UAE earns praise for containing Yemen Al Qaeda

Washington - The Emiratis are working with the United States to train, manage and equip Yemeni fighters.

The role of the UAE in containing Al Qaeda in Yemen and providing a new template for counter-terrorism has come in for praise from Washington.
The Emiratis were deployed initially against Yemen's Houthi group, joining a Saudi-led campaign last year to try to reverse a bid for power by the rebel group.
The war weakened the Houthis, but in the resulting turmoil Al Qaeda swept across the eastern side of the country, seizing more land than it had ever held and raising tens of millions of dollars from running Mukalla, the country's third largest port.
But the UAE quickly deployed its special forces to sharpen its push against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), seen as one of the network's most capable.
The Emiratis are working with the United States to train, manage and equip Yemeni fighters in that effort, signalling they have the stamina to stick with a campaign that could last long after the separate confrontation with the Houthis is resolved.
The ability to run combined air, sea and land operations, deploy forces clandestinely and endure scores of troop losses has won acknowledgement from Western states.
Retired General Anthony Zinni, former chief of US Central Command, told Reuters the UAE was "a top military" in the region and "exponentially more capable than its size might indicate".
"It has also shown the ability to hang in there despite casualties...(The UAE) has proven its willingness to fight alongside the US and coalitions."
After months of preparation the UAE ousted Al Qaeda from Mukalla in a complex operation backed by US intelligence support and aerial refuelling.
"They are the most capable counter-terrorism force on the ground in Yemen," said a US
UAE earns praises for crippling Al Qaeda in Yemen counter-terrorism official familiar with Yemen.
The Pentagon said a small number of military personnel were deployed to help UAE counter-terrorism efforts, in a possible sign of increasing US willingness to re-engage on the ground.
The Pentagon said last week that this support mission, initially seen as short term, is being extended.
Michael Morrell, former deputy director of the CIA, wrote in Politico that the UAE's Mukalla assault was a "textbook solution of dealing with terrorist groups that hold territory".
From the Yemen war's outset, the UAE took on a big role.
Days after hostilities began, an eight-person special forces team of forward air controllers landed discreetly in a CH-47 Chinook helicopter on Aden's Little Aden peninsula on April 13-15, 2015, the senior coalition military official said.
The team linked up with a Yemeni agent on the ground, part of the anti-Houthi southern resistance, the official said.
Within 10 days there was an amphibious landing to insert more troops. In ensuing weeks, 4-to-6 man teams of the UAE special forces trained groups of 50 Yemenis and provided leadership, building a 2,000-strong team of resistance fighters in Aden.
In July 2015, after months of preparation and liaison with Saudi-led partners, the force drove the Houthis from Aden and from a big air base nearby. The UAE went on to train 4,000 Yemeni fighters in Assab, Eritrea, as a force to help prevent lawlessness in the sprawling city.
In the autumn, the UAE smoothly rotated thousands of its troops in-theatre, while planning for the Mukalla operation.
"The Emirates has played an exceptional role," Mahmoud Al Salmi, a professor at Aden University, said of the UAE's rebuilding of hospitals and schools.
Southern Yemenis were grateful to the coalition because now, "whether there's secession or not, the south is in the hands of its sons and that was made possible by the coalition countries".
Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy says counter-insurgency in Yemen may last many years. "But the Emiratis are capable of making that commitment," he said. - Reuters