Dec 12 (Reuters) – A joint Saudi-Emirati military delegation arrived in Aden to discuss measures aimed at defusing tensions in southern Yemen, days after the country’s main southern separatist group claimed broad control across the south, a government source told Reuters on Friday.
At least 32 military personnel were killed and 45 others were wounded in attacks in Hadhramaut by groups affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council, the state news agency SABA reported later on Friday citing the General Staff Command.
The STC said the takeover included the eastern provinces of Hadhramaut and Mahra, and that the separatist group is present in all eastern provinces of south Yemen, including Aden, the base of the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government.
Discussions to be held by the delegation in Aden will address ways to rectify recent unilateral actions, including the withdrawal of any forces brought in from outside the eastern provinces, a source in the presidential office told the state news agency SABA.
The STC, which has been backed in the past by the United Arab Emirates during Yemen’s decade-old civil war, has clashed with other groups, which relocated to Aden after the Iran-aligned Houthi movement captured the capital Sanaa in 2014.
(Reporting by Timour Azhari in Baghdad and Mohammed Ghobari in Aden; Writing by Yomna Ehab; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Diane Craft)
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