The response was quick and might be just the start of a new escalation between Yemen and the United Arab Emirates. At least 11 people were killed in Sanaa, on the night of Monday January 17 to Tuesday January 18, in raids by the Saudi-led military coalition, in response to a deadly attack by Yemeni rebels in the United Arab Emirates.
→ ANALYSIS. Houthi rebels attack the United Arab Emirates
The attack claimed by the Houthis, condemned abroad by the United States and France, was carried out on Monday using drones and ballistic missiles according to the rebels. In Abu Dhabi, three tank trucks exploded “near storage tanks” of the Abu Dhabi oil company, resulting in the death of a Pakistani and two Indians, indicated the official Emirati agency WAM, reporting six injuries. It is the first to have caused casualties on UAE soil.
Advances of the Giants Brigade
The attack followed an upsurge in fighting in Yemen, where the United Arab Emirates-trained Giants Brigade made advances, driving rebels out of southern Chabwa province.
The retaliatory airstrikes by the coalition – of which the Emirates is a member, and which has been fighting Yemeni insurgents since 2015 – have killed at least 11 people, according to a medical source in Sanaa. Residents of the capital were clearing the rubble following the strikes on Tuesday in the hope of finding survivors in the rubble, as two buildings were blown up by the raids.
The rebel attack on Monday opened a new front in the war in Yemen and further dims hopes for a settlement of the conflict which, in seven years, has killed 377,000 people according to the UN, the vast majority because of the indirect consequences of the fighting, such as hunger, disease and the scarcity of drinking water.
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