Around 15 UAE mercenaries reported missing in Shabwah province

Around 15 UAE mercenaries reported missing in Shabwah province

Tribal sources in Shabwah on Sunday said that contact with about 15 recruits in the UAE-backed militias stationed in the Balhaf facility, have disappeared, likely to have been kidnapped, Yemen News Portal reported.

The recruits were stationed on mobile patrols in the vicinity of the Balhaf facility, when they disappeared altogether, the sources said.

This follows tensions in the oil province after UAE forces confiscated weapons belonging to the Islah Party factions.

Activists have reported arrests of dozens of members of the so-called Shabwah Elite, who are guarding UAE forces in Balhaf in the Ayn Bamabad area, a few kilometers from the Balhaf gate where UAE forces are stationed.

These arrests are likely retaliatory done by Islah miltias, in response to the seizure of arms shipments en route to Shabwah from the Somali coast, where a Turkish base is located.

The arrests followed the withdrawal of Islah factions from the Balhaf area, after they threatened to storm the facility.