Saudi Arabia has recruited thousands of people from the southern provinces of Yemen as an additional force within the so-called “Dera Al-Watan” forces, well-informed sources said on Monday.
The sources stated that Saudi Arabia is preparing three military brigades from the southern recruits and train them in Ma’rib province, on the outskirts of Shabwah and Hadhramaut provinces in eastern Yemen.
This comes after Riyadh deployed the “Dera Al-Watan” forces at Al-Abr road in Hadhramaut and at Al-Wadea border crossing between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, after the refusal of the Saudi commander of the “support brigade” of the Saudi-led coalition, Sultan al-Baqami, the deployment of the UAE-backed “Hadhrami elite” at the crossing.
The oil-rich eastern provinces of Yemen have turned into a theater for Saudi-Emirati competition, serving the US-British presence in those regions.
