Abyan confrontations ... Yemeni army kills and captures dozens of the transitional council forces

Dozens of militants of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council were killed and killed in bloody battles in Abyan Governorate (southern Yemen). These confrontations come in the wake of the severe tension caused by the announcement of the Transitional Council self-administration in the southern governorates. 

Field sources in the Yemeni National Army confirmed ten deaths from the Transitional Council forces, and more than thirty of them were captured in clashes today between the two parties in Abyan Governorate, while two members of the army were killed.

Local sources said that the dawn renewed clashes continue intermittently, adding that the mutual bombing between the two parties with heavy and medium weapons is taking place in the vicinity of Sheikh Salem, Ramla and Wadi Sala, east of the city of Zanzibar, the administrative center of the Abyan governorate.

Eyewitnesses reported that ambulances were seen transporting the dead and wounded on both sides, and medical sources said that large numbers of dead and injured people arrived at Lauder, Zanzibar and Aden hospitals.

Eyewitnesses confirmed their vision of the withdrawal and flight of military vehicles with fighters from the Transitional Council towards the city of Aden subject to the forces of the Council, similar to the city of Zanzibar, which government forces are trying to recover.

The Transitional Council had pushed new reinforcements from the governorates of Aden, Lahj and Al-Dhali to Abyan governorate to reinforce its forces there, and military reinforcements for government forces also arrived from Shabwa.

Before the new round of clashes in Abyan, the President of the Southern Transitional Council, Aidarous Al-Zubaidi, yesterday from his headquarters in Abu Dhabi, called on the people of the southern governorates to take up arms and defend what he called the land of the south.

Politically, the Yemeni Foreign Minister, Muhammad al-Hadrami, said the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council is determined to continue its armed rebellion and undermine the work of state institutions, including disrupting the work of teams from the Ministry of Health concerned with tackling the Corona virus in Aden.

Al-Hadrami added in his statements today that the transitional council rejected international calls to withdraw its decision to declare self-administration in the south, and took what he described as provocative steps.

He stressed that the legitimate Yemeni government is committed to the Riyadh agreement, and that the transitional council must submit to and back down from its rebellion.

The dispute between the transitional and the legitimate government escalated during the past few days after the transitional announced self-administration for the south, which the Yemeni government considered a new coup and in violation of the Riyadh agreement signed last November between the two parties under the supervision of Saudi Arabia, and it has not been implemented until this moment.