The governor of Yemen’s port city of Aden, Major-General Jaafar Mohammed Saad, was killed on Sunday in a car-bomb attack along with five of his bodyguards.
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The Islamic State declared its presence in Yemen in November and has since carried out multiple attacks.
“A auto bomb was detonated at the convoy of the governor in the district of Al-Tawahi while he was on the way to his office this morning”. No one claimed those attacks.
A Saudi-led coalition that has been bombing Houthi-held areas since March, trying to support Yemeni government fighters. That includes explosions in September targeting worshippers in a mosque in the capital Sanaa that killed more than 20 people, and suicide vehicle bombings targeting exiled Yemeni officials and Saudi and Emirati troops which killed at least 15 people in Aden in October.
In a statement carried by the official Saba news agency, the head of security in Aden General Mohamed Mussad confirmed Saad’s death and said six of his guards were also killed. Three other people were killed in the attack on Alwan.
In another incident, residents said unknown assailants in the west of the city on Sunday shot and killed a field commander.
The United Arab Emirates’ minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, condemned the killing of the Aden governor and described the perpetrators as “treacherous terrorists”.
For year the country has been beset by instability, lawlessness and poverty. It accused the Saudi-led coalition of carrying out unlawful air strikes on heavily-populated sites with no military targets nearby, and the Houthis of using heavy weapons indiscriminately. It wants to establish governance in Yemen based on a strict interpretation of Sunni Islamic law.
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AQAP militants last week took over Zinjibar, the Abyan provincial capital, and Ja’ar, a smaller town about 9 miles north. On Saturday they advanced further, taking the small Abyan towns of Batais and Yaramis, according to local officials.
