On Kuwaiti Media, Our Yemen War 2 and Other irreverent Stuff

If you think that it is awkward that the Egyptian media quotes Kuwaiti Journalist Fajar El-Saeed for Egyptian military news and updates then you have to think again. It seems that the Kuwaiti Media , not only Fajar El-Saeed will replace the official statements of the Egyptian Armed Forces spokesperson after all.
On  Wednesday the media was on fire and many news websites in Egypt and Yemen published news reports that Egyptian armed forces sent paratroopers to Yemen in a huge development. The source of that news is Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai.
On March 29 , 2015 the Kuwaiti newspaper reported that Egyptian paratroopers were dropped at the city of Mocha to secure its port as Bab El-Mandab strain. 
On March 30 , 2015 the Kuwaiti newspaper’s Cairo correspondent Ahmed Abdel Azim reported that Egyptian military units from Navy forces , air forces and ground forces arrived to Yemen according to anonymous Egyptian sources. He also claimed that 25 Egyptian jet fighters reached Yemen and participated in the air strikes targeting Houthi-controlled areas like in Sa’ada , Al-Malahiz and Taiz 
The report claimed also there were Egyptian ground forces fighting Houthis.
There has been no official comment about those claims whether from Egypt or Saudi Coalition till this day.
I remember when Operation Decisive Storm started , the Egyptian presidency made it clear that only the Navy forces and air forces are participating in the operation.
The role of the Navy forces is to protect Bab El-Mandab strain as announced. During then I remember sources told AFP or AP that 4 Egyptians warships were deployed to protect the strain.
There has been no official statement till this day from the Egyptian armed forces about the exact kind of participation in the coalition or the number of jet fighters or warships or even the number of Egyptian soldiers participating in the operation.  
Where is the transparency ?? I think Egyptians need to know the truth about our participation in Operation Decisive Storm. I do not know if I have to explain fundamental facts on why they need the truth.

Operation Decisive Storm : The battle of Aden goes on and on

First of all the UN announced that at least 516 Yemeni were killed and  not less than 17,000 were injured in the fight last week. 
Early Thursday a huge dust storm hit the Gulf States paralyzing life for many hours as well as it seems the Operations of Decisive storm.
For several hours we did not hear about air strikes like the past week instead we heard that that Houthis took over Aden and stormed the Presidential palace there for the the billion times. We also heard there have been huge street fights between the Southerners militias and Houthis as well the Pro-regime loyalists and Houthis.

Aden from the Sea on Thursday

Inside the city itself 

The fights were inside the residential areas. The residential buildings were being shelled by Houthis in day light.
Here is a video showing the fights in Aden streets exactly at Kraytor street.

Street fights at Kraytor street in Aden

The shelling reached to Aden’s “Serah” ancient fort.

Operation Decisive Storm : Think About Humans For Once “Day 6”

Operation Decisive Storm has not reached yet its goals as the Houthis and their allies in Yemen did not give up. On the contrary Houthis are advancing towards Aden. On Wednesday Mansour Hadi’s administration itself admitted that the Houthi militants reached to the center of Aden and demanded the people of Aden to resist them.
As far as I was told and Know the people of Aden aka the Southerners are angry that they are being dragged to the fight of the Northerners in the first place. 
Now this video will explain to Westerners simply what is happening in Yemen.

Yemen Explained- Al-Araby El-Gadid

On the other hand The International Committee of Red Cross “ICRC” announced that obstacles needed to be removed in order to deliver the much needed medical supplies and aids to Yemeni hospitals across the country. Among those obstacles : Allowing the ICRC’s planes to land in Yemen in order to deliver medical aids as Saudi air forces sealed off the Yemeni airspace. The coalition should ICRC planes land and help the Yemenis. 
I can not believe how the Saudi coalition did not let the ICRC plane land in Yemen to deliver the medical supplies in the first place. This is the stupidest thing ever. Just like in Syria the medical staff of ICRC is being targeted in the cross fire
There is no final or official death toll about the victims. The UN Human rights Council says that at least 97 Yemenis have been killed since last 27 March while the UNICEF says that at least  62 children were killed and 30 others were injured in the fight over the past in a press statement it released on Tuesday.