Yemen separatists take key area in Aden; 12 troops killed

SANAA, Yemen (AP) - The embattled Yemeni prime minister was preparing to flee the country on Tuesday for Saudi Arabia after separatists seized the area around the presidential palace in the southern port city of Aden in fierce battles overnight, security officials said.

In a separate development, suspected Islamic militants attacked a checkpoint in the country's southern Shabwa province on Tuesday, killing at least 12 soldiers there. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but Yemeni troops have claimed victory over al-Qaida in the province.

According to the security officials, fighters loyal to the so-called Southern Transitional Council fought all way to the gates of the Palace of Maashiq in the district of Crater in Aden, forcing President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's troops to abandon their positions. The officials said Hadi's prime minister and several Cabinet members would leave Yemen imminently for Riyadh.

The palace is the seat of Yemen's internationally backed government. The separatist forces did not enter the palace itself and were stopped by Saudi Arabian troops who have been guarding the palace for the past months.

However, a senior government official told The Associated Press that Prime Minister Ahmed Obaid Bin Daghar and several ministers remained inside the palace and that the separatists had not seized the palace itself.

The official declined to say whether the prime minister was to leave Aden. The security officials and the government official spoke on condition of anonymity under regulations.

The fighting in Aden first erupted on Sunday, when a deadline issued by the separatists for the government to resign expired. Hadi, who has been in Saudi Arabia for most of the war, has described the separatists' action as a "coup."

The violence in Aden has killed at least 36 people and wounded 185 since Sunday, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

It has also exposed deep divisions within the alliance between Hadi's government and the Saudi-led coalition. The two are fighting against Yemen's Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, who are in control of the country's north.

The war started in 2015 when the Houthis captured much of the northern region after overrunning the capital, Sanaa.

The warring parties have been locked in a bloody stalemate for most of the war, which has killed over 10,000 civilians and displaced 2 million, with the United Nations saying that Yemen is facing the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

But within the Saudi-led coalition, allies from the United Arab Emirates have trained the separatist forces and empowered them over the past year, in a direct challenge to Hadi, who is in Riyadh.

The unfolding events in Aden have thrown Yemen into deeper uncertainty.

The U.S. State Department has expressed concern and called upon all parties to "refrain from escalation and further bloodshed." Washington backs the Saudi-led coalition.

"We also call for dialogue among all parties in Aden to reach a political solution," the statement said. "The Yemeni people are already facing a dire humanitarian crisis. Additional divisions and violence within Yemen will only increase their suffering."

In the attack in Shabwa, militants hit a checkpoint guarded by the so-called Shabwa Elite Force, which has also been trained by the UAE, near the southern city of Ataq, the provincial capital.

The tribesmen say the attack started with a mortar round fired at the checkpoint, followed by heavy gunfire that killed the 12 guards.

Tribesman Youssef al-Khalifi, who lives nearby, said he helped carry the bodies of the wounded to a hospital but that only one survived. Al-Khalifi said the attackers had destroyed a building next to the checkpoint where some of the guards were sleeping and that he helped retrieve some of the bodies from under the rubble.

The UAE-trained Shabwa soldiers were deployed last year to the region and later declared victory over al-Qaida's branch in Yemen which had used Shabwa as a safe haven.

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This story has been corrected to show that the separatist forces have not yet entered the palace itself though they control the area.