Separatists in southern Yemen accused Saudi Arabia on Friday of targeting their forces with airstrikes, something not formally acknowledged by the kingdom after it warned the forces to withdraw from governorates they recently took over.
The Southern Transitional Council, backed by the United Arab Emirates, said the strikes happened in Yemen’s Hadramout governorate. It wasn’t immediately clear if there were any casualties from the strikes that further raise tensions in the war-torn nation and put at risk a fragile Saudi-led coalition that has been battling the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the country’s north for a decade.
UAE-backed separatists in southern Yemen said Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes against their forces in Hadramout province. pic.twitter.com/LFb1laa9XR
— Clash Report (@clashreport) December 26, 2025
Amr Al Bidh, a foreign affairs special representative for the Council, said in a statement to The Associated Press that its fighters had been operating in eastern Hadramout on Friday after facing “multiple ambushes” from gunmen. Those attacks killed two fighters with the Council and wounded 12 others, Al Bidh said.
The Saudi airstrikes happened after that, he added.
The Council later described their operations in the area as seeking a wanted man and trying to cut off smuggling through the area.
Saudi warnings precede strikes
Faez bin Omar, a leading member in a coalition of tribes in Hadramout, told the AP that he believed the strikes served as a warning to the Council to withdraw its fighters from the area. An eyewitness to the strikes, Ahmed al-Khed, said he saw destroyed military vehicles afterward, believed to belong to forces allied to the Council.
The Council’s satellite channel AIC aired what appeared to be mobile phone footage it described as showing the strikes. In one video, a man speaking could be heard blaming the strike on Saudi aircraft.
Officials in Saudi Arabia did not respond to a request for comment from the AP. However, the Saudi-owned, London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, quoting “informed sources,” reported late Friday that the kingdom carried out the strikes “to send a message” to the Council.
“Any further escalation would be met with stricter measures,” the paper said.
On Thursday, the kingdom called on the Emirati-backed separatists in southern Yemen to withdraw.
The Council moved earlier this month into Yemen’s governorates of Hadramout and Mahra. That had pushed out forces affiliated with the Saudi-backed National Shield Forces, another group in the coalition fighting the Houthis.
Those aligned with the Council have increasingly flown the flag of South Yemen, which was a separate country from 1967-1990. Demonstrators rallied on Thursday in the southern port city of Aden to support political forces calling for South Yemen to secede again from Yemen.