\n The United Arab Emirates, a key player in Yemen's war, says it is determined to wipe out Al-Qaeda in the country and denies making deals with the jihadists.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UAE entered Yemen's complex war in 2015 alongside regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, after Iran-backed Huthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa and swathes of the country from the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.\n<\/p>\n
\n But that summer, as Emirati-backed government forces retook five southern provinces of Yemen, they found themselves facing another powerful enemy: Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.\n<\/p>\n
\n The group, seen by the US State Department as the most dangerous branch of the global Al-Qaeda franchise, had taken advantage of the chaos gripping Yemen to carve out its own territory.\n<\/p>\n
\n In April 2015, the group seized Mukalla, capital of the vast Hadramaut province, which it controlled for a year until being ousted in an Emirati-led operation.\n<\/p>\n
\n Emirati forces have established a major military presence across the country's south and commanders say they are determined to wipe out AQAP.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Irrespective of what happens in the wider Yemen conflict, the UAE will continue until AQAP is broken as a regional and global threat,\" a senior Emirati military official said during a recent press tour in the country's south.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Nothing to negotiate' -\n<\/p>\n
\n More than two years since the jihadists were ousted from the city, Hadramaut governor General Faraj Salmin al-Bahsani, described the operation.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We set up a local force of soldiers from the region, with Emirati help,\" said Bahsani, who is also commander of government forces across a chunk of southern Yemen.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Coalition air forces paralysed Al-Qaeda forces before they were ousted from the region,\" he said, sitting in his office in the provincial government headquarters, its wall adorned with a picture of Hadi.\n<\/p>\n
\n Experts said the jihadists, who had imposed a reign of terror on the city, opted to cut their losses by withdrawing without a fight to remote mountain areas.\n<\/p>\n
\n But a press report published earlier this month detailed secret deals allegedly made between AQAP and the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.\n<\/p>\n
\n Payments were reportedly made to some jihadists to convince them to retreat, while others were allowed to leave with their weapons.\n<\/p>\n
\n The claims were dismissed as \"false accusations\" by Brigadier General Musallam al-Rashedi, from the Emirati Armed Forces, who said he was angered by the report.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"There is nothing to negotiate with these guys,\" he told journalists Monday in Dubai.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Dependant on UAE -\n<\/p>\n
\n In Mukalla, a semblance of normality has returned.\n<\/p>\n
\n Its port, a key trading point serving the entire province, is a hub of activity.\n<\/p>\n
\n Cargo ships come and go, directed into the dock by a tugboat provided by the UAE.\n<\/p>\n
\n The city is heavily dependent on its Emirati backers.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UAE has pumped some $3.8 billion (3.3 billion euros) of aid into the country since 2015 and provides much of the support that keeps hospitals, schools, courts and the port running, according to its governor.\n<\/p>\n
\n Abu Dhabi's police force has even sent 170 cars and 500 brand new motorcycles to the city, an Emirati general said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Emirates have also trained and equipped some 60,000 Yemeni fighters, 30,000 of whom were directly involved in the fight against Al-Qaeda, according to an Emirati military official.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said Al-Qaeda's activities have dramatically decreased. The group launched just five attacks in southern Yemen in the first half of 2018, as compared to 77 over the same period of 2016.\n<\/p>\n
\n He added that until 2016, the jihadists had a major presence in cities and towns which are home to some 850,000 people, giving the group with a major source of funding and new recruits.\n<\/p>\n
\n That is no longer the case.\n<\/p>\n
\n Emirati operations and a long-running American drone campaign against the group have hit its capabilities hard.\n<\/p>\n
\n Some 1,000 AQAP fighters have been killed in Yemen since 2015, including 13 of the group's top 18 leaders, the official said.\n<\/p>\n
\n A further 1,500 have been captured.\n<\/p>\n
\n General Rashedi said that since the start of 2016, the jihadists have lost \"half the territory\" they controlled in southern Yemen.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Their capacity to carry out terrorism globally has been seriously hampered,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n AQAP claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015.\n<\/p>\n
\n In July this year, Amnesty said human rights violations in a string of UAE-run Yemeni prisons could amount to war crimes, a report rejected by Abu Dhabi.\n<\/p>\n
\n Despite Emirati successes, Bahsani admits that AQAP is still active in Hadramaut, alongside the Islamic State group which has recently established a presence in southern Yemen.\n<\/p>\n
\n He blamed both groups for a string of killings targeting security officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United Arab Emirates, a key player in Yemen's war, says it is determined to wipe out Al-Qaeda in the country and denies making deals with the jihadists. The UAE entered Yemen's complex war in 2015 alongside regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, after Iran-backed Huthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa and swathes of the country from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-38402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n