A United Arab Emirates military brigade has joined ground troops combating Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, in a move that senior Yemeni and American military officials believe could intensify a regional fight between Iran and Saudi-led Sunni Gulf countries, reports the New York Times (NYT).

Quoting officials from Yemen’s internationally recognized government led by exiled President Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi, BBC reports that ground forces fighting on behalf of Hadi’s government have retaken the al-Anad airbase from the Houthi rebels.

The al-Anad base, which sits about 30 miles north of the strategically important port city of Aden in southern Yemen, is the largest in Yemen and considered a critical access point to the southern and western provinces.

Pro-Hadi government forces, backed by a small number of Saudi and Emirati special forces, seized Aden in late July, meaning the capture of the al-Asad base is the second major defeat for the Houthis in less than a month.

According to the unnamed senior Yemeni and American military officials who spoke to the Times, the Emirati military brigade arrived in Aden in recent days, along with tanks and other armored vehicles, marking the first time a large foreign force had entered Yemen’s ground war.

“The U.A.E. and the Saudis are putting a lot into this,” a senior U.S. military official told the Times on condition of anonymity, adding that the aggressive military move by both countries spoke volumes about their concerns over Iran’s growing influence in the region.

It is unclear whether or not the Emirati troop participated in the fight to retake the al-Anad base from the Houthis.

NYT reports that the foreign troops made an impact almost upon arrival, by playing a role on Monday in routing out the Houthis from the al-Anad airbase.

However, local journalists told BBC that the Emirati forces “had recently disembarked in Aden and were deployed as advisers, rather than in combat, while a Yemeni military official denied foreign troops had landed in Yemen.”

The Associated Press (AP) reports that foreign troops, namely those from the UAE, are assisting the pro-government forces with operating sophisticated weapons, including tanks.

Since late March, a Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Arab states, including the UAE, has been launching airstrikes against the Houthis and their allies, military units loyal to Yemen’s former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The stated goal of the Saudi-led campaign is to restore President Hadi to power and defeat the Houthis, who American and Saudi officials have accused of being backed by Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional enemy.

“Apparently frustrated with an impasse in the combat — as well as growing international condemnation of airstrikes that have killed hundreds of civilians — the Saudi-led coalition recently increased its assistance to fighters battling the Houthis in Aden,” reports the Times. “Fighters recaptured the city from the Houthis last month. Some of the Yemeni fighters were trained in the Persian Gulf, and the United Arab Emirates supplied them with armored vehicles.”

“The Houthis acknowledge their alliance with Iran but deny that they are acting as its proxy. The Obama administration has said that the Saudis are exaggerating the ties between Tehran and the Houthi rebels, who control Sanaa, the capital, and other parts of Yemen,” it continues. “The criticism has not deterred the Saudis from carrying out thousands of airstrikes and imposing an air and maritime blockade around Yemen as part of an aggressive offensive that aid workers say has helped fuel a humanitarian crisis.”

After a nuclear deal was reached between Iran and five world powers led by the United States, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter questioned whether the “Iranian influence with the Houthis is real.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, prior to the nuclear deal’s announcement last month, said the U.S. was aware that Iran was providing assistance to the Houthis rebels.

The Shiite Houthis and their allies still control large swathes of Yemen, particularly in the northern part of the country.

However, they have lost territory in the last few weeks as the Saudi-led coalition has increased its military commitments to the fight.

“In the south, the Houthis are struggling against a force that includes southern separatists, the fighters who trained in the Persian Gulf and now the troops from the United Arab Emirates,” notes the Times.

Forces loyal to ousted Yemeni president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi drove Iran-backed Houthi rebels out of Yemen’s largest military base, the BBC reported today.

Pro-government forces in Yemen have retaken the country’s largest airbase in a battle with Houthi rebels, a spokesman for the forces told the BBC.

Heavy casualties have been reported at al-Anad airbase, north of Aden, after intense fighting there in recent days.

It comes after pro-government forces, backed by air strikes from a Saudi-led coalition, retook Aden in July.

The Yemeni forces are backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition. BBC sources stated that tanks and troops belonging to the United Arab Emirates have been involved in the fighting, as well as training the Yemenis in operating advanced military equipment. Other sources said that the Emiratis were serving as advisers, but not actually fighting.

The Houthis captured Sana’a and prevented the formation of a new Yemeni government last October. Shortly afterward, Iran acknowledged its support of the Houthis, and an Iranian official boasted that Iran controlled four Arab capitals. In November, it was reported that members of the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah were training the Houthis.

The Saudi-led campaign to oust the Houthis and restore the American-backed government began in late March.

US Secretary of State John Kerry was in Doha, Qatar, on Monday, visiting the foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The GCC members are extremely anxious over the nuclear deal with Iran. As I wrote last month in “19-Jul-15 World View — Behind the scenes in the Iran nuclear deal”, the Iran nuclear deal is forcing yet another realignment in the Arab world, as it deteriorates into war.

Kerry on Monday told the GCC ministers that the United States had “agreed to expedite certain arms sales that are needed and that have taken too long in the past.”

The arms sales that Kerry referred to were announced earlier this week. A $5.4 billion weapons deal involves the sale of PAC-3 Missiles as part of the upgrade of the Royal Saudi Air Defense Force. An additional $500 million sale includes ammunition, tracers, artillery shells and mines. Some of these weapons will resupply Saudi’s military in Yemen, where the Saudis are fighting a proxy war with Iran.

And so, with the Mideast deteriorating into war, the Iranians will receive billions in sanction relief to purchase weapons, while the Saudis are going to receive US weapons. There is now apparently a major arms race going on between the Arabs and Iran.

Al-Nusra Front has allegedly kidnapped at least five more US-trained rebels during an overnight raid in northwestern Syria, reports AFP.

“Between Monday and Tuesday, al-Nusra Front seized at least five rebels from Division 30 in the village of Qah, near the Turkish border,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Last week al-Nusra Front attacked the same US-trained division, kidnapping the unit’s commander, along with seven members of the Division, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“Women can be powerful poles for positive change and participate in innovative efforts to inform, shape and implement policies and programs to mitigate the effects of conflict and violent radicalization”, said Gyorgy Busztin, Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq (DSRSG), at the opening of the two-day National Conference on ‘Empowering Women to Address the Impact of Terrorism’ on Monday.

The Conference, which brings together key government and United Nations officials, religious leaders, civil society representatives, and representatives of the international community, is jointly organized by the UN, the State Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Kurdistan Region’s High Council of Women’s Affairs in Erbil, according to a press release faxed to IRNA on Tuesday by the United Nations Information Center in Tehran.
The conference will focus on the impact of violent extremism and terrorism on Iraqi women and girls, particularly those from minorities’ communities; empowering women to counter radicalization and combat terrorism; participation of women in social cohesion and reconciliation; creating opportunities to enhance women’s representation and participation in power and decision-making; the role of the media and the internet in countering extremism; effective partnering in implementing frameworks on women, peace and security; and the role of women in building peace.
Moreover, the Conference builds on the regional conference “Women’s Resistance to Extremism and Terrorism and their Struggle for Rights, Peace and Security”, held in May 2015 in Erbil and on the endorsement of the Special Emergency Plan on the Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 by the Council of Ministers in May as well. The Special Emergency Plan takes into consideration the impact of the current fight against ISIL on women, peace and security.
“Iraq is particularly well placed to host this conference, being the first country in the Middle East and North Africa region to have a National Action Plan to implement SCR 1325”, said DSRSG Busztin, while underscoring that “within families, women’s traditional roles allow them to shape familial and social norms and promote increased tolerance and non-violent political and civic engagement”.
“Countering terrorism policies need to take into account how terrorism impacts women and to ensure that they do not lead to negative and unintended consequences on women”, he stressed.
It is expected that the conference will adopt a set of recommendations outlining key actions to advance the women, peace and security agenda; ensure women participation in countering terrorism efforts; and prevent and respond to sexual violence in conflict.
The conference is a response to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2178 of September 2014, which called for the first time for the empowerment of women to counter violent extremism.

Fighters loyal to Yemen’s exiled President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi, backed by Gulf Arab support, seized the country’s largest military base from Houthi forces Monday after heavy combat in which dozens were killed or captured, a pro-Hadi commander said.

If confirmed, the victory would mark another significant gain for the Hadi loyalists after they drove the Houthis from the southern port of Aden in July following months on the defensive. The recapture of the al-Anad base also opens up the road north to the city of Taiz, where Iranian-allied Houthi militias have been locked in combat with local fighters siding with Hadi.

Hadi remains in Saudi Arabia, where he fled in March as the Houthis closed in on his refuge in Aden. The Houthis had broken out of their northern strongholds and seized control of the capital Sanaa in September, plunging Yemen into another bout of conflict.

“The national army and the popular resistance have completed control of the al-Anad military and air base,” the operation commander, Brig. Gen. Fadel Hassan, told Reuters by telephone.

He said dozens of Houthis were killed or captured during hours of clashes, while hundreds have fled. His forces were combing the base, which covers an area of 40 square-km for any Houthis who may have remained behind.

He said his force would march on to complete the “liberation” of the provinces of Lahej and Abyan.

There was no word from the Houthis on the outcome of the battle. The Houthi-run Saba news agency said earlier that Saudi-led air raids had repeatedly struck the military base.

The base has been under siege for weeks by the Southern Resistance, an alliance of southern groups including secessionists seeking an independent south Yemen.

The assault began after new weapons, including armored vehicles supplied by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, arrived to reinforce fighters. Witnesses said they saw dozens of new armored vehicles in two separate columns heading toward al-Anad in the morning. Hundreds of Gulf Arab troops from the coalition entered Aden Sunday using tanks and other armor “to help secure” it, a military source told AFP.

The Saudi-owned Al-Hayat newspaper said 1,500 troops, most of them from the United Arab Emirates, had reached Aden.

The Houthis say their campaign is a revolt against corruption and an attempt to root out the influence of Al-Qaeda in Yemen. Saudi Arabia, which has weighed in with support for Hadi, says the conflict is a proxy war in Iran’s efforts to expand its influence in the region.

The conflict has caused international concern due to Yemen’s proximity to Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, and because Islamist militants have been operating from there. The United States was heavily involved in anti-militant operations until the Houthi revolt forced its personnel to leave.

Yemeni Vice President Khaled Bahah arrived in Aden Saturday, the most senior official from the exiled government to visit since the Houthi retreat.

Meanwhile Yemen’s former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a Houthi ally, said he wanted Hadi tried for treason for enlisting Saudi help in the conflict.

“The fleeing Hadi committed high treason when he summoned Saudi and foreign intervention … He must be tried, must be transferred to the International Criminal Court for the crimes he committed, and this is what we are seeking,” Saleh said in remarks published Monday by the Huffington Post.

Army units loyal to Saleh have fought alongside the Zaydi Shiite Houthis throughout the conflict.

The United Nations says the war has killed nearly 4,000 people, half of them civilians, while 80 percent of the 21-million population of the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation needs aid and protection.

The Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti across the Gulf of Aden appealed Monday for aid after a new influx of refugees from the Yemen conflict.

Almost 10,000 Yemenis – many of them wounded – have arrived in the small state since late March, according to U.N. refugee agency the UNHCR.

Despite losing Aden, the rebels in Yemen remain in control of large swathes of Yemen.

Late Sunday, rebel chief Abdulmalik al-Houthi said a political settlement was “still possible” with the exiled government, after the failure of U.N.-brokered peace talks in Geneva in June.

“We would welcome any [mediation] effort by a neutral party – Arab or international,” he said in a speech broadcast by the rebels’ Al-Masira television station. He also downplayed Aden’s recapture, saying the loyalist advance “will collapse.”

http://www.dailystar.com.lb//News/Middle-East/2015/Aug-04/309585-pro-hadi-fighters-recapture-largest-military-base.ashx

Continuous gains made by the Islamic State group in the Middle East have prompted the U.K. to extend its airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq by a year, Michael Fallon, the British defense secretary, announced Monday. As part of the move, the RAF Tornado squadron, which is spearheading Britain’s air campaign against ISIS in Iraq, will continue to remain in service until March 2017.

The Number 12 Squadron of the Tornado GR4 fighter bombers was earlier scheduled to be disbanded in March and replaced with a squadron of Typhoon air defense fighters. But, following the launch of airstrikes against ISIS last September, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the Tornado-led air campaign would continue until March 2016. This timetable has now been extended by a year.

“RAF Tornados have carried out hundreds of strikes, helping Iraqi forces push back Isil from the Kurdish region and out of key towns such as Tikrit and Baiji,” BBC quoted Fallon as saying. “We want to ensure we maintain this crucial operational tempo and so we will extend the lifetime of Number 12 Squadron for a further year to March 2017.”

Fallon, who is on a visit to Baghdad, said that British airstrikes have helped Iraqi forces drive ISIS fighters out of key towns. However, he discarded the possibility of Western forces joining the fight on the ground because Iraq had not made such a request.

Fallon also said that the second reprieve for the GR4 bombers, which operate out of Cyprus, would help the RAF retain “the essential precision firepower, intelligence and surveillance” capabilities needed to fight ISIS in the region.

The Tornado GR4 fighter bombers are fitted with precision-guided Paveway bombs and Brimstone missiles. The aircraft can also carry Raptor reconnaissance pods to conduct surveillance missions, the Guardian reported, adding that the GR4s, together with the RAF’s unmanned Reaper drones, have carried out more than 1,100 combat missions over Iraq, including over 250 airstrikes.

British warplanes have reportedly killed nearly 250 ISIS militants in Iraq between October and May. In January, 50 ISIS militants were reportedly killed by the U.K. military, followed by 11 in February, 31 in March, 38 in April and 37 in May.

“ISIS terrorists pose a threat to the security of Iraq, Syria, the wider region and to the streets of Britain,” Fallon said. “It is therefore our duty to ensure that the UK continues to play its part to defeat this barbaric regime.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry began talks with Gulf states in Qatar on Monday, seeking to convince them of the merits of last month’s nuclear deal with Iran and to discuss the battle against Islamic State militants and the war in Syria.

Most Gulf Arab states are worried that Iran’s July 14 accord with the United States and other powers will hasten detente between Teheran and Washington and embolden Iran to support paramilitary allies in the region.

Last month, world powers agreed to lift sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on a nuclear program the West suspects was aimed at creating an atomic bomb, but which Teheran says was peaceful.

Speaking in Egypt on Sunday, Kerry said the US had labeled Iran the world’s number-one state sponsor of terror, but this was precisely why it was so important to ensure Teheran did not obtain a nuclear weapon.

“There can be absolutely no question that if the Vienna plan is fully implemented, it will make Egypt and all the countries of this region safer than they otherwise would be or were,” he said, adding that he would discuss ways to ensure the future security of the region in Doha.

In Doha, Kerry will meet members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which groups Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar.

He will also hold a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, which US officials say will focus on the war in Syria.

Russia has been trying to bring about rapprochement between the Syrian government and regional states including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, to forge an alliance to fight Islamic State.

Kerry said last month that with Lavrov he planned to discuss combating Islamic State militants and the role Iran could play.

US officials say Kerry’s diplomatic outreach in Doha is a follow-up to a summit President Barack Obama had at Camp David in May with Gulf Arab leaders, which was snubbed by the leaders of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

At that meeting, Obama responded to concerns among Gulf states about the Iran nuclear deal by vowing to back them against any “external attack” and pledging that the United States would consider using military force to defend them.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2015-08/04/content_21497883.htm