Ansarallah Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced on 30 January that mercenary groups of UAE and ISIS-affiliated militants have been pushed back just west of Shabwah in the Naqoub area.

Saree’s statement said that the launch of a ballistic missile targeted “a large gathering of UAE and ISIS mercenaries in the Naqoub, west of Shabwah.”

“The deaths and injuries of large numbers of mercenaries, and the destruction of vehicles, is a result of the ballistic missile,” Ansarallah spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree confirmed in his statement. He added that five enemy vehicles were also destroyed.

On 29 January, Yemeni resistance air defenses announced the shooting down of a US-made Scan Eagle spy plane from the Saudi-led coalition.

The spy plane was shot down in the airspace of Al- Juba district, south of Marib. Coalition raids targeted the Madaghl al-Jadaan district, northwest of the Marib governorate, and Al-Juba and Serwah districts, south and west, respectively, of the city of Marib.

The Saudi-backed coalition took control of oil-rich Shabwah from the Ansarallah resistance on 10 January, which has been occupied by the UAE mercenaries and ISIS fighters since.

Reports said that five pro-coalition Yemeni fighters were killed in Ansarallah’s latest strike in Shabwah, with Saree announcing that 40 pro-coalition fighters were injured.

The Ansarallah has intensified its strikes against Marib and Shabwah, especially following Operation Hurricane Yemen 1 and 2.

The series of operations, launched deep against the UAE, came in retaliation for the UAE sending its mercenaries from ISIS and affiliated groups to take control of Yemen’s oil-rich province of Shabwah.