KABUL: (Middle East Press) Saudi Arabia and Egypt have positioned warships to the strategic strait of Bab el-Mandab off Yemen’s seaside in an apparent preparation for a ground intervention in the Arabian Headland, reports say.
According to several unnamed Egyptian military officials a number of Egyptian and Saudi containers have been sent to the strait, which is the only access to Egypt’s Suez Waterway from the Arabian Sea.
The officials, who didn’t want their names to be mentioned, added that the warships from the two countries were already at or near Bab el-Mandab. One official also said two destroyers and two other vessels had arrived at the strait.
This is while Riyad Yassin, who served as Yemen’s foreign minister in the cabinet of fugitive president, Abd Ruabbuh Mansur Hadi, told said that Egyptian naval forces are on their way to Bab el-Mandab.
Yassin added, there was a “preparation” for ground soldiers to be deployed to Yemen, which has witnessed deadly Saudi-led air attacks against the Houthi Ansarullah movement since March 26.
In the meantime, retired Yemeni army officer Nasser al-Marqashi stated that the airstrikes would continue for a week before a ground attack, which would likely be launched from Yemen’s seaport city of Aden or the country’s Hadramout Province, another pro-Hadi stronghold.
