The Kalima Project for Translation at the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC), part of the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), has issued the Arabic version of the book 25 Days to Aden: The Unknown Story of Arabian Elite Forces at War by Dr. Michael Knights, military and security specialist in the Arabian Gulf, translated by Samer Abu Hawwash.

The book covers the decisive military campaign led by Arab special forces and Yemeni resistance fighters to liberate the historic port of Aden from the control of the Houthi militia. It tells the true story of how Arab Gulf states formed a coalition of ten countries in just one week, launching the largest military operation ever undertaken by one side. The campaign had its ups and downs, as the southern resistance was, at times, on the verge of being crushed, but they were able to stand firm and eventually defeated the invaders.

25 Days to Aden recounts the details of this contemporary armed conflict in a captivating and distinctive tone. The Yemeni resistance, along with the Emirati elite forces, faced the Houthis from northern Yemen. The story is set against the backdrop of the romantic, yet neglected, port of Aden, facing the slopes of a volcanic mountain, Victorian-era monuments, quirky British architecture, and seaside resorts.

The author of the book is an expert in military affairs in the Middle East; he tells the story based on the testimonies of several participants in the military campaign, presenting carefully scrutinised details that help indicate the future of the war, which was led by emerging powers that rose to fill the vacuum left by the retreat of American influence.

The book includes a dedication to the martyrs – 1st Lieutenant Abdul Aziz Sarhan Saleh Al Ka’abi, Sergeant Saif Youssef Ahmed Al Falasi, First Corporal Juma Jawhar Juma Al Hammadi, First Corporal Khalid Abdullah Al Shehhi, and First Corporal Fahim Saeed Ahmed Al Habsi –  and features a wide range of maps that reinforce its assertions about the battle sites and the theatre of operations.

In his introduction, the author says: “This is a documentation of the moment when the Arabs drew a line in the sand to prevent the militias from gaining a foothold in the Arabian Peninsula, where they would have been just a stone’s throw from the holiest Islamic sites in Mecca and Medina and would have also been able to cut off the Suez Canal and block 20% of the world’s oil shipments. As one Special Forces soldier put it, this is the story of elite Arab forces battling a ghost coming from the mountains to the world’s most important sea route.”

Author Dr. Knights is a Lafer Fellow of The Washington Institute, tasked with, among other things, regularly informing policymakers, military, and intelligence leaders in the United States and Europe about developments in regional battlefields. He holds a PhD from the Department of War Studies at Imperial College London, and worked as a historian of military affairs, spending time in Yemen during the first decade of the new millennium, where the Yemeni government fought six wars with the Houthis, in addition to working with Yemeni security forces.

Dr. Knights writes regularly about Yemen for academic journals, such as: Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Journal of Strategic Studies and Sentinel, and the magazine of the Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point. He also writes for international media, including War on the Rocks, This Means War of the Royal United Services Institute, Lawfare Blog, and The Hill.

The translator of the book, Samer Abu Hawwash, was born in Saida, Lebanon, in 1972. He studied media in Beirut and worked for several newspapers in the Lebanese capital until 2004, before moving to Abu Dhabi. He has published 12 poetry collections, including: Greetings to the Gentleman, Two Trees on the Roof, One Last Selfie with a Dying World, Sewing a Dress to Remember, and Ruins, in addition to two novels: Valentine’s Day and Happiness.

Abu Hawwash has translated many poetry collections, novels, and children’s stories, including: On the Road by Jack Kerouac; The Complete Novels of William Faulkner; Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson; Home by Marilynne Robinson; and The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi. He has been translating American poetry since 1997 and has so far published 20 collections from some of the most prominent contemporary American poets.

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