Media sources in Hadhramaut reported on Friday that powerful explosions were heard in Wadi Nahb, in the Ghayl bin Yamin district, as a result of Saudi airstrikes targeting forces aligned with the Saudi-led coalition.
According to the sources, the airstrikes came amid escalating tensions between rival coalition-backed factions in Hadramawt, against the backdrop of an intensifying Saudi–Emirati struggle for influence over the governorate’s strategic areas and natural resources. The situation, they warned, threatens to deepen instability and chaos in the region.
The sources confirmed casualties, including dead and wounded, among members of the so-called Hadrami Elite forces affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council (STC), during clashes linked to their seizure of positions previously held by the Hadramawt Tribes Alliance.
Observers said the aerial escalation once again exposes the coalition’s failure to manage areas under its control, turning eastern Yemeni governorates into open arenas of internal conflict at the expense of civilian security and safety.
Earlier, the UAE-backed STC announced it had taken control of a military camp belonging to the so-called Hadramawt Alliance, as tensions continue to simmer in the oil- and gas-rich governorate.
Separately, the so-called Second Military Region command in Al-Mukalla said that the Hadrami Elite militia had seized control of the Wadi Nahb camp in occupied Hadramawt.
Hadramawt, Yemen’s largest governorate and one of its richest in oil and gas resources, has in recent years become a focal point of competing influence between Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Both sides rely on local armed factions to consolidate control over key military sites, ports, and resource-rich areas.
These rivalries have repeatedly erupted into clashes and power struggles among coalition-backed forces, undermining stability in eastern Yemen and highlighting deep fractures within the Saudi–Emirati alliance that has been waging war on Yemen since 2015.
