DOHA, December 30. /TASS/. The operation by the Saudi-led coalition at the port of the Yemeni city of Mukalla has concluded without casualties, the alliance said in a statement.

According to the text, reported by Al Arabiya, "the limited military operation in Mukalla has ended," and the strike resulted in neither casualties nor "any collateral damage to infrastructure."

Earlier, the coalition carried out an air strike on two ships sailing from the United Arab Emirates to the Yemeni port of Mukalla without official authorization. According to a statement by the coalition’s official spokesman, Brigadier General Turki al-Maliki, the operation was limited in scope and targeted "weapons and military equipment unloaded from the two ships."

He said the vessels’ crews had switched off their tracking systems and unloaded large quantities of weapons and military equipment intended to support forces of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in the governorates of Hadhramaut and Al-Mahrah, with the aim of fueling the conflict.

On December 9, Aidarus al-Zoubaidi, chairman of the STC, which is loyal to the UAE, announced that control had been established over the eastern Yemeni governorates of Hadhramaut and Al-Mahrah. He said the next stage would involve establishing the institutions of a future state in southern Yemen.

The Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry described the separatists’ actions as an unjustified escalation and called on the STC to withdraw its forces from the two governorates. On the evening of December 27, a government source told the SABA news agency that the head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council had requested military assistance from the Saudi-led coalition to protect the population of Hadhramaut from the separatists.