Saudi Arabia has bombed Yemen's port city of Mukalla, targeting a shipment of weapons from the United Arab Emirates for separatist forces

On December 2nd the Southern Transitional Council ( stc ), secessionists backed by the uae, went on a lightning offensive across the south-east. They seized territory held by Saudi-backed factions and now control the eight governorates that made up the former South Yemen (see map),

Saudi Arabia says it bombed Yemen’s port city of Mukalla over a shipment of weapons for a separatist force there that arrived from the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi-led forces struck an Emirati shipment early Tuesday, worsening tensions between the once-close allies. The Saudis said the shipment had arms for a separatist group, which the Emiratis denied.

A dramatic shift is unfolding in the Gulf power balance. After Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes on Yemen’s port city of Mukalla over alleged weapons movement concerns, questions are mounting over whether the UAE was facing a chilling ultimatum from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Yemen’s government and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have agreed to release 2,900 detainees from the 11-year civil war

Editor’s note: “Behind the News” is the product of Sun staff assisted by the Sun’s AI lab, which includes a variety of tools such as Anthropic’s Claude, Perplexity AI, Google Gemini and ChatGPT. The Yemen war represents one of the most ...

The separatist group, the Southern Transitional Council, used military force this month to take over parts of the oil-rich Hadramaut province in the south of Yemen and al-Mahra province in the east. The group was founded in 2017 with financial and military support from the United Arab Emirates, a Saudi ally.

The United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday that it was pulling out its remaining forces in Yemen after Saudi Arabia backed a call for the U.A.E. forces to leave the country within 24 hours, in a major crisis between the two Gulf powers and oil producers.