In Yemen, Separatist Forces Backed by UAE March Into Oil-Rich Region
The separatists were battling to secure the region’s oil fields, residents and the group’s officials said. Their swift advance could be a turning point in Yemen’s decade-long civil war.
An armed separatist group backed by the United Arab Emirates led a rapid march into a resource-rich region of Yemen on Wednesday, taking over wide sections of the territory in a matter of hours.
The separatist group, called the Southern Transitional Council or the S.T.C., seized control of much of Hadramout, a province in eastern Yemen, and were battling to secure the region’s oil fields, local residents and the group’s officials said.
An S.T.C. statement on Wednesday evening described the operation as a battle to “liberate all the soil of our homeland, South Arabia, and build a modern federal state.”
