The Cruel And Aimless War On Yemen
The situation for the people in Yemen is catastrophic. Doctors Without Borders, which has experience from many war zones, says it is the worst conflict they ever worked in.
The theocratic family dictatorship of Saudi Arabia, with U.S. support, is relentlessly bombing the country and blockading it from all urgently needed supply for the people. The declared aim of the war is to reinstate the Saudi/U.S. selected President Hadi. But no one in Yemen wants Hadi back. He now would not survive there even one day. The UN warns of the danger of mass starvation.
The Houthi supporters and forces aligned with former president Saleh failed to capture the southern harbor town Aden. Infiltrated special forces from the United Arab Emirates directed Saudi air attacks against Houthi positions. After the Saleh forces and the Houthi retreated UAE forces, which include many mercenaries from Pakistan, invaded the city via its airport and from the sea.
Landing ships have been supplying heavy vehicles. TV pictures show newly arrived French Leclerc main battle tanks, Russian build BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles and motorized heavy mortars. Additionally many armored and armed wheeled vehicles have been supplied. This is an invasion force of at least brigade size - some 4-5,000 soldiers. That this operation is so far very well planned and executed lets me believe that it is under direct U.S. supervision.
The newly arrived forces are supported by some local tribes and southern separatist groups. Today the invaders are trying to kick Saleh forces from the Al Anad air base near Aden. The invasion force wants to drive the Houthi not only from the south but also from power up north in the capitol Sanaa. The few planes with humanitarian aid that were allowed to fly into Sanaa are now ordered to land only in Aden. The north of Yemen is thereby completely isolated and cut off from all resources.
But look at this map of tribal areas within Yemen and around it.
Will all those various tribes and local interests agree with a foreign imposed agenda? Will the starving but still well armed Yemenis let those rich troops just pass? Or will they rather fight and sabotage any foreign forces that try to move out of Aden?
Not bothered by the U.S.-Saudi war on Yemen AlQaeda in the Arab Peninsula has practically taken over the comparably rich eastern Yemeni governate of Hadhramaut. The 23rd brigade of Yemeni forces holding the governate was, allegedly accidentally, bombed by Saudi jets. AlQaeda also captured the eastern port of AlMukallah and uses it to supply its area. No Saudi air strike hindered its recent expansion. There are rumors that AQAP will soon declare Hadhramaut a new Islamic Emirate under its rule.
Between 1962 and 1970 Egypt fought a war in Yemen against predominately Yemeni forces. Some 25,000 of its soldiers were killed in that war. I expect that the current U.S. supported invasion of Yemen, like the Egyptians, will get bogged down within a month or two.
Meanwhile many Yemeni civilians will silently die from lack of access to water, food and medicine.
Posted by b on August 3, 2015 at 15:35 UTC | Permalink
The perpetrators of this premeditated mass murder are no better than the "terrorists" they presume to defend us from. I can't believe this carnage is still going on from back in March! - another feather in Barry's legacy cap.
What kind of human animal gets off on bombing one of the poorest nations in the world and starving out innocent people? One AmeriKan-inspired humanitarian crisis after another for the Empire of Shit.
Posted by: farflungstar | Aug 3 2015 15:53 utc | 2
Great post b!
Take a good look on the media in the west how they cover up for this murder/assault, same stupid MSM that keep babbling about "russian propaganda". Really disgusting.
Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 3 2015 15:57 utc | 3
Oh and yes, Obama want to bomb Syria..again
http://www.rt.com/news/311429-obama-airstrikes-syria-rebels/
Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 3 2015 15:58 utc | 4
Noon, US central time - RT is live-broadcasting a press conference in Doha, Q - only Lavrov and Qatar FM present (Kerry was at the talks, but not here). Lavrov said that Russia provides techn. and military support to Syria and Iraq. US ready to bomb Syria under the pretext of protecting its trainees ("so called" moderates, according to Lavrov). A silly question ab whether Russia is ready for concessions in its support for Assad. L. expresses strong support for Assad.
Posted by: GoraDiva | Aug 3 2015 16:55 utc | 5
hmmm...sounds like more of that US 'disengagement' from the ME.
Posted by: john | Aug 3 2015 17:15 utc | 6
Forces loyal to Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi recaptured al-Anad military and air base on Monday, the country's largest, after heavy fighting in which dozens of Houthi fighters were killed or captured.
The commander of the operation, Brigadier General Fadel Hassan, said his forces were combing the sprawling base north of the southern port city of Aden searching for any Houthi fighters who may have remained behind after hundreds fled.
Posted by: okie farmer | Aug 3 2015 17:22 utc | 7
U.S. to defend Syrian rebels with airpower, including from Assad
The United States has decided to allow airstrikes to defend Syrian rebels trained by the U.S. military from any attackers, even if the enemies hail from forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, U.S. officials said on Sunday.
The decision by President Barack Obama, which could deepen the U.S. role in Syria's conflict, aims to shield a still-fledging group of Syrian fighters armed and trained by the United States to battle Islamic State militants -- not forces loyal to Assad.
But in Syria's messy civil war, Islamic State is only one of the threats to the U.S. recruits. The first batch of U.S.-trained forces deployed to northern Syria came under fire on Friday from other militants, triggering the first known U.S. airstrikes to support them.
~~~
U.S. officials have long played down the idea that Assad's forces - which have not fired on U.S.-led coalition aircraft bombing Islamic State targets in Syria - would turn their sights on the U.S.-backed Syrian rebels. But they cannot rule out the possibility, perhaps in an unintentional clash.
The Pentagon and the White House declined to discuss the decision on rules of engagement or confirm comments by the unnamed U.S. officials.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/03/us-mideast-crisis-syria-usa-idUSKCN0Q803Y20150803
Posted by: okie farmer | Aug 3 2015 17:28 utc | 8
in French
Yémen: les forces pro-Hadi disent avoir repris une base aérienne
http://www.rfi.fr/moyen-orient/20150803-yemen-forces-pro-hadi-disent-avoir-repris-une-base-aerienne-houthis
Posted by: okie farmer | Aug 3 2015 18:04 utc | 9
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that any U.S. military strikes in Syria that hit the army would complicate counter-terrorism efforts there.
U.S. officials said on Sunday that the United States had decided to allow air strikes to defend Syrian rebels trained by the U.S. military from any attackers, even if the enemies hail from forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Speaking at a news conference on a visit to Qatar, Lavrov, whose country is an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said a settlement to Syria's war needed dialogue between all parties. But he added that the Islamic State militant group was the main danger in Syria and neighboring Iraq and that was why Moscow supported the governments of both countries.
Posted by: okie farmer | Aug 3 2015 18:09 utc | 10
August has been the hottest window for war escalation at least since the Kuwait war
Posted by: Mina | Aug 3 2015 18:40 utc | 11
Looks like what we've got here is a Cambodia template
1) Bomb the mortal piss out of the civilian infrastructure
2) Massive death via starvation ensues
3) Blame the whole thing on idiot militias marginally connected to the conflict
4) Repeat the lies ad nauseam until they're accepted as truth
It worked for Reader's Digest and it'll work for the NYT.
Posted by: Some Guy | Aug 3 2015 19:14 utc | 12
@okie farmer #8
Waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Can beheadings or burning alive be long in coming? What mercenaries will we send in to rescue the mercenaries? Overthrowing Assad now would be a stunningly stupid thing to do... so I guess that's what they're going to attempt, and that will draw in the Iranians big time. They'll be feeing like the Poles in 1938. Then what? Israel big footing in to aid their chosen Jihadis? Jeebus H. Crisco...
Posted by: chuckvw | Aug 3 2015 19:37 utc | 13
The US is aiding and abetting war crimes when not committing them unilaterally. I hope that this genocide of the Yemen people stops but am not optimistic for any changes for the better under Obama who should be prosecuted for war crimes and his Peace prize taken back.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 3 2015 19:43 utc | 14
It's so sickingly clear that this is the beginning of a genocide against the Yemeni people by the US and Saudi Arabia.
In a country that imports 90% of its food, this food blockade by the US, on its own, is a clear genocide. Let alone The US empire directing the Saudis military warcrimes.
The genocide is a clear plan because of the history of the difficulty of various empires taming the "savages" in Yemen.
When the blockade started, which creates conditions of immobility in the people because a shortage of petrol and food, that's when the cluster bombs started to fall as part of the genocidal plan. Create immobility so the cluster bombs can finish off the soon to be starving. Evil, does not seem strong enough a word
Posted by: tom | Aug 3 2015 20:16 utc | 15
b.. thank you for covering this pressing issue of yemen.. i can't believe the cluster fuck usa-saudi arabia are allowed to get away with this shit! forget about the un representing anything meaningful, let alone warmongering nations selling arms and weapons to each other for use on innocent civilians in yemen.. pathetic.. spreading al qaeda or isis version 2 along with discord and mayham seems to be about as much as any of these actors on the world stage are capable of..
thanks mike @1.. ditto@2 ffs..
@6 john.. that is all the fucking usa is capable of.. clusterfuck usa is a good name for who is running the country at this point..
Posted by: james | Aug 3 2015 20:20 utc | 16
Russian president to Turkish ambassador: "tell your dictator President he can go to hell along with his ISIS terrorists, I will make Syria a 'Big Stalingrad' for him!"
http://awdnews.com/top-news/russian-president-to-turkish-ambassador-tell-your-dictator-president-he-can-go-to-hell-along-with-his-isis-terrorists,-i-will-make-syria-a-big-stalingrad-for-him
Posted by: ALAN | Aug 3 2015 20:54 utc | 18
ALAN,
Sounds like Putin has declared hardball. In my estimation, about time he stands up to the playground bullies. More power to him and all of us. We'll need it.
Posted by: juannie | Aug 4 2015 0:07 utc | 21
@21
I couldn't find any such article at the Moscow Times and the awdnews story reads like complete BS, who the hell is awdnews anyway?
Posted by: Wayoutwest | Aug 4 2015 0:47 utc | 22
@18
Does that mean Turkish stream is history? Or did Moscow Times make it all up? I hadn't realized that Erdogan was in with the USA/KSA on the Yemeni genocide.
The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate's funding of local 'counter'terrorists has been official US policy since 2014, see President Obama's remarks at West Point
... a strategy that involves invading every country that harbors terrorist networks is naive and unsustainable. I believe we must shift our counterterrorism strategy ... to more effectively partner with countries where terrorist networks seek a foothold.And the need for a new strategy reflects the fact that today's principal threat ... heightens the danger of U.S. personnel overseas being attacked, as we saw in Benghazi. It heightens the danger to less defensible targets, as we saw in a shopping mall in Nairobi.
So we ... need partners to fight terrorists along-side us. And empowering partners is a large part of what we have done and what we are currently doing ... our reduced presence there allows us to more effectively address emerging threats in the Middle East and North Africa. ... Today [Wed May 28, 2014], as part of this effort, I am calling on Congress to support a new Counter-Terrorism Partnerships Fund of up to $5 billion, which will allow us to train, build capacity, and facilitate partner countries on the front lines. And these resources will give us flexibility to fulfill different missions, including training security forces in Yemen who have gone on the offensive against al Qaida; supporting a multinational force to keep the peace in Somalia; working with European allies to train a functioning security force and border patrol in Libya; and facilitating French operations in Mali. A critical focus of this effort will be the ongoing crisis in Syria. ... I made a decision that we should not put American troops into the middle of this increasingly sectarian war, and I believe that is the right decision. But that does not mean we shouldn't help ... with the additional resources I'm announcing today, we will step up our efforts to support Syria's neighbors: Jordan and Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq, as they contend with refugees and confront terrorists working across Syria's borders. I will work with Congress to ramp up support for those in the Syrian opposition who offer the best alternative to terrorists and brutal dictators. And we will continue to coordinate with our friends in Europe and the Arab world to push for a political resolution of this crisis, and to make sure that those countries and not just the United States are contributing their fair share ...
I guess that in the USA the MSM has managed to erase the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates fingerprints from Syria, Iraq, Yemen ... ? but you know the saying about theater of all sorts, it envolves the willing suspension of disbelief. At this stage, we Americans are even accepting implausible deniability from born and bred CIA agent, Barack Obama.
Posted by: jfl | Aug 4 2015 0:54 utc | 23
i don't know if would trust much from the moscow times...
article "New Owner for The Moscow Times and Vedomosti" april 2015 from the propaganda rag nyt which can't be trusted for much of anything either..
Posted by: james | Aug 4 2015 1:21 utc | 24
Great post B. In all the geopolitical wraggling, it is easy to forget what this all means for the people in the midsts of these assaults. The Saudis are the richest family on earth, building personal elevators when the buy private beaches in the south of France for their vacations yet a whole nation right next door to them starves without a thought.
Some Guy @12 - interesting and valid analogy. Like the US supported Pol Pot, it is supporting the current psychotic racists in the region - al Qaeda and ISIS.
No matter what the US calls it, that's a no-fly zone they are setting up in Syria.
How they'll get away with this... oh, right. The US Congress has completely forsaken its responsibilities.
@27 'No matter what the US calls it, that's a no-fly zone they are setting up in Syria.'
Yep. The Syrians still have some formidable air defences. Just a question of time now before a plane gets shot down.
Posted by: dh | Aug 4 2015 2:37 utc | 28
What is this all about?
and
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/565674-syria-security-chief-in-talks-with-riyadh-report
Posted by: Paul | Aug 4 2015 2:45 utc | 29
J@24
The AWDNews story claims to be based on a Moscow Times story which apparently doesn't exist and it's a ridiculous farce. The ownership or politics of the Moscow Times is irrelevant because there is no Moscow Times story about Putin yelling at the Turkish Ambassador.
Posted by: Wayoutwest | Aug 4 2015 3:18 utc | 30
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/putin-reiterates-russian-support-for-assads-syria-promises-aid/524586.html
Putin Reiterates Russian Support for Assad's Syria, Promises Aid
Putin said earlier on Monday there was no change in Russia's support for the Syrian leadership.
Syria has relied on help from its allies - Russia, Iran and Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah - in the four-year conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people and convulsed the region.
At the news conference with Moualem, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated Moscow's stance that calling for Syrian regime change was aiding the expansion of hardline groups, which have become some of the strongest in the war.
Posted by: okie farmer | Aug 4 2015 4:56 utc | 31
Vedomosti
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the eponymous newspapers of Imperial Russia, see Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti and Moskovskie Vedomosti.
Vedomosti (Russian: Ведомости, literally "The Record") is a Russian language business daily. The paper is published in Moscow.[1] It is a joint venture between Dow Jones, the Financial Times[2] and the publishers of The Moscow Times.
Posted by: okie farmer | Aug 4 2015 5:23 utc | 32
US losing hearts & minds & trying to regain it newsweek.com/we-are-losing-… Note Azerbaijan guys say #Putin is like Alexander the Great
http://www.newsweek.com/we-are-losing-hearts-and-minds-former-soviet-empire-358989
Posted by: brian | Aug 4 2015 5:27 utc | 33
Off topic, but the book "Ukraine after maidan" is available for PDF download here:
http://www.cis-emo.net/en/news/ukraine-after-euromaidan-available-free-download
Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 4 2015 7:46 utc | 34
12
As Reverend Billy Graham famously ended his firey speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1969, "Bmob the gooks for Jesus!!"
Then he bugged out in his black limo, as a pack of Hueys circled low over the mall and dropped 10,000 little USAryan flags on little parachutes over the crowd of protesters, then circled back again a second time dropping tear gas grenades, as the mall cops on horseback pressed into the melee, batons swinging and blood blowing and thousands screaming in rage.
Ahhh, yes, bmob the gooks for Sweet Baby Jesus!!
All a time lida.
Posted by: Chipnik | Aug 4 2015 7:52 utc | 35
28
Actually, Syria can't resist.
Lighting up their radars, even back-lighting US fighters for a passive radar, exposes the ground facilities to two different types of Pentagon loitering radar-attack missiles, at which point, Syria's coordinated radar network is lost, and mobile launchers will have to rely on their own targeting radars, in a final fire-and-die scenario that marks game-over for Assad.
Hopefully the Syrian Army has a grand finale plan to obliterate Israel as they go down, like The Magnificent Seven, 1,000s of missile contrails along the border arcing up into the twilight sky, and converging on Hebron in one magnificent burning maelstrom, ...because Israel's plan is to take advantage of that now dark radar alley through Syria, to launch their nuke attack on Tehran, and seal their hegemony over the Levant.
Forever.
As Assad falls, the Welt as we know it falls.
As Assad falls, then We are all Yemeni hommes.
Posted by: Chipnik | Aug 4 2015 8:12 utc | 36
Chipnik @ 36 says:
Lighting up their radars, even back-lighting US fighters for a passive radar, exposes the ground facilities to two different types of Pentagon loitering radar-attack missiles, at which point, Syria's coordinated radar network is lost, and mobile launchers will have to rely on their own targeting radars, in a final fire-and-die scenario that marks game-over for Assad
well, by the way you seem to be one of those tech-savvy military types, what's your take on this story from a year ago or so?
Posted by: john | Aug 4 2015 10:10 utc | 37
Turkey steps up bombing -- but on Kurds, not Islamic State
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-turkey-bombing-kurds-20150729-story.html#page=1
Posted by: okie farmer | Aug 4 2015 12:01 utc | 38
I'll hand ye a few welts with me stick and then we'll see how ye feel!
Posted by: okie farmer | Aug 4 2015 12:08 utc | 39
OF@31
The MT headline may have used Assad's name but Putin and Lavrov didn't, they only offered support to the Syrian government. The demand for complete regime change by the rebels was altered about a year ago to only target Assad and agreeing to join with the remaining Ba'athist power structure in a coalition government after Assad is removed.
Posted by: Wayoutwest | Aug 4 2015 15:37 utc | 40
Why Do We Lament A-Bombs and Not Fire-Bombs?
In March, 1945, the US Army Air Force bomber command under Gen. Curtis LeMay began carpet bombing Japan’s cities from bases in the Mariana Islands. American war planners sought to destroy Japan’s industries and will to resist. It’s from this period that LeMay’s famous quote came: ‘We’ll bomb’em back to the Stone Age.”In the ensuing nine months of massive bombing, the US Army Air Force destroyed 40% of Japan’s cities and large towns. On 9/10 March, 1945, in a mass raid code-named “Meetinghouse,” 346 US B-29 heavy bombers showered Tokyo with bombs and incendiary devices made from jellied gasoline.
Most of Tokyo and other Japanese cities were made up of wooden structures. Intensive firestorms engulfed Tokyo, sucking up all the air and burning it. ...
Bruce Comings, The Korean War, “CHAPTER SIX: THE MOST DISPROPORTIONATE RESULT”: THE AIR WAR
After much experimentation and scientific study by Germany, Britain, and the United States, by 1943 it became clear that
“a city was easier to burn down than to blow up.”
Combinations of incendiaries and conventional explosives, followed up by delayed-detonation bombs to keep firefighters at bay, could destroy large sections of a city, whereas conventional bombs had a much more limited impact. Magnesium-alloy thermite sticks, manufactured by the million and bundled together, did the trick; when supplemented by mixtures of benzol, rubber, resins, gels, and phosphorus, they formed unprecedentedly destructive blockbuster flaming bombs that could wipe out cities in a matter of minutes (seventeen in the case of the attack on Wurzburg, March 16, 1945). The creation of urban “annihilation zones” destroyed masses of civilian lives, an outcome accepted by all sides in the war - and
“by the people, parliaments, and armed forces.”
And with that, in Jörg Friedrich’s words,
“modernity gave itself up to a new, incalculable, and uncontrollable fate.”
Pretensions of precision targeting were put out for public consumption, while secret estimates showed that fewer than half the large bombs hit their targets. But in favorable atmospheric conditions these bombs ignited firestorms that razed Darmstadt, Heilbronn, Pforzheim, Wurzburg, and, of course, Hamburg (40,000 deaths), Dresden (12,000), and Tokyo (88,000). Or in Winston Churchill’s words,
“We will make Germany a desert, yes, a desert” ...
... Top air force officers decided to repeat “the fire” in Korea, a wildly disproportionate scheme in that North Korea had no pretense or possibility of a similar city-busting capability. Whereas German fighter planes and antiaircraft batteries made these allied bombing runs harrowing, with high loss of life among British and American pilots and crew, American pilots had virtual free-fire zones ... Curtis LeMay subsequently said that he had wanted to burn down North Korea’s big cities at the inception of the war, but the Pentagon refused - “it’s too horrible.” So over a period of three years, he went on,
“We burned down every [sic] town in North Korea and South Korea, too .… Now, over a period of three years this is palatable, but to kill a few people to stop this from happening - a lot of people can’t stomach it.”
To take just one example of these “limited” raids, on July 11, 1952, an “all-out assault” on Pyongyang involved 1,254 air sorties by day and 54 B-29 assaults by night, the prelude to bombing thirty other cities and industrial objectives under “operation PRESSURE PUMP.”Highly concentrated incendiary bombs were followed up with delayed demolition explosives.
... and we remain now even more deeply imbedded in our now no longer new, incalculable, and uncontrollable fate. The history of the USA since 1941 has been one long war crime ...
The still-incomplete database (it has several “dark” periods) reveals that from October 4, 1965, to August 15, 1973, the United States dropped far more ordnance on Cambodia than was previously believed: 2,756,941 tons’ worth, dropped in 230,516 sorties on 113,716 sites. Just over 10 percent of this bombing was indiscriminate, with 3,580 of the sites listed as having “unknown” targets and another 8,238 sites having no target listed at all.To put the revised total of 2,756,941 tons into perspective, the Allies dropped just over 2 million tons of bombs during all of World War II, including the bombs that struck Hiroshima and Nagasaki: 15,000 and 20,000 tons, respectively. Cambodia may well be the most heavily bombed country in history.
... an then came Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen ... it's been one long cruel and aimless war for nearly 3/4s of a century.
Posted by: jfl | Aug 10 2015 9:57 utc | 41
@38
Islamic State executes 300 civil servants in Mosul
A firing squad of the Islamic State jihadist group executed Saturday at a military camp in the city of Mosul at least 300 civil servants who worked for the Iraqi Supreme Electoral Commission, according to witnesses and security officials.Two days ago, Nineveh Gov. Atheel al-Nujaifi reported the execution of 2,070 people at the hands of IS in Mosul over a two-week period, a figure that has been confirmed by other Iraqi leaders such as Parliament Speaker Saleem al-Jabouri, though the dates of the slayings have not been specified.
Meanwhile, a security official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Giyas Surja, told EFE that 20 days ago, IS launched a campaign of massive arrests that is terrorizing the entire city of Mosul, and that on Friday at least 50 police agents were jailed.
Looks like the Kurds in Iraq are caught between the US' Turkish/ISIS pincers. How many times has the USA utterly betrayed the Kurds? At least three. I've lost count.
Sorry about the link to Bruce Comings above ... it shouldn't be a link. I don't have one. It's on my machine but ... no ddns, no link.
Posted by: jfl | Aug 10 2015 10:10 utc | 42
@41
The US has never been the 'Good Guys' but in WW2 we were surely the 'Lesser Evil'. Total War is a dirty, ugly business and a crime but I doubt you would find much sympathy in China or the Philippines for the people bombed in Japan with conventional weapons or Nukes.
Posted by: Wayoutwest | Aug 10 2015 14:21 utc | 43
The comments to this entry are closed.
Excellent post, b. I find it remarkable given the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Yemen how little coverage of the conflict there is in the mainstream U.S. press. At this point and over the last month I'd say the New York Times is averaging a little more than one story per week, maybe two.
Since the U.S. is administering the air-traffic coordination of the Saudi bombing runs as well as participating in the naval blockade one would hope that if the Yemeni body count spikes upwards from starvation or a cholera outbreak Obama will be charged with war crimes. I know it is too much to ask for, but in this case the U.S. role in the Yemeni genocide is so clear.
Posted by: Mike Maloney | Aug 3 2015 15:53 utc | 1