Yemen’s Huthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a double attack on Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, on Monday, which has left at least three dead and six wounded. Police have suspected from the start that the two explosions, one at the airport and one in an industrial area, were caused by drones. This is a blow to a country that prides itself on its security. The Emirati Foreign Minister, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed, has promised that the attack “will not go unpunished.”
According to the state news agency, Wam, a fire has blew up three tankers loaded with fuel, in a storage area of Adnoc, the national oil company of Abu Dhabi, in the Musaffah neighborhood, around ten o’clock. the morning. That explosion has killed two Indian citizens and one Pakistani, and injured six others, according to a police statement.
Shortly before, a minor fire has been declared in a sector under construction of the International Airport of the capital. The airline Etihad Airways, which is based there, has recognized a brief interruption of flights.
Preliminary investigations suggest, according to Wam, that the fires were caused by “small flying objects, possibly related to drones”, that fell in the affected areas. The United Arab Emirates has strict regulations on the private use of these unmanned devices and where they can be flown.
The Huthi’s military spokesman, General Yehya Sarea, announced on Twitter that the group had launched a military operation “in the heart of the UAE” and would provide details “in the next few hours”.
بيان مهم للقوات المسلحة للإعلان عن عملية عسكرية نوعية في العمق الإماراتي خلال الساعات القادمة.
— العميد يحيى سريع (@army21ye) January 17, 2022
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Sheikh Abdullah has condemned the attack by the “Huthi terrorists” and assured that “it will not go unpunished”. It is the first time that the UAE admits that the Yemeni rebels have reached its territory, a country that prides itself on its security and that thanks to it has become the financial and commercial center of the region. Furthermore, the incident risks aggravating regional tensions.
The Huthi frequently launch missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia, a country neighboring their fiefdom in northern Yemen and which has led a military coalition since 2015 to remove them from power. According to many analysts, this war is an indirect confrontation between Riyadh and Tehran, whom the Saudi monarchy accuses of arming the militia.
Although the United Arab Emirates withdrew its troops from Yemen two years ago, it maintains great influence through local allies that it arms and finances. These forces have participated in recent weeks in a coalition offensive against rebel positions that has seized Shabwa province from the Huthi and has put them in check in Mareb. Following these developments, the rebels had renewed their threats against Abu Dhabi.
The coalition has detected an increase in the launch of explosive drones from the Sana’a airport on Monday and has said that it had intercepted several of them directed towards the south of the kingdom. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have condemned the attack on Abu Dhabi for which they have blamed the Huthi. It is not clear if these have the capacity to reach the Emirati capital, almost 1,500 kilometers away. A drone attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities was also attributed in 2019, which later analyzes attributed to a pro-Iranian militia from Iraq.
Tehran has a big ascendant on them. In any case, the timing of the attack on Abu Dhabi does not seem to suit him. The head of the Emirates National Security, Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed, made a rare visit to Iran last December in an attempt to improve relations, after the establishment of ties with Israel and in the final stretch of the Vienna negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program. The Islamic Republic is also engaged in a thawing process with Saudi Arabia.
The news portal Sabereen news, associated with the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, has also echoed threats against the Emirates in recent days. Those groups attribute to him having contributed to the Iraqi Sunnis supporting the reelection of Mohamed al Halbusi as president of Parliament, against their interests.
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