UAE-funded militants control most important coastal areas in Lahj

LAHJ, May 26 (YPA) – The UAE-backed al-Amaliqa Brigades led by Tariq Afash deployed on Thursday and set up checkpoints on the coastal road linking between Lahj and Aden city, south of Yemen.

Sources familiar with the matter said that the Riyadh-formed Presidential Council directed the deployment of these forces and their replacement for the “UAE-funded Southern Transitional Council (STC) militia led by Saleh al-Sayed al-Yafei, after news of the Riyadh council’s forces heading towards the areas adjacent to the Bab al-Mandab strait.

Other sources stated that Tariq Afash had decided to recruit thousands of Abyan sons, and create special camps to receive them, amid temptations to give each recruit a thousand Saudi riyals.

Tariq Afash’s committee aimed to establish 3 military brigades according to the directives of the leader Saghir bin Aziz, who is chief of staff at the Ministry of Defense of the coalition-run government.

The committees worked to attract and recruit young people of Lahj and Abyan, with the goal of reducing the expansion of the “STC” militia in the southern provinces, which refuses to be merged under the leadership of the Riyadh Council led by Rashad Al-Alimi, and Defense Minister Mohammed al-Maqdashi.

Al-Alimi’s council, with a green light from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, is seeking to end the role of the “STC” militia in the areas overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait and assign the task to “Tariq Afash” in those areas in preparation for his receipt of the security file in Aden, and the removal of the “STC” elements to Dhalea province.

This came after the leaders of the “STC” militia rejected Al-Alimi’s decision to include the its forces to “the army and security”, according to the outputs of the “Riyadh Consultations.

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