Dozens of Arab special forces soldiers arrived in Aden on Sunday and deployed alongside local fighters against Yemen’s Houthi militia, a militia spokesman said, signaling a major escalation of the country’s war.
Saudi Arabia denied that a major ground operation was under way by the anti-Houthi coalition it leads, but declined to comment on special forces – a topic Riyadh has consistently refused to address in the more than one-month-old conflict.
In Aden, Ali al-Ahmadi, the spokesman for the Southern Popular Resistance, a group defending the southern port city against an advance by the Iranian-allied Houthis, told Reuters:
Joint land forces from the Arab coalition landed in Aden on Sunday and are now participating with the southern resistance to fight around Aden airport
“It’s a limited force – 40-50 from special forces.”
The coalition, which seeks to restore the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, includes eight other Arab states and is receiving logistical support from the United States, Britain and France.
The Saudi-led coalition attacking Yemen has probably used cluster bombs which are banned by most countries, the international monitoring group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
Credible evidence indicates that the Saudi-led coalition used banned cluster munitions supplied by the United States in air strikes against Houthi forces
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement. It said it had not been able to obtain information on possible casualties from the attacks.
Saudi Arabia’s coalition spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the report.
