Battle of Aden (2018)

Overview

The Battle of Aden was a conflict between the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and the Yemeni government around the headquarters in Aden.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Aden in January 2018 marked a significant fracture within the anti-Houthi coalition, pitting the Southern Transitional Council (STC) against the internationally recognized Yemeni government forces loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. With both sides fielding forces of comparable size around the headquarters in Aden, the confrontation revealed that the coalition opposing the Houthi movement was not a unified front but a grouping of factions with competing political objectives. The STC sought greater autonomy or independence for southern Yemen, placing it at direct odds with the central government it nominally shared a coalition with. This intra-coalition conflict complicated the broader Yemeni Civil War by opening a second axis of armed contestation in the south, diverting resources and attention from the Houthi front and undermining the political coherence of the internationally backed government.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (4)