Five soldiers were killed in the fighting and seven were wounded, according to a military official from the Fourth Military Region
Army takes military camp outside Abyan capital as STC deploys in Aden
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On Tuesday, the second day of fighting between government forces and forces loyal to the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Abyan governorate, government forces captured Taryah military camp. Five soldiers were killed in the fighting and seven were wounded, according to a military official from the Fourth Military Region.
Government forces recovered a number of vehicles and captured an unspecified number of prisoners, the source added.
Camp Taryah is located 2 kilometers away from the town of Sheikh Salem, east of Abyan’s capital Zinjibar. Sheikh Salem was taken by government forces on Monday in clashes that left six people dead and eight injured on both sides.
The military source said the two sides exchanged heavy artillery fire in the towns of Shaqra and Sheikh Salem on Tuesday morning, with the STC bringing large military reinforcements Tuesday evening from Aden and Lahj to the outskirts of Zinjibar.
Local sources and eyewitnesses told Almasdar Online that forces loyal to the STC were heavily deployed in the streets of Aden as the fighting in Abyan intensified.
The sources added that units of the Security Belt Forces, the paramilitary arm of the STC, as well as the emergency forces of the Aden Security Department reinforced all entrances to Aden’s districts and intersections of main roads, setting up new checkpoints.
The STC announced that it would resist any attacks by government forces in south Yemen. In a speech from Abu Dhabi, the head of the STC, Aidarous Al-Zubaidi called on all forces loyal to the council to confront government forces.
At dawn on Wednesday, Ahmed Bin Buraik, the acting head of the STC in Aden while Al-Zubaidi is in Abu Dhabi, announced that the STC would launch forces to resist any attacks in the Hadhramout valley and in Shabwa and Abyan governorates, as well as in any other territories where there is "Brotherhood terrorist elements." Bin Buraik is also head of the committee for the self-administration of the south, following the group’s declaration of self-administration in late April.
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Edited by Ahlam Mohsen and Casey Coombs
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