DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia bombed the port city of Mukalla in Yemen on Tuesday over what it described as a shipment of weapons for a separatist force there that arrived from the United Arab Emirates. The UAE did not immediately acknowledge the strike.
The attack signals a new escalation in tensions between the kingdom and the separatist forces of the Southern Transitional Council, which is backed by the Emirates. It also further strains ties between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, which had been backing competing sides in Yemen's decadelong war against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
A military statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency announced the strikes, which it said came after ships arrived there from Fujairah, a port city on the UAE's eastern coast.
''Given the danger and escalation posed by these weapons, which threaten security and stability, the Coalition Air Forces conducted a limited military operation this morning targeting weapons and combat vehicles unloaded from the two ships at the port,'' it said.
It wasn't immediately clear if there were any casualties from the strike. The Saudi military said it conducted the attack overnight to make sure ''no collateral damage occurred.''
The UAE did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP.
The attack likely targeted a ship identified by analysts as the Greenland, a roll-on, roll-off vessel flagged out of St. Kitts. Tracking data analyzed by the AP showed the vessel had been in Fujairah on Dec. 22 and arrived in Mukalla on Sunday.
Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemen expert and the founder of the Basha Report, a risk advisory firm, cited social media videos which purported to show new armored vehicles rolling through Mukalla after the ship's arrival. The ship's owners, based in Dubai, could not be immediately reached.
