SANAA/DOHA: Forces backed by the United Arab Emirates have taken over the airport in the southern city of Aden, according to Yemeni security officials, further fueling tension between internationally recognized President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi and the UAE.

The officials said that one soldier from among the forces guarding the airport died in clashes Wednesday morning. The officials spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to brief the media.

The UAE contributed forces to the Arab coalition that secured Hadi’s return to the country following his exile in 2014. Hadi was originally forced to flee the capital, Sanaa, when it was seized by Shiite rebels, and Aden became his temporary seat of power.

However, tensions have grown between Hadi and the UAE over control of Aden’s airport, the main gateway to Yemen’s second-largest city. UAE-led forces have made several previous unsuccessful attempts to seize the airport.

Hadi’s supporters accuse the UAE of aiding groups attempting to create an independent government in the south of Yemen, which would allow the leading economic power in the region to maintain a permanent presence in the south with its strategic ports.

Conflicts over the airport started in February when the head of airport security Saleh al-Emeiry, an ally of the UAE, refused to allow Hadi’s plane to land in Aden. Hadi ordered Emeiry fired and clashes broke out when armed Hadi loyalists arrived at the airport to enforce his decree. Since then control of the airport had remained split between UAE-backed forces and Hadi supporters.

In May, Hadi sacked two senior officials from the south who allegedly supported the separation and had ties to the UAE. The move was met with protests in the south and fueled further calls for separation.

Meanwhile, the United Nations envoy for Yemen said Tuesday the cholera outbreak in the war-ravaged country has killed over 500 people since the disease re-emerged last month. Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed said at a Security Council briefing that there are 60,000 suspected cases of the cholera in its second outbreak in Yemen in six months.

Also Wednesday, unknown assailants attacked an oil tanker in a strategic Red Sea waterway near Yemen in the latest flare-up in an area through which much of the world’s oil passes.

The EU Naval Force said in a statement that the attackers fired rocket propelled grenades before breaking off their assault on the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker MT MUSKIE in the southern Bab al-Mandab Strait.The tanker is 70,362 tons deadweight.

A spokesman for the EU force said the attack did not appear to have been launched by pirates and was likely related to “continuing instability at sea off the coast of Yemen.” Vessels near Yemen’s southern coast have been attacked in recent months by Houthi militants.