Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
Yemen’s fragile calm was shaken on Friday after separatist forces accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out air strikes on their positions in the eastern province of Hadramawt, highlighting growing tensions among rival factions and their regional backers in a conflict that has drawn in outside powers for more than a decade.
Separatist media outlets and officials said Saudi warplanes targeted positions held by the Hadrami Elite Forces, a group aligned with the United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC). The Aden Independent Channel, which is affiliated with the separatists, reported that the strikes hit Wadi Nahb in Hadramawt and shared footage showing smoke rising from a desert area, with several vehicles visible nearby. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The STC said that two Saudi air strikes were carried out in quick succession on Friday morning. The accusations came a day after clashes erupted in the same area between separatist fighters and a tribal leader considered close to Saudi Arabia. According to the STC, two separatist fighters were killed in those clashes, and a separatist military official said the tribal leader later left the country.
The strikes followed Saudi Arabia’s call on Thursday for separatist forces to withdraw from Hadramawt and the neighboring Mahra province, territories the STC seized earlier this month. The separatist advances have heightened concerns about renewed instability in southern and eastern Yemen, even as fighting elsewhere in the country has eased since a UN-brokered truce in 2022.
Yemen’s internationally recognised government is a loose coalition of rival groups, including the STC, united mainly by their opposition to the Iran-backed Houthi movement. While Saudi Arabia is the main supporter of the government, the UAE has backed the STC, which seeks to revive the formerly independent state of South Yemen. The latest developments have added strain to Saudi-Emirati relations, exposing fractures within the anti-Houthi camp.
Earlier this month, a joint Saudi-Emirati military delegation visited the southern port city of Aden to press the STC to return the territory it had seized in Hadramawt and Mahra. According to sources close to the separatists, the group refused to withdraw, despite ongoing Saudi efforts to de-escalate the situation.
On Friday, the UAE publicly welcomed Saudi Arabia’s efforts to support security and stability in Yemen, signaling an attempt by the two Gulf allies to present a unified front. Oman, which borders Mahra and has played a key mediating role in the Yemen conflict, also called for restraint, urging all parties to avoid escalation and engage in comprehensive political dialogue.
International concern has grown as separatist advances risk reigniting broader conflict. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned last week that the STC’s moves could lead to wider escalation and further fragmentation of Yemen, cautioning that a full resumption of hostilities would have serious consequences for regional peace and security.
Yemen has been divided since 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and forced the government to flee. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year, launching a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Although large-scale fighting has declined in recent years, the country remains deeply fractured, and the latest air strikes underscore how quickly tensions can flare in the absence of a comprehensive political settlement.
