The United Arab Emirates announced a three-day mourning after 45 of its soldiers were killed in a Toshka operation carried by the Yemeni army in the eastern oil province of Marib a day earlier.

The United Arab Emirates announced a three-day mourning after 45 of its soldiers were killed in a Toshka operation carried by the Yemeni army in the eastern oil province of Marib a day earlier.

The Emirati Ministry of Presidential Affairs has announced a three-day mourning period starting on Saturday in the wake of the death of the 45 Emirati soldiers in Yemen. Flags will be flown at half-mast, state news agency WAM said on Saturday.

The bodies of the killed soldiers were brought to the UAE on Saturday onboard a military plane of the UAE Air Force and Air Defense., WAM added.

Earlier on Friday, the Yemeni army and the popular committees fired a Toshka ballistic missile on a military gathering in Safer which lies in Marib province.

Military Media in the popular committees confirmed that dozens of soldiers deployed as part of a Saudi-led coalition were killed and injured in the shelling.

UAE first announced the death of 22 of its soldiers in a n explosion in Marib, claiming that blast was “accidental”. Later, it announced that the number of killed soldier reached 45, and admitted that the explosion was because of a ballistic missile attack.

Bahrain also announced that five of its soldiers deployed as part of the Saudi-led coalition were killed in the operation.

Yemen has been since March 26 under brutal aggression by Saudi-led coalition. Thousands have been martyred and injured in the attack, with the vast majority of them are civilians.

Riyadh launched the attack on Yemen in a bid to restore power to fugitive president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi who is a close ally to Saudi Arabia.

However, Yemeni army, backed by popular committees and tribal fighter has been responding to the aggression by targeting several Saudi border military posts and cleansing several areas across the country, especially the country’s south, from Hadi and al-Qaeda-linked militias.