ADEN, Yemen, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr called on Sunday for immediate cease-fire in the southern port city of Aden, where street fighting is taking place.
The Yemeni prime minister also urged the Saudi-led coalition and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to intervene to end the fighting taking place between the government and the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Aden.
The appeal of Daghr mainly directed to the United Arab Emirates' claim that it has a decision in the matter of Aden, and accusing the pro-secession council of staging a new coup.
"Overthrowing the legitimate government will only benefit the Shiite Houthi rebels in Sana'a and Iran," said the prime minister in his statement.
"All the ground forces must immediately stop the fighting and go back to their locations without any conditions," he added.
Meanwhile, fierce street fighting continued between the government forces and other military units allied with the STC in Aden's neighborhoods.
Witnesses told Xinhua that a number of military bases of the Saudi-backed government were stormed and seized by the STC forces following hours of fighting.
Key government institutions and military facilities including the new headquarters of cabinet in Aden are recently controlled by the STC forces.
On Saturday, the Interior Ministry threatened to use the force against any gatherings, marches or protests that may call for dissolving the internationally-backed government.
Banning the demonstrations in Aden came just one day before the end of the one-week deadline that the "Southern Resistance Forces" gave Yemen's President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to sack the Aden-based government.
The southern port city of Aden is considered as Yemen's temporary capital and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government based itself there since 2015.
Yemen's government, allied with the Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for about three years been battling Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels over control of the country.
The coalition began a military air campaign in March 2015 to roll back Houthi gains and reinstate exiled President Hadi and his government to the power.
The coalition also imposed air and sea blockade to prevent weapons from reaching Houthis, who had invaded the capital Sanaa militarily and seized most of the northern Yemeni provinces.
UN statistics show more than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since the coalition intervened in the Yemeni civil war that also displaced around 3 million.
The Arab country is also suffering from the world's largest cholera epidemic since April, with about 5,000 cases reported every day.
