[JPost] I have no idea where that is, either | I looked it up. ;-) It’s at the south end of the Hadramaut region, according to this map. In the old days, Shabwa province was the south end of republican/tribal/religious North Yemen, while next door Marib was in the center of secular, Communist South Yemen. |
Yemeni forces fighting the Houthi group said on Monday they had taken full control of energy-rich Shabwa province from the Houthis in a battle for control of Shabwa and neighbouring Marib which has become a focus of the seven-year conflict.
Yemen's Giants Brigade, a group backed by the United Arab Emirates and also part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthis, said full control of the province had been achieved after 10 days of fighting.
Fighting has intensified since the start of the year, after the coalition sent reinforcements to Shabwa, where Houthi inroads in September had cut off access to the Saudi-backed government's last northern stronghold in Marib.
Marib, in central Yemen, has been the focus of the war for over a year, with the battle for control stymieing United Nations-led peace efforts. The government holds the province's main city and nearby oil and gas infrastructure.
Marib city is home to 3 million people, including nearly 1 million who fled other parts of Yemen after the Houthis ousted the government from the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014, prompting the coalition to intervene months later.