Scores of Yemen's separatists killed in clashes with Saudi-backed forces, official says

At least 80 troops from Yemen's secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) have been killed in fighting with Saudi-backed forces and strikes since Friday, a military official from the group said on Sunday.

At least 152 members of the UAE-backed STC forces were wounded and 130 were taken captive, the official said, giving a preliminary toll of casualties since the start of the Saudi-backed operation.

Forces supported by Riyadh began operations on Friday to retake swaths of territory seized by the STC, which is backed by Abu Dhabi, as a struggle for dominance deepened a rift between the two Gulf allies.

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Most of the casualties occurred in strikes by the Saudi-led coalition that targeted military camps held by the separatists, the official said, including Al-Khasha and Barshid military camps in Hadramawt province.

An official with the Saudi-backed forces said later on Sunday that at least 14 of their fighters had been killed in fighting and more than 30 wounded during the offensive.

Yemen's presidency on Saturday announced the retaking of resource-rich Hadramawt, following an apparent retreat of the STC.

Riyadh-aligned government military officials on Saturday also said authorities in neighbouring Mahra province had switched back their allegiance without any resistance.

On Sunday, Saudi-backed forces were consolidating positions in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province, two government military officials said.

But amid the chaos of the fighting and rapid retreats, a law enforcement official in Mukalla said that at least 18 suspected militants affiliated with al Qaeda had escaped from a local detention centre in the port city.

Local residents also reported that sporadic clashes were taking place between forces loyal to the STC and the Saudi-backed fighters in Mahra province.

'Intense' strikes

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have long supported rival groups in Yemen's divided government.

A December offensive by the STC, in which it took control of Hadramawt and Mahra, angered Saudi Arabia, exposing fissures in the ties between the two oil-rich powers.

The Saudi-led coalition launched repeated warnings and air strikes over the past week, including one on an alleged Emirati arms shipment to the separatists.

On Friday, a strike on the Al-Khasha military camp in Hadramawt left 20 dead, according to an earlier toll from the separatist group.

On Saturday, a military official with the STC said Saudi warplanes had carried out "intense" air strikes on another of the group's camps at Barshid, west of Mukalla.

The Yemeni government is a patchwork of groups that includes the separatists, and is held together by shared opposition to the Iran-backed Houthis.

The Houthis pushed the government out of Yemen's capital Sanaa in 2014 and secured control over most of the north.

The Iran-backed group has been at war with the government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition since 2015, in a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)