UAE-supported coalition makes significant advances across Yemen

Elite Yemeni forces, supported by the Saudi-led coalition and UAE Armed Forces, have entered the Al Qaeda stronghold of Wadi Al Masini in Hadramawt province and taken control of several main routes to the Red Sea coast.

The Yemeni National Army and resistance forces supported by the UAE also made advances towards Al Garahi district, south of Hodeidah province.

These advances came after the recapture of the Hays district in the west of Yemen. It was reported that huge losses had been inflicted on Iranianbacked Houthi militias.

A military source said coalition forces were in the process of preparing a significant operation to eject Al Qaeda forces in all the areas used by the group in launching terrorist acts aimed at destabilising the country.

Wam, the state news agency, reported that the Houthis were fleeing the areas en masse and suffering heavy losses in fighting along the Red Sea coast.

A number of the militiamen surrendered to the liberation forces after the siege of Hays and Jebel Al Dabbas.

UAE Armed Forces are providing logistics and military support to the land, air and sea operations launched by the Saudi-led coalition, as well as humanitarian aid.

The advances came as the United Nations selected a new special envoy to Yemen in veteran British mediator Martin Griffiths.

The Yemen war began with the seizure of the capital, Sanaa, by the rebels in September 2014.

Human-rights group Amnesty International yesterday accused the Houthis of using the judiciary to settle political scores, citing the case of a woman and two men who were sentenced to death last month after being held for more than a year.

Amnesty said Asmaa Al Omeissy, Saeed Al Ruwaished and Ahmed Bawazeer were arrested at a checkpoint in Sanaa in October 2016 while on a visit to the capital from the south of Yemen. They were accused of being agents of the coalition and sentenced to death on January 30 by the Houthi-aligned specialised criminal court, which handles terrorism and “state security” cases.

Mr Al Ruwaished and Mr Bawazeer were granted bail before their sentencing and are now in government-controlled territory, Amnesty said, but Ms Al Omeissy remains in custody.

Yemeni human-rights activists launched a campaign earlier this month to demand the release of the mother of two.

Rawya Rageh, Amnesty International’s senior crisis adviser, said the trial “followed a catalogue of grave violations and crimes under international law, some of which may also amount to war crimes”.

“The defendants initially were subjected to enforced disappearance, cut off from the outside world, and secretly moved from one facility to the other. They were held in squalor in pre-trial detention for months, extorted for money, subjected to continuous humiliation and extreme physical abuse, and denied basic rights including legal counsel and family visits,” she said.

“Sentencing anyone to death after such deeply flawed proceedings is a clear violation of international law.

“These sentences must be quashed without delay.”

Wam, the state news agency, reported that the Houthis were fleeing the areas en masse and suffering heavy losses