STC Rearranges Ranks in Abyan, Vows Hadi to “Pay the Price”
The backed UAE Transitional Council, in southern Yemen, began on Saturday, intensive military movements in its most prominent strongholds in Abyan province, after losing one of its most important cities, in conjunction with new threats made by his head, this indicates to arrangements for a large-scale war in the most important province between the “legitimacy” factions.
Exclusive-Alkhabar alyemeni:
The Council pushed for large reinforcements, including advanced Emirati personnel and armored vehicles, to the contact lines in the city of Zinjibar, in conjunction with dismissal of security belt factions’ commander in Lawdar district after Hadi’s forces succeeded in storming his camp.
Local sources reported that the transitional reinforcements tried to advance towards Lawdar through points in the contact lines, controlled by the giants’ factions that coalition deployed earlier as peacekeepers between Hadi and the transitional, but the giants in Sheikh Salem area on the outskirts of Zinjibar intercepted these reinforcements coming from Aden and prevented her to reach Lawdar which indicates to a Saudi role in the fall of Lawdar.
In conjunction with sending reinforcements, the head of STC council, Aidarous Al-Zubaidi, made strong threats against Hadi, during which he promised to make Hadi officials pay the price for storming Lawdar district.
In a statement after his meeting with his senior generals, Al-Zubaidi admitted that Hadi forces had taken control of Lawdar and stormed the camp of his factions in the security belt in the district, through confrontations, which he described as “terrifying civilians.”
Late on Friday evening, Hadi’s forces tightened their grip on Lawdar with a fast attack, in which two people killed and four wounded, on both sides. Hadi’s forces took control of the security administration building, before advanced to control the last camp of STC, in the directorate, which constitutes a turning point in the battle of the central regions in Abyan.
Hadi’s forces’ advance came after the failure of local mediation between the two poles of “legitimacy”, concerning the change of Lawdar Security Director affiliated with STC to another one appointed by Hadi’s Interior minister, accounted on Islah and accused of supporting al-Qaeda.
Although Hadi’s forces are trying to portray the operation as “quenching an insurgency”, its timing indicates that it has local and regional dimensions, most notably that Hadi and Islah alliance, which engaged in negotiations with STC, under Saudi sponsorship. They are under pressure regarding Shabwah, to which STC had earlier tried to transfer the battle with a demonstration in Abadan and suppressed before it started. they have just managed to snatch a big card through lawdar gain that may return the ball to the playground of transitional in Aden, and it reinforces pressure on his delegation to make major concessions after it had gone in raising its ceiling, and threat to an independent government.
As for the regional aspect, the developments on the ground that followed a Saudi statement indicate that Riyadh is trying to direct a blow to its small ally, as part of the heated gains disputes between the two allies since August of the year 2019, when UAE supported the transitional coup to obstruct the spread of Saudi forces and the subsequent developments, until Riyadh and Abu Dhabi reached an agreement later called “Riyadh Agreement” which still stumbled due to the agenda conflict between the allies.