Aden hostage crisis claimed by Daesh ends with 35 dead
ADEN: Yemeni forces ended a hostage crisis on Monday with 29 police and six civilians dead, a day after the attack claimed by the Daesh group began with suicide bombings, official sources said.
Assailants on Sunday stormed the criminal investigations unit in Aden, the Yemeni government’s de facto capital, setting it alight and taking hostages after killing two policewomen execution-style.
The attack began on Sunday when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrances to the criminal investigations unit and the city’s security headquarters.
Overnight, the security forces tried three times to seize back the unit, but each time a suicide bomber blew himself up, stopping them from entering, a security official said.
A fourth suicide bombing occurred on Monday morning before the security forces finally brought an end to the standoff in the southern port city.
A total of 29 members of the security forces were killed during the attack and hostage crisis, the official said.
Among them were six police officers whose bodies were found buried under the rubble of the building along with six civilians, including two children.
“The security forces have managed to enter the building and clear it of the elements of evil and terrorism,” said the Interior Ministry of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s internationally recognized government.
The bullet-riddled bodies of three assailants were also found in the rubble, the security official said.
The attack was claimed by Daesh in a statement released online on Sunday. The assault spells an abrupt end to a period of relative calm that has reigned in Aden.
While Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has for years been the stronger presence in southern Yemen, Daesh has recently come forward to claim attacks.
Daesh had not claimed a Yemen attack in almost a year. The group claimed responsibility for a Dec. 18, 2016 attack in Aden that killed 48 and wounded 84 soldiers who had lined up to get their salaries.
While southern Yemen has long been the target of a drone war by the US, which classifies AQAP as the radical network’s most dangerous branch, Washington appears to have recently turned its aim toward Daesh as well.
In October, a US drone strike targeted what local officials said was a Daeshaffiliated group in the central Bayda province — the second known strike by Washington against the terrorists in Yemen.
The US has ties to Yemeni special forces trained by the UAE, a key member of the Saudi-led coalition, who have closed in on AQAP southern strongholds in recent weeks.