Yemeni separatists and forces loyal to the country's U.N.-recognized government whose deadly infighting erupted last summer in the war-torn Arab country are pulling back from a key southern city, military officials said Thursday.
The pullout, envisaged under a Saudi-brokered peace deal, began this week, the Yemeni officials told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The infighting that broke out in August between the secessionists and troops loyal to Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi threatened their alliance in the Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the country's Houthi rebels since 2015.
FILE - In this Sept. 3, 2015, file photo people walk at the site of a car bomb attack next to a Shiite mosque in Sanaa, Yemen. Yemen’s civil war has exacted an enormous toll on people with disabilities, who find themselves on the margins of society and excluded from badly needed humanitarian assistance, Amnesty International said in a report released Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019. (AP PhotoHani Mohammed, File)
The fighting prompted Saudi Arabia to pressure both sides to the negotiating table in Riyadh, where they signed a peace agreement in November. Among other provisions, the deal stipulates that both sides pull out from Zinjibar, the capital of southern Abyan province.
The withdrawal that's underway is the first such pullout under the Saudi-brokered deal. On Wednesday, a Yemen-based Saudi media spokesman, Nasser Hibtar, said that both sides have also released dozens of prisoners and that a Saudi-led committee arrived in Abyan to discuss withdrawal from other key sites.
Under the peace deal, the separatists are also expected to turn in their weapons and eventually become incorporated in the government-controlled police force.
Yemen's civil war began in 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels overran most of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa, pushing out Hadi's government. Hadi later fled to Saudi Arabia. The kingdom intervened in the conflict a year later, forming the Saudi-led alliance that has since battled the Houthis.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed the impoverished Yemen to the brink of famine. With the infighting between the separatists, who seek an independent southern Yemen, and Hadi's forces, Saudi Arabia has been struggling to salvage its coalition, especially after its longtime ally the United Arab Emirates began withdrawing troops from Yemen.
JERUSALEM (AP) — A ship traveling in the Gulf of Aden came under attack Thursday, officials said, the latest assault carried out by Yemen's Houthi rebels over Israel's ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The attack comes after the U.S. military said early Thursday an allied warship shot down a Houthi missile targeting a vessel the day before near the same area. The Houthis claimed that Wednesday assault, which comes after a period of relatively few rebel attacks on shipping in the region over Israel’s ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
In Thursday's attack, a ship was targeted just over 25 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of Aden, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.
The captain “reports a loud bang heard and a splash and smoke seen coming from the sea,” the UKMTO said. “Vessel and all crew are safe.”
The attack was also reported by the private security firm Ambrey.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed the attack late Thursday, identifying the ship the rebels tried to target as the MSC Darwin.
European Union forces separately shot down a drone launched from Houthi territory on Thursday, Gen. Robert Brieger said. Separately on Wednesday, the British warship HMS Diamond began the first in the Royal Navy to shoot down a missile since 1991 when it destroyed a Houthi missile targeting merchant ships.
The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sank another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.
Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen and shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat. American officials have speculated that the rebels may be running out of weapons as a result of the U.S.-led campaign against them and firing off drones and missiles steadily in the last months.
However, Wednesday's attack was the first one by rebels in some time. An explosion struck some 130 kilometers (80 miles) southeast of Djibouti in the Gulf of Aden, the UKMTO said.
Early Thursday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said the explosion came from a coalition warship shooting down the missile likely targeting the MV Yorktown, a U.S.-flagged, owned and operated vessel with 18 U.S. and four Greek crew members.
“There were no injuries or damage reported by U.S., coalition or commercial ships,” Central Command said.
Saree claimed that attack but insisted without evidence that the missile hit the Yorktown. Saree also claimed the Houthis targeted another ship in the Indian Ocean, without providing proof. The Houthis have made repeated claims that turned out to not be true during their yearslong war in Yemen.
The Houthis have said they will continue their attacks until Israel ends its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.
Most of the ships targeted by the Houthis have had little or no direct connection to Israel, the U.S. or other nations involved in the war. The rebels have also fired missiles toward Israel, though they have largely fallen short or been intercepted.
In this photo provided by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), a Sea Viper missile is launched from HMS Diamond to shoot down a missile fired by the Iranian-backed Houthis from Yemen, Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a large barrage of drones and missiles targeting shipping in the Red Sea Wednesday. (LPhot Chris Sellars/MoD Crown copyright via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), members of the HMS Diamond's Bridge team shoot down a missile fired by the Iranian-backed Houthis from Yemen, Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a large barrage of drones and missiles targeting shipping in the Red Sea Wednesday. (LPhot Chris Sellars/MoD Crown via AP)
