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| Arabia |
| UAE troops dig in for a long war in Yemen |
| 2015-12-03 |
| [ARABNEWS] Soldiers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), at the head of a Gulf Arab coalition fighting Iran-allied Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews... forces in Yemen, are preparing for a long, tough ground war from their base in the southern port of Aden. As thousands of coalition soldiers fight daily battles with the Houthis on the front lines, their comrades in Aden are training Yemeni troops and trying to rebuild a functioning state loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Infighting within the Hadi camp, the martial prowess of the Houthis and a growing Islamist menace have given the UAE armed forces, which have deployed in international operations from Kosovo to Afghanistan, their biggest challenge yet. Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... assembled the coalition in March to carry out air strikes against the Houthis, whose rapid advance through the country had forced Hadi into exile in Riyadh and sparked fears of Iranian influence on the Arabian Peninsula. Since then, the coalition has ramped up its deployment of ground forces and the UAE, which has contributed the largest and most experienced contingent of ground troops, has taken an increasingly prominent role. Brig. Nasser Mushabab Al Otaibi, the Emirati officer leading the combined land force, said around 4,000 troops from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Sudan were now in Yemen, in the first major Gulf Arab-led intervention. He declined to say how many were from the UAE. As well as fighting on the front lines, coalition soldiers are training around 7,000 Yemeni troops, and plan to begin building a police force in Aden to replace the ragtag local militias who currently man the checkpoints. "They have their own army, they are trying to build police, and they have a government in Aden... it's a country now," Otaibi said in an interview at the UAE's military headquarters in the once-thriving port city. Nonetheless, progress on the ground has been slow since the coalition took Aden in July. The Houthis and their allies still control most populated areas including the capital Sanaa, and are putting up a tough fight in the important city of Taez, 180km (110 miles) north-west of Aden. "They are very good snipers. They've been using guns since they were this big," said one soldier of the Houthis, holding his hand out at waist height. Otaibi said it would take another month or two for the coalition to capture Taez. After that, with a United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... -backed grinding of the peace processor barely out of the starting blocks, more battles will surely lie ahead. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 A deliberately engineered famine takes a while to work. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2015-12-03 05:24 |