MEOG: Giants Brigades retake Shabwa fields

UAE-backed forces in Yemen retook control of oilfields in the south of the country following intense fighting with groups aligned with the Houthi militia, which is in turn supported by Iran.

Local media reported that the al-Amaliqa (Giants) Brigades, alongside the Southern Transitional Council’s Shabwa Defence Forces (SDF), had seized control of energy facilities in Shabwa Province from the Special Security Forces, a paramilitary police group. Days earlier the Giants and the SDF took control of Shabwa’s capital, Ataq, again from the SDF.

Control of Shabwa has shifted between the groups amid various attempts on both parts to ‘liberate’ the region.

Fighting between government forces with Saudi Arabian and Emirati backing and the Iran-backed Houthis has centred around Shabwa and neighbouring Ma’rib, to the west, which are home to the majority of the country’s oil and gas reserves.

Over the past decade the Houthis have expanded their reach beyond the Sa’dah in the far north-west, along the border with Saudi, progressing south and east, taking the capital Sana’a in 2014, resulting in the ongoing civil war and prompting Riyadh’s intervention.