UAE-backed southern Yemeni separatists patrol a street during a campaign to seize unlicensed motorcycles in Aden, Yemen, December 10, 2019. (Photo by Reuters)

Once-allied rival militants, backed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have engaged in intense clashes in Yemen�s strategic Socotra Island, exposing a deep rift in a Riyadh-led coalition.

Local sources said infighting between Saudi-sponsored mercenaries loyal to Yemen�s former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and armed units of the so-called Southern Transitional Council (STC), which is supported by the UAE, over the control of Socotra�s provincial capital of Hadibo.

Witnesses also told local media that the UAE-aligned elements had fired artillery shells at residential areas near Hadibo.

Shells struck the mountainous district of Haybat, about 20 kilometers outside Hadibo, said resident Aden al-Ghad.

Yemen�s former prime minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr tweeted that the UAE-backed militants were trying to take control of Socotra�s provincial capital, using all types of heavy weapons.

Some reports indicated that the STC�s military units had seized control of a coast guard battalion of the Saudi mercenaries and looted weapons and ammunition stores.

Yemen�s al-Masirah TV network said Friday�s clashes followed the arrival of an Emirati ship loaded with weapons on the coast of Socotra.

Last week, the STC declared a state of emergency and announced self-administration rule in Yemen�s southern regions, including the port city of Aden - which has served as the seat of Hadi�s regime during the Saudi military aggression.

In August 2018, the UAE deployed more than a hundred troops with artillery and armored vehicles to Socotra. A few months later, a UAE official visiting Socotra said the island would become part of the UAE and its residents would be given Emirati citizenship.

In 2019, the UAE announced a surprise plan to withdraw part of its troops from Yemen in a major blow to its coalition allies.

Both the UAE-sponsored separatists and Saudi-backed Hadi loyalists serve a Riyadh-led military coalition which has been waging a bloody war on Yemeni people since March 2015.

The Western-sponsored bombing campaign has plunged Yemen into what the UN says is the world�s worst humanitarian crisis and shattered its health system.

Aid groups have warned that Yemen�s health system is ill-equipped to handle the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Yemen records first coronavirus case in Ta�iz

Late on Friday, Yemen reported the first coronavirus case in Ta�iz Province, raising the number of diagnosed infections to seven with two deaths.

In a Twitter post, the emergency coronavirus committee said that a 40-year-old man was diagnosed with the infection in Taiz, the region�s first case.

The patient is receiving care at a quarantine center and measures have been taken by the monitoring teams and the health department for those who interacted with him, it added.

SOURCE: PRESS TV