Sawt Falasteen - Saudi-backed forces make advances in Yemen's Hadramawt: military officials

The Saudis and Emiratis have for years supported rival factions in Yemen's fractious government. But the UAE-backed secessionist Southern Transitional Council's recent offensive to capture Hadramawt angered Riyadh and left the oil-rich regional powers on a collision course.

Following repeated warnings and air strikes, including on an alleged Emirati weapons shipment this week, the Saudi-led coalition launched a wave of attacks on Friday, including on the Al-Khasha military camp in Hadramawt that left 20 dead, according to the separatist group.

Two military officials with the Saudi-aligned government told AFP on Saturday morning that Riyadh-backed forces had taken control of the principal military base in the Yemeni city of Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt.

According to an AFP journalist, gunfire could be heard in the city early Saturday and while residents described a security breakdown there, Saudi-backed forces appeared to advance with little resistence.

In the province's city of Seiyun, 160 kilometres (100 miles) northwest of Mukalla, a government military official said pro-Saudi forces had taken control of the airport, targeted in Friday's strikes, as well as administrative buildings.

"We are working to secure them," the military official said.

A STC military official said: "There has been a retreat of our forces and we are resisting the attacking forces in Seiyun."

"We carried out a complete withdrawal from the areas of Al-Khasha... as a result of pressure from Saudi air strikes on us," he added.

- Call for dialogue -

Residents in Seiyun also said they heard gunfire and clashes early on Saturday.

Saudi Arabia on Saturday called for dialogue between factions in southern Yemen.

In a statement posted to social media, the Saudi foreign ministry called for "a comprehensive conference in Riyadh to bring together all southern factions to discuss just solutions to the southern cause".

Riyadh said the Yemeni government had issued the invitation for talks.

Also on Saturday, the UAE urged Yemenis to "halt escalation and resolve differences through dialogue".

The STC is now pushing to declare independence and form a breakaway state, which would split the Arabian Peninsula's poorest state in two.

On Friday the separatists announced the start of a two-year transitional period towards declaring an independent state and said the process would include dialogue and a referendum on independence.

STC president Aidaros Alzubidi said the transitional phase would include dialogue with Yemen's north -- controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels -- and a referendum on independence.

But he warned that the group would declare independence "immediately" if there was no dialogue or if southern Yemen was attacked again.

The Saudi-backed coalition was formed in 2015 in an attempt to dislodge the Houthi rebels from Yemen's north.

But after a brutal, decade-long civil war, the Houthis remain in place while the Saudi and Emirati-backed factions attack each other in the south.

G.AbuHamad--SF-PST