200 UAE-trained pro-Hadi forces enter Yemen

Some 200 Saudi-backed Yemeni troops, who were trained by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have arrived in the southern Yemeni island of Socotra.

Yemeni media reported on Monday that the 200 made up the first UAE-trained group of forces loyal to the resigned Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Meanwhile, Salim Abdullah, the governor of Socotra Province, housing the Indian Ocean isle of Socotra, hailed the UAE role in instructing the pro-Hadi troops.

Last year, the UAE drew up a secret plan to enhance the capabilities of the Saudi-backed Yemeni soldiers in Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. 

According to some Yemeni sources, many pro-Hadi forces have joined terrorist groups such as Daesh and al-Qaeda.

Back in February, Hadi rented out Socotra, a small archipelago of four Indian Ocean islands, to the UAE for 99 years in an attempt to get Abu Dhabi’s support amid the ongoing conflict in Yemen.

The UAE has deployed mercenaries with the infamous US security firm, formerly known as Blackwater and now called Academi, to Yemen in support of the Saudi war on the impoverished country.

The UAE has been part of the Saudi-led coalition targeting Yemen in a deadly military campaign. In June, however, the UAE announced an end to its military operations in Yemen, noting that it may continue to keep forces there for what it claimed to be "counter-terrorism operations.”

The UAE had been suffering heavy casualties in Yemen. Last September, the kingdom confirmed that at least 52 of its soldiers were killed when Ansarullah fighters and allied fighters from Popular Committees fired a barrage of missiles at Saudi-led foreign troopers in the central province of Ma’rib. Several Emirati helicopters and fighter jets have also crashed in Yemen.

Yemen has seen almost daily military attacks by Saudi Arabia since late March 2015, with internal sources putting the toll from the bloody aggression at about 10,000. The offensive was launched to crush the Houthis and allies and restore power to Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.

The Houthi Ansarullah fighters took state matters into their own hands after the resignation and escape of Hadi, which threw Yemen into a state of uncertainty and threatened a total security breakdown in the country, where an al-Qaeda affiliate is present.

Yemeni retaliatory attacks deal blow to Saudis

In a relevant development on Tuesday, Yemeni army forces backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees thwarted attacks by Saudi mercenaries in a district in the province of Sana’a, Arabic-language al-Masirah TV reported.

According to the report, the retaliatory attacks by Yemeni forces have killed at least 100 Saudi mercenaries over the past three days.

Yemeni army snipers and allied fighters further killed a Saudi soldier in an attack on a military base in the kingdom's southwestern region of Jizan.

Additionally, the Yemeni armed forces launched rocket attacks on a Saudi missile launch pad elsewhere in Jizan and destroyed a military vehicle there. The assaults further left several Saudi soldiers dead and injured.

Centers of gathering belonging to Saudi forces in Jizan as well as Sana’a were also hit in similar rocket attacks.

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