UAE Withdraws Troops From Yemen's Southern Port of Aden

The United Arab Emirates announced Wednesday it has completed the withdrawal of its military forces from the southern Yemeni city of Aden, as part of an agreement with Saudi Arabia to end a fight between southern Yemeni separatists backed by them, and the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi backed by Saudi Arabia.

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UAE said its troops returned home and the control was handed over to Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s forces, according to state news agency WAM which issued a statement from the country’s military officials.

The Gulf state, which had started in June to scale down its military presence in the war-torn country, added it would continue fighting "terrorist organizations" in other areas and southern Yemeni provinces.

The move came days after the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) and Hadi's government agreed to an initial deal designed to end combat in Yemen's south.

The two sides are supposed to be allies in the Saudi-UAE-led military coalition, which intervened in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis to try to restore the government of Hadi that was ousted from power in the capital, Sanaa, in the north by the movement in late 2014.

However, in August, the separatist movement, which seeks self-rule in southern Yemen, turned on Hadi's government and seized its interim seat of Aden, where the Yemeni government has based itself since 2015 when the rebel Houthis seized Sanaa.

Recent months’ fights between Hadi's forces and the STC's fighters have opened a new front in Yemen's multilayered war, which with the UAE withdrawal from Aden will now likely refocus the fighting and the Saudi-backed efforts against the Houthis.

The impoverished Arab country has been locked in a civil war since late 2014 when the Houthis overran much of the country and seized all northern provinces including Sanaa.