Paid fighters trained in UAE-funded camps in Israel lead battles of Hodeidah:Report

Last updated Sep 24, 2018

Y.A

Sources close to the US Congress Intelligence Committee revealed that hundreds of Western mercenaries financed by UAE participated in the seize on the Yemeni province of Hodeidah after they received intensive combat exercises in Israel.

US sources confirmed that , Mohammed Dahlan, security adviser to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, personally oversaw the bringing of Western mercenaries, led by the Colombians and Nepalese to work for the UAE in Yemen.

Citing sources close to the US Congress intelligence committee, the Emirati news website al-Khaleejonline reported on Wednesday that the UAE-funded camps are situated in Negev Desert.

Dahlan, the sources added, personally oversaw the recruiting of foreign paid fighters, led by the Colombians and Nepalese, to fight alongside UAE-backed forces in Yemen.

“Hundreds of mercenaries of various nationalities are taking part in the attack on Hudaydah, with the aim of taking control over it from the Houthis who have shown fierce resistance,” the sources pointed out.

As for a reason for choosing the Negev desert only to establish paid fighters’ training camps loyal to the UAE, the sources said that “the choice was deliberate, because the climate, the desert environment and the tribal structure that characterises the Negev desert are very similar to these in Yemen.”

The US-Saudi-led coalition launched an offensive on Hodeidah on 12 June in the largest battle of the war that the United Nations fears risks triggering a famine in Yemen where an estimated 8.4 million people are on the verge of starvation. Recently, It has been paused for peace talks, but no deal has been struck leaving Yemenis pessimistic over a viable political process.

Abdulmalik al-Houthi, the leader of the Houthi(Ansarallah) movement, which is the main force that faces the coallition, said on a TV speech ,” The decision of invading the Yemeni ,western coast, has been taken and adopted by the United States of America,noting that the Saudis are trying to abolish Yemen’s freedom,” stressing that it was the people of Yemen’s right to defend their country.

The Bab el-Mandab Strait, which is the southern entrance to the Red Sea, is one of the world’s key shipping lanes for crude oil and allows crude exports into the European market.

The United Nations said more than 350,000 people have been displaced from the strategic Red Sea port town of Hudaydah in western Yemen since June.Deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General, Farhan Haq, said during a press conference on Monday that violent clashes have erupted in the city over the past few days, especially in the Ad Durayhimi district.He added that emergency humanitarian assistance has already been provided to more than 90 per cent of those displaced.

In March 2015, the US- backed Saudi-led coalition launched a war against Yemen with the declared aim of crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement, who had taken over from the staunch Riyadh ally and fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, while also seeking to secure the Saudi border with its southern neighbor. Three years and over 600,000 dead and injured Yemeni people and prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country, the war has yielded little to that effect.