By Mohammed Mukhashaf
ADEN (Reuters) - Southern Yemeni separatists on Thursday vowed revenge against government forces for their assault on Aden and dispatched reinforcements from elsewhere as fighting between the nominal allies in a Saudi-led coalition showed no sign of abating.
Yemen's foreign minister accused the United Arab Emirates, which backs the separatists, of carrying out air strikes on government positions in Aden. A Yemeni official said over 30 soldiers were killed by air strikes on the eastern outskirts of Aden.
Reuters could not independently confirm the report and UAE officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The separatists and the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi are supposed allies in the Saudi-led coalition in its four-year-old war against Iran-aligned Houthis, who hold Yemen's capital Sanaa in the north and most of the country's populated areas.
But the United Arab Emirates has fallen out with Hadi's side because it includes a party the UAE sees as close to the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Gulf state has been fighting across the Middle East and North Africa.
Hadi's government said on Wednesday it had captured Aden airport and controlled most of the southern port city, an assertion quickly disputed by the separatists.
On Thursday, the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) said some of its troops positioned on the outskirts of the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, which is under Houthi control, had returned to Aden to join the battle against Hadi's forces.
"To whoever said the Southern Resistance has fled, I say: We are here," Hani Ben Brik, STC's vice-president, said in a video shared on social media showing him with dozens of his fighters outside Aden's airport building.
The Western-backed, Sunni Muslim coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 against the Houthis after the group ousted Hadi from power in Sanaa in late 2014. Aden is the temporary seat of Hadi's government.
A brigade of the STC's Giants Brigades had arrived in Aden from the Hodeidah theatre to support the fight against government forces, an STC statement said. A U.N.-brokered ceasefire has been in place in Hodeidah since December.
A Yemeni official said Saudi Arabia and the UAE had made contact with both sides to try to defuse the conflict but more fighters were seen arriving in Aden and the other southern provinces of Shabwa, Lahej and Abyan.
"COMMITTED TO REFORMS"
"The Coalition remains committed to supporting reforms in the legitimate government, tackling corruption, encouraging inclusiveness towards to all Yemeni factions, in order to ensure representation of all Yemenis in the future of the country," said UAE National Media Council director Jaber Al Lamki.
There were sporadic clashes across Aden on Thursday with gunmen on both sides patrolling deserted streets, residents said. Shops, restaurants and businesses were closed.
Government forces recaptured Zinjibar, the capital of the neighbouring Abyan province, on Monday, after securing most of the oil-producing Shabwa region and its liquefied natural gas terminal in Balhaf.
The separatists seek to restore the South Yemen republic which merged with the north in 1990. They had clashed occasionally with government forces for several years before major new hostilities erupted this month.
ADVERTISEMENTSaudi Arabia has called for a summit to end the standoff, which has roiled U.N. efforts to end a war that has driven Yemen to the brink of famine and is widely seen as a proxy struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia for regional dominance.
But Hadi’s government has said it will not participate until separatists cede control of sites they seized earlier in August.
(Writing by Aziz El Yaakoubi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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