UAE stations troops on island in Yemen to protect residents
The UAE has sent soldiers to Socotra Island in Yemen as part of a campaign to support its residents, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said.
Dr Anwar Gargash said on Twitter on Friday that the UAE has historic and family ties to the island in the Arabian Gulf.
“We will support [Socotra’s residents], in stability, health care, education and living [conditions],” he said.
The island has been largely neglected by Yemeni authorities since the start of the war against the Houthi rebels who seized the capital Sanaa in 2014.
The UAE has since been offering support to the island’s residents, including offering them trips to the UAE to receive medical treatment. It has been buying land to build a factory, prison and other facilities.
The Saudi-led coalition has been in Yemen since 2015 as part of UN-backed efforts to restore the internationally recognised government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
With support from the coalition, the Yemeni army continued advancing against the stronghold of the rebel Houthi movement in Sada over the weekend.
Elite counter-terrorism forces advanced against the rebels in the north-west of Yemen, where “the Houthi militia suffered a big collapse in its ranks”, Yemeni army’s spokesman Col Yehya Al Hatimi told The National.
Yemeni forces are now 40 kilometres from the centre of Sadaa province, which lies 200km north of rebel-held Sanaa. Government forces are besieging the rebel stronghold from five directions, Col Al Hatimi said.
In the south, the Yemeni army continues to advance along the western coast with the help of Arab coalition air support.
Troops from Al Amalikah brigades retook Al Bareh junction 3km east of Khaled bin Al Waleed military base on Friday, said Col Abdulbaset Al Baher, a spokesman for the Yemeni army on the Taez front.
Al Bareh is a strategic intersection which links Taez province with the port city of Al Hudaydah and other inland towns
The advance was backed by air strikes from UAE air force Apache jets, Col Al Baher said.