Fighting resumes in Yemen’s Aden amid tensions
SANAA: Clashes erupted for a second straight day on Thursday in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden between government troops and secessionists seeking independence for southern Yemen, resulting in the death of at least one civilian.
The fighting threatens to open a separate front in Yemen’s years-long civil war and has exposed cracks in a military alliance, which has been fighting Ansar Allah fighters in Yemen for more than four years. Thursday’s battles pitted presidential guards against the so-called Security Belt forces.
The fighting was raging near Aden’s central bank and the Mashiq presidential palace, which houses the government’s offices, security sources and witnesses said.
One civilian was killed and others injured in the clashes, which were still underway, a security official said on condition of anonymity. At least five people were killed and 13 others injured in Wednesday’s violence, security sources said.
The Security Belt forces are affiliated with the self-styled Southern Transitional Council, a political body pushing for the secession of southern Yemen from the north. On Wednesday, a senior leader in the council called on its loyalists to oust the government.
The alliance condemned the fighting and said it plays into the hands of the fighters.
Yemen has been locked in a devastating power struggle between the government and Ansar Allah fighters since late 2014. Ansar Allah control the capital Sanaa while the government is based in Aden.