Al Qaeda ousted from oil-rich Yemen area
aden — Al Qaeda fighters have retreated from an oil-rich southern province of war-ravaged Yemen in the face of an assault by an elite US-backed government force, a military official said on Monday.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), seen by the US as the global network’s most dangerous franchise, has exploited Yemen’s war to expand its presence in the country’s south.
But special forces, trained by the UAE and backed by the US, on Wednesday launched a “major operation” against the militants in Shabwa province. The group staged a “tactical retreat” from the province with no major clashes, the senior military official said, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to the press.
The militants appear to have moved even further south into neighbouring Abyan province.
Residents of an Abyan town near the Shabwa border said they counted at least 45 cars carrying armed AQAP militants through their district.
The Shabwa operation was conducted “under the supervision of the UAE military and with the support of US military advisors who are not present in the field,” another high-ranking officer said. —
aden — Al Qaeda’s Yemen branch has retreated from southern province in the face of an assault by a US-backed elite government force, a senior military official said on Monday.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), seen by the United States as the global network’s most dangerous franchise, has exploited Yemen’s war to expand its presence in the country’s south.
But the elite force, trained by the United Arab Emirates, on Thursday launched a “major operation” against the militants in Shabwa province. The group staged a “tactical retreat” from the province with no major clashes, the military official said, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to the press.
The militants appear to have moved even further south into neighbouring Abyan province.
Residents of an Abyan town near the Shabwa border said they counted at least 45 cars carrying armed AQAP militants through their district.
AQAP’s Shabwa stronghold has been a focal point in a long-running American-led drone war which has intensified since President Donald Trump took office in January.
A US air raid on the province in June killed AQAP leader Abu Khattab Al Awlaqi, according to the Pentagon. Shabwa has also been the site of AQAP attacks in recent months, with the Yemen government reporting seven soldiers killed there in a suicide attack last week. The UAE, part of a Saudiled military alliance battling Iranbacked Huthi rebels in Yemen, said the operation was being “closely supported by a combined UAE and US enabling force”.
Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said Friday that the operation involved “a very small number” of US forces on the ground whose main task was to help the flow of information.
The assault aimed to “degrade” AQAP’s ability to coordinate terror attacks abroad, he said, adding that the United States had conducted more than 80 strikes in Yemen since February 28. US President Donald Trump ordered a special forces raid on Yemen in his first month in office which ended in the deaths of a US Navy SEAL and several Yemeni civilians in Baida province, bordering Shabwa and Abyan.
More than 8,000 people have been killed in the war since Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in 2015 to support the government against Houthis who had seized the capital.
Yemen also faces a deadly cholera outbreak and stands at the brink of famine.
The United Nations has called it “the largest humanitarian crisis in the world”.—