Yemen forces say they conducted attack ‘deep in UAE’

Abu Dhabi police said three fuel tanker trucks had exploded in the industrial Musaffah area near storage facilities of oil firm ADNOC and that a fire broke out at a construction site at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

“Initial investigations found parts of a small plane that could possibly be a drone at both sites that could have caused the explosion and the fire,” the police announced in a statement on state news agency WAM.

There was no “significant damage” from the incidents and a full investigation has been launched, the statement added.

Yemen’s Armed Forces Spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree has stated Yemeni troops launched a military operation “deep in the UAE” and would announce details in coming hours.

Pro-coalition forces backed by the UAE have recently joined fighting against the Houthis in Yemen’s energy-producing regions of Shabwa and Marib. The UAE had largely scaled down its military presence in Yemen in 2019 but continues to hold sway through fighters it armed and trained.

The Houthis have repeatedly launched cross-border missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia and have in the past threatened to attack the UAE.

Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a war against the Arab world’s most impoverished nation in March 2015. The war has been seeking to restore power in Yemen to Riyadh’s favorite officials.

The death toll of the war, now in its seventh year, will reach an estimated 377,000 by the end of 2021, according to a recent report from the UN’s Development Programme.

The fighting has seen some 80 percent of the population, or 24 million people, relying on aid and assistance, including 14.3 million who are in acute need.