(MENAFN- Arab Times) As many as 800 Egyptian soldiers arrived in Yemen late on Tuesday, Egyptian security sources said, swelling the ranks of a Gulf Arab military contingent which aims to rout the Iran-allied Houthi group after a five-month civil war. It was the first reported deployment of ground troops there by Egypt, which has one of the Arab world's strongest armies.
A coalition led by Saudi Arabia has scored major gains against the militia and its allies in Yemen's army, backing a push by Yemeni fighters to seize much of the country's south and now setting its sights on the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa.
Four Egyptian units of between 150 to 200 troops along with tanks and transport vehicles arrived in Yemen late on Tuesday, two Egyptian security sources said. "We have sent these forces as part of Egypt's prominent role in this alliance " the alliance fights for the sake of our brotherly Arab states, and the death of any Egyptian soldier would be an honour and considered martyrdom for the sake of innocent people," a senior Egyptian military source said.
Yemeni officials put the number of foreign troops from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar at least around 2,000, while Qatari-owned Al Jazeera TV said at least 10,000 foreign soldiers had arrived, including 1,000 from the emirate.
They are part of a force preparing to eventually assault the capital, which the Houthis seized last year. The alliance sees the campaign as a fight against the influence of arch-rival Iran in their neigh bourhood, but the Houthis say they are fighting a revolution against a corrupt government, which they drove into Saudi exile in late March. More than 4,500 people have been killed by fighting and air strikes since the beginning of the conflict, which has also unleashed disease and hunger in the impoverished country. Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asseri, a spokesman for the coalition, told Reuters its forces were focusing on overcoming Houthi resistance in Yemen's central and southern provinces, pounding their positions from the air across the country before beginning any thrust towards Sanaa. "Before you start the ground operation, you have to have the prerequisite of the air campaign," al-Asseri said. "I don't want to talk about Sanaa because the military issue is in phases " Now we are talking of Marib and Taiz." Residents reported heavy air raids on military bases throughout Sanaa on Wednesday, the latest in a series of daily assaults which fishermen said killed 20 Indian nationals off a Red Sea port on Tuesday.
At least 15 other civilians were killed throughout the country on Tuesday, medics said. The alliance has increased air strikes on Sanaa and other parts of Yemen since Friday, when a Houthi missile attack killed at least 60 Saudi, Bahraini and United Arab Emirates soldiers at a military camp in central Marib province. Saudi-led airstrikes killed 12 Shiite rebels in Yemen's Marib province Tuesday, the area where a rebel missile strike days earlier killed 45 Emirati soldiers and 10 Saudi troops, independent Yemeni security officials and witnesses said Tuesday. Shiite Houthi rebels said more than 20 coalition airstrikes hit the province. Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition of mainly Gulf nations fighting the Houthis. The coalition suffered its worst day of losses Friday in the missile strike in Marib. On Friday, Bahrain's state news agency also reported that five of its soldiers were killed guarding Saudi Arabia's southern border, without elaborating.
Yemen is the only country on that border in which hostilities are underway. Pro-government officials said the high death toll from Friday's rebel attack has prompted coalition and pro-government forces to rethink their strategy and focus on first taking the cities of Bihan to the south and Sirwah to the west of the city of Marib, the province capital. Sirwah lies on a supply route to the rebel-held capital, Sanaa. The officials said forces are prioritizing taking those cities because they are deemed less risky than proceeding directly to Jawf province, which connects Marib to Saada province - the Houthi heartland. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief reporters. Yemen is torn between the Houthis, allied with army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and forces loyal to exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The conflict has killed over 2,100 civilians, according to the United Nations.
Warplanes bombed two boats carrying 20 Indian crew members as the vessels traveled between Somalia and Yemen, India's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday, a day after the Yemeni coast guard said a Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemeni Shiite rebels bombed boats off the wartorn country's coast. Thirteen crew members are alive and seven are missing, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said in a statement. He said authorities are trying to gather more information. He didn't elaborate on who may have carried out the attack. Yemeni coast guard officials said Tuesday that a Saudi-led coalition attacked more than five boats off the Yemeni coast in airstrikes, the same day the Indian boats were bombed.
Officials with the rebels, known as Houthis, said the boats were carrying fishermen and weren't connected to them. It wasn't immediately clear if the two incidents were the same. Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition of mainly Gulf nations fighting the Houthis, who took control over the capital, Sanaa, last September, later spreading across Yemen. The impoverished country is torn between the Houthis, allied with army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and forces loyal to exiled President Hadi. Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia in March, hours before the Saudi-led coalition began its airstrikes against the Houthis. The conflict has killed over 2,100 civilians, according to the United Nations. All Yemeni officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief reporters.
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