SANA’A (Dispatches) – A new batch of U.S. military forces has entered Yemen’s southeastern province of al-Mahrah, as Washington continues its aggressive attempts to establish control over oil reserves and plunder natural resources in the energy-rich province.
Yemen Press Agency, citing local sources, reported that the American troops landed at al-Ghaydah Airport on Thursday onboard a flight from Riyan International Airport in Mukalla, which lies on the shores of the Arabian Sea and about 480 kilometers (300 miles) east of Aden.
The sources, who asked not to be named, stated that the arrival of the U.S. troops was followed by a major disruption in internet connectivity in the Sayhut district, blaming the internet blackout on the installation of sophisticated surveillance devices by American troops.
Last month, a top-ranking Yemeni official said U.S. and British military trainers had arrived at a port in the country’s al-Mahrah province on vessels loaded with munitions as well as military and logistical equipment.
The provincial governor, al-Qatabi Ali Hussein al-Faraj, told Yemen’s official Saba news agency on June 26 that large arms shipments aboard military vessels disembarked at the port of Nishtun, and that British and American military trainers were stationed at al-Ghaydah International Airport.
“The Saudi-led coalition of aggression is involved in the smuggling and trade of narcotics in the area in order to perpetuate insecurity, advance its fiendish plots, and deter the local population from confronting the invaders,” Faraj said at the time.
The senior Yemeni official noted that occupiers and their allied militants are trying to plunge Mahrah province into utter chaos and confusion as locals are fiercely opposed to the presence of foreign forces.
Faraj stressed that the boiling public rage over the deployment of foreign troops to Mahrah indicates that the battle to liberate the province from the clutches of invaders and their mercenaries is reaching its final stages.
Meanwhile, a Yemeni military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Saudi-led coalition refuses to fully commit to the terms of a truce that has been brokered by the United Nations.
The official said the Saudi-led coalition forces and their allied militants have violated the UN-brokered ceasefire at least 154 times during the past 24 hours.
He said the violations included 32 flights of armed Saudi-led reconnaissance aircraft in the skies of the provinces of Ta’izz, Hajjah, al-Jawf, Sa’ada, Dhale,
Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics support from the U.S. and other Western states.
The objective was to reinstall the Riyadh-friendly regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and crush the Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of a functional government in Yemen.
While the Saudi-led coalition has failed to meet any of its objectives, the war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.