Foreign troops land in Yemen as Al-Qaeda breaks over one hundred prisoners. Reuters.

A government loyalist stands guard at a checkpoint in Aden. Reueters

Unidentified foreign troops have landed in Yemen in an effort to defend the port city of Aden, while Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released more then one hundred from a prison. Reuters. A vessel full of unidentified soldiers unloaded troops as the Houthi rebels spread into the center of the city of Aden. Aden was the last stronghold of forces loyal to the president of Yemen, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Fresh troops and heavy armor were unloaded and the new forces are in control of parts of the city. It is unclear who the troops belong to but Saudi Arabia is in control of the ocean near the port of Aden. In other news AQAP had staged a dramatic jailbreak 300 miles east of Aden in the port of Mulkalla. The AQAP fighters released 150 prisoners, including many members of Al-Qaeda. 

CNN is reporting that there were more prisoners released. As many as 270 were released and almost 1/3rd of the prisoners had links to Al-Qaeda. 

RT is reporting the troops are from the Chinese military who are attempting to evacuate foreign civilians. They also report that there may have been Egyptians and Saudi Arabians as well. 

My Comment:

As I was writing my response Reuters updated their story as well with the claim that the troops that were deployed were from China. This makes very little sense to me but I guess it is possible. It is also very possible that the Yemeni government is feeding the media misinformation to maintain strategic supplies. The original story said that there was heavy armor deployed as well, though that could have just been a reference to the Yemeni government's armor. 

I'm not sure what version of the story to believe at this point. On the one hand it seems crazy to me that the Chinese military would be the ones evacuating people from Aden. As far as I know China has little interest in Yemen and I doubt they would risk their troops this way. I could be very wrong about that though since I know little of China's activities in the middle east. On the other I would think that an amphibious assault on Aden would involve more then one ship. I'm guessing that the RT and Reuters reports are correct and that truth really is stranger then fiction. 

Either way though, the fact that Aden seems likely to fall means that an invasion of Yemen seems very possible. If that happens expect Egyptian troops to attack by sea while the Saudis attack over land. It is possible that other countries, including Pakistan, could deploy troops and other assets as well. An invasion isn't certain by any means but if Saudi Arabia is serious about stopping the Houthis from gaining control of Yemen, they are running out of time to stop it. 

As for the other major story this article covered, having AQAP release hundreds of prisoners is obviously a bad thing. These released men will almost certainly join the 2nd insurgency in Yemen and could threaten Western interests. With the government and the Houthi rebels tearing each others throats out in the west, AQAP had been quietly gaining influence in the east. Since AQAP were the ones responsible for the Charlie Hebdo attacks, this is a very disturbing development. 

Once again the pattern that has happened so many times in the middle east seems to be happening again. Whenever a civil war occurs it give radical Islam a chance to spread. When Syria fell into civil war it spawned ISIS and Al-Nusra. Iraq's long standing insurgency allowed ISIS to take over much of the country. Libya's dysfunction after Gaddafi was killed led to ISIS and other Islamic groups to take control of much of the country. When Egypt had two revolutions in a short time it allowed their own Islamic insurgency to spread. And now it seems that Yemen will lose territory to AQAP. Instability is like fertilizer for radical Islam...