Yemen separatists quit Aden’s posts
ADEN: Southern Yemeni separatists withdrew yesterday from some government buildings in Aden that they seized last week but held on to military camps that give them control over the southern port, interim seat of Yemen’s Saudi-backed government. The separatists’ takeover of Aden has strained a Saudi-led military coalition formed to confront the Iran-aligned Houthis as the movement stepped up attacks on the kingdom, hitting a Saudi oil installation yesterday.
A Houthi military spokesman said the group launched 10 drones on oil installations at Shaybah in eastern Saudi Arabia, describing it as the “biggest attack in the depths” of the kingdom and vowing further operations. State oil company Aramco said the attack caused a “limited fire” at a gas plant which had been contained and did not impact production. Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih condemned the strike as “cowardly” sabotage directed at global oil supplies. The Yemen conflict is widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and regional rival Shiite Muslim Iran.
The Western-backed, Sunni Muslim coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognized government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthis ousted him from power in the capital Sanna in late 2014. The tensions have complicated United Nations efforts to implement a stalled peace deal in the main port city of Hodeidah, on Yemen’s west coast, and pave the way for political talks to end the war that has pushed the country to the brink of famine.
Coalition warplanes fired flares over Aden at dawn yesterday near camps occupied by separatist fighters after the alliance renewed a call for them to withdraw from all sites they captured last weekend. The separatists, backed by coalition member the United Arab Emirates, are a main component in the anti-Houthi alliance. But the war has rekindled old strains between north and south Yemen - formerly separate countries until 1990. The coalition statement urged all forces in the south to unite in the fight against the Houthis.
Southern Transitional Council (STC) sources told Reuters their forces, which had already moved away from the nearly empty presidential palace and central bank, were vacating government institutions under the supervision of a Saudi-UAE delegation. However, they said the forces would not quit the government military camps that give them effective control of the city. —Reuters