Yemen's southern separatists said that their leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi is in Aden overseeing military and security operations in the city, after a Saudi-led coalition in the country said he fled to an unknown destination.
The separatists added on Wednesday that they have lost contact with their delegation in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh.
STC spokesperson Anwar Al-Tamimi told AFP that contact had been lost with the delegation that travelled to Riyadh during the night.
On other hand, at least four people were killed in Saudi-led coalition strikes in Yemen on Wednesday, two hospital sources told AFP, as the force raided the home province of a separatist leader.
"The initial toll from the strikes on the province of al-Dhale is four civilian deaths and six wounded," medical sources at the Al-Nasr and Al-Tadamon hospitals in al-Dhale told AFP.
Treason charges
Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) said earlier that they dismissed the Southern Transitional Council (STC) chief al-Zubaidi and referred him for prosecution on charges of high treason.
In the wake of those accusations, the head of PLC issued a decree, dismissing al-Zubaidi from the body over alleged high treason.
“The Presidential Leadership Council issued a decision today, Wednesday, to drop the membership of Aidrous al-Zubaidi in the Presidential Leadership Council for committing high treason and to refer him to the Prosecutor General,” said the decree signed by the council's chairman, Rashad al-Alimi.
It added that the country's attorney general would launch an investigation into the allegations.
Failed to board Riyadh plane
The dramatic move comes amid escalating tensions between the UAE-backed STC and Yemen’s internationally recognised government, deepening fractures within the Saudi-led coalition and threatening already fragile efforts to contain renewed fighting in the south.
Al-Zubaidi failed to board a plane set to take him to Riyadh and fled instead to an unknown destination, the Saudi-backed coalition in the country said on Wednesday.
The remarks came amid efforts to end fighting that erupted last month between the STC, backed by the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen's Saudi-backed internationally recognised government, which has triggered a major feud between the Gulf allies.
Zubaidi was set to travel to Saudi Arabia days after Yemen's government announced that it had requested Riyadh to host a forum on the southern issue.
In a statement, coalition spokesperson Turki al-Maliki said a flight carrying a large number of senior leaders of the separatist group departed after a delay of more than three hours without Zubaidi, and with no information on his whereabouts.
The coalition also said it carried out limited pre-emptive air strikes in Yemen's southern province of al-Dhalea after monitoring the movements of armed forces that had left their camps. Domestic sources and sources within the STC reported more than 15 strikes in the province, the birthplace of Zubaidi.
The feud between the UAE and Saudi Arabia has fractured a coalition originally created to fight the Houthis, who are still the dominant military force in Yemen.
The Houthis seized the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in 2014 and Gulf countries intervened the following year in support of the internationally recognised government, splitting Yemen into rival zones of control.
