ADEN: A Saudi-led coalition launched on Sunday a strike against Yemen’s southern separatists after they seized the presidential palace in second city Aden in deadly fighting that threatened to push the war-ravaged nation deeper into turmoil.
The seizure, decried by the Riyadh-backed Yemeni government as a UAE-supported coup, reflects deep divisions between secessionists and loyalist forces, both of whom have fought Huthi rebels.
“The coalition targeted an area that poses a direct threat to one of the important sites of the legitimate government,” a statement said, calling on the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) to withdraw from positions seized in Aden or face further attacks. It did not specify the target but residents in Aden told AFP it was an air strike against separatist camps in the city.
Since the fighting flared on Thursday, around 40 people have been killed and 260 others including civilians wounded, according to the UN. “It is heart-breaking that during Eid-ul-Azha, families are mourning the death of their loved ones instead of celebrating together in peace and harmony,” said UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen Lise Grande.
Riyadh-based Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi is backed by the coalition — led by Saudi Arabia and its ally the United Arab Emirates — that is battling the Iran-aligned Huthis.
But another force in the anti-Huthi coalition — the UAE-trained Security Belt Force — has since Wednesday been battling loyalists in Aden, the temporary base of Hadi’s government. The Security Belt Force is dominated by fighters who back the STC, which seeks to restore south Yemen as an independent state as it was from 1967-1990.
The International Crisis Group think tank warned that the Aden clashes “threaten to tip southern Yemen into a civil war within a civil war.” “Such a conflict would deepen what is already the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” it said.
The coalition called for an “immediate ceasefire” and the Saudi foreign ministry has demanded an “urgent meeting” between the warring parties.