Despite daily crimes in Yemen, the coalition countries keep their military operations
YemenExtra
Y.A
By: Yousra Abdulmalik
Despite the daily cimes and the calls by International oraganizations to stop the campaign of the US-backed Saudi-led coalition against Yemen, the countries of the coalition keep ignoring through more weaponary deals and differnet kilnds of assisstances.
Commander of the Sudanese Al-Hazm II Brigade in Yemen, Brigadier General Hafez Al-Haj, has denied media reports that Sudanese forces have withdrawn from the US-backed Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.
“Sudanese forces are definitely staying because they came voluntarily with the people’s will” he said in an interview.
In May, the Sudanese Minister of State for Defence, Ali Salem, said the ministry was evaluating the fact that Sudanese forces are taking part with the coalition in the war in Yemen, however Khartoum later announced that Sudanese forces will continue participating alongside the coalition forces in Yemen.
There have been calls by Sudanese parties and parliamentarians to withdraw the Sudanese forces from Yemen as a result of recent reports of significant losses among the Sudanese military.
According to Anadolu Agency, Saudi Arabia announced , on Sep. 19, that it had completed military drills with the US and Sudan that started separately .
Saudi finished drills with the Sudanese ground forces in the Prince Khalid Centre for Tactical Exercises.
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, said on Sep. 13, that his country will go ahead with the implementation of the deal to deliver 400 laser-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia.
Borrel told local radio station Onda Cero that “the ultimate decision is to hand over these bombs to fulfil a contract which dates back to 2015,” and added.
The sale of the missiles had been suspended earlier this month after Spain’s new government said all arms sales must comply with strict security criteria which include insuring weapons are not used in any other country except the one they are destined for. However earlier this week talks were held with Saudi Arabia and the suspension was reversed.
Sources close to the US Congress Intelligence Committee revealed that hundreds of Western mercenaries financed by UAE participated in the attack on the Yemeni province of Al-Hudaydah after they received intensive combat exercises in Israel.
The informed sources told Al-Khaleej Online that: “hundreds of mercenaries of various nationalities are taking part in the attack on Al-Hudaydah, with the aim of taking control over it from the Houthis who have shown fierce resistance.”
US sources confirmed that , Mohammed Dahlan, security adviser to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, personally oversaw the bringing of Western paid fighters , led by the Colombians and Nepalese to work for the UAE in Yemen.
The Al-Khaleej Online sources surprised the public when they revealed the establishment of secret training camps for paid fighters in the Negev desert, located in Israel after the two sides (UAE and Israel) agreed to that. They added.
Last month,the United States will continue to support Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) alliance in Yemen, despite international criticism over civilian casualties, a senior official has said.
In the same month,US assistance to the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen has amounted to killing innocent Yemeni civilians, the New York Times argued in its newspaper.
The op-ed piece cited reports by the UN and international watchdog Human Rights Watch, which said the Saudi coalition is responsible for war crimes in Yemen.
The report also emphasised the role of the US is not only selling weapons to the coalition but also providing military assistance.
“It’s time for the United States and its Western allies to stop selling arms or giving any military assistance to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners,” the newspaper wrote Tuesday.
The majority of US aid to coalition forces in Yemen have been in aerial combat, which received criticism when the US made the bomb was used to target a school bus, killing dozens of Yemeni children.
According to CNN, the weapon was a 500-pound laser guided MK-82 bomb made by Lockheed Martin, one of the top defence contractors in the US. The bomb was sold to Saudi Arabia in a State Department approved arms deal.
In March 2015, the US backed –Saudi-led coalition started a war against Yemen with the declared aim of crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement, who had taken over from the staunch Riyadh ally and fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, while also seeking to secure the Saudi border with its southern neighbor. Three years and over 600,000 dead and injured Yemeni people and prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country, the war has yielded little to that effect.
Despite the coalition claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.
A UN panel has compiled a detailed report of civilian casualties caused by the Saudi military and its allies during their war against Yemen, saying the Riyadh-led coalition has used precision-guided munitions in its raids on civilian targets.
Sayyad Abdulmalik AL-Houthi claimed on one of his speech that Saudi Arabia is just a tool used by USA and Israel to fight Yemen to conquer it and wrestle control over Red Sea and Bab-AL-Mandab which will enable them to rule the world.
According to several reports, the coalition air campaign against Yemen has driven the impoverished country towards humanitarian disaster, as the coalitiondeadly campaign prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country.
International human rights organisations accused Western countries, including the United States, Britain, France and Spain, of supplying the coalition in Yemen with weapons which are being used to commit possible war crimes in Yemen.