Thursday, April 2, 2015

Chinese Soldiers Are On The Ground In Yemen

PLAN frigate Yueyang, sister ship to the Weifang. Image Credit: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Shannon Renfroe

RT: Chinese military disembark in port of Aden, Yemen, to guard evacuation – official

Dozens of unidentified foreign troops reported disembarking in the port of Aden turned out to be Chinese soldiers maintaining security as an unknown party opened fire on a vessel evacuating foreign citizens, a Yemeni official told Sputnik.

“A Chinese military ship arrived in the port to evacuate Chinese citizens…a skirmish which occurred during the evacuation led to the disembarkation of Chinese soldiers stationed on the ship to protect civilians,” said Abd ar-Rabb al-Khalyaky, the deputy head of the port union council. After the evacuation, the soldiers returned to the vessel, he said adding that the situation has calmed down.

Update: Chinese Nationals Evacuate Yemen on PLA Navy Frigate -- Shannon Tiezzi, The Diplomat

WNU Editor: Every country who has nationals in Yemen are bailing out .... War In Yemen: China Warship Docks In Aden To Evacuate Diplomats, Workers; India, Pakistan Begin Airlifting Nationals Out Of Embattled Country (IBTimes). But what caught my eye about this story is that it appears that China has developed the ability to quickly and effectively deploy its forces thousands of miles away by using its naval assets. This is something that they were not able to do just only a few years ago.

5 comments:

Jay Farquharson said...

They were on anti- piracy patrol,

Meanwhile Russia is still "awaiting permission" from Saudi Arabia to evacuate their people.

Sometimes, forgiveness is easier to get than permission.

D.Plowman said...

Russia, awaiting permission...

That doesn't sound right. Since when did the Russians seek permission for anything they do?

Much like the Americans...

Jay Farquharson said...

They are trying to evacuate by air,

Have no fighter aircraft, or naval vessels in the vicinity.

They want to avoid the Saudi's blowing up a tribal war even larger, by blowing up a couple of Anatov's loaded with Russian evacuee's.

Hans Persson said...

First of all, this crisis started a week ago, they could just have sent a vessel right away? Like any responsible nation?

Jay Farquharson said...

Closest route, is Black Sea, Med, Suez, Red Sea, a bot over a three week trip.

Everyone who has run a sea evac, had vessels in either the Red Sea or the Arabian Sea on anti-piracy patrol,

Or had Egyptian/Saudi permission for an air evac,

Or got out prior to two weeks ago.