I would have used higher numerals
Yemen Crisis/Conflict & the "Decisive Storm" Coalition
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
I would have used higher numerals
Miragedriver
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US Humvee of UAE armed with missiles “Kornet-E” spotted in Yemen
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Miragedriver
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Saudi-Led Coalition Deploys Nearly 3,000 Troops in Yemen – Reports
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Fighting for Yemen’s Largest Air Base Rages
Forces fighting for a Saudi-led military coalition say they control most of Al Anad air base
By ASA FITCH in Dubai and
Biography@asafitch MOHAMMED AL-KIBSI in San’a, Yemen
Updated Aug. 4, 2015 10:38 a.m. ET
DUBAI—The fight for control of Yemen’s largest air base raged Tuesday, with Saudi-led coalition fighters saying they were rooting out the last Houthi rebels holed up in the airfield.
Popular Resistance, an armed faction allied with Saudi Arabia, said it had captured the main buildings at Al Anad air base near the southern Yemeni city of Aden, but that fighting was continuing.
Through their official media outlet, the Houthis denied Tuesday the base had been captured but offered no details in a confrontation that has emerged as a key test in the four-month military campaign by Saudi Arabia and its allies to restore exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to power.
The Iranian-backed Houthis currently control most of Yemen, but in recent weeks they have been driven from the southern city of Aden the start of what appeared to be a concerted push by coalition forces to retake territory.
Ali al-Ahmadi, a spokesman for Popular Resistance, said the anticipated seizure of Al Anad as a springboard to push further into Lahj province, where the base is located. “From there we will move ahead to liberating other towns in the north,” he said.
Indications of further fighting at Al Anad came amid claims by Yemeni defense officials in Saudi Arabia that the air base had fallen entirely to coalition forces.
The operation to retake the base was “a true representation of national will and noble sacrifices that are being made to liberate Yemen from the grip of overthrowing militias,” the officials said in a statement carried by WAM, the state-controlled news agency of the United Arab Emirates, which is part of the coalition.
The latest unrest in Yemen began last year when the Houthis, a group that hails from the northwest and adheres to the Zaidi offshoot of Shiite Islam, began to take over state-owned infrastructure and marched on the capital, San’a, in September.
The Houthis took control of government in February and sent the Saudi-backed Mr. Hadi fleeing into exile the following month. The Houthis took Al Anad in March as they consolidated control over southern Yemen. Before the war, the U.S. had used the base to carry out drone attacks against the local al Qaeda affiliate.
Saudi Arabia, which shares a long southern border with Yemen, responded by assembling the coalition and beginning a campaign of airstrikes that sought to oust the Houthis and restore Mr. Hadi to power.
The air campaign didn’t produce a reversal on the battlefield until last month, when coalition forces pushed the Houthis out of Aden.
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Forces fighting for a Saudi-led military coalition say they control most of Al Anad air base
By ASA FITCH in Dubai and
Biography@asafitch MOHAMMED AL-KIBSI in San’a, Yemen
Updated Aug. 4, 2015 10:38 a.m. ET
DUBAI—The fight for control of Yemen’s largest air base raged Tuesday, with Saudi-led coalition fighters saying they were rooting out the last Houthi rebels holed up in the airfield.
Popular Resistance, an armed faction allied with Saudi Arabia, said it had captured the main buildings at Al Anad air base near the southern Yemeni city of Aden, but that fighting was continuing.
Through their official media outlet, the Houthis denied Tuesday the base had been captured but offered no details in a confrontation that has emerged as a key test in the four-month military campaign by Saudi Arabia and its allies to restore exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to power.
The Iranian-backed Houthis currently control most of Yemen, but in recent weeks they have been driven from the southern city of Aden the start of what appeared to be a concerted push by coalition forces to retake territory.
Ali al-Ahmadi, a spokesman for Popular Resistance, said the anticipated seizure of Al Anad as a springboard to push further into Lahj province, where the base is located. “From there we will move ahead to liberating other towns in the north,” he said.
Indications of further fighting at Al Anad came amid claims by Yemeni defense officials in Saudi Arabia that the air base had fallen entirely to coalition forces.
The operation to retake the base was “a true representation of national will and noble sacrifices that are being made to liberate Yemen from the grip of overthrowing militias,” the officials said in a statement carried by WAM, the state-controlled news agency of the United Arab Emirates, which is part of the coalition.
The latest unrest in Yemen began last year when the Houthis, a group that hails from the northwest and adheres to the Zaidi offshoot of Shiite Islam, began to take over state-owned infrastructure and marched on the capital, San’a, in September.
The Houthis took control of government in February and sent the Saudi-backed Mr. Hadi fleeing into exile the following month. The Houthis took Al Anad in March as they consolidated control over southern Yemen. Before the war, the U.S. had used the base to carry out drone attacks against the local al Qaeda affiliate.
Saudi Arabia, which shares a long southern border with Yemen, responded by assembling the coalition and beginning a campaign of airstrikes that sought to oust the Houthis and restore Mr. Hadi to power.
The air campaign didn’t produce a reversal on the battlefield until last month, when coalition forces pushed the Houthis out of Aden.
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Miragedriver
Brigadier
Can RT not even tell the difference between Leclerc and Abrams tanks? And these are UAE forces, not Saudi.
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Miragedriver
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Analysis: Emirati armoured brigade spearheads Aden breakout
Jeremy Binnie - IHS Jane's Defence
Weekly 06 August 2015
An Emirati Leclerc main battle tank fitted with the AZUR urban warfare protection package advances towards Al-Anad Air Base on 3 August. Source: PA Photos
The impasse in Yemen's conflict appears to have been broken by the deployment of a powerful Emirati armoured formation: a logistical triumph that has helped pro-government forces push out of the southern port city of Aden and capture Al-Anad Air Base 48 km to the northwest.
The military deployment has not been announced by the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) or covered by the country's media, but its scale has become increasingly apparent as more photographs and videos have emerged from southern Yemen since 12 July, when Oshkosh M-ATV mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles were spotted in Aden for the first time during the battle to secure the city's airport.
The M-ATV is used by Emirati and Saudi special forces, but the vehicles in southern Yemen are crewed by men wearing civilian clothing, raising the possibility that they are Yemenis who have been trained and equipped by the Saudi-led coalition that has been bombing Yemen since late March in an attempt to reinstall President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
By the end of July it had become apparent that the UAE had deployed regular military forces. Two BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles were filmed by an Al-Jazeera news crew on 28 July and a Leclerc armoured recovery vehicle was photographed in Aden about the same time.
While these vehicles could potentially have been landed by the C-17 airlifters that the UAE confirmed were flying into the international airport, albeit on humanitarian rather than military missions, it subsequently became apparent that they were part of what must be an amphibious landing on a scale not seen in the Middle East since the liberation of Kuwait in 1991.
By 3 August the UAE had landed Leclerc tanks, additional BMP-3s (seemingly not carrying any infantry), at least one 155 mm G6 self-propelled howitzer, and Agrab mortar carriers. One video clip showed nine Leclercs driving out of Aden, meaning at least one tank battalion (squadron) has been landed.
Some - but not all - the Leclercs in Yemen are equipped with the AZUR urban warfare protection package. The UAE is known to have bought at least 13 AZUR kits, so the presence of Leclercs without the additional armour suggests a second battalion has been deployed to Yemen.
These tank battalions are presumably part of an armoured brigade that includes at least one battalion of BMP-3s in addition to G6 and Agrab batteries and all the associated support vehicles, including large numbers of Tatra trucks.
Photographs from Aden suggest the UAE military has used the roll-on/roll-off terminal next to the refinery at Little Aden as its main beachhead. Its navy has several tank landing craft as well as two larger 80 m amphibious warfare vessels that were almost certainly involved in the operation.
It is unclear if Swift , a former US naval logistics vessel that is now operated by the UAE and visited Aden on 29 July, contributed to the amphibious operation. The UAE's official news agency reported that a ship carrying humanitarian supplies docked in Aden that day.
Intermingled with vehicles operated by allied Yemeni forces, the Emirati armoured column moved northwards up the N1 highway towards Al-Anad Air Base on 3 August. Later that day President Hadi announced the base had been liberated. Al-Anad has been bombed heavily by the Saudi-led coalition, but once its runway is patched up, it could become a new forward operating base for the Emirati brigade and allied Yemeni forces.
After the fall of Al-Anad, pro-government forces reportedly continued to push northwards towards Taiz province, while a spokesman for UN special envoy Ould Cheikh Ahmed said on 4 August that the warring parties had shown renewed interest in a peace plan.
Link:
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Jeremy Binnie - IHS Jane's Defence
Weekly 06 August 2015
An Emirati Leclerc main battle tank fitted with the AZUR urban warfare protection package advances towards Al-Anad Air Base on 3 August. Source: PA Photos
The impasse in Yemen's conflict appears to have been broken by the deployment of a powerful Emirati armoured formation: a logistical triumph that has helped pro-government forces push out of the southern port city of Aden and capture Al-Anad Air Base 48 km to the northwest.
The military deployment has not been announced by the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) or covered by the country's media, but its scale has become increasingly apparent as more photographs and videos have emerged from southern Yemen since 12 July, when Oshkosh M-ATV mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles were spotted in Aden for the first time during the battle to secure the city's airport.
The M-ATV is used by Emirati and Saudi special forces, but the vehicles in southern Yemen are crewed by men wearing civilian clothing, raising the possibility that they are Yemenis who have been trained and equipped by the Saudi-led coalition that has been bombing Yemen since late March in an attempt to reinstall President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
By the end of July it had become apparent that the UAE had deployed regular military forces. Two BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles were filmed by an Al-Jazeera news crew on 28 July and a Leclerc armoured recovery vehicle was photographed in Aden about the same time.
While these vehicles could potentially have been landed by the C-17 airlifters that the UAE confirmed were flying into the international airport, albeit on humanitarian rather than military missions, it subsequently became apparent that they were part of what must be an amphibious landing on a scale not seen in the Middle East since the liberation of Kuwait in 1991.
By 3 August the UAE had landed Leclerc tanks, additional BMP-3s (seemingly not carrying any infantry), at least one 155 mm G6 self-propelled howitzer, and Agrab mortar carriers. One video clip showed nine Leclercs driving out of Aden, meaning at least one tank battalion (squadron) has been landed.
Some - but not all - the Leclercs in Yemen are equipped with the AZUR urban warfare protection package. The UAE is known to have bought at least 13 AZUR kits, so the presence of Leclercs without the additional armour suggests a second battalion has been deployed to Yemen.
These tank battalions are presumably part of an armoured brigade that includes at least one battalion of BMP-3s in addition to G6 and Agrab batteries and all the associated support vehicles, including large numbers of Tatra trucks.
Photographs from Aden suggest the UAE military has used the roll-on/roll-off terminal next to the refinery at Little Aden as its main beachhead. Its navy has several tank landing craft as well as two larger 80 m amphibious warfare vessels that were almost certainly involved in the operation.
It is unclear if Swift , a former US naval logistics vessel that is now operated by the UAE and visited Aden on 29 July, contributed to the amphibious operation. The UAE's official news agency reported that a ship carrying humanitarian supplies docked in Aden that day.
Intermingled with vehicles operated by allied Yemeni forces, the Emirati armoured column moved northwards up the N1 highway towards Al-Anad Air Base on 3 August. Later that day President Hadi announced the base had been liberated. Al-Anad has been bombed heavily by the Saudi-led coalition, but once its runway is patched up, it could become a new forward operating base for the Emirati brigade and allied Yemeni forces.
After the fall of Al-Anad, pro-government forces reportedly continued to push northwards towards Taiz province, while a spokesman for UN special envoy Ould Cheikh Ahmed said on 4 August that the warring parties had shown renewed interest in a peace plan.
Link:
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Miragedriver
Brigadier
I am surprised by the success of UAE/KSA ground intervention so far, apparently they are more competent than I had expected. Is there any info available on what kind of units the Houthis deploy, in what numbers and with what kind of weapons? Most of the army has sided with the Houthis, what happened to their heavy weapons? Destroyed by Sunni air power?
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I have to say I am not surprised at all. The T-54/55 pretty much represents the level of equipment the Houthis and their allies possess. After an effective siege, bombardment via airstrikes, a well-equipped moderately heavy mechanized force like that of the GCC alliance's is just going through the motions at most doing sweeping duty. Especially while they are operating with local allies outside of the Houthis' home territory, it will get bloodier for both sides if the GCC force pushes further north and the Houthis may be able to hold out on their turf but who the overall winner will be is not in doubt.