ADEN, Yemen (AP) — A separatist group in southern Yemen said Wednesday that it was urgently trying to contact a delegation that traveled to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, for talks on de-escalating tensions between rival forces on the ground.

Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council said a 50-member delegation arrived in Riyadh in the morning. One of its members posted a message on X, but then the delegation went silent, their phones switched off and their whereabouts unknown.

The announcement came after a Saudi-backed council — the Presidential Leadership Council, or PLC, which is fighting against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels — said that it had expelled the leader of the separatist movement from the council and charged him with treason after he reportedly declined to travel to Saudi Arabia for the talks.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia also launched new airstrikes against the southern Yemen separatists, who have recently received arms from UAE.

“We went to Riyadh to talk. What we received was bombing," said Amr al-Bidh, an STC representative who briefed international media on Wednesday afternoon. "This is unjustified and unfortunate.”

The Saudi foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to request for comments.

A coalition that has been unraveling

In recent years Saudi Arabia and the UAE and their allies on the ground in Yemen have all been part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, who control the north in the country’s decade-long civil war.

The coalition’s professed goal has long been to restore the internationally recognized government, which was driven out of the north by the Houthis. But tensions between the factions and the two Gulf nations have grown, threatening to throw them into outright conflict and further tear apart the Arab world’s poorest country.

The Southern Transitional Council seeks the restoration of the pre-1990 southern state in Yemen — something that Saudi Arabia sees as a violation of its own national interest.

The crisis escalated in December, when separatists seized control of two southern governorates from Saudi-backed forces and took over the Presidential Palace in the south’s main city, Aden. Members of the internationally recognized government — which had been based in Aden — fled to the Saudi-capital Riyadh.

Saudi forces then carried out airstrikes on the port city of Mukalla, saying they were aiming at weapons and military equipment that had been delivered from UAE to the separatist group. Last week, the separatists announced a constitution for an independent nation in the south and demanded other factions in the war-torn country accept the move.

The separatist leader refused a Saudi summons

The Presidential Leadership Council, or PLC, headed by Rashad al-Alimi, accused the Southern Transitional Council head Aidarous al-Zubaidi in a Facebook statement of “damaging the republic’s military, political and economic standing,” as well as “forming an armed gang and committing the murder of officers and soldiers of the armed forces.”

Maj. Gen, Turki al-Malki, a spokesperson for a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, said Wednesday that al-Zubaidi had been due to take a flight to Saudi Arabia with other council officials but did not join them.

“The legitimate government and the coalition received intelligence indicating that al-Zubaidi had moved a large force — including armored vehicles, combat vehicles, heavy and light weapons, and ammunition,” al-Malki said. Al-Zubaidi, he said, “fled to an unknown location.”

Al-Bidh said al-Zubaidi, remained in Aden, the interim capital where the internationally recognized government is based, in order to carry out his duties, and because an environment conducive to dialogue doesn't exist now. He said the message his group received from the Saudis was: “either you come or we’ll bomb you.”

Saudis launch new airstrikes

More than 15 Saudi airstrikes overnight hit the al-Dhale governorate, where al-Zubaidi's village is located, targeting STC camps, according to STC leader Salah bin Laghir.

There were two civilians dead and 14 injured, according to al-Bidh.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that they saw armored vehicles affiliated with the STC leaving Aden overnight heading to al-Dahle, as well as drones in the sky and flames rising as explosions shook neighborhoods in al-Dahle and its surrounding areas.

The STC said it condemned “these unjustified airstrikes.”

The anti-Houthi leadership group, the PLC, formed in April 2022 after President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi of Yemen’s internationally recognized government stepped down.

Its members have often pursued competing agendas and relied on different foreign backers, leaving the council fragmented and unable to mount a unified campaign against the Houthis — even when the United States and Israel launched bombing campaigns targeting the rebels.

The war's death toll keeps growing

On Sunday, Saudi-backed forces spread across Mukalla, retaking the capital of Hadramout governorate following days of Saudi airstrikes.

Saudi Arabia in recent weeks has bombed STC positions and struck what is said was a shipment of Emirati weapons. After Saudi pressure and an ultimatum from anti-Houthi forces to withdraw from Yemen, the UAE said Saturday it had withdrawn its forces.

Yemen, on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula off East Africa, borders the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The war there has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

Al-Bidh said Wednesday that around 80 people affiliated with the STC were killed since the Council's operations began in December, with most dying in Saudi bombings.

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Khaled reported from Cairo, and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.