Video shows Yemeni militants 'beheading, executing' rebel captives while flying flag of UAE

Shocking video footage has emerged, appearing to show Yemeni militants beheading and executing detainees while bearing the flag of the United Arab Emirates.

The two-minute video clip, which has recently been circulated widely on social media, allegedly shows the militiamen carrying out extrajudicial killings of captured Houthi rebels.

The footage shows four detainees being beheaded and shot at close range by a group of armed militants, flying the flags of the UAE and the formerly independent state of South Yemen.

The New Arab could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.

Reports on the location of the footage have varied with some commentators claiming they are members of the Southern Resistance, a secessionist movement demanding the independence of South Yemen, and that the incident took place in 2015 in Abyan Province.

Other commentators have said the killings happened near the city of Mokha, where the UAE-backed southern separatists are carrying out a military operation to recapture the coastal areas to the west of the flashpoint city of Taiz.

There has been no immediate official comment on the video from the internationally-recognised Yemeni government or the Saudi-led coalition of Arab forces fighting the Houthi rebels.

This month, Human Rights Watch and the Associated Press said that the UAE has supported Yemeni forces that have arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared, tortured, and abused dozens of people during security operations.

The reports revealed that the UAE has transferred terror suspects from Yemen to a secret prison in Eritrea.

The prison in the city of Assab on the Red Sea coast is part of a regional network in which inmates are tortured and abused, the reports said.

Abu Dhabi has denied the claims.

Since March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition of states, including the UAE, has conducted an aerial and ground campaign in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against Houthi rebels.

The Saudi-led coalition has faced repeated criticism over civilian casualties in Yemen.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in the past two years and tens of thousands wounded in the war in Yemen, according to UN figures.