Over 70 killed, wounded in Abyan battles

ABYAN, June 24 (YPA) – More than 70 people have been killed and wounded  in the past 24 hours as fighting between the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) militias and Hadi forces in Abyan province, southern Yemen, medical sources said Wednesday.

Sources in Aden said they received 18 bodies and about 20 injured of the STC militias , while about 12 bodies of 25 injured arrived at Ataq hospitals.

In the past few hours, Abyan has witnessed the fiercest fighting as each side tried to resolve the battle before the coalition deployed observers on the lines of contact between the two sides.

Tribal sources said fighting had intensified on all areas of fighting and various types of weapons and had not stopped since dawn Tuesday.

The escalation of the clashes came after the coalition announced an agreement between the two sides to stop fighting in Abyan and escalate the rest of the provinces.

Hadi’s forces appear to be the most opposed to the truce on political and military grounds, the first of which is to reduce their presence in the future government.

the STC’s spokesman Mohammed al-Naqeeb accused Hadi forces of violating the truce by launching a nightly attack on Zinjibar and Ja’ar areas. While Hadi’s ambassador to Jordan Ali Al-Amrani described the Saudi truce as an attempt to stabilize the reality of the STC in Socotra.

E.M