AL-MAHRAH (Dispatches) – Thousands of Yemenis have taken to streets in the country’s eastern province of al-Mahrah to show their opposition to the presence of foreign troops, some six years after a Saudi-led military coalition began an offensive against the impoverished nation.
The protesters on Friday held rallies against the presence of forces from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom, demanding they leave the province.
Protesters also called on the Saudi-led invading forces to put an end to the occupation of Yemen.
Earlier reports indicated that British forces entered the Yemeni province in the wake of an alleged attack against an Israeli vessel in the Gulf of Oman.
London has sent over the forces under the pretext of trying to find the alleged perpetrators behind a reported attack on a tanker belonging to the Zionist regime off the Omani coast on July 29, which the West alleges originated from Yemen.
The reports prompted dozens of Yemeni rights activists to launch a campaign on social media with the hashtag “British occupation in al- Mahrah.”
Experts say the United Kingdom’s recent decision to move troops to Yemen under a pretext actually seeks to return the British occupation to the impoverished country.
Saudi Arabia and many of its allies, particularly the UAE, have been waging a war on Yemen since 2015 to restore power to the country’s Riyadh-friendly former officials.
The war and a simultaneous crippling siege that the Saudi-led coalition has been enforcing on the Arab world’s already poorest nation, has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis.
The U.S. is the main supporter of a Saudi-led war on Yemen since 2015. The war seeks to return power to Washington and Riyadh’s former allies in the Arabian Peninsula country.
The ongoing invasion has pushed entire Yemen close to the brink of outright famine, turning the country into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Yemen’s defense forces have, however, vowed not to lay down their arms or stop their resistance operations until the country’s complete liberation.
In the latest development, the Saudi-led military coalition upped the ante in war-ravaged Yemen, with its fighter jets launching fresh raids in north-western Sa’ada province.
Yemeni media reports said the latest military aggression targeted al-Dhaher district, southwest of the provincial capital Sana’a, on Tuesday, resulting in serious damage to civilian properties.
It comes in the wake of repeated ceasefire violations by Saudi-led foreign mercenaries in strategic al-Hudaydah Province, which borders Red Sea.