UAE has not ended Yemen attacks: Emirati FM
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A handout image made available by the Emirati WAM news agency on September 5, 2015 shows Emirati armed forces carrying the bodies of comrades killed the previous day in Yemen.
A senior Emirati official has withdrawn his earlier comments that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had ended its combat operations in Yemen, saying his country is still “at war.”
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash, who had been quoted on Wednesday as saying that “war is over” for Emirati soldiers in Yemen, said on Friday that his comment had been taken “out of context.”
“We are at war. I am appalled that my statement was taken out of context and misinterpreted for (an) external agenda that seeks to undermine the region,” Gargash said, state-run WAM news agency reported.
The UAE, which has been fighting as part of a Saudi war on Yemen, has suffered heavy casualties against Ansarullah fighters and allied military units.
On Monday, an Emirati military helicopter crashed near the al-Buraiqeh coast of the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, killing its two pilots.
Two Emirati pilots died in March when their Mirage fighter jet crashed due to a technical fault while conducting military operations in the same district.
Last September, the UAE confirmed that at least 52 of its soldiers were killed when Yemeni army fired a barrage of missiles at foreign troopers in Ma’rib Province. At least 70 soldiers were also injured in the missile attack.
SS
