UAE blames extremists for delay in Yemen ops

(MENAFN- Arab News) ADEN: A key member of a Saudi-led Arab coalition has blamed extremists for delays in its military operations to expel Shiite Houthi rebels from the key southwestern province of Taez.
The coalition on Monday intensified airstrikes against the Iran-backed rebels in Taez as an Emirati minister blamed an influential Sunni party's for the delays. Coalition jets carried out several strikes against rebel positions on the outskirts of Rahida the province's second-largest city military sources said.
On the ground loyalist troops and allied Popular Resistance fighters fired Katyusha rockets and mortar rounds at rebel positions said Fadhl Hasan commander of the operations to retake Rahida.
Breaking the siege of the government-held provincial capital of the same name is seen as crucial for the recapture of other central provinces and for opening the way to the rebel-controlled capital Sanaa. Pro-government forces have retaken '19 military positions' from the rebels in areas surrounding Rahida since the offensive began a week ago.
Military officials have said land mines were hampering the progress of government forces and had caused casualties.
The advance has also been slowed down by the 'betrayal of some Popular Resistance fighters' another military source said.
Emirati State Minister for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash tweeted Sunday that 'had it not been for the failure of Al-Islah and the Muslim Brotherhood to act' Taez would already have been 'liberated.'
Al-Islah is a main component of the Popular Resistance which also groups tribesmen soldiers and southern separatists. The party highly influential in Taez is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood which the UAE has banned as a 'terror' group.