Car Bomb Hits Yemeni Capital of Sanaa

A car bombing outside a police academy in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa killed up to 33 people and wounded an estimated 70 others Wednesday. The blast hit as cadets gathered to enroll at the police academy. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, however Yemen’s al Qaeda affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has carried out similar attacks. The explosion has come a week after a suicide bombing killed at least 26 people at a cultural center in the city of Ibb, south of Sanaa. Violence has increased in Yemen since Houthi rebels seized Sanaa in September 2014.

Syria-Iraq

The U.S. military is investigating reports of civilian casualties during U.S.-led coalition airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. According to the U.S. Central Command, the military has launched a formal investigation of two strikes, and is assessing three others. The U.S. military said it received 18 complaints, though determined 13 of the cases were not credible. Additionally, the Pentagon reported the U.S. military could begin training moderate Syrian rebels in the fight against Islamic State militants in the spring. Meanwhile, the United Nations said Wednesday that Syrians have become the largest refugee population aside from Palestinians.

Headlines

• A female suicide bomber killed one police officer and injured another at a police station near Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district in an attack claimed by a Turkish leftist group.
• An Israeli military court has sentenced a Palestinian man to life in prison for the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers in June 2014.
• Protesters and Bahraini riot police clashed Tuesday in the capital of Manama during demonstrations against the arrest of opposition al-Wefaq leader Sheikh Ali Salman.

Arguments and Analysis

‘Israeli Infiltration Suggests Hizballah Is Having a Mid-Life Crisis’ (Thanassis Cambanis, Time)

“The unmasking of the Israeli spy in Hizballah’s uppermost ranks — leaked in media reports in December and indirectly confirmed over the weekend by Hizballah’s deputy leader — points to Hizballah’s biggest long-term problem: its size, wealth and power have made it vulnerable to infiltration, corruption and careerists.

The militant organization, whose name means Party of God, was founded in 1982 to resist the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon but it has grown into an entrenched and wealthy part of the Lebanese establishment. Now in its fourth decade, Hizballah has more power than its founders could have dreamed.”

‘Oil prices: eventually the Gulf states will run out of power’ (Steffen Hertog, The Conversation)

“Even if oil prices recover, the situation looks like this: current spending will have to keep rising to accommodate the growing number of working-age citizens, many of whom will continue to be employed in government. Expenditure might also have to rise to keep the lid on Arab Spring-style political crises. All this means capital expenditure will have to fall.

This might force governments to downsize or even stop some large-scale projects, including some of the infrastructure planned for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. In the long-run, there is a danger of even essential infrastructure spending being squeezed, as was the case in the less wealthy Gulf countries in the 1990s. This in turn could compromise the region’s strategy of diversification to reduce dependency on oil, which has targeted everything from petrochemicals and mining to aviation and tourism.”

— Mary Casey-Baker

MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images