Yemen’s Southern Armed Forces said fighting in Wadi Hadramout against forces arriving from northern areas amounts to a “decisive, existential north-south war.”
In a recorded video statement on Friday, Southern Armed Forces spokesman Lt Col Mohammed al-Naqeeb said southern units had been battling since the morning in what he called a “national defence” operation across key fronts under an operation dubbed “The Promising Future.”
Al-Naqeeb alleged that “Brotherhood militias” and al Qaeda launched a wide assault along Hadramout’s southern border, and said southern forces had repelled the attack. He also claimed southern fighters suffered fatalities in air strikes that hit their positions in Wadi Hadramout.
He stressed that the southern “Nation Shield” forces were not involved in the clashes.
Al-Naqeeb compared the current fighting to the 1994 conflict, describing it as similar to what he called a “takfiri terrorist war” waged against the south and its sovereignty at the time. He said southern forces would not concede “a grain” of territory or “a drop” of the blood of its fallen.