Mukalla (Yemen) (AFP) – Saudi-backed troops on Saturday made advances in Yemen’s resource-rich Hadramawt province, military officials said, as confrontations between forces backed by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi deepened a rift between the two Gulf allies.

The Saudis and Emiratis have for years supported rival factions in Yemen’s fractious government. But a recent offensive by the UAE-backed secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) to capture Hadramawt angered Riyadh and left the oil-rich regional powers on a collision course.

In a statement, the military of the Saudi-aligned government announced that “all military and civilian facilities” in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province, had “been secured” by Riyadh-backed forces.

Earlier two government military officials told AFP they had taken control of Mukalla’s principal military base.

The Saudi-led coalition has launched repeated warnings and air strikes over the past week, including one on an alleged Emirati arms shipment to the STC.

On Friday, a strike on the Al-Khasha military camp in Hadramawt left 20 dead, according to the separatist group.

On Saturday, a military official with the STC told AFP Saudi warplanes had carried out “intense” air strikes on another of the group’s camps at Barshid, west of Mukalla.

The official said the strike had resulted in fatalities, without giving a number of those killed.

Footage aired by the Aden Independent Channel showed the moment one strike hit the STC forces, igniting a massive orange fireball and sending a plume of black smoke into the sky.

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