New batch of foreign forces arrives in Mukalla
HADRMOUT, Aug. 16 (YPA) – New forces have arrived at Al-Rayyan Airport in Mukalla, the provincial capital of Hadramout, which the UAE has used as a joint military base with US forces on the Arabian Sea since 2016.
Source familiar with the matter said that forces believed to be foreign arrived at Al-Rayyan Airport on Thursday, following threats of forced arrest against the head of the Hadramout Tribal Alliance, Amr bin Habrish, who is loyal to Saudi Arabia, by the head of the Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, and Aidarous Al-Zubaidi, head of the UAE-affiliated Southern Transitional Council (STC), at the behest of Hadramout governor Mabkhout bin Madi.
The source expected that the Emirati factions would lead a joint military campaign with the Second Military Region in Mukalla, targeting the alliance’s camps on the Hadramout Plateau in the Ghayl Bin Yamin district, amid a large-scale mobilization of pro-alliance tribal fighters, who issued warnings against committing any foolish actions.
The UAE is spearheading a plot against the leaders of the tribal alliance, which since the middle of last year has been demanding the rights of Hadramout and its people to achieve political partnership in the coalition-affiliated Aden government and to grant the province its natural resources to implement development projects, particularly electricity, schools, and health.
The source added that the alliance’s demands for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Hadramout, both on areas of the Coast and in the Valley, had driven the UAE mad, prompting it to send military reinforcements from Aden, with the so-called the “Rapid Support Forces” last Sunday to the camps in the Brom Mayfa’a area west of Mukalla, under the command of Abu Ali al-Hadrami, in anticipation of any field developments in the coastal districts by the tribal alliance.
The UAE had brought a security team from an American company to Mukalla on August 7, without knowing the reasons for the deployment or the team’s mission.
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