15 troops loyal to the pro-Saudi faction in Yemen were killed today and 30 others were wounded in a pair of ISIS attacks against manned checkpoints in the Hadramawt Province in eastern Yemen. Officials claimed 15 ISIS fighters were also killed.
The attacks were synchronized across the province, Yemen’s largest. Officials initially blamed al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), who controls much of the province’s south, including the capital city of al-Mukalla along the coast.
But ISIS ultimately stepped up and claimed credit for the attacks, suggesting they too are growing in this area. Previously, most of the ISIS attacks across Yemen have focused on major cities, and chiefly the capital city of Sanaa, where Shi’ite mosques have been regularly bombed.
So far the ISIS affiliate in Yemen is not reported to have any major territory of its own, but with AQAP holding a lot of largely empty desert area in Hadramawt their rivals can likely set up shop in the area with relatively little fear of coming into direct conflict with them, and use it as a staging area for attacks against the other factions.
ISIS showing up there is just to raise a flag and say — we are here. How convenient for Saudi Arabia. Having lost the drive to conquer Yemen highlands, now it is focused on the consolation prize. Namely, Hadramawth has been heading towards independence, with or without Aden. The region was always independent, and its sultanates go back to the era of Sinbad, as this region along with the part of Oman was the hub of Asian maritime trade, and at one time wealthy, until the end of Roman empire, rise of Silk Road, and the age of European discovery of new ocean routes and new worlds. It fell into insignificance until many of its inhabitants made wealth in Saudi Arabia and invested in Al-Mukalla, creating their own new hub of off-shore wealth. Al-Qaeda was nothing else but an outfit that was undermining the secession of the region, and as it lost its local appeal — being exposed as noting more then a tool of Saudi influence, here comes ISIS! Naturally, in the name of fighting ISIS, Saudi Arabia will have an excuse to take over Hadramawth and expand its rule from Aden to Omani border. Good luck with that. Many of Saudi wealthiest families are invested in keeping Hadramawth independent, and they have means to make Saudi royal family regret their haste. Nothing is what appears to be. Welcome to the Middle East.
Is it just me or are there really more and more people starting to see the truth, as unpalatable as it is?