Saudi-led Alliance Executes “Limited Airstrike” on Yemen’s Port

(MENAFN) A Saudi-directed coalition announced it had conducted what it described as a “limited airstrike” on a vital harbor in Yemen, aiming at a suspected shipment of arms intended for separatists supported by the UAE.

In a declaration released by a Saudi state news outlet, on Tuesday, the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen – a Saudi-led partnership established in 2015 to combat Houthi insurgents at the request of Yemen’s internationally recognized administration – stated that the strike targeted armaments and military vehicles offloaded from vessels arriving from the UAE.

These supplies were reportedly destined for the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a faction pushing for autonomy in the south.

The statement noted that two ships had reached Yemen from the UAE’s Fujairah port over the weekend without official clearance and docked at Mukalla – the sole maritime gateway in Yemen’s southern Hadramout province.

The vessels allegedly switched off their tracking devices and discharged large volumes of military hardware intended “to support the STC.” Acting on the request of Presidential Leadership Council chief Rashad al-Alimi, coalition aircraft struck the unloaded cargo early Tuesday, asserting that the operation caused no fatalities or unintended destruction.

Initially, the STC separatists fought alongside the Saudi-led coalition that intervened in Yemen following the eruption of civil war in 2014. However, they later shifted their stance, pursuing self-governance in the southern regions.

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