Emirati soldier killed in Yemen: UAE military

By Ahmed al-Masri

DOHA (AA) - An Emirati soldier has been killed in Yemen, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) military announced Thursday.

The General Command of the UAE Armed Forces on Thursday announced the death of soldier Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah al-Hosani, the official Emirates News Agency (ENA) reported.

Al-Hosani was reportedly killed while taking part in operations being conducted in Yemen by a Saudi-led military coalition, of which the UAE is a member.

ENA did not provide any additional details regarding the soldier’s death, including where he was killed.

Al-Hosani is the second Emirati soldier to be killed within the last week. Last Thursday, another UAE soldier was killed in Saudi Arabia’s southern Najran region near the border with Yemen.

And in mid-October, two Emirati army pilots affiliated with the coalition were killed when their plane crashed due to what coalition officials described as a “technical failure”.

In terms of air power, the UAE is the second largest contributor to the Saudi-led coalition, which was cobbled together in 2015 to fight Yemen’s Shia Houthi militia group.

Yemen has remained in chaos since 2014, when the Houthis and their allies overran capital Sanaa, forcing the country’s internationally-recognized government to temporarily relocate to Riyadh.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive military campaign aimed at reversing the Houthis’ territorial gains and restoring Yemen’s pro-Saudi government.

Since then, dozens of Emirati military personnel have been killed in Yemen fighting the Shia group, which Riyadh accuses of being an Iranian proxy.