A council fighting against Yemen's Houthi rebels has expelled the leader of a separatist movement and charged him with treason after he reportedly declined to travel to Saudi Arabia for talks.
The statement carried by SABA news agency controlled by anti-Houthi forces is the latest escalation between Saudi-backed forces and the Southern Transitional Council, which had been backed by the United Arab Emirates.
It also further complicates the future of Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country riven by one of the Mideast's worst conflicts for more than a decade.
The STC said leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi remained in Aden.
It also accused Saudi Arabia of launched air strikes in Yemen's al-Dhale governorate, causing casualties.
"While a senior STC delegation is in Saudi Arabia pursuing negotiations, the president remains in Aden to ensure security and stability," wrote Amr al-Bidh, an STC official focused on foreign affairs.
"He will not abandon his people, and he will engage directly when conditions allow."
The SABA statement accused al-Zubaidi 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".
The anti-Houthi leadership group is known as the Presidential Leadership Council.
That council formed in 2022 after president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi of Yemen's internationally recognised government stepped down.
But its members had competing interests and backers, with their forces never taking the fight to the Houthis even after both the United States and Israel launched massive bombing campaigns targeting the rebels.
In late December, tensions began over the STC's advances in the governorates of Hadramout and Mahra, which were once held by Saudi-backed forces.
An earlier statement on Wednesday from Major General Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, said al-Zubaidi had been due to take a flight to Saudi Arabia but did not take the flight with other council officials.
"The legitimate government and the coalition received intelligence indicating that al-Zubaidi had moved a large force, including armoured vehicles, combat vehicles, heavy and light weapons, and ammunition," al-Malki said.
Al-Zubaidi "fled to an unknown location".
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 on Saturday it had pulled its forces.
Ostensibly, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have shared the coalition's professed goal of fighting against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who have held Yemen's capital, Sanaa, since 2014.
The war in Yemen there has killed more than 150,000 people and created one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.
The Houthis, meanwhile, have launched attacks on hundreds of ships in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, disrupting regional shipping.
The US has launched air strikes against the rebels under Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump.