Qatari Forces Enter Yemen with Heavy Equipment

Al Jazeera reported on Sunday evening, September 15, that military forces from Qatar, equipped with heavy and semi-heavy weapons, defensive missiles, and advanced communication systems, have entered Yemen through the Al-Wadiah crossing at the Saudi Arabian border and are set to be stationed in the Marib province. According to the report, the Qatari forces, numbering around two thousand, have been dispatched to Yemen using two hundred armored personnel carriers and several Hummer vehicles. The report adds that a second group of Qatari forces, with a larger number of troops and a greater volume of weapons and equipment, has also entered Saudi Arabia and is expected to enter Yemen on Tuesday to participate in the Saudi-led coalition's operations against the Houthi militants and their allies. With the arrival of Qatari forces in Yemen, the total number of military forces in the Arab coalition in the country will reach about 10,000. These forces are to be initially deployed in various regions of Yemen, including Shabwa, Al-Jawf, Marib, and Aden. After the Houthis and their allies took control of vast areas of Yemen and President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and his government members were forced to flee from Sana'a, an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia was formed to support Hadi's government and to expel the Houthis from the areas they had seized. Images circulated on social media show the armored and semi-armored columns of the Qatari army. Supporters of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi have managed to retake several areas, including the southern province of Aden, from Houthi control in the past month. However, vast areas in central and northern Yemen, including the capital Sana'a, remain under the control of the Houthis and their allies. So far, most operations by the Arab coalition forces in Yemen have been through airstrikes, but recently, especially after the Houthis were expelled from Aden, ground forces from the Arab coalition countries have also been sent to the country. Recent developments follow a bloody Friday for the Arab coalition forces in Yemen; a missile strike on an ammunition depot at one of the coalition's bases in Marib resulted in the deaths of at least 45 Emirati troops, 10 Saudi troops, and 5 Bahraini troops. Following this, coalition fighter jets intensified their attacks on Houthi positions, especially in Sana'a. Earlier on Sunday, Nayef Al-Bakri, the governor of Aden, announced that two divisions, one Emirati and the other Saudi, consisting of about 8,000 fully equipped troops, have established a 'security belt' around Aden to prevent potential Houthi attacks on the city or other insecurity. Aden has been declared the temporary capital of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi's government. The Arab coalition forces currently present in Yemen consist of the armies of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain. Training pro-Hadi forces has been declared one of the missions of these forces. The Hadi government and the member countries of the Arab coalition accuse the Islamic Republic of Iran of providing financial and military support to the Houthis, an accusation that both Iran and the Houthis deny. At the same time, Iran considers the intervention of Saudi Arabia and its allies in Yemen as 'aggression'.