A news broadcast shows the latest developments in the conflict between Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and southern separatists in Sanaa, Yemen, on Friday. Photo by Yahya Arhab/EPA
Jan. 2 (UPI) — Saudi Arabia’s military struck United Arab Emirates-backed separatists in Yemen on Friday, prompting an unofficial declaration of “war” from the Southern Transitional Council.
Representatives of the separatist Southern Transitional Council in Yemen’s Hadramout Governorate accused Saudi forces of bombing their fighters while they were near Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia.
They say a state of war exists in the province, but no casualty reports were provided for the military strike that involved Saudi ground and air forces.
The Hadramout province is situated in eastern Yemen and about 500 miles east of Yemen’s capital city of Sanaa, with Saudi Arabia to its north and the Gulf of Aden to its south.
Hadramout Gov. Salem al-Khanbashi dismissed the STC’s war declaration and said the military operation by Saudi Arabia sought to “peacefully and systematically” regain military bases controlled by the STC, Al Jazeera reported.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia have become involved in the internal conflict in Yemen, with the Saudis backing the Yemeni government and the UAE the STC.
Saudi and Yemeni officials have accused the UAE of arming STC separatists and encouraging them to seize parts of southern Yemen’s Hadramout and al-Mahra provinces.
STC representatives have said they intend to hold a voter referendum in two years to decide if an official declaration of an independent state will be delivered.
Yemen already is in a deadly civil war that started in 2014, and the STC’s planned vote could make the fighting more frequent and intense and worsen conditions in what is considered one of the world’s most impoverished nations.
The civil war has created famine conditions within the nation that already has experienced many deadly conflicts since the civil war began.