Yemen forces liberate vital island

Deputy minister downplays the threat of Daesh and Al Qaida in strategic port city

Yemeni resistance forces, supported by Gulf air and naval forces, have liberated a strategic Red Sea island, the Saudi-led coalition announced yesterday.

Greater Hanish island was “cleansed in a well-executed operation conducted by members of the Popular Resistance supported by the joint coalition forces,” said a statement on the official Saudi Press Agency.

The Popular Resistance is an umbrella of Yemeni fighters who have been battling Iran-backed Al Houthi militants. They are supported by Saudi-led Arab coalition troops, air and naval forces.

Greater Hanish is part of an archipelago that commands access to the Bab Al Mandab strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, through which much of the world’s maritime traffic passes.

It had been held by around 400 renegade troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who stepped down in 2012 before allying with Al Houthis, military sources said. Saudi Arabia’s official Ekhbariya television broadcast images from the island of a damaged mosque and soldiers finding arms and ammunition.—AFP

Yemen’s Deputy Interior Minister said that his ministry has taken new measures to halt the deterioration in the security situation in the port city of Aden, which includes setting up permanent checkpoints and deploying more troops in streets and entrances.

“The problem with previous measures was that deployed troops [were] temporary,” Major General Ali Nasser Lakhsha’a told Gulf News on Tuesday.

Aden has witnessed a string of deadly attacks against government facilities claimed by Daesh. The last victim of these attacks was the governor of Aden, Jaffar Mohammad Sa’ad, who was killed in a car bomb attack in the city on Sunday.

Lakhsha’a played down the threat of Al Qaida and Daesh in the city, saying that the groups are unable to take over any area in Aden. “There could be some local sympathisers who dress like Al Qaida and Daesh [men] and raise their flags here or there. Those militants cannot make themselves too visible so as not to be targeted by security forces.”

The senior security official admitted that a financial crunch has crippled many plans outlined by security officials to restore stability to some liberated cities, including Aden. “A shortage of cash has put many of our security plans out of action. When you have a big budget at your disposal you can pay salaries and deploy forces easily. We have no shortage of men. There are thousands of people who can fill in the vacuum. But they need to be paid for their work.”

Lakhsha’a said that former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Al Houthis are to blame for the chaos in some liberated areas. “Saleh makes sure that before pulling out of any city he destroys security agencies [so that the city] falls into chaos.”

Dead bodies

Commenting on a series of mysterious killings and abandoned dead bodies of unidentified men in Aden, Lakhsha’a said that preliminary investigations showed that those people were killed as a result of personal feuds.

According to Lakhsha’a, the newly deployed forces would be those recently trained by the UAE. “The coalition has played a great role in training, arming and funding security services in Aden. We think that the deployed forces should be from Aden as they are able to tell resistance fighters from terrorists.”