Gov. Jaafar Saad was at the branch of the Ministry of Telecommunication in the southern city of Aden when the blast occurred, local officials said.
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The Islamic State affiliate asserted responsibility for his death in a statement circulated online by supporters, saying the bomb was concealed in a parked vehicle along the convoy’s route. He tried to boost security in Aden, the second biggest city in Yemen, and supervise government troops that were battling the Houthis in Taiz, a Yemeni province north of Aden.
No one has so far claimed those attacks.
The sources had earlier said attackers had used rocket-propelled grenades to target Saad.
Saad, the governor who was killed, was a retired army general who returned to Yemen from exile in Britain after the Houthis were driven out of Aden. The UN mediator travelled to Aden to press for the government and rebels to open long-delayed peace talks on December 12, a Yemeni official said.
The deadly attack comes a day after United Nations special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed met President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to lay preparations for peace talks set to take place in Geneva later this month. Yemen has been under military strikes by Saudi Arabia and its allies on a daily basis since March 26.
In October, after four organized suicide bombings by Islamic State killed at least 15 individuals, including four Emirati soldiers, the government of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah was made to relocate to Saudi Arabia.
If the claim were true, it would constitute the most high-profile assassination by the Islamic State group in Yemen.
Since it was retaken from the Houthi militants in mid-year, Aden has seen a series of targeted killings of officials. And yesterday, police colonel Antar Al-Bakhshi was shot dead by gunmen in Inmaa district, west of Aden, a security official said.
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The recent attacks have disrupted coalition attempts to restore Mr. Hadi’s government to power with its seat in Aden.
