Updated on Sept. 7 with confirmation that the troops have been deployed
Qatar has deployed some 1,000 ground troops to Yemen, following the death of at least 60 soldiers from the Gulf countries this week, according to Al Jazeera.
Speaking to Doha News, a spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday declined to comment on whether the nation’s military was becoming more involved in the ongoing clash between the Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government.
However, a correspondent for the state-funded Al Jazeera Network reported on Monday from the Saudi-Yemen border that Qatar troops were heading to Yemen, and backed by more than 200 armored vehicles and 30 Apache combat helicopters.
Coalition build up in #Marib continues as #Qatar Sends in their forces. #Yemen #Doha #KSA #UAE #Aden #Taiz #Bahrain pic.twitter.com/PaT3z5mCaU
— Mohamed (@arabianofelix) September 6, 2015
This week, reactions to the news have been mainly supportive from people in the Gulf, according to the trending hashtag #جيش_قطر_يتجه_لسحق_الحوثي (Qatar’s army is going to crush the Houthis).
On Twitter, some prayed for the soldiers’ protection and victory against the rebels, while others hailed the unity among the Gulf states taking part in the military offensive:
https://twitter.com/__almulla/status/640469241922109440
Translation: May God protect every soldier who left his loved ones, family and friends to serve the country and perform his duty.
مرحبا مليون بالجيش القطري ورجاله البواسل في معركة المصير سوف يكون لابناء #التميمي كلمة حسم#جيش_قطر_يتجه_لسحق_الحوثي pic.twitter.com/WIukD2zHuo
— DR.Mohamad ALHdla (@drmohamadalhdla) September 6, 2015
Translation: A million welcomes to the Qatari army and its brave men. In the decisive battle, (Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani’s) children will have the final word.
Solidarity
The deployment of Qatar troops comes days after dozens of Saudi and Emirati soldiers were killed in an explosion at a weapons store in central Yemen.
According to QNA, Qatar has expressed its condolences and said it stands in solidarity with Saudi Arabia and UAE following the deaths.
The explosion was apparently caused by rockets fired from the Houthis and led to the demise of 45 Emirati soldiers, “one of the worst losses of life in the history of the UAE military,” according to Reuters.
Heartwrenching. My condolences to the families of the 45 UAE martyrs and to our country. (image via @HoorAlq) pic.twitter.com/xnDdbHjVUA
— سلطان سعود القاسمي (@SultanAlQassemi) September 5, 2015
The explosion also caused the highest number of deaths for the coalition since the beginning of the Saudi-led military offensive on the Houthis in March, after 10 Saudi soldiers died in the same explosion.
Meanwhile, Bahrain’s official news agency BNA said five Bahraini soldiers were killed while on duty protecting Saudi Arabia, deaths that apparently refer to the same incident, according to Reuters.
Operation Decisive Storm
Qatar and several other GCC and Arab countries have been part of a Saudi-led military offensive in Yemen since it first began in March, expressing support for the government of exiled Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.
According to Al Arabiya, Qatar had initially deployed 10 fighter jets to Yemen to participate in the offensive.
Early last month, the UAE sent a military brigade to Yemen to fight Houthi rebels, senior Yemeni and United States military officials told the New York Times.
Gulf involvement has in part to do with concerns that the conflict in Yemen would give Iran a chance to gain a foothold over the Arabian Peninsula via the Houthi rebels, which are considered “Iranian proxies,” David Roberts, a lecturer at King’s College in London, previously told Doha News.
Some analysts have said Shia Iran’s support comes as it is locked in a struggle for influence with regional Sunni rival Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis hail from the Shia Zaydi community, which makes up around a third of Yemen’s population and is concentrated in the north, according to the Guardian.
So far, the conflict has resulted in a “massive” humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.
Since March, at least 1,950 civilians have been killed and 4,271 wounded in air strikes and fighting on the ground in Yemen, according to UN figures cited by the BBC.
The channel reported that “the destruction of infrastructure and restrictions on imports imposed by a Saudi-led coalition carrying have led to 21 million people being deprived of life-sustaining commodities and basic services.”
It added that last month, the UN children’s fund (Unicef) warned that an average of eight children were being killed or maimed every day.
Thoughts?
The situation in Yemen is a mess, GCC Sunni States fighting a war against Yemenis Shias to reinstall a president whose is so deeply unpopular in Yemen he had to flee to Saudi. This will go on for years without any conclusion and lots of waste of life.
The funny thing to me is for years Middle eastern countries and people have blasted the U.S. For interfering in the internal affairs of states in this region, but now they are doing exactly the same thing with exactly the same consequences! Do humans ever learn…..
the middle east has been a mess ever since the Brits & the French divided it up and gave their most loyal tribes ruling power. The world is now living the aftermath of such stupid decisions at the time. Wars, oppression and 18th century style government structures in the 21st century.
That is very true as is the 1000 years of Sunni sectarian wars and violence.
However should we blame all actions on others or what happened in the past or shall we try and peacefully coexist now in the present?
like people coexist in the US. cops killing black ppl , white ppl killing ppl in churchs , &D.Trump running for president .(last one my fav).
the guy is suggesting that you peacefully coexist with one another, and you are saying you dont want to coexist because other countries dont. Why do you want to follow the way of the US? doesnt make sense right?
Islam teaches you to coexist with many different people.
http://www.al-islam.org/articles/religious-tolerance-islam-sayyid-muhammad-rizvi
we always coexisted in Islam, he was to trying to make it sound they had it better.PLEASE
Well looking at Iraq, Syria, Saudi, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen I’d rather live in the U.S. It seems all the refugees heading out of these places agree with me too, they head for Europe or North America not the blessed Islamic States of the GCC or Iran full of their fellow Muslims…..
all countries you mentioned , had either US / UK / Russian interference in them .
Trump will never get elected, he is just a side show and an amusing one at that.
he is leading in the polls.
He is leading to be the republican nomination, not to be president. Even the Americans are not that dumb…
will they did allow Gorge BUSH run AMERICA for a 2nd term. just saying.
Because he was a war president. America had been attacked and 3000 people killed, so they wanted someone to defend them. At that time the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were popular because they believed they were going after the terrorists that attacked them. Opinion in the U.S. Is different now on those events, but hindsight is the only perfect science.
Destroying the Houthi terrorists actually sounded like a good idea on paper (for Saudi Arabia, anyway), but now I’m very concerned about AQAP gaining traction. Saudi Arabia’s plan to install a puppet state will be for naught if they don’t bother targeting AQAP. It is mildly hypocritical, but I still think Saudi has a better case for having acted in the interests of security than did the USA when they invaded Iraq.
& Iran has no interference in Yemen. are you drunk ???
One would have hoped that the Qatari leadership would have had the good sense not to get involved in a sectarian proxy war propping up a corrupt foreign leader. However, on the positive side, there can be no criticizing of other countries for their support of distasteful dictators.
we helped in the wrong doing of US invasion in IRAQ (like we had a saying in the matter ), at least we trying to clear the dirt of that in joining this one.
Un-huh
Just get ready for the retaliation from Yemen. This move guarantees that terrorism will come here.
i thought having US troops / base here did the trick .
That stops your neighbour’s national armies from turning up. You should understand that terrorism is not the same.
US troops killed innocent ppl all around the world & still does., its hard to say its not the same.
Try, at least try to stop throwing stones at the U.S. in every comment. Your Emir decided to work with the U.S. so you should stay quiet and accept his decision.
you dont get to say what i should comment about or not , i guess you are used to Terrorising ppl into doing things .
I don’t and I believe in the freedom of expression. It is your leadership that may not.
Siding with the Yanks doesn’t make it right, it’s still an illegal invasion. There will be years of bodybags returning to Saudi Arabia and those joining.
if an idea or thought is not like yours does not mean that people are necessarily drunk!
only people who are under the influence of substance cant really see the clear image.
yeah! I realize matchbooze was too heavy
sorry is it . happy hour for you & are you always happy
It is impossible to see the clear image because this is a very complex situation that is not triggered by a few factors. This is an accumulation of historically religious, social, cultural, environmental, financial, strategic, natural resources and superpower presence. Only an immature person would think of this war as a clear set of conflicts. You have over 10 countries including many super powers impacted by this war. It is amazing when people think of things as just black and white.
Of course they are. Iran is a despicable religious dictatorship intent on spreading their particular brand of Shia Islam.
No way, this is all about national pride. 1,000 troops? I mean, this is a chance to show off somewhere around 3,000 combined months of training!
The funny thing is all this people in the Middle East pointed fingers and blamed Israel and the USA for all their problems and short comings all this years and its a shame that only now this very people have realized that the problem was not Israel or the USA but their own leaders who brought this disasters and tragedies on themselves and this mess is not going to stop with Yemen or Syria
It is indeed a big big mess. What I struggle to understand is the following:
Please can someone correct me if I stated any wrong fact or theory? thx
-Sunnis are Against Shias
-Gulf is against Iran
-Gulf against Yemen
-Gulf is against Syria
-Syria is with Iran
-USA protects Gulf
-Gulf against Israel
-USA protects Israel
-Russia protects Syria
-Russia protects Iran
-Gulf & Iran are very stable with no wars or revolutions
-ISIS are Sunni and so is Saudi Arabia
-ISIS wants to take over to establish an Islamic state that implements Sharia law.
-Saudi Arabia already rules using Sharia law
Could it be that ISIS was funded by Saudi while the US sold weapons to Saudi that went to ISIS so that ISIS exterminates Shias and alawites and Israel promised protection and the benefit of having less enemies (Iran) ? I mean ISIS is extreme and terrorist, but don’t their rules of living comply with the laws of Saudi Arabia?
How many of those deployed are actually Qatari?
they are more Qatari than you are “a Westerner ” , how is the green card working for you , i hope the poor women was at least treated well while under the false pretends of marriage for love not green card.
Answer the question how many are Qatari citizens?
The Qatari armed forces tend to be overwhelmingly Pakistani, mostly Baluchi. Why do you fight acknowledging this? Air Force is different as it is seen as elite, but ground forces are heavily foreign, like the police.
i think the armed forces have mix of qatari and arab descent, and pakistan.
your prove??????? with no prove its just lies
you like to talk a lot for some reason. you are adamant about arguing and comparing yourself to different countries, you wouldnt be doing that if you believed 100% that you are doing something right. Are you doing this out of anger, ego, or hate? islam teaches you to be patient and loving, not hateful and attacking.
Anyway heres your proof:
“The lack of sufficient indigenous manpower to staff the army is a
continuing problem, Qatari citizens constitute only 30 percent of the
army, in which more than twenty nationalities are represented.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_Armed_Forces
Why assume that he is familiar with Islamic teachings?
familiar or not , not what we the story above about or even close to , find any facts yet ???
yes i sent you the facts
try giving WIKIPEDIA as a source of your facts to your company/university/school .it wont hold .
Its a good thing im not giving it to them LOL
(also btw, the old school way of not accepting wikipedia as a source is outdated, the new way of thinking accepts wikipedia as long as the source it cites is credible)
Now, my wikipedia proof is weak, but you would be really ignorant to think that any gulf country has its army made up of mostly nationals. The national citizens which make up an the army is a minority, it doesnt need proof when its something that is widely known
Known by who , outsider who most dont understand arabic, yeah want to know about qatari army talk to Expat, funny logic
shows your ignorance, i lived with army people LOL
أبوك ما يعرف عربي
haha , ARMY PEOPLE ????, still your comments are nonsense,where are your facts ????
Well, the reason why Wikipedia isn’t excepted is because it can change at any moment. What you do is reference the citations used in the Wiki entry, not the entry itself.
Why assume that he is familiar with any teachings at all?
WIKIPEDIA for source , really, you can make your own stuff on it, does not make it a trustworthy source. find more OFFICIAL one
Everything’s so hush-hush here in Qatar, that Wiki is probably as official as it gets homie.
WIKI can be modified by almost anyone ,im asking for solid facts ,yet people are making their own facts?
so a mix; too afraid to send 100% qatari troops I guess
yeah & you facts on this matter are????????????
in fact even on the Saudi borders there are Pakistanis directly from Pakistan government, teaching the Saudis how to fight on the mountains, as they know. But Pakistan government has been quite about this.
your facts on the topic???? making you own logic with no fact makes it lies.
I think your aggressive attitude says it all.
aggressive in asking for Facts? yeah you make a valid point .LOL
The Air Force is made up of those who did not want to do the hours that QR demanded.
Lol… Comparing QR and the air force?
Not at all my friend. QR is made up of a majority of Western trained flight crews of whom many are ex military pilots. I would not offend the QR pilots by comparing them to a few part time pilots flying clapped out Alpha jets and Mirages.
Fact or fiction I can’t imagine an army of underpaid mercenaries led by boys longing for their landcruisers can have much impact on a bunch of battle hardened Houthis..
Deleting for attack (and most of this thread too)
You’re back!
too bad, a lot of people didnt get to see the rumors ppl spreed here , with no facts .just lies they like to call their own “facts”
I was just wondering that myself, but apparently it’s too hot a topic for discussion here.
I would prefer not to have them beside me in battle. The rent a military would be preferable.
hmmmmmmmmmm. …….would be interesting to know
New flag of Saudi Arabia…..
Perhaps the Saudis are going to have democratic elections soon after the meeting their leaders had with Obama in Washington last week. They might put the Americans and the EU to shame with their pre programmed free and fair elections the way they do it in the Middle East
I also understand that king salaman on gaining power discovered his country is full of women, so he is going to start a program of employment, holding positions of power and even letting them out of the house unsupervised like adults.
If invading Saudi, UAE and Qatar military forces fail to impose their destructive will on Yemen, the defeat it will encourage many, including millions of immigrant temporary labour throughout the region, to act to end the monarchies — a new Arab Spring that this time will succeed and, at the same time, destroy the ISIS.
very nice story, plz tell us another
@ShabinaKhatri:disqus good luck moderating this one……… 🙂
History tells us that you cant restore peace using a rifle. By the time GCC countries realise this Yemen would have become the next Syria. Peaceful dialogue only can bring permanent peace in the region.
like US Peaceful dialogue in Iraq & Syria ,Afghanistan, Vietnam , ….. LOL
or Pakistan with India
Russia with Ukraine
There we go again…..
I’m interested by the voices of support for this little exercise. Where are the voices of opposition, or the ones asking if it is Qatar’s best interest? At least in the run-up to 2003 (qatari, you’re too young to remember) there were lots of those, but the jingoistic nationalism I see on social media makes me wonder where the opposition to this is. This jumping feet first into a messy sectarian proxy war is something that I would think would cause sober second thought and critical analysis among many Qataris, but I don’t see that anywhere.
Go home!!!!
The Qataries deserve to be sent back with their tails between their legs for following the murdering Saudis. Not only have they invaded Yemen they are now blocking aid and food causing civilian deaths.
How do you say “quagmire” in Arabic?
America has succeeded in getting Muslims to kill other Muslims. She no longer has to send her own troops to do her dirty work. Unfortunately, the Muslims lack a sincere leader who can guide and steer them in the right direction. Although Islam forbids Muslims from killing each other or from killing innocent people, the scholars loyal to the regimes and on their payrolls, have made it easier for the killing to happen. This evil must end now before the whole of the Muslim world becomes engulfed in sectarianism and destruction. No artificial borders will prevent the flames of this war from reaching the palaces and tall towers.
But why isn’t Qatar taking Syrians instead of sending troops to war????
There are so many refugee Muslims who need a home. Why isn’t Qatar accepting them?
Hadi and Saleh are from the same group.Both were sponsored by Saudi. In better times, all the ringleaders in Yemen enjoyed Saudi support, with the exception of Saadah Houthis who were treated as outsiders and unwanted citizens.It would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a Houthi to join the privileged club in Yemen.
Yemen as a country was propped up by Saudi money, including the central bank and national carrier.Now the ringleaders are the worst of enemies. The consequences are widespread destruction . Ordinary people die because of leaders who are not willing to die for Yemenis. Instead their people are made to face humiliation and death.The battle for Marib Taiz Sana and beyond is a suicide mission.
The UN is such a weak body today but at least offers common sense as a precarious consolation to dictatorships in Arabia . Why die when you can negotiate even if you do not want to? At least Yemenis would have lived if this common sense had prevailed from the start.