Yemen is no stranger to fighting, and the city of Aden on Wednesday night saw a two hour battle between a pair of brigades from the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a major separatist faction in South Yemen.
Fighting centered around a checkpoint and the education ministry building, as one tried to disarm the other. The STC leader ended the fighting by ordering both brigades to withdraw from the area, and calm quickly returned.
The STC intends to restore the Republic of South Yemen, and has a tenuous relationship with the Saudi-backed government. The UAE mostly backs the STC, and the two sides fight regularly over southern territory.
A power-sharing deal is meant to keep the STC and government from fighting, but this has had limited success, with both the power-sharing and the withdrawal of fighters from cities being incomplete. Many see this as a ticking time bomb, and the fate of South Yemen will likely be decided in a war after the current war.
Infighting: Two Killed, 15 Wounded as Yemen Separatists Clash
STC brigades fight in Aden
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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