A senior military commander has defected from UAE-backed forces in Yemen’s West Coast Front and was received by the joint Houthi-army forces in the capital Sanaa.
Houthi spokesperson and member of their political bureau, Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, announced yesterday that Brigadier General Abdulmalik Al-Abyadh who was chief of advanced operations under Tariq Saleh’s “Republican Guards”, which are loyal to the Saudi-led coalition and are supported by the UAE.
بحضور نائب رئيس لجنة المصالحة الوطنية الشيخ علي القيسي، و د. طارق الشامي رئيس الدائرة الاعلامية لحزب المؤتمر وعدد من أعضاء مجلس الشورى، تم استقبال العميد ركن عبد الملك الأبيض رئيس العمليات المتقدمة في جبهة الساحل الغربي، والذي أعلن عن إعتذاره للوطن والانضمام لصفه لقتال المحتلين. pic.twitter.com/lhkN6YzuR9
— محمد البخيتي(Mohammed Al-Bukaiti) (@M_N_Albukhaiti) June 30, 2020
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According to Al-Bukhaiti, Al-Abyadh joined the ranks of the Houthi forces to fight against the occupiers and issued an apology to the homeland.
In addition to the Southern Transitional Council (STC) there are various UAE-backed Yemeni forces fighting against the Houthis operating under interchangeable umbrella names of “Joint Forces” and “National Resistance Forces”, included in these are Tariq Saleh’s Republican Guards formed in 2018 after the collapse of the alliance between the Houthis and Tariq’s late uncle, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Saleh’s forces are mainly concentrated on Yemen’s west coast and are instrumental in maintaining the coalition-led siege on the vital Red Sea port city of Hudaydah.
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