In this photo taken Sunday, the flag of the United Arab Emirates is flown at half-staff in honor of Emirati soldiers killed in Friday's attack by Shiite rebels in Yemen, as Burj Khalifa in Dubai is seen in the background. — AP DUBAI — A deadly attack late last week on soldiers from Gulf states in Marib, Yemen, as part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting the country's Houthi rebels may well have been designed to break the coalition's will. If that was the aim, it backfired. The missile assault on Friday struck an ammunition depot in the Yemeni province of Marib, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of the capital, Sanaa. Hardest hit in the attack was the UAE, a federation of seven states that includes Dubai and the capital, Abu Dhabi, which lost 45 soldiers. Ten Saudis were killed in the blast too. Bahrain also lost five soldiers. Emirati fighter planes have responded to the attack by pounding positions and arms caches used by Iranian-backed Shiite rebels known as Houthis — rebels that the Gulf states see as little more than tools of Tehran. The Gulf nation of Qatar significantly ramped up its involvement in the conflict on Monday, deploying about 1,000 ground troops backed by armored vehicles and Apache helicopters, according the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television. “Our Armed Forces ... are more resolved and determined to liberate Yemen and flush out the scum after the tragic incident,” Sheikh Muhammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi crown prince and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces, assured visiting Yemeni President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi after the attack. Radio stations across the UAE have replaced their usual upbeat fare with Quranic recitations to mark three days of mourning commemorating the unprecedented war loss. Sheikh Muhammad and other top government officials visited families of killed soldiers. Outside medical clinics, Emirati men in traditional white garments known as thobes have been lining up to give blood for those still recovering from the attack. The managing editor of the widely read UAE daily Gulf News, Mohammed Almezel, suggested in an op-ed that the deaths were a “Pearl Harbor moment” that will strengthen the Emirates' determination in Yemen. He described the fight as “part of a strategic decision to defend and preserve the security and stability of the Gulf strategic hemisphere.” “The cowardly attack in Marib will not intimidate the Arab coalition into abdicating its responsibility of defending justice and supporting the right of the Yemeni people,” he wrote. Mustafa Alani, the director of the security and defense department at the Gulf Research Center in Geneva, said that rather than spooking it, Friday's attack will likely prod the coalition to “finish the job in Yemen under any circumstance.” Many in Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and the Emirates support the war and will likely continue to do so despite the casualties, as a way to check what they see as Iran's expansionist policies in the region, Alani said. That sentiment was echoed by businessman Abdullah Al-Musa outside a Dubai mosque. He described the fight in Yemen as a way to ultimately help the Emirates. “They are our neighbors. If there is a problem in your neighbor's house, tomorrow it will be in your house,” he said. The US-backed coalition has been carrying out air strikes since March in a bid to halt the Houthi rebel power grab that captured Sanaa and areas in the country's north last year. The bulk of the fighting on the ground is being done by Yemenis, including infantry soldiers, said Alani. The UAE is a major buyer of military hardware and has increasingly deployed troops on military and humanitarian missions abroad. It last year began requiring compulsory military service for adult males, and it is one of the most prominent Arab members of the US-led aerial campaign against the Daesh militants in Iraq and Syria. At least five other members of the Emirati military have been killed in Yemen this year, and another died during training exercises related to the operation in Saudi Arabia. Theodore Karasik, a Dubai-based geopolitical analyst, agreed that Friday's attack is unlikely to deter the Emirates. “Yemen is part of the strategic calculation of the UAE,” he said, citing Emirati concerns not just about close ally Saudi Arabia's security but also about freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden off Yemen's shores. The Emirates relies heavily on international trade and Dubai's government-backed DP World is one of the world's largest seaport operators. The country is also a major backer of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi, whose country's Suez Canal depends on open sea lanes in the Red Sea. A somber scene Saturday perhaps best reflected UAE's resolve over Yemen — the coffins of the fallen Emirati soldiers were brought home by plane to the Al Bateen Airport in Abu Dhabi. The caskets, each draped in the Emirati flag, were then carried down a red carpet as an honor guard stood by on the tarmac. The soldiers' final return is since being replayed on state-owned television, along with patriotic file footage of Emirati troops and fighter planes in action. — AP
