Detachment of US Troops Reportedly Arrives in Oil-Rich Eastern Yemen

Last month, the White House informed US lawmakers that “a small number of United States military personnel” have been deployed in Yemen, ostensibly for operations against al-Qaeda* and Daesh (ISIS)*. The revelation followed the Biden administration’s promises last year to end US assistance to the Saudi-led coalition’s operations in the country.

A contingent of US troops landed at al-Ghaydah Airport in the southeastern Yemeni province of al-Mahrah, the Yemen Press Agency has reported, citing local sources said to be familiar with the matter.

According to the sources, the troops, whose exact number was not specified, were transported to al-Ghaydah city by plane from Mukalla, a coastal city in Hadhramaut province about 480 km east of Aden, and 540 km southeast of the Houthi-controlled capital of Sanaa.

YPA’s sources indicated that the US troops’ arrival in al-Mahrah was followed by the disruption of local Internet infrastructure, which was blamed on the installation of “spy devices” by American forces.

Last month, al-Mahrah Governor al-Qatabi Ali Hussein al-Faraj told Yemen’s Saba News Agency that British and American military trainers were operating at al-Ghaydah Airport, and that munitions and logistical equipment had been delivered to a port in the province. Local media has alleged that British and Israeli forces set up a presence at al-Ghaydah in 2017.

UK tabloid media appeared to corroborate reports of British military operations in Yemen last year, indicating that some 40 special forces had been deployed in al-Mahrah in August 2021 to search for the perpetrators of last year’s attack on an Israeli-owned oil tanker which killed a British security contractor onboard the ship.

US President Joe Biden penned a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and president pro tempore of the Senate Patrick Leahy last month disclosing the extent of US operations in Yemen, indicating that a “small number” of troops had been deployed in Yemen for operations against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Daesh.

The letter informed lawmakers that US troops “continue to provide military advice and limited information to the Saudi-led Coalition” in Yemen, but that “such support does not involve United States Armed Forces in hostilities with the Houthis for the purposes of the War Powers Resolution,” a 1973 law meant to check the president’s authority to commit the US to an armed conflict without congressional consent. The letter indicated that there are some 2,733 troops currently stationed in Saudi Arabia, a key regional US ally.

Washington’s interest in Yemen’s oil-rich province of al-Mahra goes back some time. Earlier this month, Abdel-Aziz bin Habtour, the prime minister of the Houthi-backed National Salvation Government, accused the US of looking to dominate Yemen’s oil riches and ports, and alleged that US Ambassador to Yemen Steven Fagin had recently visited the energy-rich eastern provinces of al-Mahrah and Hadramaut.

Earlier, Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi accused the US of seeking to build military bases in both provinces.

US officials and the Pentagon have not commented on these allegations.

The United States has been carrying out sporadic drone strikes in Yemen for more than two decades, targeting AQAP terrorists, but killing hundreds of civilians in the process.

In 2015, the Obama administration authorized logistical and intelligence support to Saudi Arabia and its regional coalition allies after Riyadh launched a military campaign in Yemen to try to restore ousted Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi to power. That operation has since bogged down, with Hadi stepping down in April and transferring power to an eight-member "presidential leadership council" tasked with negotiating a permanent ceasefire with the Houthis.

US generals engaged in the campaign against AQAP informed officials in Washington in 2015 of the Houthis’ substantive successes in fighting the terrorists, with one source telling media that US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) saw the Houthis as fighting AQAP more effectively than what hundreds of US drone strikes and assistance to Hadi’s military had managed to accomplish.

The conflict in Yemen has led to the deaths of over 377,000 people, according to the United Nations, with four million people said to be internally or externally displaced.

* Terrorist groups in Russia and many other countries.