Kuwait, which is part of a Saudi-led military coalition waging a military onslaught and enforcing a tight blockade against Yemen, has reportedly withdrawn forces from areas on the southern border of Saudi Arabia with the war-torn Arab country.
On Thursday, sources close to the Saudi-backed and Aden-based Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) circulated video clips on social media platforms, showing the pullout of Kuwaiti troops from the regions and their return to their homeland.
The development comes more than eight years after Kuwait deployed its forces along Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen after Riyadh initiated a brutal war of aggression against its southern neighbor in March 2015.
The reasons for the pullout of Kuwaiti forces are unclear, and it is unknown whether it is related to any disputes within the Riyadh-led alliance.
Some observers have associated the move with growing indications that Yemeni fighters would launch retaliatory operations and target Kuwaiti troops just like the recent attack on Bahraini forces stationed on the Saudi border with Yemen.
Two Bahraini servicemen in Saudi Arabia were confirmed dead in Monday’s drone attack before a third soldier succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday, the Bahrain Defense Force said.
The attack took place as the soldiers were patrolling Saudi Arabia’s southern border with Yemen.
Saudi Arabia launched the war of aggression against Yemen in March 2015, enlisting the assistance of some of its regional allies, including the United Arab Emirates, as well as massive shipments of advanced weaponry from the US and Western Europe.
The Western governments extended their political and logistical support to Riyadh in their failed bid to restore power in Yemen to the former Saudi-installed government.
The former Yemeni government’s president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, resigned in late 2014 and later fled to Riyadh amid a political conflict with Ansarullah resistance movement.
The movement has been running Yemen’s affairs in the absence of a functioning administration.
The war further led to the killing of tens of thousands of Yemenis and turned the entire nation into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
