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Kuwait to contribute military forces to deadly war on Yemen

Tuesday, 29 December 2015 9:19 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 29 December 2015 11:20 AM ]

A file photo of Kuwaiti soldiers

Kuwait has decided to deploy ground forces to Yemen to fight alongside Saudi Arabia and militiamen loyal to fugitive former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a Kuwaiti newspaper says.

An informed source said Kuwait’s cabinet has approved to send troops to Saudi Arabia as soon as early next week for their ultimate deployment to Yemen, Arabic-language Kuwaiti daily al-Qabas reported.

No details were provided about the size of the force, with the paper only saying "Kuwait decided on the participation of its ground forces, represented by an artillery battalion, in operations to strike" at Houthi positions.

Kuwait’s participation in the Saudi-led military aggression against Yemen has so far been limited to aerial assaults.

The deployment comes as the Saudi-led force looks increasingly stretched after scores of soldiers from neighboring Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain have been killed.

This file photo shows Colombian soldiers.

Earlier this year, the United Arab Emirates secretly dispatched nearly some 300 Colombian mercenaries to Yemen.

The decision came after 30 Emirati soldiers were killed in Yemen in a missile attack carried out by Ansarullah fighters in early September.

According to Yemeni sources, the Colombians have been dispatched to Yemen based on an agreement between the UAE and a US security company, formerly known as Blackwater.

Last month, the New York Times said the UAE has “secretly” deployed 450 Latin American troops – most of them from Colombia but among them Panamanian, Salvadoran and Chilean soldiers – to fight in the war on Yemen.

Washington itself has helped the Saudis in their nearly nine months of bombardment of Yemen by providing logistics and intelligence to the Saudi air force.

Yemen has been under military attacks by Saudi Arabia since late March. The Saudi military strikes were launched to supposedly undermine the Ansarullah movement and bring Hadi back to power.

More than 7,500 people have been killed and over 14,000 others injured since March. The strikes have also taken a heavy toll on the impoverished country’s facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.

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