News / Yemen

Mercenaries receive training for Hudaydah battle in UAE-funded camps in Israel: Report

Thursday, 20 September 2018 9:13 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 20 September 2018 9:35 AM ]

Saudi-backed militants loyal to former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi gather with armed pick-up trucks and armored vehicles on Hudaydah's southern outskirts on June 21, 2018 during an offensive to seize the Red Sea port city from the Houthi fighters. (Photo by AFP)

A report reveals that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has financed a military training program in the Israeli-occupied territory, under which foreign mercenaries prepared for joining a military operation to seize Yemen’s strategic port city of Hudaydah.

Citing sources close to the US Congress intelligence committee, the Emirati news website al-Khaleejonline reported on Wednesday that the UAE-funded camps are situated in Negev Desert.

The sources said that Mohammed Dahlan, security adviser to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, had “visited these camps on more than one occasion to check the progress of preparations and training received by mercenaries, under the personal supervision of the Israeli occupation army officers.”

Dahlan, the sources added, personally oversaw the recruiting of foreign mercenaries, led by the Colombians and Nepalese, to fight alongside UAE-backed forces in Yemen.

“Hundreds of mercenaries of various nationalities are taking part in the attack on Hudaydah, with the aim of taking control over it from the Houthis who have shown fierce resistance,” the sources pointed out.

They also noted that the UAE had chosen the Negev Desert for the camps as its climate and environment “are very similar to what is in Yemen.”

Over the past few months, Hudaydah, through which flows almost 80 percent of Yemen’s imports, has witnessed deadly ground and aerial attacks by the regimes in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi and their allies.

PressTV-Saudi airstrikes kill 15 on Hudaydah-Sana'a highway

At least 15 people lose are killed in fresh air raids conducted by Saudi-Emirati warplanes on a strategic road linking Yemen's Hudaydah to Sana'a.

Backed by Saudi airstrikes, Emirati forces and elements loyal to former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi launched the Hudaydah offensive on June 13 despite international warnings that it would compound the impoverished nation’s humanitarian crisis.

Saudi Arabia claims that the Houthis are using Hudaydah for weapons delivery, an allegation rejected by the fighters.

Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a brutal war, code-named Operation Decisive Storm, against Yemen in March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall the country's former Riyadh-allied regime and crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

The Western-backed imposed war, however, has so far failed to achieve its stated goals, thanks to stiff resistance from Yemeni troops and allied Houthi fighters.

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