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Air strikes killed 7 separatist fighters successful Yemen connected Friday (January 2, 2026), according to an authoritative with the group, arsenic a Saudi-led conjugation deed backmost against a sweeping beforehand by the UAE-backed Southern Transition Council, threatening a large confrontation.
The deaths are the archetypal from conjugation occurrence since the secessionist STC seized swathes of Hadramawt and Mahra provinces past month.
Following the strikes, a subject spokesperson for the STC said it was successful a "decisive and existential" warfare with Saudi-backed Yemeni forces, characterising it arsenic a combat against extremist Islamism — a longtime preoccupation of the UAE.
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Saudi Arabia and the UAE person for years supported rival factions successful Yemen's government-run territories, but the STC's violative has angered Riyadh and near the oil-rich Gulf powers astatine loggerheads.
Mohammed Abdulmalik, caput of the STC successful Wadi Hadramaut and Hadramaut Desert, said 7 aerial strikes deed the Al-Khasah camp, sidesplitting 7 and wounding much than 20.
Further strikes targeted different sites successful the aforesaid region, helium added.
The aerial raids came soon aft pro-Saudi forces launched a run to "peacefully" instrumentality power of subject sites successful Hadramawt.
"This cognition is not a declaration of war, nor an effort to escalate tensions," Hadramawt Governor Salem Al-Khanbashi, besides person of the province's Saudi-backed section forces, was quoted arsenic saying by the Saba Net news agency.
"This cognition does not people immoderate governmental oregon societal group," helium said, adding that it "aims to peacefully and systematically manus implicit subject sites".
Saudi sources confirmed the strikes were carried retired by the Saudi-led coalition, which besides nominally includes the UAE and was formed successful 2015 to combat the Iran-backed Houthi rebels successful Yemen's north.
A root adjacent to the Saudi subject warned: "It volition not halt until the Southern Transitional Council withdraws from the 2 governorates."
The STC seized overmuch of Hadramawt, bordering Saudi Arabia, and neighbouring Mahra past month.
Rival factions
Riyadh and Abu Dhabi are rival powerbrokers successful Yemen's government-run areas.
The affluent Gulf powers formed the backbone of the subject conjugation aimed astatine dislodging the Houthis, who forced the authorities from the superior Sanaa successful 2014 and seized Yemen's astir populated areas.
But aft a brutal, decade-long civilian war, the Houthis stay successful spot and the Saudis and Emiratis are backing antithetic factions successful the government-held territories.
Amr Al Bidh, overseas affairs typical for the STC, accused Riyadh of having "knowingly misled the planetary assemblage by announcing a 'peaceful operation' that they ne'er had immoderate volition to support peaceful".
"This was evidenced by the information that they launched 7 airstrikes minutes later," helium posted connected X.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly urged the STC to retreat from the precocious conquered territories.
After the Saudi-led conjugation bombed an alleged Emirati weapons shipment connected Tuesday, the UAE's defence ministry said it would retreat its remaining troops successful Yemen.
Flights grounded
The Yemeni authorities comprises a fractious conjugation of groups including the STC, agreed by their absorption to the Houthis.
The STC's beforehand has raised the anticipation that South Yemen, a abstracted authorities from 1967 to 1990, mightiness state independence, portion dealing a hammer stroke to slow-moving bid negotiations with the Houthis.
Also connected Friday, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed AlJabir, said the STC had blocked a Saudi delegation from landing astatine Aden airport, accusing the radical of "intransigence".
On Thursday, Yemen's STC-controlled transport ministry denounced a Saudi request that each planes to and from the UAE marque a halt successful Saudi Arabia for information checks.
According to the Flightradar24 tracking website, nary planes person taken disconnected oregon landed astatine Aden airdrome for much than 24 hours, though the ministry did not officially denote its closure.
