Saudi-backed government forces retake multiple cities in southern Yemen

Defence affairs - middle east policy

Yemeni government troops backed by Saudi Arabia have retaken the governorates of Hadramout and al-Mahra from the United Arab Emirates-backed secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) as tensions between the regional Gulf Arab powers continue to simmer.

Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), the internationally recognised government in the splintered war-ravaged nation, said in a statement on Saturday that Saudi-backed Homeland Shield forces had achieved “record success” in “retaking all military and security positions in the province” bordering Saudi Arabia after the operation launched a day earlier.

Crucially, the government announced that it had retaken control of Mukalla, the key eastern port and capital of Hadramout province, from the STC, which seized it last month and which Saudi forces attacked in recent days.

Government sources told Al Jazeera Arabic that Yemeni government forces had taken control of all of the districts in Hadramout, Yemen’s largest governorate.

The Director General of the Youth Office for al-Mahra governorate, Mohammed Omar Suwailam, also told the Anadolu news agency on Sunday that Homeland Shield forces have taken control of all nine districts of the governorate following the withdrawal of STC forces.

Since Tuesday, Yemen has seen an unprecedented escalation in tensions after STC forces took control of Hadramout and al-Mahra in early December – the two provinces make up nearly half of Yemen’s territory and share a border with Saudi Arabia.

According to Al Jazeera’s Yemen affairs editor, Ahmed al-Shalafi, major shifts have occurred in Yemen’s political and military landscape over the past day.

“The Yemeni army and the Homeland Shield forces were able to enter the battlefield and interfere militarily to resolve the conflict on the ground,” he said.

“The political action came second, when the Yemeni government invited the Southern Transitional Council for a conference in Saudi Arabia,” al-Shalafi added.

Since Friday, at least 80 STC fighters have been killed in fighting with Saudi-backed forces, a group official told the AFP news agency on Sunday.