STC leaders expel 270 officers and soldiers from Aden Free Zone

ADEN, Nov. 21 (YPA) – The Southern Transitional Council (STC) leadership carried out a mass dismissal of approximately 270 officers and soldiers from the Free Zone Protection Battalion in Aden, which is under the control of the Saudi-led coalition.

Human rights sources confirmed that the dismissal included approximately 150 officers and soldiers from the battalion, in addition to 115 members of the Free Zone police force, most of whom are from Aden, in what was described as a “ruralistic” operation.

They explained that they were replaced by members from Al-Dhalea and Yafa’, the regions from which the head of the STC, Aidarus al-Zubaidi, and his Salafist deputy, the commander of the Giants Brigades, Abdulrahman al-Mahrami, hail.

They reported that the dismissed officers and soldiers were among those who had maintained the security and safety of the port since the war on Yemen began in March 2015, without any professional or security justification, in a move that reinforces the policy of subservience and marginalization of the city’s residents.

The sources attributed their exclusion to the regionalism perpetuated by the leaders of the Southern Transitional Council, not only against the people of Aden, but also against the rest of the people of the southern governorates in Abyan, Shabwa, and Hadramout, by monopolizing all military, security, and civilian positions.

The sources considered this step part of a systematic policy pursued by the Transitional Council, aimed at bringing about a demographic change in vital and strategic facilities in Aden and replacing their original staff with elements loyal to it.