Saudi, UAE Forces Partially Withdraw from Yemen’s Ma’rib: Report

Riyadh has pulled out its forces from Ma’rib, while Abu Dhabi has taken out its United States-made Patriot missile systems, Sultan al-Arada, Ma’rib’s governor loyal to Yemen’s former Saudi-backed administration, told Yemeni media on Tuesday.

Yemen’s army is in the middle of liberation operations in the provincial capital of the same name, he added, but said the Saudi-backed militants loyal to the ex-government would try to stand in their way.

The coalition began invading Yemen in March 2015 to restore power to the former government, who used to rely excessively on Riyadh’s support. The officials had fled the impoverished country earlier amid a power struggle, refusing a call by the Houthi Ansarullah movement to stay behind and negotiate a solution.

The war has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis and rendered the country into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Yemen’s armed forces that comprise its Army and Popular Committees have, however, never laid down their arms in the face of the invaders and their allied militants.

Over the past three weeks, the Yemeni army, backed popular forces, have been engaged in a new phase of operations aimed at ridding Ma’rib of the presence of the aggressors and their mercenaries.

The push has been received positively by the province’s tribes, which have begun to lend them a hand. The tribal leaders recently held a meeting in the capital, Sana’a, insisting on the need for the expulsion of the “terrorists that have been brought to Ma’rib from outside to further the goals of their masters.”

Latest reports suggest that the Yemeni forces have been closing in on the city and are now only kilometers away from the oil-rich province’s capital.

Also on Tuesday, Lebanon’s al-Akhbar daily published a report, detailing the latest stage of the army’s advances.

According to the report, Yemeni soldiers have been taking control of strategic spots, including villages and military positions, across the western and north-western fronts around the provincial capital over the past 24 hours.

The paper said the victories indicated the military strength of the army and the Popular Committees. The military prowess, it said, had enabled the forces to overcome the areas’ rough and desert terrains at the same time as they were under the constant fire of Saudi and Emirati warplanes.

Yemen’s defenders, it added, have engaged in fierce clashes with forces tied to the former government in Ma’rib’s Sirwah District, overcoming the enemy.

This is while the Saudi-led coalition and its mercenaries are being backed by extremist militias and Takfiri Daesh elements that receive Riyadh’s support in return, al-Akhbar added.

Amid the advances, the coalition’s warplanes carried out as many as 16 airstrikes against Sirwah, targeting the ammunition dumps there.

The Yemeni armed forces are also nearing the Sahn al-Jin military camp in Ma’rib that hosts the former government’s defense ministry, said the daily.