Saudi-led coalition deploys about 3,000 troops, APCs and main battle tanks in Yemen 20408153.

Hundreds of troops and militia equipped with tanks and armoured vehicles supplied by the coalition deployed around the base before Monday’s attack, their commander Fadhl Hassan said. Another source said Saudi-led warplanes were providing air cover for the loyalist forces, who launched the offensive from a mountainous region west of Al-Anad. The airbase, in the southern province of Lahj, housed US troops overseeing a drone war against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) until shortly before Iran-backed Huthi rebels overran it in March. The insurgent advance, which took them all the way into the port city of Aden, forced President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and his internationally recognised government into exile in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi-owned Al-Hayat newspaper said 1,500 troops, most of them from the United Arab Emirates, had reached Aden. The UAE is a member of the coalition which has carried out more than four months of air strikes targeting the rebels and their allies.

Images of Leclerc main battle tanks, which are operated by the UAE land forces and Presidential Guard strike force, BMP armored vehicles, and M-ATVs being offloaded at a port in the southern city of Aden appeared on social media Sunday. The equipment from the UAE was delivered from a forward operating base located off the coast of the Red Sea. The UAE Army currently uses almost 388 Leclerc MBTs, as well as Russia-made BMP-3 APCs.