Southern Yemeni separatists accused Saudi Arabia on Friday of launching airstrikes against their forces, allegations the kingdom did not immediately comment on after urging those forces to withdraw from areas they recently seized.

The Southern Transitional Council (STC)  a powerful UAE-backed separatist body seeking independence for southern Yemen, said the strikes took place in Hadramout, Yemen’s largest eastern province.

It was not immediately clear whether the airstrikes caused casualties. The incident, however, risks escalating tensions in war-torn Yemen and threatens the fragile Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in northern Yemen for nearly a decade.

In a statement to the Associated Press, Amr al-Beidh, the STC’s special representative for foreign affairs, said the council’s fighters were conducting operations in eastern Hadramout on Friday when they were targeted in what he described as “multiple ambushes” by armed groups.

According to al-Beidh, the attacks killed two STC fighters and wounded 12 others. He added that Saudi airstrikes followed the ambushes.

Saudi Warnings

Faiz bin Omar, a senior member of a Hadramout tribal alliance, told the Associated Press that he believed the airstrikes were intended as a warning to pressure the STC into withdrawing its fighters from the area. 

Meanwhile, Ahmed al-Khayd, an eyewitness to the strikes, said he later saw destroyed military vehicles believed to belong to forces allied with the STC.

The STC-affiliated satellite channel AIC aired what it said was mobile-phone footage showing the aftermath of the strikes. In one video, a man can be heard blaming Saudi aircraft for the attack.

Saudi officials did not immediately respond to the Associated Press's request for comment. The Kingdom had called on Thursday for the southern separatists in Yemen to withdraw.

Earlier this month, the Southern Transitional Council moved into Yemen’s eastern provinces of Hadramout and Al-Mahra, forcing out units of the Saudi-backed Yemen Shield Forces, another faction within the coalition fighting the Houthi movement.