Alleged strikes close to UAE-backed forces follow Riyadh’s call for STC to withdraw from newly seized provinces
A separatist group in southern Yemen that this month seized two oil-rich provinces has claimed that Saudi Arabia has fired warning airstrikes directed at its forces.
Videos issued on Friday by media linked to the United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) showed airstrikes that it said were close to its positions in Wadi Nahab, Hadramaut province.
The strikes – which were not independently confirmed – would be the first military step by Saudi Arabia since it made a diplomatic appeal urging the separatist forces to relinquish newly captured Hadramaut and al-Mahra.
Amr al-Bidh, a foreign affairs special representative for the STC, said in a statement to the Associated Press that airstrikes came after its fighters in eastern Hadramaut were involved in ambushes that left two dead. Officials in Saudi Arabia have not so far commented.
