DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A new runway is being built on a volcanic island in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, satellite images show. This is likely the latest project by forces affiliated with opponents of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
The airstrip on Zuqar island is another link in a network of offshore bases in a region crucial for international shipping, where the Houthis have already attacked more than 100 ships, sunk four ships and killed at least nine sailors during the war between Israel and Hamas.
It could give a military force the ability to conduct aerial surveillance of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the strategic, narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the two waterways off East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
Yet it remains unclear what the reason would be to use the airstrip for a military campaign. The United Arab Emirates, which has built other runways in the region, did not respond to requests for comment. So did Yemen's anti-Houthi forces, divided by competing interests and unable to launch a coordinated attack on the rebels even after intensive US and Israeli bombardments targeted them.
In recent months, anti-Houthi forces have managed to interdict more cargo bound for the Houthis, something a presence on Zuqar could help.
“The possibility of a new Yemeni offensive against the Houthis, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, cannot be ruled out, although I do not see it as imminent,” said Eleonora Ardemagni, an analyst at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies who has long studied Yemen.
“There is, in my opinion, a more important issue regarding the build-up in Zuqar: countering the smuggling activities of Houthis, especially with regard to weapons,” she said.
An airstrip on a strategic island
Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press show the construction of a nearly 2,000-meter-long airstrip on Zuqar island, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) southeast of the Houthi-held port city of Hodeida, a major shipping hub.
The images show that construction of a dock on the island and subsequent land reclamation along the site of the runway began in April. At the end of August, asphalt was laid over the runway. Images from October show work continuing, with runway markings painted in the middle of the month.
No one has claimed the construction. However, ship tracking data analyzed by the AP shows that the Batsa, a Togolese-flagged bulk carrier registered with a Dubai-based maritime company, spent almost a week alongside the new port on Zuqar island after arriving from Berbera in Somaliland, the site of a DP World port. DP World declined to comment.
A Dubai-based maritime company, Saif Shipping and Marine Services, acknowledged receiving an order on behalf of other UAE-based companies to supply the island's asphalt likely to be used in the construction of the runway. Other Emirati-based maritime companies have been linked to other airstrip construction projects in Yemen, which were later linked to the UAE.
The UAE is believed to be behind several airstrip projects in Yemen in recent years. In Mocha on the Red Sea, a project to expand that city's airport now makes it possible to land much larger planes. Local officials attributed that project to the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai. There is now also an airstrip at nearby Dhubab.
Another airstrip is located on Abd al-Kuri Island, in the Indian Ocean near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden. And in the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb itself is another UAE-built airstrip on Mayun Island. An anti-Houthi secessionist force in Yemen known as the Southern Transitional Council, which has long been backed by the UAE, controls the island and has acknowledged the UAE's role in building the airport.
Targeting Houthi shipments
Zuqar Island is a strategic location in the Red Sea. Eritrea captured the island in 1995 after fighting with Yemeni forces. An international court formally placed the island under Yemen's custody in 1998.
The island was again engulfed in war after the Houthis captured Yemen's capital Sanaa in 2014 and began a march south as the rebels captured Zuqar.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE entered the war on behalf of the country's exiled government in 2015, halting the Houthis' advance. They also defeated the Houthis from Zuqar and retook the island, which has become a staging area for naval forces loyal to Tariq Saleh, a cousin of the late Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The younger Saleh, once an ally of the Houthis before his uncle switched sides and the rebels killed him, is backed by the UAE.
Since then, the front lines of the war have been static for years.
What changed was that the Houthis took their campaign worldwide with attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. That continued even after a weeks-long campaign of intense airstrikes known as Operation Rough Rider, launched by the United States, and continued attacks by Israel, which appears to be closing in on the Houthis' top leadership despite the rebels' penchant for secrecy.
“The Houthis, like any insurgent group, win by not losing,” Gregory D. Johnsen, a Yemen expert, wrote in June. “It's how the group has survived and grown from each of its wars.”
Although a loose confederation of anti-Houthi groups exists, it remains fragmented and did not carry out any attacks during the US air campaign. But the growing network of air bases around Yemen comes as anti-Houthi forces have made several major weapons seizures, likely en route to the rebels – including a major haul that was praised by the US military's Central Command.
“A likely Emirati airstrip in Zuqar could serve to improve surveillance and monitoring off the coast of Hodeida and better support Yemeni forces in tackling smuggling,” Ardemagni said.
