The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen announced on Tuesday a “limited military operation” against weapons and combat vehicles in southern Yemen.
“Coalition air forces carried out a limited military operation this morning. The operation targeted weapons and combat vehicles”, Coalition Forces spokesman Major General Turki Al Maliki said.
He added that the equipment had been unloaded from two vessels at the port of Mukalla on Saturday and Sunday, without specifying the nature of the operation.
The hit comes after Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) chief Rashad Al Alimi said his governing board asked the Saudi-led coalition to take “immediate measures” to counter recent military moves by the Southern Transitional Council (STC).
The STC, which calls for the restoration of an independent state in the south, recently took control of Hadhramaut and Mahra from other pro-government forces, effectively consolidating control over all southern provinces.
It said the move came after what it described as the failure of other pro-government factions and Yemen's PLC “to launch” any serious campaign to push the Houthis from their northern strongholds, including Sanaa, Yemen's capital. Three of the PLC’s eight members are affiliated with the STC, highlighting deep fractures within Yemen’s anti-Houthi camp.
Saudi Arabia, which hosts senior Yemeni government and PLC figures and has led the anti-Houthi coalition since 2015, has condemned the STC’s takeover. It said it was carried out without co-ordination with the coalition. The UAE welcomed Saudi efforts to stabilise the situation.
In the statement carried by Saudi state media, Gen Al Maliki said the two vessels arrived from the port of Fujairah and entered the port of Mukalla “without obtaining official clearance from the Coalition Joint Forces Command”.
He added that the crews of the two vessels “disabled their tracking systems and offloaded a large quantity of weapons and combat vehicles to support the Southern Transitional Council’s forces in Yemen’s eastern governorates, with the aim of fuelling the conflict”.
The latest crisis underscores the fragility of Yemen’s already fractured political landscape, with infighting among anti-Houthi forces threatening to further complicate efforts to stabilise the war-torn country and defeat the Iran-backed rebels who have controlled the capital Sanaa and northern regions for a decade.
