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Defence & Security News - Saudi Arabia
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| Saudi-led coalition deploys about 3,000 troops, APCs and main battle tanks in Yemen | |||
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A ground force of 2,800 pro-government troops, accompanied by main battle tanks and armored personnel carriers, pushed toward a Houthi-controlled military base in Yemen Monday August 3rd, as Saudi-led coalition airstrikes cleared their path. The Al-Anad military base, located just north of Yemen’s port city of Aden, is the main Houthi encampment in the country's south.
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 The United Arab Emirates Army sent unknown number of Leclerc MBTs to Yemen |
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The pro-government troops deployed heavy armour supplied by their backers in the assault on Al-Anad base, some 60 kilometres (35 miles) north of Aden, military sources said. “The battle to retake Al-Anad base has begun,” a military source told AFP.
Hundreds of troops and militia equipped with tanks and armoured vehicles supplied by the coalition deployed around the base before Monday’s attack, their commander Fadhl Hassan said. Another source said Saudi-led warplanes were providing air cover for the loyalist forces, who launched the offensive from a mountainous region west of Al-Anad. The airbase, in the southern province of Lahj, housed US troops overseeing a drone war against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) until shortly before Iran-backed Huthi rebels overran it in March. The insurgent advance, which took them all the way into the port city of Aden, forced President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and his internationally recognised government into exile in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-owned Al-Hayat newspaper said 1,500 troops, most of them from the United Arab Emirates, had reached Aden. The UAE is a member of the coalition which has carried out more than four months of air strikes targeting the rebels and their allies. |
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