The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on 22 January that US forces hid in fortified bunkers in Abu Dhabi due to the threats they received from the Ansarallah forces on 17 January.

CENTCOM spokesman Captain William Urban said in a statement that US forces at Abu Dhabi’s Al-Zafra airbase in the UAE were on standby for half an hour from 9:01 am local time and took shelter in the bunkers due to threats.

On 17 January, Ansarallah resistance launched missiles and drone strikes on an oil facility and an airport in Abu Dhabi.

A military spokesman for the Ansarallah resistance said after the attack on Dubai, Abu Dhabi airports, and the Abu Dhabi oil refinery, a number of important and sensitive facilities in the country were targeted with five ballistic and guided missiles, and a large number of UAVs.

On 17 January, Brigadier General Yahya Saree read a military statement in which he stated that the Yemeni Armed Forces had conducted a large-scale military action against the United Arab Emirates in response to the “US-Saudi-Emirati assault.”

“The armed forces are implementing today what they promised, and they renewed their warning to the countries of aggression that they will receive increasingly more painful blows,” he added.

The spokesman said that Ansarallah will not hesitate to expand the number of targets to include more sites and facilities during the coming period.

Saree also declared that the UAE is considered a dangerous country for as long as it maintains its “aggressive escalation against Yemen.”

Yemen’s Information Minister, Daifullah al-Shami, said on 18 January that the recent drone operation on Emirati soil was a “legitimate and legal retaliation,” warning UAE officials that the entire country is within range of the Yemeni army.

“The attack by the Yemeni armed forces against the UAE was part of a legal and legitimate response that was carried out in retaliation to the escalation of war by the UAE and its continuous military actions against the people of Yemen,” Al-Shami told Tasnim News Agency.