Al Mukalla: At least six people were killed on Tuesday when a suicide bomber blew up his explosive-rigged car at a kitchen-diner in a military camp run by UAE-backed and trained Security Belt in Yemen’s port city of Aden, a security officer told Gulf News by telephone.
Dozens of soldiers and civilians were also injured in the attack that battered the building and set fire to cars parked outside the camp in Aden’s Al Mansoura district.
“We are still counting the casualties from different hospitals in Aden. Many civilians are among the dead [and injured] as the explosion hit a residential area,” the officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. Daesh immediately claimed responbilty for the attack on its social media accounts. Last month, at least a dozen soldiers and civilians were killed when twin attacks targeted the counter-terrorism unit headquarters in Aden.
Aden has recently has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks and drive-by shootings against security personnel and government targets. Local security authorities vowed to hunt down the perpetrators and announced the detention of a number of militants blamed for plotting the attacks.
The Security Belt was set up by the UAE in 2015 and was tasked with combating Al Qaida and Daesh in southern Yemen. Their soldiers have inflicted fatal blows on the militants and driven them from their major strongholds in Aden, Lahj and Abyan. Other UAE-trained military units, such as the Hadhrami Elite Forces and Shabwani Elite Forces, booted the militants from Shabwa and Hadramout provinces.
Meanwhile, in northern province of Hajja, Yemen’s army sappers recovered dozens of naval mines planted by Al Houthis off the country’s Red Sea city of Medi. Yemen’s Defence Ministry said the sappers dismantled the mines and are still looking for more mines that pose a threat to international shipping and fishermen.
Al Houthis usually resort to using insurgent tactics, such as planting thousands of landmines and launching missiles at liberated areas after losing them on the battlefield.
The ministry also said fighter jets from the Saudi-led coalition hit military bases and gatherings of Al Houthis in the capital Sana’a. Residents reported hearing thunderous explosions that rocked Sana’a after the coalition’s fighter jets fired missiles at Al Daylami airbase on Monday.
An Al Houthi provincial leader called Anwar Hajeb was critically injured and a number of his associates were killed in another wave of heavy air strikes by the coalition’s fighter jets that hit the western province of Hodeida. The ministry said the air strikes destroyed as many as 11 military vehicles heading to the battlefields in east of Al Hodeida.
