In February of 2015 I reported on the Future of SOF in Yemen and the complications of this three-way civil war following their government’s collapse to the hands of the Shiite Houthi Rebellion. A close military partnership to battle al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) existing since 2002 had come to an end.
In January 2015 the Yemeni president (Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi) resigned and his government collapsed, the U.S. closed its embassy in February, and in March, a task force of 125 U.S. special operations soldiers were evacuated as the raging civil war made future operations against AQAP forces impossible. In the chaos between the Sunni Yemenis and the Shitte Houthis – AQAP took advantage of the fighting and seized large swathes of land in the east including the port city of Al Mukalla and its population of half a million people.
Since the United States’ departure:
- ISIS has attempted to gain a foothold but has faced huge opposition by al-Qaeda.
- In late March of 2015 Saudi Arabia, joined by 8 other Sunni Arab nations, formed a coalition to battle the Houthis and restore power to the former government in what has been dubbed Operation Decisive Storm and Operation Restoring Hope.
- And as of April 2016, U.S. special operations soldiers have been re-deployed to Yemen working side-by-side with the Saudi-led coalition to oust AQAP forces.
The currently non-disclosed number of U.S. SOF personnel will be in-country as long as it takes to rid al-Qaeda from the port city of Mukalla alongside forces from the United Arab Emirates. But have no intention or official mandate to provide combat support against the Houthis.
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No surprise here. Par for the Saudis.
there was a new Frontline this week [first week of May], the female journalist covering Yemen accidentally filmed what they said was an “open secret” in Yemen: Al Qaeda is fighting for the Saudi/UAE Coalition, since they are Sunni’s fighting the Houthi’s/Iranian Shias
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/yemen-under-siege/
from the transcript:
NARRATOR: Elsewhere along the front line, a different group of fighters spots Safa and starts shouting.
[subtitles] SAFA AL AHMAD: What’s wrong?
MAN: She’s a journalist, and we must respect her.
FIGHTER: We said for her to step back. We didn’t say hit her. Tell her to step back.
SAFA AL AHMAD: Who are they? They don’t want me to be here?
MAN: Those are Ansar al Sharia [al Qaeda]. They don’t want you to be here.
SAFA AL AHMAD: And he just says quite casually these
are Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. And he referred to them by their
local name, which is Ansar al Sharia. He revealed what is considered an
open secret in the front lines, that they had been fighting with all
the different factions, the Yemeni factions and the coalition against
the Houthis.