At least 70 STC fighters killed in Saudi Airstrikes on Hadramout

HADRAMOUT, Jan. 04 (YPA) -Dozens of fighters from the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) were killed in Saudi airstrikes in Hadramout’s valley districts over the past two days, media sources reported Sunday. The strikes reportedly targeted positions seized earlier by STC forces.

Sources familiar with the matter said that the  preliminary figures indicate that at least 70 STC fighters were killed. Most of them come from the provinces of Dhalea and Lahj provinces.

According to the statistics, Radfan (in Lahj governorate) recorded the highest number of victims, with 22 killed, followed by Dhalea with 14 killed.

The report added that among the dead were seven fighters from Yafa, seven from the Al-Musaymir in Lahj, four from Abyan, and two each from Shabwa and Aden.

No casualties were reported from Hadramout, despite STC claims that local fighters make up the bulk of its forces there.

The sources also noted that five unidentified dead were believed to belong to forces loyal to Tariq Saleh, amid claims from media affiliated with the Islah party that those units had taken part in operations in Hadramout.

Hundreds more are believed to have been wounded in the strikes and ensuing clashes across the valley and coastal districts, the reports said.

These bloody developments come following intensive air raids by Saudi warplanes on the camps of the First Military Region, which had been seized by the STC forces, in the districts of Hadramout, at the beginning of last December, as part of a ground operation that was then called ‘Promising Future.’

The sources said the Saudi strikes forced STC units to withdraw from sites they had captured, stretching from Al-Khasha’a in Al-Abr district in northern Hadramout to Seiyun and the provincial capital, Mukalla. There are also reports of possible moves to push STC units out of neighboring Shabwa.

This comes after Saudi Arabia forced the UAE to pull its forces out of military bases it had set up in Hadramout and Shabwa — extending to Aden and Lahj — after Abu Dhabi’s role in the Saudi-led coalition’s war was effectively ended.

@E.Y.M