Twenty-one separatist fighters and six al-Qaeda members were killed in an attack by the jihadist group in southern Yemen on Tuesday, government and security sources told AFP. According to these sources, Al-Qaeda fighters attacked positions of the southern separatist forces of the “Seatbeltin Abyan Governorate.
The fighting, which lasted about three hours, “killed 21 soldiers, including an officer, and 6 Al-Qaeda fighterssaid a government official. The report was confirmed to AFP by two other security sources.
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The conflict that has ravaged Yemen since 2014 pits government forces, backed by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, against Houthi rebels, close to Iran. The insurgents control the capital Sanaa and large swathes of territory in the north and west of the country. But the anti-Houthi camp includes ragtag forces, like those separatist fighters targeted on Tuesday. They belong to the so-called force “Seatbelt“, trained and equipped by the United Arab Emirates, a mainstay of the coalition. They aspire to create an independent South Yemen, as it was until 1990.
The Security Belt is responsible for protecting the southern regions, which, with access to the sea and the Horn of Africa, are of particular interest to the Emirates. The chaos caused by the war has benefited armed groups, including Aqpa, which has carried out attacks against the Houthis and government forces. The strengths of theSeatbelt“claimed to have launched a few days ago”a major military campaign to fight terrorism in Abyan“.
The war in Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, has left hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced, with two-thirds of the population in need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.