ADEN (Reuters) - Southern Yemeni separatists took control of the port city of Aden after two days of fighting, residents said on Tuesday, confining the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to the presidential palace.

They said forces loyal to the Southern Transitional Council, which is backed by the United Arab Emirates, a main component of the Saudi-led coalition, seized the last stronghold of its Presidential Protection forces rival in Dar Saad area in northern Aden on Tuesday after heavy fighting.

The Saudi-led coalition is battling the Iran-aligned Houthi movement which controls most of northern Yemen. </s> ADEN (Reuters) - Southern Yemeni separatists took control of the port city of Aden after two days of fighting, residents said on Tuesday, confining the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to the presidential palace.

Fighting between southern separatists, backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), against forces loyal to Saudi-based president Hadi, risk crippling their once united campaign against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen’s north.

The UAE is a major component of a Saudi-led military coalition of Arab states that has supported Hadi’s government since the Houthis seized much of the country, including the capital Sanaa, three years ago. Hadi’s government operates out of Aden, while he lives in Saudi Arabia.

Residents said forces loyal to the Southern Transitional Council (STC), formed last year to push for the revival of the former independent state of South Yemen, seized the last stronghold of Hadi’s Presidential Protection Forces in the Dar Saad area of northern Aden, in battles that at times involved heavy artillery and tank fire.

Activists shared photos on social media of the flag of the former independent Southern Yemen state flying over the base’s gate. Southern Yemen was united with Northern Yemen in 1990.

Aden residents said STC fighters had earlier overrun Presidential Protection forces outposts in central Aden’s Crater and Tawahi districts.

They stopped outside the al-Maasheeq palace, where Prime Minister Ahmed bin Daghr’s cabinet is based, they said.

Witnesses said hundreds of people danced and sang as they celebrated the STC victory with fireworks that lit the night skies over Aden. The crowd chanted slogans demanding restoration of the southern state.

Mosques also mixed their calls for prayers with victory claims in Crater, residents said.

Smoke billows from a car parts store hit by shells during the conflict in the port city of Aden, Yemen January 31, 2018. REUTERS/Fawaz Salman

“ALL MEASURES”

The government-run Saba news agency put the death toll in two days of fighting at 16 and the number of wounded at 141. An official at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said at least 36 were killed and 185 were wounded.

The fighting began on Sunday after a deadline set last week by the STC for Hadi to dismiss bin Daghr’s government, which the STC accused of corruption and mismanagement. The government denies the allegation.

Sources at the STC said negotiations were underway to allow bin Daghr’s government to leave the city safely, but a government source said bin Daghr had no intention of leaving Aden.

STC head Aydaroos al-Zubaydi, in his first public comments since the fighting began, said the separatists were still committed to the coalition’s goals of driving the Houthis out of Sanaa, but he declined to say whether he intended to set up a separate administration in Aden.

“We have tasks alongside the Arab coalition and its Decisive Storm (operation). But the people of the South have the right to their own state when the international community is ready for that,” Zubaydi said in an interview with the Arabic channel of France 24 TV.

The Saudi-led coalition, which intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 to restore Hadi’s government after the Houthis forced him into exile, called in a statement on Tuesday on both parties to cease hostilities.

“The coalition will take all the measures it deems necessary to restore stability and security in Aden,” it said.

Although Hadi remains in exile in Saudi Arabia, his administration and local allies nominally control about four-fifths of Yemen’s territory, although most population centers are in the hands of the Houthis.

Slideshow (5 Images)

The factional fighting in the south compounds the misery of Yemenis whose country has been torn apart by three years of conflict between Hadi’s forces and the Houthis, which has also opened the way for Islamist militants to widen their influence.

In the southern Shabwa province, at least 12 soldiers from another local forces trained and backed by the UAE were killed in a bomb and gun attack on their outpost, residents and officials said.

While no one claimed responsibility for the attack, it mirrored previous operations by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). </s> MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th August, 2019) Yemeni Interior Minister Ahmed Misri said on Sunday that 400 UAE military vehicles were used by separatists from the Southern Transitional Council in the port city of Aden.

On Saturday, after several days of fierce fighting, the Southern Transitional Council captured the Maashiq presidential palace in Aden. The clashes have already left at least 40 people dead and 260 more injured.

"A total of 400 UAE [military] vehicles took part in the fighting. We fought against them using primitive weapons," Misri wrote on his Twitter page.

He pointed out that neither Saudi Arabia, not the administration of internationally recognized Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi commented on the situation in Aden.

The Yemeni conflict between the government and the rebel Shia Houthi movement has been ongoing since 2015. Earlier this week, separatists supporting the Southern Transitional Council engaged in clashes with their former allies, pro-government forces in Aden. </s> Fighters from the separatist Southern Transitional Council and their supporters parade around the area of the presidential palace in the government’s de facto capital Aden, moving closer to taking full control of the southern city, on Tuesday (AFP photo)

ADEN — Separatists in war-ravaged Yemen have surrounded the presidential palace in the government’s de facto capital Aden, moving closer on Tuesday to taking full control of the southern city.

The government has accused the separatists of attempting a coup in Aden, where more than 36 people have been killed in clashes that opened yet another front in the country’s devastating conflict.

The southern port city has served as the government’s base since 2014 after the Iran-backed Houthi rebels — who hail from northern Yemen — took control of the capital Sanaa in their fight against the state.

While President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi now resides in Riyadh, two military officials said Prime Minister Ahmed Bin Dagher and a number of senior government figures were holed up in the Aden presidential palace.

“The separatists have surrounded the palace and now control the main gate. Those inside are unofficially under house arrest at this point,” said a high-ranking officer with the Yemeni army.

For three years, Hadi’s Saudi-backed administration was allied with the separatists, driving the Houthi rebels out of the south and back into their strongholds in the north.

But tension between the allies began to surface in April when Hadi dismissed a Cabinet minister and the Aden governor in a move that was widely seen as reflecting divisions among his supporters.

Tensions boiled over into armed clashes between the separatists and pro-government forces on Sunday, fuelling chaos in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country where a civil war has already left thousands dead and millions on the brink of starvation.

Under the self-proclaimed Southern Transitional Council (STC), the separatists have gained traction since April in their push for self-rule, demanding the reinstatement of South Yemen as an independent entity.

The STC this month called on Hadi to make changes in his government, accusing him of corruption and mismanagement.

The clashes have sparked fears of a repeat of the 1986 South Yemen civil war, a failed socialist coup which killed thousands in just six days and helped pave the way for the 1991 unification of South and North Yemen.

The separatists, who enjoy popular support and are backed by some military troops, have rapidly gained control over all but one district in Aden since Sunday.

More than 36 people have been killed and 186 wounded in Aden in two days, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Brigadier Saleh Al-Sayyed, who heads troops that have fought alongside the separatists since Sunday, announced his forces had seized control of the Fourth Brigade, the presidential guard in Aden.

Yemen’s president has urged Saudi Arabia and its allies to intervene in the government’s defence.

The coalition said it would take “all necessary steps to restore security” but has not announced any new operation to help the government in Aden since Sunday.

More than 9,200 Yemenis have been killed since the coalition intervened in the war in 2015, triggering what the UN has called the world’s largest humanitarian disaster.

Nearly 2,200 more have died of cholera amid deteriorating hygiene and sanitation conditions, the World Health Organisation says.

The United Arab Emirates is a key member of the military alliance, but also has close ties to one of the leaders of the STC — Hani bin Breik, the cabinet minister sacked by Hadi in April.

The UAE has trained a special operations force in the Yemeni army, dubbed the “security belt”, stationed in southern Yemen.

The force supports the STC. Some troops in the Yemeni army are also loyal to the separatists.

Both the coalition and the Hadi government have called for an immediate ceasefire in Yemen, and the interior ministry has publicly called on state troops to stop fighting.

The coalition on Monday called on the separatists to exercise restraint while urging the Yemeni government to “take into consideration the demands of the social and political movement” in the south. </s> Separatists from southern Yemen have seized key buildings in the city of Aden from the internationally recognised government, prompting a wave of Saudi airstrikes and ending an Eid truce only hours after it was called.

The Southern Transitional Council had been fighting in tense coalition with forces loyal to President Hadi against Houthi rebels backed by Iran. However, long-standing splits between the STC and the president’s forces have escalated into armed clashes in recent days, killing up to 40 people, according to the UN.

Mr Hadi’s government has been based in Aden, a port city in the southeast of the country, since being ousted from Sanaa, the capital, in September 2014. Mr Hadi is living in Saudi Arabia, which is providing his faction with air… </s> Five militants of the Southern Transitional Council were killed by snipers, while four soldiers died in clashes.

The day before clashed resulted in 12 people dead and over 130 wounded, while supporters of a movement to restore South Yemen's independence from the North reportedly captured several government facilities.

Clashes between former allies — the Saudi-led pro-government forces and militants of the Southern Transitional Council erupted the day after the internationally recognized government hadn't met a deadline for the resignation.

READ MORE: Yemen's Southern Movement: What They Want and Who They Are

Southern rebels initially backed internationally-recognized Yemen President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, who fled from advancing Houthi rebels to his hometown of Aden, and alongside the Saudi-led coalition helped push the Houthis away from southern regions.

Hadi, in turn, rejected the ultimatum and banned public gatherings before January 28 — subsequently, clashes erupted. The president has called on the Saudi-led coalition to help and currently facing two fronts — one against the Houthis and a second against the Southern rebels. </s> Supporters of southern Yemeni separatists take part in an anti-government protest in Aden, Yemen, on Sunday (Reuters photo)

ADEN, Yemen — Four people were killed on Monday in a second day of fighting between rival factions seeking control of the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, where the internationally recognised administration is based, witnesses and officials said.

The clashes between southern separatists allied to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and forces loyal to Saudi-based President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi risk crippling their once united campaign against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

Witnesses reported fighting outside Yemeni government camps in the districts of Khor Maksar and Dar Saad in the north of Aden. The clashes involved tanks and heavy artillery targeting a hill, Jabal Hadeed, which overlooks Khor Maksar and Aden port.

The SABA state news agency, controlled by the Hadi government, said four people had died in Monday's fighting, bringing the total death toll since Sunday to 16 and the number of wounded to 141.

President Hadi issued a statement ordering the military to secure the city and assuring the population that his government was capable of handling the situation.

The witnesses said forces loyal to the Southern Transitional Council (STC), which was formed last year to push for the revival of the former independent state of South Yemen, were apparently trying to wrest control of two bases in Aden from Prime Minister Ahmed Bin Daghr’s government.

In downtown Aden, most people stayed off the streets as government forces guarded the main road to Al Maasheeq palace where the government is based.

Aden airport was closed for a second consecutive day because of the fighting, local officials said.

A government source said the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen in support of the Hadi administration should rein in the STC separatists or else the battle against the Houthis would suffer.

“The military commanders leading the battle in the western part of Yemen [against the Houthis] have given short notice to the Saudis and the UAE to intervene to end the fighting in Aden. Otherwise they will leave the battlefront and move back to Aden to assist President Hadi and the government,” the source said.

Sunday’s fighting broke out after the expiry of a deadline set last week by separatists from the STC for Hadi to dismiss the Bin Daghr government, accusing it of corruption and mismanagement. The government denies the charges.

Bin Daghr has described the ultimatum as a coup against the internationally-recognised government, which the STC has accused of attacking civilians who had converged on the city’s Parades Square from across southern Yemen for a rally.

The clashes in Aden have effectively divided the city into two zones, one controlled by the STC and one by the government.

Although Hadi remains in exile in Saudi Arabia, his administration and local allies nominally control about four-fifths of Yemen’s territory.

The factional fighting in the south compounds the misery of Yemenis whose country has been torn apart by three years of conflict between Hadi’s forces and the Houthis. </s> Southern Yemeni separatists took control of the port city of Aden after two days of fighting, residents said on Tuesday, confining the internationally-recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to the presidential palace. Fighting between southern separatists allied to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and forces loyal to the Saudi-based president Hadi risk crippling their once united campaign against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen’s north.

Residents said forces loyal to the Southern Transitional Council (STC), formed last year to push for the revival of the former independent state of South Yemen, seized the last stronghold of its Presidential Protection forces rival in Dar Saad area in northern Aden in battles that at times involved heavy artillery and tank fire.

Activists shared photos on social media of the Southern Yemeni flag flying over the base’s gate. The STC is backed by the UAE, a main component of the Saudi-led coalition. Residents said STC fighters from the Southern Resistance Forces had earlier overrun Presidential Protection forces outposts in central Aden’s Crater and Tawahi districts.

An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) official said more than 36 people had been killed in the fighting. Separatists stopped outside the al-Maasheeq palace, where Prime Minister Ahmed bin Daghr’s government is based, residents said. The Saudi-led coalition, which intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 to restore Hadi’s government after the Houthis forced him into exile, called in a statement on Tuesday on both parties to cease hostilities.

“The coalition will take all the measures it deems necessary to restore stability and security in Aden,” it said. The fighting began on Sunday after a deadline set last week by the STC for Hadi to dismiss bin Daghr’s government, accusing it of corruption and mismanagement, expired. The government denies the allegation.

Witnesses said hundreds of people danced and sang as they celebrated the STC victory with fireworks that lit the night skies over Aden. The crowd chanted slogans demanding restoration of the southern state that merged with North Yemen in 1990.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App </s> Yemeni security officials say the country's prime minister is preparing to flee after separatists seized the presidential palace in the southern port city of Aden in fierce battles overnight.

The officials say fighters loyal to the so-called Southern Transitional Council fought all way to the gates of the Palace of Maashiq — Arabic for "lovers" — in the district of Crater in Aden. The palace is the seat of Yemen's internationally backed government.

They say Prime Minister Ahmed Obaid Bin Daghar is to leave the country imminently. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under regulations.

The fighting in Aden first erupted on Sunday, when a deadline issued by the separatists for the government to resign expired.

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has described the separatists' action as a "coup."
Fighters of the Southern Movement capture the port city of Aden from forces loyal to the internationally recognized President of Yemen Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.