(MENAFN- Arab Times) Qatar has sent 1,000 ground troops to Yemen, Doha-based Al Jazeera television said, escalating Gulf Arab intervention in Yemen's war ahead of a planned offensive against Iranian-backed Houthis holding the capital Sanaa. Qatari pilots had already joined months of Saudi-led air strikes on the Houthi militia, which seized Sanaa a year ago and then advanced across much of the country, forcing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile in March.
Military sources told Reuters that Qatari troops were on their way to Yemen and preparing to join a new push on Houthi positions in Sanaa.
They told Reuters the Qatari force had not yet entered the Arabian Peninsula country. But a regional Yemeni official in oil-producing Marib province east of Sanaa said the Qatari contingent had already "crossed the al-Wadia border post" between Saudi Arabia and Yemen and was heading to Marib - where Hadi loyalists have been preparing for the thrust towards Sanaa. Saudi-owned al Arabiya satellite network also said Qatari and Saudi reinforcements had crossed the frontier.
The first reported involvement of Qatari ground forces in Yemen coincided with an intensification of the conflict a few days after a rocket strike in Marib that killed dozens of soldiers including Saudis and Emiratis. Saudi coalition forces on Sunday carried out repeated air raids on Houthi targets and allied troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in apparent retaliation. Saudi-led warplanes on Monday renewed strikes on Houthi targets across Yemen and Houthi-run media said the raids killed at least 12 people, including women and children, in the central province of Ibb. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the report.
Al Jazeera's English website said 1,000 Qatari soldiers, backed by 200 armoured vehicles and 30 US-made Apache helicopters had been deployed. Qatar's foreign ministry made no immediate comment. A Qatar-based defence source said the number of Qatari troops was less than 1,000. "They are as of now not deployed in Yemen but in Saudi Arabia to protect the border," he added.
The Saudi-owned al-Hayat newspaper said on Monday that Saudi Arabia had also sent "huge reinforcements" of elite forces, along with Qatari troops, to Marib. "Final preparations are being made for a decisive battle, before moving on to liberate Sanaa," al-Hayat said. Jean-Marc Rickli, a professor at King's College London who is teaching at Qatar National Defence College, told Reuters it was Qatar's first deployment of ground forces in Yemen. "This force will probably take part in the overall war effort to retake the capital after the coalition successfully recaptured Aden last month," he added.
Gulf Arab states regard the Houthis as proxies for non-Arab Iran, which they accuse of trying to extend its influence into Arab countries, including Syria and Yemen. Saudi-led forces have helped Hadi supporters drive the Houthis out of the southern port of Aden in July but have made little progress in other areas since, where the fighting in Marib and the central city of Taiz remains bogged down. Meanwhile, Bahrain has arrested a man for posting "insults" on social media of its soldiers participating in the Saudiled military campaign in Yemen, prosecutors said Monday.
The man was detained for seven days and is accused of "deliberately spreading rumours in a time of war" to harm the military operations of our armed forces", the prosecutor's office said. It did not reveal the identity of the man, who faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted, nor what he is accused of posting online. Bahrain joined the Saudi-led coalition that in March launched air strikes against Iran-backed Huthi rebels who drove Yemen's government out of the country.
Five Bahraini soldiers were killed in a missile strike against the coalition in Yemen on Friday, along with 45 Emirati and 10 Saudi troops. In the United Arab Emirates meanwhile, prosecutors in Abu Dhabi ordered the arrest of an Internet user who had posted an "incorrect" list of young Emiratis he claimed were among the 45 victims, local media reported Monday. Emirati law provides for prison sentences and fines for those spreading rumours and false information, including about the armed forces, prosecutors said.
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