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UAE Sez It Can't Control Yemeni Force ‐ Even As It Hands Them Bags of Cash
[The Intercept] ON THE EDGE of the village of Al Buqa in the Yemeni governorate of Hodeidah last month, Yemeni fighters dressed in a mix of military fatigues and mawaz ‐ the wraparound skirt traditionally worn by men here ‐ stood in a loose formation along the main highway near the bright blue waters of the Red Sea.The fighters, known as the Yemeni National Resistance, included members of the sandal-clad Tihama Resistance, gaunt and war-weary after years of fighting, as well as the more recently deployed Guards of the Republic led by the nephew of Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s former president of 33 years. Along with southern Yemenis, ultraconservative Sunni Muslim Salafis, and Sudanese troops, they are America’s de facto allies in a fight against the Houthis, an Iran-allied rebel group that, since 2015, has been fighting a U.S.-backed coalition of 10 nations led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Yemeni coalition-allied fighters have advanced rapidly since the UAE stepped up support for them after Saleh was killed in December. A longtime U.S. and Gulf ally, Saleh had aided the Houthi takeover of Yemen’s capital in 2014. But at the end of 2017, he switched sides again, declaring loyalty to the coalition and sparking a battle with the Houthis that ended in his death at their hands. Posted by: Besoeker 2018-06-11 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=516158 |