Mysterious air base being built on volcanic island off Yemen apnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from apnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen today admitted having equipment on a mysterious air base being built on a volcanic island off Yemen.
But the coalition did not name who was building the facility across the Mayun Island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in a statement released on the state-run Saudi Press Agency.
The statement said the equipment, which it did not identify, helps the coalition back Yemen s internationally recognized government against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who now hold the country s capital, Sanaa.
It said the United Arab Emirates, which remains a coalition member after largely withdrawing from the war in 2019, was providing air support in defense of the Yemeni city of Marib, the target of an ongoing Houthi offensive. The statement called any claim of Emirati troops on Mayun baseless and unfounded.
The runway on Mayun Island, which no country has officially claimed, will allow whoever controls it to launch air strikes into the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and nearby East Africa.
Mysterious air base being built on volcanic island off Yemen
Yemeni officials say it s Emirati-owned, but no country has claimed it yet.
By JON GAMBRELLAssociated Press
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World powers have recognized Mayun Island as a strategic location for hundreds of years, especially with the opening of the Suez Canal linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Planet Labs Inc. via AP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates A mysterious air base is being built on a volcanic island off Yemen that sits in one of the world’s crucial maritime chokepoints for both energy shipments and commercial cargo.
While no country has claimed the Mayun Island air base in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, shipping traffic associated with a prior attempt to build a massive runway across the 3.5 mile-long island years ago links back to the United Arab Emirates.