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Aden Governor Jaafar Mohammad Saad was killed when an explosion struck his convoy in the Rimbaud area of the southern port city. Image Credit: Supplied

Sanaa, Cairo: Daesh has claimed responsibility for an explosion that killed the governor of Yemen's southern Aden province on Sunday.

A huge explosion killed Jaafar Mohammad Saad and six of his bodyguards on Sunday, security officials said.

In a statement posted on a messaging service, the terror group said it detonated an explosives-laden car as Saad's convoy was passing in a western district of Aden. Residents and security sources earlier said Saad had been attacked by rocket-propelled grenades or a suicide car bomber.

UAE condemns killing of Governor of Aden

On Saturday, masked gunmen on motorcycles carried out separate attacks on vehicles in Aden, killing Colonel Aqeel Al Khodr, a military intelligence official, and Judge Mohsen Alwan, who was known for sentencing Al Qaida militants. Three other people were killed in the attack on Alwan.

No one immediately claimed the attacks, which bore the hallmarks of Al Qaida.

Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has long been seen as one of the most sophisticated branches of the global network and has been linked to several failed attacks on the US homeland. The Yemeni affiliate claimed an attack on the Paris office of a French satirical magazine in January, which left 12 people dead.