• Yemen Houthi airstrikes
    West Asia

    Saudi Arabia accused of launching airstrikes in Yemen

    European Newsdesk Posted on

    Separatist forces in southern Yemen accused Saudi Arabia on Friday of carrying out airstrikes against their positions in the eastern governorate of Hadramout, a charge that Riyadh has not officially acknowledged. The incident follows Saudi warnings urging the separatists to withdraw from areas they recently entered, and has further strained an already fragile coalition in the decade-long Yemen conflict, according to reporting by The Associated Press and regional sources.

    The Southern Transitional Council (STC), a separatist body backed by the United Arab Emirates, said the strikes took place on Friday as its forces were operating in eastern Hadramout. The STC did not immediately provide casualty figures linked directly to the airstrikes, though it said clashes earlier in the day had left two of its fighters dead and 12 wounded.

    Amr al-Bidh, a foreign affairs representative of the STC, told the AP that its forces had come under “multiple ambushes” from armed groups in the area prior to the alleged Saudi strikes. He said the air attacks followed shortly afterward, escalating tensions between rival factions nominally aligned against the Iran-backed Houthi movement in northern Yemen.

    Local tribal figures offered similar interpretations. Faez bin Omar, a prominent member of a Hadramout tribal coalition, told the AP that the airstrikes appeared to be a warning aimed at pressuring STC forces to withdraw from the governorate. An eyewitness, Ahmed al-Khed, said he observed destroyed military vehicles following the strikes, which he believed belonged to forces allied with the STC.

    The STC’s satellite television channel, AIC, broadcast mobile-phone footage it claimed showed the aftermath of the strikes. In one clip, a voice can be heard attributing the attack to Saudi aircraft. Independent verification of the footage was not immediately possible.

    Saudi officials did not respond to AP requests for comment. However, a day earlier, Riyadh publicly called on the Emirati-backed separatists to pull back from areas they had entered in Hadramout and Mahra governorates. The STC’s advance earlier this month displaced units affiliated with the Saudi-backed National Shield Forces, another component of the anti-Houthi coalition.

    Analysts and regional observers note that the episode highlights deepening fractures within the Saudi-led alliance, which has been fighting the Houthis for nearly ten years. The STC has increasingly asserted its agenda for southern autonomy, openly reviving the symbols and flag of South Yemen, which existed as an independent state from 1967 until its unification with North Yemen in 1990.

    On Thursday, demonstrators gathered in the southern port city of Aden in support of political forces calling for renewed secession. The latest clashes and alleged airstrikes underscore how rivalries among nominal allies now threaten to destabilize Yemen’s south even as the broader war remains unresolved, AP and regional reporting suggest.

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