Sudanese battalion joins Arab coalition forces in Yemen

Al Mukalla, Yemen: A Sudanese army battalion has joined hundreds of Arab coalition military forces in Yemen who are battling Iran-backed Al Houthi militants.

A senior security official who met with the newly arrived soldiers, confirmed to Gulf News that the ship arrived in Aden on Saturday.

“They are part of the Arab coalition and will help securing the cities,” the security official said on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief reporters on security matters.

In March of this year, Saudi Arabia spearheaded a coalition of mostly Gulf Arab countries to roll back Al Houthi expansion in Yemen. The coalition launched massive air bombardment on Al Houthi military positions and weapons caches and have successfully managed to blunt the militants’ expansion into many areas including the southern city port of Aden.

The official said that Sudanese battalion has around 400 men and will be deployed in some cities liberated from Al Houthi rule, to maintain security.

Since mid-July, the seaports of Aden have received batches of military forcew and armed vehicles from coalition forces.

Meanwhile in the Taiz province, residents said that Al Houthis heavily shelled a densely populated residential neighbourhood. The city has been under a brutal blockade by the militant forces who are allied with men loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

“The city came under heavy and indiscriminate shelling overnight,” Zakaria Al Shara’abi, a journalist based in Taiz told Gulf News.

A resistance force of over 40,000 Yemenis in Taiz, including women, have managed to keep Al Houthi militants out of their city, but the militants have control of nearly all of the city’s exits making it difficult and expensive to get food, water and other supplies in. “Al Houthis are massing on the western side of the city,” he said, adding that he thinks they might be trying to launch a counterattack on Bab Al Mandab or Dhubab,” he said.

On Saturday, the leader of Taiz resistance told Gulf News that his fighters received a critical arms shipment from the Arab coalition to help them counterbalance Al Houthis massive firepower.

Government forces have recently recaptured the strategic Bab Al Mandab Strait and quickly advanced to some other areas on the Red Sea before stopping in Dhubab region. Army officials say that their next target will be the port city of Mokha and will launch an offensive on the city when they receive orders from their seniors.

Quoting anonymous government officials in the Saudi capital and Oman, Aden Al Ghad website, a popular news site based in the port city of Aden, reported on Sunday that Al Houthi militants released the minister of defence Mahmoud Al Subihi on Saturday and deported him to Oman as a good gesture when Hadi agreed to join talks.

The news site said that Hadi agreed to engage in direct talks with Al Houthis provided they release minister of defence and Hadi’s brother Nasser Mansour Hadi and Brigadier General Fadhel Rajjab, a commander of a an army brigade in Abyan. The pro-government officials were captured by Al Houthis in March while commanding anti-Al Houthi troops in the province of Lahj. The news site did not say if the Al Houthis released the other officials.