Middle East

Saleh Forced Out As Yemen Is Latest Country To Fall In Arab Spring Riots

From January 2011 he struggled to quell big popular protests against his rule as a spate of gunbattles pushed Yemen closer to civil war. The violence culminated in deadly clashes between forces of the Hashed tribal group and government troops. Under mounting pressure, Saleh agreed to sign a Gulf accord in November that was meant to see him gradually relinquish power.

Published

14 years ago

February 20, 2012

Geoffrey Grider

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SANAA (Reuters) – Ali Abdullah Saleh, who once compared his 33-year rule of Yemen to “dancing on the heads of snakes,” formally steps down this week after Yemenis anoint a new president in an election many hope will give Yemen a chance for democracy.

A boy looks through a hole in a banner, with an image of Yemen's outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as he performs the weekly Friday prayers during a rally to show support for him in Sanaa January 27, 2012. REUTERS/Mohamed al-Sayaghi

No ceremonies are expected to mark the end for Saleh, who is out of the country being treated in the United States for injuries he sustained in an assassination attempt last June.

But the election, in which Saleh’s deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi is the only candidate, is expected to pave the way for Yemen to introduce political and economic reforms and give it a chance to restructure security forces currently run by the outgoing president’s relatives.

Before he flew to the United States last month, Saleh apologized for “any shortcoming” in his rule and said he planned to come back. “I will return to Sanaa as head of the General People’s Congress party,” he told senior party and government officials in a televised speech before his departure on January 22.

But fears remain that the accord, inked in Saudi Arabia, the world’s No. 1 oil exporter which shares a long porous border with Yemen, may not provide the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state with a roadmap out of misery and chaos.

The bombing of Saleh’s compound in June, an apparent assassination attempt, left Saleh with severe burns, forcing him to seek treatment in Saudi Arabia, one of Yemen’s resource-rich neighbors which had tried in vain to ease him from power.

Ever nimble, Saleh reneged on three deals to transfer power before the attempt on his life and shrugged off U.S. and Saudi pressure to stay in exile, making good on a promise to return home in September.

But international pressure redoubled in October, when the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution demanding he sign a handover plan brokered by Gulf neighbors. France and Britain hinted at European Union sanctions against him.

The United States has talked openly of its concern about who might succeed Saleh, an ally in the fight against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a Yemen-based wing of the militant group.

Until last year, Saleh’s grip on power seemed unshakeable. In 2010, supporters pushed for constitutional changes to allow him unlimited five-year terms as president. Speculation was high that he was grooming one of his sons as a possible successor.

But popular uprisings that toppled Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak resonated in Yemen, drawing tens of thousands to daily protests in Sanaa and in Taiz to the south, threatening his apparent dynastic ambitions.

Saleh began to offer concessions.

First, he said he would not stand for re-election in 2013 and dismissed the idea of his son succeeding him. Then he offered a referendum on a new constitution by the end of the year and a shift to a truly democratic “parliamentary system.”

But after the death of 52 protesters in March, mostly by sniper fire, a string of generals, tribal leaders, diplomats and ministers either resigned or switched their allegiance to the protesters.

They included key figures in the al-Ahmar and Sanhan tribes, kinsmen who Saleh had placed in key military and other positions.

When confronted with a power transfer deal brokered by the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, Saleh was forced to accept that he has lost the ability to win back his former allies, and sign up to the deal.

OVERSAW UNIFICATION

Saleh became the ruler of North Yemen in 1978 at a time when the south was a separate communist country, and has led the unified country since the two states merged in 1990.

Opponents often complained that he failed to address the basic needs of Yemen’s people, two-thirds of whom live on less than $2 per day. Oil wealth is dwindling and water is running out, though liquefied natural gas exports began in 2009.

Yet Saleh managed to keep Western and Arab powers on side.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, Washington became more aware of Yemen as a source of foot soldiers for Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network. Bin Laden himself, though born in Saudi Arabia, could trace his roots back to Yemen’s Hadramaut region.

Saleh cooperated with U.S. authorities, and the CIA started taking action against wanted figures. But by 2007, militants had regrouped in Yemen, and in 2008 they announced that their Saudi and Yemeni wings had united under the banner of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

From 2009, the resurgent group made ever bolder attempts to stage attacks on Saudi and U.S. targets beyond Yemen, as well as targeting foreign tourists at home. At the same time, Shi’ite Muslims in the north rebelled against Saleh’s rule and southerners, feeling marginalized, began a new separatist drive.

Saudi Arabia, the United States and other allies responded by stepping up financial support to bolster Saleh’s rule.

If Saleh has been a determined survivor, he has also been a charismatic and often popular ruler with a canny understanding of the workings of Yemeni society.

Born in 1942 near Sanaa, Saleh had only limited education before joining the military as a non-commissioned officer.

His first break came when President Ahmed al-Ghashmi, who came from the same Hashed tribe as Saleh, appointed him military governor of Taiz, North Yemen’s second city. When Ghashmi was killed by a bomb in 1978, Saleh replaced him.

In 1990, an array of domestic and regional circumstances propelled North Yemen under Saleh and the socialist South Yemen state into a unification that Saudi Arabia at first opposed.

He angered Riyadh by staying close to Saddam Hussein during the 1990-91 Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, leading to the expulsion of up to one million Yemenis from Saudi Arabia. Before the crisis, Kuwait had given Yemen financial aid.

But Saleh then won plaudits from Western powers for carrying out economic reforms drawn up by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and made efforts to attract foreign investors.

His General People’s Congress party swept to victory in a 1993 parliamentary election, the first held after unification. South Yemen tried but failed to secede in a brief civil war in 1994 and Saleh then proceeded to move closer to Saudi Arabia, allowing an influx of its radical Wahhabi form of Sunni Islam. source – Yahoo News

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Israel

Relentless Ballistic Barrages Over Israel By Iran And Hezbollah Tonight Result In Horrific Mass Casualty Event In Arad And Massive Destruction In Dimona

Published

11 hours ago

March 21, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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All day long, Hezbollah and Iran have been pounding Israel with missile and rocket fire resulting in some serious damage in the north and south

All day long, wave after wave of missiles have rained down on the tiny nation of Israel all day and all night tonight. Not just from one direction, not just from one enemy, but from multiple fronts in what can only be described as a coordinated, relentless barrage. Iran is launching long-range ballistic missiles, while Hezbollah pounds from the north with sustained rocket fire. This is not random. This is not isolated. This is a synchronized assault. And make no mistake about it—this is exactly what your King James Bible said would happen. (Please note that this is happening in real-time and events are changing rapidly.)

“He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” Psalm 121:4 KJB

Iran, the modern-day Persia of your Bible, is not operating in a vacuum. They are moving according to a pattern laid out thousands of years ago. The Bible tells us that Persia will be part of a latter-day coalition that comes against Israel, and what we are seeing tonight looks like the opening stages of that alignment tightening into place. But here’s what makes this moment even more sobering, Israel is now facing not just proxies, but direct state-level aggression. Iran is no longer content to hide behind Hezbollah. They are stepping into the ring themselves, launching ballistic missiles straight into the land God calls His own.

This is what’s been happening all over Israel tonight

BREAKING NEWS: Reports coming in that Iran just dropped a Khorramshahr ballistic missile (seen here) on Israel in a series on dozens of direct hits today on the Jewish state. No one in the Middle East will be sleeping tonight. Buckle up, you’re in the end times. #nowtheendbegins pic.twitter.com/D3CGy96n90

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) March 21, 2026

While sirens wail and interceptors light up the night sky, there is something deeper happening here that the mainstream media will never tell you. This is not just a military conflict—it is a spiritual one. The hatred directed at Israel is ancient, and it is satanic at its root. Hezbollah firing from Lebanon. Iran launching from afar. Multiple fronts converging at once. This is exactly how a war of encirclement begins. The retaliation by the IDF will be every bit as stunning as the assault which Israel has just sustained, and somewhere in the midst of this end times back and forth, something really big is going to break lose.

WRITTEN FOR SOLDIERS BY A SOLDIER TO HELP DEAL WITH PTSD BIBLICALLY, CLICK TO ORDER!!

Mass casualty event declared after Iranian missile strikes Arad building

FROM THE JERUSALEM POST: At least 64 people were wounded, including seven in serious condition, after an Iranian ballistic missile struck a building in the southern Israeli city of Arad on Saturday night. A five-year-old was among the seven seriously wounded in the attack, MDA said, adding that 15 were reported in moderate condition, and 42 lightly wounded. Attempts were being made to rescue some feared trapped under the rubble, ZAKA paramedics on the scene said. Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba declared a mass casualty event as wounded were rushed to hospitals for further treatment.

IDF sources said Home Front command forces rushed to the scene in Arad to assist in the evacuation of wounded residents. Sources also said the military was investigating why it failed to intercept the missile that struck in the city, alongside another direct hit in Dimona earlier on Saturday. Dimona was one of the main targets of Iranian missile fire over the past 24 hours, as the southern city faced repeated alerts and multiple impact scenes after interceptor fragments and missile debris fell across the area. READ MORE

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“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Headline News

TEHRAN SHOCKER: As Iran Reveals Massive Underground Missile Facilities, The Tide Of World War Trump May Be Shifting Away From US And Israel

Published

18 hours ago

March 21, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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Tehran has plenty more cards to play in World War Trump from anti-ship cruise missiles to activating allied militias and sleeper cells

The fourth week of open war between Iran, Israel, and the United States is not bringing de-escalation — it is exposing just how much the Iranian regime has been holding back. Tehran has now attempted a long-range missile strike on the U.S.-U.K. base at Diego Garcia, demonstrating a reach of roughly 2,500 miles, a capability far beyond what most analysts believed Iran possessed. That is not a warning shot — that is a revelation. Now would be a good time to start praying for all the US soldiers put in harm’s way. NTEB has long enjoyed support from a large sector of active duty US servicemen and women, and we love you guys right back, so go get’em. Semper Fi!

“Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?” Luke 14:31 (KJB)

The West has assumed escalation dominance, but Iran is now signaling that it can stretch this war far beyond the immediate region. A 2,500-mile strike capability brings U.S. bases, shipping lanes, and allied infrastructure into a much wider threat envelope. That changes the strategic equation overnight. The battlefield is no longer just Israel and its borders — it is rapidly becoming global. And here is the part no one wants to say out loud: if Iran still has capabilities it has not yet revealed, then what we have seen so far is only the opening phase. The idea that the tide is safely in favor of Israel and the United States is beginning to crack. Not because Iran is winning — but because Iran is proving it can prolong, expand, and complicate this war in ways that drain time, resources, and certainty from its enemies. Wars are not only won by firepower alone. They are won by endurance, positioning, and the ability to change the battlefield faster than your opponent can react. Right now, Iran is signaling it intends to do exactly that. Long-range missiles, proxy forces spread across the Middle East, maritime choke points, and asymmetric warfare tactics all remain firmly on the table. What we are watching is not collapse, but calculated escalation. This is the moment where miscalculation becomes catastrophe.

NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO CHECK IN WITH THE PROPHETS WHO SAW ALL THIS COMING, CLICK TO ORDER!!

The hidden weapons Iran is keeping in reserve

FROM THE iPAPER: Iran is revealing new military capabilities as its war with Israel and the US enters its fourth week, and the regime still has more cards to play, from as-yet-unseen missiles to allied militias and sleeper cells abroad. The missiles fired at the US-UK Diego Garcia base demonstrated a range of around 2,400 miles, far beyond previous estimates of Iran’s capabilities.

Tehran’s military also deployed the Haj Qasem, a newly developed medium-range ballistic missile with a half-tonne warhead, for the first time this week. Iran’s most powerful weapon, the Khorramshahr-4, has been used in greater numbers in recent attacks. Regime officials remain bullish despite heavy personnel and material losses inflicted by US-Israeli air strikes, and are threatening escalation.

Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said in an interview this week that: “We are using weapons in this war that we have not used in the past, and we will use them more in the coming days.”

After a sharp decline in Iran’s rate of fire of missiles and drones after the first days of the conflict, open-source conflict trackers say both launches and hits have increased, amid reports of declining interceptor stockpiles in the region. Deep Dive Defence, a pro-Iran military analysis blog, said that Iran has been practicing a strategy of “low intensity preserving warfare” in the hope of exhausting the US, Israel and Gulf allies, leaving high-value targets exposed to more damaging strikes. This week, Iran claimed a series of confirmed impacts in Israel, including on the Haifa refinery and strikes on critical energy infrastructure across the Gulf region.

Hey Pete, $200,000,000,000.00 is a LOT of money to spend to fight an enemy that is, as y’all are telling us, is “decimated” and “obliterated”. How about telling us the truth for a change? @DeptofWar @SecWar pic.twitter.com/YpF0lZG4bK

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) March 20, 2026

Iran continues to introduce surface-to-surface missiles to the war, and scored a notable success this week with a surface-to-air strike that brought a first hit on a US F-35 fighter jet. The US military said the aircraft was damaged but made an emergency landing, with the pilot in a stable condition. Iran has also tested – but not used in combat – space launch vehicles, such as the Simorgh and Zuljanah, which US analysts believe could be repurposed as long-range ballistic missiles, with a potential range in excess of 2,500 miles. Iran can achieve a similar range – sufficient to hit Diego Garcia – by reducing the size of the warhead on missiles such as the Khorramshahr-4, experts believe.

BREAKING NEWS: Footage captures the terrifying moment an Iranian ballistic missile submunition directly impacts Jerusalem’s Old City, exploding with violent force. Maybe Iran will blow up the mosque at the top? Hello, rebuilt Temple! pic.twitter.com/eDoybNiEQx

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) March 20, 2026

The regime is also known to have amassed a large stockpile of cruise missiles, including anti-ship variants that could prove effective in close-quarters fighting if naval vessels attempt to break its blockade of the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Farzan Sabet, an Iranian security and politics specialist at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland, said Iranian cruise missiles have not been effective in previous rounds of fighting against Israel but “could do more damage against less-prepared and nearer Gulf countries countries that have less time to track and intercept” them.

WHAT??? How did CNN get full access to secret underground missiles bases in Iran? Something is not right, well, lots of things continue to defy expectations here on Day #22 of World War Trump! pic.twitter.com/26e5tPwhwo

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) March 21, 2026

He added that its anti-ship missiles “could be very effective against civilian and even military vessels” in the narrow confines of the Hormuz Strait, although this has yet to be tested in practice. The US military has signaled its concern with a series of bunker-buster strikes along the coastline of the Strait that it said were targeting anti-ship cruise missile placements.

Donald Trump has pledged to seize control of the vital shipping route, and suggested the US Navy could provide escorts for oil tankers, but military planners are wary of exposing vessels to the dangers they would face, which could include marine drones and mines as well as missiles. READ MORE

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Headline News

Missiles Are Falling In Jerusalem, America Preparing For Ground Invasion Of Iran, Stocks Plummet And Oil Skyrockets As The World Slides Toward The Edge

Published

1 day ago

March 20, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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Missiles Strike In And Around Jerusalem As Trump Considers Ground Invasion And Investors Dump Stocks On War Fears

Iran is not just firing missiles into Israel in general—they are now striking in and around Jerusalem, the city that God chose to place His name there. The spiritual and geopolitical epicenter of the earth is once again under direct attack, and the timing of it, alongside everything else unfolding, should not be lost on anyone paying attention. What began as retaliation has now become escalation, and Jerusalem is in the crosshairs. While all this is going on, the United States is moving steadily closer to full-scale war footing.

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.” Zechariah 12:2 (KJB)

Behind closed doors in Washington, Pentagon officials have done far more than talk. Detailed operational plans for deploying American ground forces into Iran have been drawn up and presented. Senior commanders are submitting specific requests, positioning troops, and preparing logistics for what could become the largest Middle East ground war in a generation.

This is not early discussion—this is late-stage preparation. And while missiles fall in Jerusalem and generals prepare for war, the financial system is reacting exactly how you would expect when the world senses that something big is coming. The markets are dropping hard. Traders are not confused—they understand escalation when they see it. A widening Middle East war, the potential for U.S. ground invasion, and threats to global oil supply are combining into a perfect storm. Oil prices are surging, volatility is spiking, and investor confidence is cracking under the weight of uncertainty.

BREAKING NEWS: Footage captures the terrifying moment an Iranian ballistic missile submunition directly impacts Jerusalem’s Old City, exploding with violent force. Maybe Iran will blow up the mosque at the top? Hello, rebuilt Temple! pic.twitter.com/eDoybNiEQx

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) March 20, 2026

This is how it always begins—not with a single collapse, but with a series of shocks that rattle the system until something finally gives way.

And now look at the full picture:

Iran launching attacks that reach Jerusalem
Israel fully engaged in a growing regional war
The United States preparing for boots on the ground
The global economy beginning to shake

Everything is converging at once. Jerusalem under fire, America preparing for invasion, and the global financial system trembling. That is not coincidence—that is alignment. Because every time Jerusalem becomes the focal point of global conflict, the stakes are never just political. The city sits at the center of both world history and God’s prophetic timeline, and when it becomes the target, it signals that events are moving into a different phase.