Anti-Houthi protesters demonstrate in Yemen's southwestern city of Taiz March 22, 2015. Houthi fighters opposed to Yemen's president took over the central city of Taiz in an escalation of a power struggle diplomats say risks drawing in neighboring oil giant Saudi Arabia and its main regional rival Iran. Residents of Taiz, on a main road from the capital Sanaa to the country's second city of Aden, said that Houthi militias took over the city's military airport without a struggle from local authorities late on Saturday. REUTERS/Anees Mahyoub

Taiz Province Witnesses High Tension

On Apr 24, 2019

Y.A

In an effort to rescue its paid fighters, the UAE forces threatened to use warplanes in order to bomb the Islah party paid fighters, loyal to the coalition, inside the city of Taiz if the party’s campaign against the Abu al-Abbas terrorist organisation does not stop.

This is the first time that the UAE officially threatened to bomb Islah Party’s paid fighters since the two sides entered into bloody confrontations nearly two years ago.

In conjunction with the UAE’s threats, the Abu al-Abbas group demanded in a statement issued that the UAE-backed Giants Brigades paid fighters make a quick intervention in Taiz in order to help Abu al-Abbas against the Islah party. This marks the first time that the Al-Qaeda organisation openly calls for help by other Emirati-backed paid fighters.

Local sources told YemenExtra that the military position of Abu al-Abbas paid fighters inside the city of Taiz is very weak, as the group is, surrounded by the militias of the Islah party on all sides in the Old City of Taiz.

The new clashes erupted between the two sides after the assassination of the so-called “Security and Order officer” of the Taiz police in the center of Taiz City.

The Islah party accuses Abu alAbbas paid fighters of carrying out these assassinations against recruits and officers of the Islah-controlled police of Taiz.

Dozens of the internal despised people in Taiz province staged a protest rally to condemn the crimes and violations committed by Abu al-Abbas’ paid fighters backed by United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Taiz province.

At the rally, the protesters held the paid fighters the full responsibility for attacks and violation against displaced people in al-Bairain comp in al-Kadah area.

Dozens the displaced people were arrested by Abu al-Abbas group to refuse in participation in protest rallies against security campaign that carried out by Islamic Islah party in last month.

The military campaign launched by the Islah Party’s paid fighters in the city of Taiz has been aimed at freeing a so-called “Emir” of al-Qaeda, Abu Abdullah al-Masri, who has been in the grip of the Abu Abbas paid fighters, sources familiar with the issue have told YemenExtra.

According to the sources, the Islah Party (Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood) paid fighters waged a senseless war on Abu al-Abbas paid fighters in the city of Taiz in order to liberate the “Emir of al-Qaeda in Taiz province” Abu Abdullah al-Masri, who was arrested by Abu al-Abbas in al-Hujariah district.

The Security Center of Yemen’s Ministry of the Interior show Majed Mohammed Farhan Ahmed Mohamed Ali, one of al-Qaeda’s leaders in Taiz province, after he was arrested by Yemeni army forces .

He made serious confessions about the organization’s relationship with the coalition and the armed paid fighters in the city of Taiz.

The Al-Qaeda leader said that he was involved in several of al-Qaeda terrorist operations, including executions, floggings, assassinations and armed robberies against banks and shops.

Taiz governor Amin al-Bahr met with the head of the Dutch mission of the Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors without Borders to discuss the worming humanitarian situation in the governorate under the ongoing the war and siege imposed by the coalition.

At the meeting, the governor stressed the importance of concerting efforts in expansion of services provided by the international organizations working in the humanitarian field to alleviate suffering of the Yemeni citizens.

In March 2015, the US -backed –Saudi-led coalition started 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.

Despite the coalition claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

However, Saudi Arabia relies heavily on the US in its brutal war on Yemen. Washington has deployed a commando force on the Arab kingdom’s border with Yemen to help destroy arms belonging to Yemen’s popular Houthi Ansarullah movement. Washington has also provided logistical support and aerial refueling.