FORWARD OPERATING BASE SAFFER, Yemen (AP) – As fighting rages on in Yemen, troops from the United Arab Emirates that are part of a Saudi-led coalition battling Shiite rebels are pushing toward the country’s rebel-held capital, Sanaa, after securing a strategic provincial city, the commander of an Emirati contingent said Monday.
They hope their campaign will push the rebels out and help restore Yemen’s legitimate government. Emirati Brig. Gen. Ali Saif al-Kaabi told reporters during a visit to the front-lines, insisting the coalition forces were not “coming to occupy Yemen.”
The Emiratis are part of thousands of Saudi and UAE forces fighting on the ground in Yemen to reverse the territorial gains by the Iran-backed rebels known as Houthis, who captured Sanaa last year and much of the country’s north. The Saudi-led coalition launched its campaign of airstrikes against the Houthis in March.
The presence of troops from the oil-rich Gulf states could be a game-changer in the bitter war that pits the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against an array of forces, including southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants as well as troops loyal to exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Pro-government forces recently pushed the Houthis out of several key southern areas in Yemen. The conflict has killed more than 4,000 people, leaving the Arab world’s poorest country in the grip of a humanitarian crisis and on the brink of famine.