Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Egypt Deploys Ground Forces to Yemen


As many as 800 Egyptian soldiers arrived in Yemen late on Tuesday, Reuters reported today. This is the first reported deployment of ground forces by Egypt in the Yemeni conflict. Four Egyptian Army companies, each with 150-200 troops, along with tanks and armored vehicles were deployed, Egyptian security sources told the news agency.

On Monday, Qatar also announced the deployment of 1,000 troops along with 200 armored vehicles and 30 Apache combat helicopters to Yemen. The Qataris and Egyptians will join forces in a coalition with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain to fight the Houthi-Saleh alliance to retake the territories captured by the insurgents.

Yemeni officials had put the number of troops from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain to more than 2,000 (Reuters, 9 September). With the deployment of the Egyptian troops that number has now increased to around 3,000. A few thousands of Yemeni militia fighters trained by the Saudis had also been deployed to Yemen. These forces join local militia and tribal fighters in a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the war against Houthi/Saleh alliance, which is backed by Iran.

UPDATE: An unnamed Egyptian official told a local TV channel that Reuters report on Egypt deploying up to 800 troops to Yemen is incorrect. 

File photo: Egyptian troops; Cairo, November 2014 (Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Houthis are finished with 800 in Yemen more will follow, Egyptian army in 500000 strong disciplined and very professional. They have been in Yemen before and know the terrain. It is likely that Egyptian involvement is the last nail in houthi coffin.... Khalas ya habibi...

Mark Pyruz said...

Difficult call to make in describing Ansarullah and their Yemeni Army allies as "insurgents." This force flies the flag of the Republic of Yemeni, whereas the primary local force allied with the Saudi intervention does not, it flies the former flag of the old South Yemen.

Anonymous said...

Better for the Egyptian army to be there than the terrorist organization of the IRGC.Let there be peace in Yemen.

Nader Uskowi said...

Insurgency in Houthi's case means taking power by force outside constitutional provisions when they could instead participated in the next election and win the presidency via ballot box. What alternative word do you suggest to describe them? Flying the flag in itself does not make them the legitimate government of the country.

Unknown said...

I'm not a supported of this whole war but I wonder what Ali Khamenei thinks. About 5 months ago he said that Saudis will "suffer a loss & their noses will be rubbed in dirt". Well it looks like the Arab-coalition is wining and he's not doing anything about it.

Should have kept his mouth where his money is, eh?

Anonymous said...

I guess " Backed by Iran" didn't mount to a bag of beans .

Anonymous said...

Houties are Yemeni blood and they are paying the price of being follower of Shia faith. The Arab states Wahabi army is only there with one point agenda to kill as many as possible Houties(Shias) to settle score with Iran for Syria & Iraq. Egypt or other African nations army presence is merely symbolic to show the strength as coalition and nothing to do with professionalism and what professionalism they have, seen in Egypt itself as they are unable to secure of small chank of land Sinai.

The full length of this Yemen war is planned and executed only by US-Saudis. The US interest in this war to appease to GCC Wahabi states those were very critical to US inaction against Iran in decades old requests and bribe further US brokered the nuclear deal with Iran on the back of GCC states.

The GCC wahabi states never swallowed the US action to replaced Saddam to Shia regime in Iraq, further GCC wounds aggravated by US little action against Syrian regime (Shia off shoot) and diverted against IS.

The Arab wahabi states war in Yemen is based on pure sectarian agenda and nothing to do with Hadi instead Hadi is grey horse in Yemen CHESS BOARD endorsed by UN to appease GCC.

What will the course of war at the end no body knows, however some predicted end of Houties movement by seeing Saudi led Armored vehicles, tanks and lone master of SKY but apart of that,some times all not do well as we planned, it is definite many surprises in this war are yet to come and will be lesson for all. Rizvi/India

Anonymous said...

This is a long drawn out conflict and this is just an initial phase.

B.M.A said...

@-it is sometimes easy to win a war ,just as it is to subdue your enemy on the battlefield !-superior firepower, advantage of numbers and a host of advantages tips the balances and translates into victory for the other side!.BUT yet this is not victory .

@- Victory is when you win the hearts of the people.A responsible REGIONAL power like Saudi Arabia must stand with the majority in Yemen .sectarian differences have to be left in the Mosques for the Clerics to solve and settle.

@-Recent events have proved the SAGE right especially when we see US trained Armies of the - K.S.A,UAE, unable to bring peace and annihilate a poorly armed ragtag army that is the Houthis.

Anonymous said...

Piruz MollazadehSeptember 9, 2015 at 7:01 PM
I suppose it depends on what you mean by winning,so far its taken the saudis and co 6 months and still they havent even been able to occupy the country let alone pacify it and still the houthis are inflicting loss after loss on the saudis and co even attacking inside saudi arabia,I`m sure iran is very happy with how things are turning out.Its very easy to step into a quagmire but much harder to pull oneself out,whats the bet that in another 6 months the saudis will still be there and still fighting the houthis,still trying to pacify the areas they`ve occupied,I`m not a gambling man but thats one bet I`d definitely take and I`m sure iran would to,how about you?

Anonymous said...

Yeah,I`m sure the houthis will welcome them with open arms or more likely hot lead,thats what one does when someone tries to invade your country.Frankly I`m astonished that the egyptian military has such a short memory as the last time it was in yemen it suffered horrific losses of almost 30,000 kia,maybe this time they`re going to try and top that number [lol].Last time I looked the irgc,if in fact there were any actually in yemen,weren't an invading army trying to restore a hated dictator to power after he fled a popular revolution unlike the saudis and their egyptian lackeys,more foreign troops arent going to bring peace or stability to yemen.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous September 9, 2015 at 2:15 PM
You do realise that the last time the egyptians tried their luck in yemen it was one of their worst military disasters with almost 30,000kia,egyptian military historians have called it egypts vietnam,ironically at the time egypt and saudi were on opposite sides,I`m sure nasser would be spinning in his grave to see egyptian troops going back to yemen,still maybe the egyptians will prove to be more competent soldiers than the golf states altho` that really isnt saying much considering the at best mediocre performance traditional of the arab militaries

Anonymous said...

It might be much harder in comparison to 1967 war, Jews nailed Egyptian coffins in 7 days and all were "KHALAS" Ya habibi--Ha ha ha.

Anonymous said...

You mean just like the IRGC mafia are trying to restore "peace" and "stability" in Syria and Iraq,LOL?
I didn't know IRGC is so peaceful and loving towards people that don't agree with them.But I suppose its fine by you if IRGC installs their own dictator puppet instead?

Anonymous said...

30 percent of population of Arab world is Egyptian this is why despite 1967 and 1973 Israel was keen to make peace with Egypt whilst not caring much about Syria. It is note worthy that Israel gave back a land mass 3 times that of Israel back to Egypt in return for a peace accord and did not agree the same with Hafiz Asad who was open to a similar deal both in 77 and 1990s as part of Oslo. Egypt is the decider in inter Arab politics not Khamenei and his Taryaki officers who have handed over 83% of Syria to lightly armed but highly motivated and tactically superior insurgents.....IS captures about 500 million to 1 billion dollars worth of weapons and ammo from Iraq and Syria every month! This should tell you where are oil dollars are going

Anonymous said...

AnonymousSeptember 10, 2015 at 6:53 PM
Last time I looked the irgc were fighting on the side of the government forces in syria and iraq both of which were trying to bring about peace and stability unlike isis and the other wahabist/saudi backed insurgents who wanted to destroy those nations,so what do you suggest the irgc and the syrian and iraqi governments do with insurgents like isis?,try and reason with them perhaps,make them see sense?,as for yemen the houthis were part of a popular revolution that had nothing to do with iran or the irgc,in fact iran was trying to restrain the houthis not encourage them,you`d know this if you didnt mindlessly swallow saudi/wahabist propaganda.

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:45, Excuses u are making to cover up the historic defeat of Egypt army in 1967 is fact , it did not matter what Israel (the true winner) returned to Egypt when begging by Egypt, Israel did not purchase peace but impose its true military might on Egypt. Israel made its calculation in 1967 that what will happened in future when returned Sinai area, now Sinai become as Sinai province deadly fight is a routine.

Egypt economy is run only on aid of US and bribe of KSA to shed blood for Wahabi coward army, thats it. Rizvi/India

Anonymous said...

Friend or foe should not underestimate Egypt and its military
It js true that in 1967 with Nasser they had a leader like Khamenei with same rhetoric who used to boast about wiping Israel from the map but in practice was pushing Egypt to ruin. As soon as Sadat came to power they had a serious leader who was formidable in war and peace. 10 million people have joint Egyptian and persian gulf state citizenship mostly Saudi...Egypt is by far the most influencial country in the region followed by Turkey Saudi Qatar and Emirates even Jordan is more influencial than Iran. Even Hamas has turned its back on Iran and publicly sided with Saudi coalition....

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:53 AM

Assad refused to allow the remaining 85% of the Syrian population a say in their own countries affairs.When they peacefully demonstrated against his regime he brutally cracked down on them.During that time the Islamic regime sent their goons over to help strengthen him which led to radical elements like ISIL to be formed.It was the Islamic regime's shiagari that helped fan the flames of hatred in the region.The IRGC is in Lebanon,Syria and Iraq for one thing only and that is to further the cause of the Islamic regme's shiagari aims of hegemony in the region while the Iranian economy and society is slowly rotting away.So much for "saudi/wahabist propaganda" mindless accusations.

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:07: No body underestimate any one, what I am saying is established truth and endorsed in world history, pl refer if u want, however Israel the true military power in middle east in 1967 mirrored ,what was the so called Arab army & Air force in 7 days war. All Arabs were confined into coffin.

As for as Iran influence is concerned in middle east , Israel destroyed Syria nuclear reactor, Iraq nuclear reactor (when Saddam 'Qaddisiya' was ruled Iraq) but never dare to attack Iran despite threats for years.

P+5+1 (five veto powered country) negotiated for years with Iran to curb its nuclear programme into certain limit, even US threatened Iran several years but never dare to attack, 'WHY' they all knew that only Iran is a potential country, who has a strategic vision in middle east among impotent Wahabi Arab states those are master of selling Wahabi ideology (ISIS also followed Wahabi ideology) across the globe through poisoned Madarsas with petrodollers. All states as U are mentioning as influential states in middle east are simply slaves of US and EU, even u know this fact very well himself, they will walk only upto that extant ordered by US and EU. All are cheap purchaser of US weapons to save the economy of US, Shameful Arab states. Rizvi/India

Anonymous said...

AnonymousSeptember 11, 2015 at 7:35 PM
Riiight,It was all irans fault that groups like isis/isil were created,that these had nothing to do with saudi and its backing and promotion of the wahabist cancer throughout the me,you know it sounds to me like you`re a real true believer in saudi/wahabist propaganda if you think iran is to blame for the rise of sunni extremism or that iran is seeking "hegemony" over the me.

Anonymous said...

Well said,very true!