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Four killed as Yemeni police foil attack on Aden airport

Sunday, 17 April 2016 8:17 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 17 April 2016 8:16 AM ]

A man checks debris at the site of a car bomb attack in Aden, Yemen, April 15, 2016. ©Reuters

At least four Yemeni policemen have been killed and five others injured as they thwarted a car bomb attack on the airport in the southern port city of Aden.

The incident took place on Sunday when the officers opened fire at a car that was traveling at high speed towards the airport. The vehicle exploded before reaching the facility near a checkpoint.

No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the planned attack.

In a similar incident, an explosive-laden vehicle went off in the al-Arish coastal district of Aden Province.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s al-Ahed news website reported an escalation in clashes between Saudi-backed loyalists to Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Yemen’s former president, and the Yemeni army forces and Houthi Ansarullah fighters in a district in Bayda Province.

The confrontations, which come despite a ceasefire deal between the conflicting sides, left a number of people dead or wounded on both sides, according to the report.

Yemen’s warring parties agreed on a ceasefire that took effect at midnight on April 10. The truce was announced by the UN special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, as a step to calm the situation ahead of peace talks due in Kuwait on April 18.

The Houthi Ansarullah fighters took state matters into their own hands after the resignation and escape of Hadi, which threw Yemen into a state of uncertainty and threatened a total security breakdown in the country, where an al-Qaeda affiliate is present.

A Yemeni man walks amidst debris at the site of a Saudi airstrike that targeted a building in the Yemeni capital Sana’a on January 25, 2016. ©AFP

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has been engaged in a deadly military campaign against the Arab country since March 26, 2015 in a bid to reinstate Hadi. Over 9,400 Yemenis, including 4,000 women and children, have lost their lives in the Saudi airstrikes. Riyadh’s military has violated the recent cessation of hostilities several times.

The Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has exploited chaos in the impoverished country since the beginning of the Saudi war to tighten its grip on parts of southeast Yemen.

The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group, too, has gained ground in and around the main southern city of Aden.

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