Violent explosions rock Balhaf gas facility of Shabwa

SHABWA, Aug 05 (YPA) – Violent explosions rocked on Saturday the Balhaf gas facility in Shabwa province, which has been under the control of the UAE forces since 2016.

Local sources familiar with the matter said that three mortar shells exploded in the vicinity of the facility in the coastal Rudum district, without recording any material or human losses.

The Emirati forces, which are taking the facility as camp, carried out a wide combing operation towards the source of the shelling, indicating that they found the base for firing mortar shells, the sources said.

The sources suggested that al-Qaeda elements transferred their confrontations with the Emirati forces to the Balhaf facility, after the elements carried out various attacks last July against the sites and military points of the UAE-backed Shabwa Defense factions in Al-Saeed district, south of Ataq city, the provincial capital of Shabwa.

The attack on the gas facility came after unidentified gunmen targeted, last Wednesday, the Safer oil and gas facility in Marib with a number of mortar shells.

Al-Qaeda has carried out 31 attacks, including 17 attacks with 18 explosive devices, and 5 air attacks with the use of drone in Shabwa, since last January-February, which left 6 dead and 21 wounded, according to reports of the UAE-funded Southern Transitional Council (STC)’s media.

AA