Saudi and UAE armored brigades and commando forces land in Aden as Houthi insurgents fall back
After clinching its conquest of the Yemeni port of Aden – contrary to all Western predictions – Saudi Arabia teamed up with the United Arab Republic and, together, on Tuesday, Aug. 4, landed by sea and air two armored brigades and several commando battalions. debkafile’s military sources report that this was the first time that any Gulf nation had shown itself capable of a sea landing on this scale.
Tuesday night, the roads heading north out of Aden resounded with the thunder of convoys of heavy Saudi Abraham M1 tanks and long lines of heavy French made Leclerc tanks contributed by the UAE army.
The landings from the Red Sea were covered by intense gun and missile fire from the multi-Arab fleet of Saudi, Egyptian and UAE missile vessels and warships offshore.
Among the heavy vehicles freighted in by air were hundreds of armored personnel carriers, some of them Russian-made BMD3s, others Humvees made in America – and all fitted with short-range ground-to-ground missiles – as well dozens of US-made mine-resistant, ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles designed to withstand roadside bombs.
To speed the arrival in Yemen of mountains of armored military reinforcements, plus equipment, supplies, ordnance and medical evacuation services, the Saudis and UAE hired an Abu Dhabi firm specializing in airport construction, Within 48 hours, the Aden airport which had been badly damaged in the fighting was ready for large transport planes to come in to land.
Tuesday night, the workmen were busy on a second project, preparing Al-Anad, Yemen’s biggest airport 48 km north of Aden, for Saudi and UAE fighter-bombers to take off for air strikes.
The newly-arrived tanks, APCs and commando fighters were meanwhile advancing rapidly toward Yemen’s next largest town, Taiz.
Our military sources report that the Houthi insurgents have nowhere near the quantity or quality of equipment and weaponry to withstand the assault coming their way from a combination of armored, naval, air and commando firepower, and so they began falling back.Their patron, Iran, was caught unawares by the massive onslaught and is in no shape to render immediate assistance for redressing the huge imbalance which now charactises the state of the Yemen war..