Missile attack kills 45 UAE troops

SANAA, Yemen -- Forty-five troops from the United Arab Emirates were killed in Yemen while taking part in Saudi-led operations against Shiite rebels, the Persian Gulf nation said Friday, in the deadliest day for its military in its 44-year history.

The UAE's minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said the troops were killed when a rebel missile struck an ammunition depot. On his official Twitter feed, he said the "cowardly attack will not deter us."

Pro-government Yemeni security officials said the missile strike took place in the province of Marib, about 75 miles east of the capital, Sanaa. Officials from the media office of the Shiite rebel movement known as the Houthis confirmed they fired a Soviet-era Tochka missile in the area. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The deaths pointed to the increasingly prominent role of the United Arab Emirates on the ground in Yemen's war -- both in troops and hardware -- though the government has never made clear the full extent of their role or the numbers of troops involved.

The UAE's news agency, WAM, initially reported 22 members of the military were killed Friday but later reported that 23 more had died of their wounds. It gave no details on how they were killed or on what their role in the conflict was.

In a series of messages on his official Twitter feed, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces, praised the troops for their sacrifice and said the UAE would continue to support the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen.

"The sons of the UAE continue to show resilience and bravery in support of our Yemeni brothers against injustice and aggression," he said.

The UAE declared three days of mourning, WAM reported.

Bahrain's state news agency also reported Friday that five of its soldiers were killed while "defending the southern border of Saudi Arabia." It didn't give specifics. Yemen is the only country on Saudi Arabia's southern border where there is fighting, and Houthis have frequently shelled across the frontier.

The U.S.-allied United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven small Persian Gulf states including Dubai and the oil-rich capital of Abu Dhabi, is one of the most prominent members of the Saudi-led coalition, which aims to roll back gains by the Shiite rebels and their allies in the deeply impoverished Arabian Peninsula country.

The Saudi-led coalition, made up mainly of Persian Gulf nations, has been launching airstrikes against the rebels since March. But the UAE is the only country that has acknowledged having troops on the ground in Yemen in the conflict.

The Houthi rebels took over Sanaa a year ago and soon after swept over other parts of the country, driving President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi into Saudi Arabia. The Houthis are backed by army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and fighting has raged in several parts of the country between those forces and those loyal to Hadi as well as southern separatists and local militias opposed to the Houthis.

Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and the UAE say the war is a proxy conflict with Iran, which they accuse of backing the Houthis. Western diplomats have expressed skepticism about the level of Iranian involvement.

The UAE troop deaths came after heavy clashes and intensified coalition airstrikes in Marib province, as the opposing sides gear up for a critical battle over the coming days. Pro-government forces want to clear Marib province of Houthi fighters, then proceed to neighboring Jawf province to the north and then to Saada, the Houthis' stronghold in the north, the security officials said.

The toll was the United Arab Emirates' highest number of combat casualties since the federation was founded in 1971. Six of its troops were killed fighting as part of the U.S.-led coalition that drove the Iraqi forces of Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in 1991. At least five other members of the UAE military have been killed in Yemen this year, and another died during training exercises related to the operation in Saudi Arabia.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry phoned the UAE's foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, after the deaths were announced to express his condolences, WAM said.

Funerals for the UAE soldiers were scheduled for today, according to the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television.

The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency posted pictures of plumes of smoke rising from what it said was the site of the explosion in the desert.

"Most of those killed are Emiratis," Houthi official Yehia Al-Qahoom said on Twitter. "The sands of Marib are swallowing the invaders and their mercenaries."

The Yemen deployment is part of an increasingly assertive military policy by the UAE in the region. Its warplanes are believed to have carried out strikes against Islamic militants in Libya in coordination with Egypt.

Information for this article was contributed by Ahmed al-Haj, Adam Schreck and Reem Khalifa of The Associated Press and by Dana Khraiche, Donna Abu-Nasr, Alaa Shahine, Mohammed Hatem and Zaid Sabah of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 09/05/2015

Upcoming Events