Rivals keep fighting in Yemen's Aden, bystander killed

Southern separatists and presidential guards fought for a second day Thursday in Aden, the seat of Yemen's government, with at least one person killed, residents said.

That followed three deaths and nine injuries when gunfire erupted between the rivals Wednesday, complicating efforts to end a more than four-year war that has killed tens of thousands and pushed Yemen towards famine.

The separatists are nominally allied with President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in the Arab coalition battling the Iran-backed Houthis. But they have rival agendas for Yemen and the separatists accused a Hadi-allied party of complicity in an attack last week on their soldiers.

After Wednesday's funeral for some of the troops killed in that missile strike on a parade, separatist supporters fought with guards near the hilltop presidential palace in the Crater district of the southern port city, witnesses said.

Thursday's fatality came when fighting flared again and a stray bullet hit a man walking in the street, witnesses and his relatives said. Sounds of gunfire and heavy weaponry echoed into the evening while smoke and fire could be seen rising.

With Hadi in Saudi Arabia, the palace is largely empty.

The two days of violence in Aden come after coalition member the United Arab Emirates, which has armed and trained southern separatist groups, said in late June it had begun to withdraw forces from Yemen.