UAE sends armoured vehicles to Taez front line

Additional coalition support gives pro-government forces an edge in battle for key province,

Military reinforcements from the Arab coalition entering Taez, Yemen on November 1, 2015 to help boost the forces of Yemen's popular resistance as they continue to flush Houthi rebels out of the proviShow more

Aden // UAE-supplied military vehicles have arrived at the front line of the battle for the city of Taez, which has been under siege by Houthi forces for two months.

Dozens of armoured vehicles manned by Yemeni fighters arrived on Sunday after the leader of the Popular Resistance forces in Taez, Hamoud Al Mikhlafi, asked the Saudi-led coalition for ground reinforcements to help break the siege.

Emirati armoured vehicles played a key role in winning the battle for Aden in July and pushing the Houthis from southern Yemen.

“This military reinforcement is the first step and there will be new batches of reinforcements from the coalition forces that will come to Taez from Lahj and will arrive at Al Dhabab front,” said Moa’ath Al Yaseri, a leader of the Popular Resistance in Taez.

Over the past week, coalition forces have airdropped arms and ammunition including anti-tank rockets and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers to resistance forces at the Al Dhabab front, an entry point on the south-west side of Taez city.

Clashes between the pro-government fighters and the Houthi rebels and their allies continued across Taez province on Sunday. More than 20 Houthis were killed at Al Dhabab, according to Aref Al Samei, a resistance fighter there.

“We do not need more fighters, we have enough fighters, we only need more weapons and during the last week the weapons started to arrive from the coalition forces,” Mr Al Samei said. “This is the first sign of the liberation of Taez.”

The Taez front has become a focal point in the battle against the rebels, with the Houthis also sending in reinforcements from Ibb and Al Hodeidah provinces. The residents of Taez city face daily indiscriminate shelling by the rebels and are the main victims of the fighting.

Meanwhile, the UN special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, cited Taez as an example of the humanitarian crisis affecting millions of Yemenis because of the conflict.

Access to humanitarian aid and fuel is extremely limited across the country, Mr Cheikh Ahmed said, adding that the issue was one of the central topics of discussion in recent talks with coalition countries and Houthi rebels over the past week.

“One of the biggest problems we are facing today is the obstruction, and the access issue of humanitarian aid and that’s something we have been putting on the table for all the parties,” Mr Cheikh Ahmed said at the International Institute for Strategic Studies Manama Dialogue security conference. “Today we cannot get the fuel through, we cannot get access also on the ground, like Taez is an example but also many other cities, and it’s all over the place from north to south.”

The dire situation underlined the need for a quick resumption of negotiations between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis and their allies.

The new peace negotiations are expected to begin by mid-November, the Un envoy said.

The conflict, which has left thousands dead and affected millions of Yemenis, is in its eighth month, but Gulf officials speaking at the Manama conference have expressed confidence that the fighting will end soon.

On Saturday, the Saudi foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir said that “the Yemeni conflict, God willing, has entered its final phase” because of steady military gains by the coalition and recent statements indicating the Houthis and forces loyal to the former president have endorsed UN Security Council Resolution 2216.

“My various visits to the region, particularly my meeting in Saudi Arabia and in the Emirates and also yesterday with the king of Bahrain, give me the impression that we are very close now to go to very serious and germane talks,” Mr Cheikh Ahmed said.

The security council resolution, passed in April, calls on the rebel forces to withdraw from the cities they have occupied and turn in weapons captured from the Yemeni military. The coalition has called for them to disarm completely before talks begin. The rebels, for their part, want the negotiations to focus on the process for implementing the resolution, and have not shown any willingness to disarm beforehand.

Mr Cheikh Ahmed said he was s trying to broker a ceasefire between the combatants before the talks start, “as an element that will be conducive to talks”. He admitted this would be difficult and he added that he hoped “even if we don’t reach it before the talks that it will be one of the first issues on the table to be discussed”.

The Yemeni foreign minister, Yaseen Riyadh, also speaking in Manama, said that Houthis still control about a quarter of Yemen’s territory. This includes major cities including Sanaa, the capital.

The coalition has launched its ground offensive in partnership with local fighters from southern Yemen from the port city Aden. But the power vacuum and chaos has created an opening for extremists that have targeted coalition forces in the city.

In the latest incident, gunmen killed two Yemeni security officers in separate drive-by shootings on Sunday.

Major Meead Ali was shot outside of his apartment building in the Inmaa neighbourhood, AFP reported. A criminal investigation officer, Abdelwahed Ahmed, was shot in the Al Mansoura district. The chief prosecutor of Lahj province escaped a similar attempt on his life in Aden. No one has so far claimed responsibility for the assassinations.

* Taimur Khan reported from Manama