Ballistic missile and suicide bombings kill 51 in Aden

Civilians gather at the site of the deadly attack in Aden. Pic/AFP

Aden: Rebels in Yemen fired a ballistic missile Thursday at a military parade in the southern port city of Aden and coordinated suicide bombings targeted a police station in another part of the city, killing at least 51 people and wounding dozens, officials said. The missile hit in the city's neighbourhood of Breiqa where a military parade was underway by forces loyal to the United Arab Emirates, a member of the Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since 2015 in support of Yemen's internationally recognized government. Since the rebels seized the country's capital, Sanaa, in 2014, Aden has served as the temporary seat of the government.

The parade was taking place in the pro-coalition al-Galaa camp, said a security official, without give a breakdown for the casualties. The website of the Houthi rebels, Al-Masirah, quoted spokesman Brig. Gen. Yehia Sarea as saying the rebels had fired a medium-range ballistic missile at the parade, leaving scores of casualties, including military commanders. The security official told The Associated Press that UAE-backed commander Monier al Yafie, also known by his nickname Aboul Yamama, was among those killed. He was delivering a speech during the parade, the official said.

A short while earlier, a car, a bus and three motorcycles laden with explosives targeted a police station in the city's Omar al-Mokhtar neighborhood during a morning police roll-call, said Abdel Dayem Ahmed, a senior police official. Four suicide bombers were involved in the attack, he said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the police station bombings. Both Yemen's al-Qaida branch and an Islamic State group affiliate have exploited the chaos of the country's war between the Houthis and the government forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition. Ahmed told The Associated Press that 11 were killed in the attack at the police station and that at least 29 were wounded.

A Yemeni health official said that along with the 51 killed, at least 56 people were wounded in Thursday's attacks. Both the security and health official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. Charred remains of the attackers' vehicles were seen at the scene of the police station attack, next to a meter-deep crater caused by the bombings. Doctors Without Borders tweeted that dozens of wounded were transferred to the aid group's surgical hospital in Aden, where families of the victims had gathered. Zakarya Ahmed, a senior police officer who was inside the three-story station when the bombings took place, described the attack as "a disaster." "I felt myself flying in the air and falling down, hitting the floor," Ahmed said. "When I got up on my feet, I saw bodies burning, others torn into pieces." Thursday's attacks were the deadliest in Aden since November 2017, when the IS affiliate in Yemen targeted the city's security headquarters, leaving 15 dead, mostly policemen. Deputy Interior Minister Ali Nasser Lakhsha told reporters as he inspected the site of the bombed-out police station that it was unclear who was behind the assault.

"This is a horrific terrorist attack targeting our police," the minister said. The attackers' motorcycles were still burning at the scene as blood pooled on the staircase of the police station and the street outside was littered with shattered glass and debris from blown-out doors and windows. The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of Sanaa by the Houthis, who drove out the internationally recognised government. Months later, in March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched its air campaign to prevent the rebels from overrunning the country's south. In the relentless campaign, Saudi-led airstrikes have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties and killed thousands of Yemeni civilians. The Houthis have used drones and missiles to attack Saudi Arabia and have targeted vessels in the Red Sea. The UAE, which is part of the coalition, has in recent weeks pulled thousands of its troops home from Yemen as it boosts security amid escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf over a crisis with Iran.

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