ABU DHABI: Four soldiers from the United Arab Emirates were killed when their helicopter crashed during a mission in Yemen, the UAE military confirmed on Saturday.
The four soldiers died when the helicopter crashed in the southern province of Shabwa following a technical problem, the UAE military said in statement carried by the country’s official WAM news agency.
Earlier this month, UAE-trained Yemeni special forces backed by the United States launched a major operation against Al-Qaeda in Shabwa, driving it out of most of the province.
Houthis are thought to have moved farther south into neighboring Abyan province.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, seen by the US as the network’s most dangerous branch, has exploited years of conflict between the government and Houthis to expand its presence in Yemen, particularly in southern provinces.
The UAE is a key component of the coalition which intervened in Yemen in 2015, when President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled into exile as the Houthis threatened to overrun his last stronghold.
Scores of its soldiers have been killed.
Four UAE soldiers killed in Yemen helicopter crash
Four UAE soldiers killed in Yemen helicopter crash
Palestinian president affirms efforts to release Marwan Barghouti from Israeli prison
- Mahmoud Abbas praised Barghouti’s resilience during a meeting with his wife, Fadwa, at presidential headquarters in Ramallah
LONDON: President Mahmoud Abbas emphasized the Palestinian Authority’s efforts to support calls for the release of senior Fatah leader and Central Committee member Marwan Barghouti from an Israeli prison.
On Tuesday, Abbas received Fadwa Barghouti, his wife, at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah, affirming that his release has always been a top priority for both the presidency and the Fatah movement.
Abbas praised Barghouti, who has been in Israeli prisons since April 2002 after receiving five life sentences plus 40 years for his conviction of carrying out deadly attacks on Israelis during the peak of the Second Intifada of 2000.
Hamas proposed Barghouti’s name on the list of prisoners to be exchanged for Israeli captives, but Israel declined to release him in October. The 66-year-old national figure also served over four years in prison in 1978 for political activism. Analysts have long seen him as a potential presidential candidate if and when he is released from prison.
His family accused Israel Prison Service officers of having beaten him unconscious. In August, the Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted video footage showing him visiting Barghouti in prison and making threatening remarks to him.
