Yemeni fighters who are believed to have received training and weapons in the Persian Gulf entered combat near the southern city of Aden on Sunday, joining with militias who are battling Houthi rebels, local militia fighters in Aden said.
The new troops arrived by sea in the past few days, they said.
The new fighters all appeared to be Yemenis from the south who had trained in Saudi Arabia and possibly other Persian Gulf states, according to a senior local commander, a fighter and an allied resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss troop actions.
The sources’ claims could not be independently verified. If confirmed, the influx would represent one of the first major deployments of ground troops trained by the Saudi-led coalition, and would shift the makeup of a military operation that has largely relied on airstrikes through its first weeks.
HIGHLY ARMED
The reinforcements, who the commander said had been given equipment that includes anti-tank weapons, are entering a fight in Aden that has become a deadly stalemate. Hundreds of people have been killed and entire neighborhoods destroyed in fighting over the past few weeks between the local militias, on one side, and the Houthis and their allied security forces on the other.
The deployment also provided a glimpse of Saudi Arabia’s shifting tactics as it tries to right a military campaign that has yet to achieve almost any of its objectives.
The Saudi-led coalition of Arab states began a bombing campaign in late March with the stated goal of driving back the Houthis, a northern Shiite group that began seizing territory in September last year and has links to Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, Iran.
The Saudis said they intervened at the behest of exiled Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, whose government had been driven from power by the Houthis.
More than five weeks later, with at least 1,200 people killed and Yemen facing a rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis, Hadi is still in exile and the Houthis remain in control of large parts of the country.
RISING CRITICISM
The Saudis have faced intensifying criticism for the airstrikes, including several bombings that have killed dozens of civilians at a time. On Sunday, Human Rights Watch said that it had collected evidence that showed that the Saudis were deploying cluster munitions in Yemen.
Though the airstrikes have continued, the Saudis appear to be more aggressively empowering forces on the ground, including tribes with longstanding Saudi ties.
A Reuters report last week quoted a Yemeni official as saying that hundreds of tribal fighters had been trained by the Saudis to fight the Houthis in the central Ma’rib Governorate.
Meanwhile, local militias fighting the Houthis in Aden and Taiz say they have received weapons shipments from the Saudi-led coalition.
A Saudi military spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment on the reported deployment in Aden.
Earlier on Sunday, Saudi Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asiri, the main spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, denied several media reports that foreign troops had landed in Aden.
After pictures appeared on Sunday on a local news Web site purportedly showing fighters wearing what looked like new, matching combat gear, Ali al-Ahmedi, a spokesman for local forces in Aden known as the Popular Resistance, said that a group of fighters had been specially selected and trained by local commanders, and then outfitted with equipment provided by Saudi Arabia.
However, the senior commander and another fighter said that the new force had been trained abroad — in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf.
In Aden on Sunday, the new troops already appeared to be having an effect. Local fighters said they were slowly gaining ground in their effort to drive the Houthis and their allies from Aden’s international airport.
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