Troop deployment marks new phase in confrontation with Southern Transitional Council, amid Saudi-led mediation and political fallout - Anadolu Ajansı

Residents express relief after Giants Forces take over southern city and pledge loyalty to Presidential Leadership Council

Landing at Aden International Airport on a trip in late 2017, the plane had two flags visible as it moved along the tarmac. One was the flag of the former South Yemen, resurrected as a symbol of Yemen’s secessionist southern movement. The other was of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the movement’s primary backer.

Hours after its leader's unexplained absence, the Southern Transitional Council said he was in Aden overseeing military and security operations.

Yemen’s separatist movement has announced a constitution for an independent nation in the south and demanded other factions in the war-torn country accept the move.

The announcement by the UAE-backed separatist group follows major escalations with Saudi Arabia and the internationally-recognized government.

Flights at Yemen’s Aden international airport were halted on Thursday, the latest sign of a deepening crisis between Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, whose rivalry is reshaping war-torn Yemen.

Yemen is threatening to fracture even further, exposing a growing rift between Middle East powers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Saudi-led coalition said Aidarous al-Zubaidi, head of a UAE-backed southern separatist group, had left Yemen by boat for Somaliland, before boarding an aircraft to Mogadishu that was later tracked to a military airport in Abu Dhabi.

Aden and adjacent areas are currently controlled by the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC). The leader of the STC had been residing in the palace, but his current whereabouts are unknown.