© Yemen Today via APIn this frame grab from video provided by Yemen Today, Yemeni army vehicles enter Zinjibar, Yemen, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019.
Yemen's president urged Saudi Arabia on Thursday to rein in the United Arab Emirates after
warplanes from his former ally staged airstrikes on Yemeni government troops, killing and wounding dozens as they headed to retake the key southern port city of Aden from separatists backed by the UAE.
In a rare statement, President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi condemned the UAE, a former ally,
for "blatant intervention" in Yemen by providing "support, money and plans" for separatists who aim at "dividing up" the country.
His government called upon the United Nations Security Council to condemn the attacks.
The development raises concerns about the future of a Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting Yemen's Houthi rebels since 2015 and adds another complex layer to the civil war that has ravaged the Arab world's most impoverished country.
Infighting has raged for weeks between forces loyal to Yemen's internationally recognized government and the southern separatists, backed by the UAE —
all ostensibly allies in the coalition.
Col. Mohamed al-Oban, a commander of the government's special forces in Abyan province, said the troops were on the road, headed from Abyan toward Aden on Thursday, when the strikes took place, killing at least 30.
Comment: Sputnik reports of another attack in northern Afghanistan: So the much lauded US-Taliban peace talks have unsurprisingly come to nought, which means the US will remain in the country and the violence is bound to continue: