DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A new airstrip is being built on a volcanic island in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, satellite images show, likely the latest project by forces aligned with those opposed to the country’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The airstrip on Zuqar Island provides another link in a network of offshore bases in a region key to international shipping, where the Houthis have already attacked more than 100 ships, sunk four vessels and killed at least nine sailors during the Israel-Hamas war. This could give a military force the ability to conduct air surveillance over the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the two waterways of East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Still, it remains unclear what would cause the airstrip to be used for a military campaign. The United Arab Emirates, which has built other runways in the region, did not respond to requests for comment. Neither are Yemen’s anti-Houthi forces, divided by warring interests and unable to launch a coordinated attack against the rebels, even after intense US and Israeli bombing targeting them. In recent months, the anti-Houthi forces have been able to interdict more cargo bound for the Houthis, something that 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 studied Yemen for a long time. “There is a more important point in my opinion regarding the build-up in Zuqar: combating the Houthis’ smuggling operations, particularly with regard to weapons,” she said. Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press show the construction of a nearly 2,000-meter (6,560-foot) runway on Zuqar Island, which is about 90 kilometers (55 miles) southeast of the Houthi port city of Hodeida, a major shipping hub. The images show that work began in April to build out a dock on the island, and then land clearing next to the site of the runway. By the end of August, what appeared to be asphalt was laid over the runway. Images from October show the work continuing, with runway markings painted in the middle of the month. No one claimed the construction. However, ship tracking data analyzed by the AP shows that the Batsa, a Togolese-flagged bulk carrier registered to a Dubai-based maritime firm, spent nearly a week alongside the new dock at Zuqar Island after coming 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, admitted receiving an order to deliver the asphalt to the island likely to be used in the construction of the airstrip on behalf of other UAE-based firms. Other Emirates-based maritime firms were associated with other airstrip construction projects in Yemen that were later linked to the UAE. The UAE is believed to be behind several runway projects in Yemen in recent years. In Mokka on the Red Sea, a project to expand this city’s airport now allows it 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 also now a runway in nearby Dhubab. Another runway is on Abd al-Kuri Island, in the Indian Ocean near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden. And in Bab el-Mandeb Street itself is another runway built by the UAE on Mayun Island. An anti-Houthi separatist force in Yemen known as the Southern Transitional Council, long supported by the UAE, controls the island and has acknowledged the UAE’s role in building the airport. Zuqar Island is a strategic location in the Red Sea. Eritrea captured the island in 1995 after fighting Yemeni forces. An international court formally placed the island in Yemen’s custody in 1998. The island found itself again engulfed in war after the Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014 and began a march south, when the rebels captured Zuqar. In 2015, Saudi Arabia and the UAE entered the war on behalf of the country’s exiled government and halted the Houthi advance. They also retook the Houthis from Zuqar and recaptured the island, which has become a staging ground for naval forces loyal to Tariq Saleh, a cousin of Yemen’s late strongman leader Ali Abdullah Saleh. The younger Saleh, who was once allied with the Houthis before his uncle defected and the rebels killed him, was 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 global with attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It 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 getting closer to 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. “This is how the group survived and grew from each of its wars.” While a loose confederation of anti-Houthi groups exists, it remains fragmented and has not launched any attacks during the US airstrikes. But the expanding network of air bases around Yemen comes as anti-Houthi forces have made several significant seizures of weapons likely headed for the rebels – including one major haul praised by the US military’s Central Command. “A probable Emirati airstrip in Zuqar could serve to improve surveillance and monitoring along the Hodeida coast to better support Yemeni forces in tackling smuggling,” Ardemagni said.
A mysterious airstrip built on a Yemeni island comes as Houthi rebels are increasingly suppressed
