A U.S.-backed military push by the Gulf ally could allow the administration of President Barack Obama to help strike a fresh blow against a group that has plotted to down U.S. airliners and claimed responsibility for last year’s attacks on the office of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has exploited the chaos of Yemen’s year-old civil war to become more powerful than any time in its history, and now controls a swathe of the country.
The UAE has asked for U.S. help on medical evacuation and combat search and rescue as part of a broad request for American air power, intelligence and logistics support, the U.S. officials said. It was unclear whether U.S. special operations forces - already stretched thin by the conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan - were part of the request.
The U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the UAE was preparing for a campaign against AQAP, but declined to offer details, citing operational security. The UAE along with the Saudi-led coalition is fighting the Houthi Ansarullah revolutionaries in Yemen.
The White House and the Pentagon declined to comment. Government officials in the UAE did not respond to request for comment.
Washington’s consideration of the request comes ahead of Obama’s planned trip next week to a summit of Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia. The multiple conflicts in Yemen will be high on the agenda.
Saudi-backed Yemeni forces and the Ansarullah movement began a tentative truce on Sunday, although there have been reports of violations.
Michael Knights, an expert on Yemen’s conflict at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said he and a colleague estimated the UAE’s presence in Yemen peaked at about 5,500 troops in July-October of last year and now is as low as 2,500 personnel.
UAE forces currently are concentrated mostly around the southern port of Aden where the embattled Hadi regime has found safe haven. But since retaking the city in mid-2015, they and local forces have struggled to impose order, opening the way for al Qaeda and Islamic State militants to operate there.
AQAP is estimated to now control 600 km (373 miles) of Yemeni coastline and the southeastern port city of Mukalla, home to 500,000 people.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
