Missile attack, suicide bombings hit city in Yemen

ADEN, Yemen — Yemen’s main southern city of Aden was shaken by double attacks Thursday, as a missile fired by rebels hit a military parade, and suicide bombers blasted a police station. At least 51 people were killed in the deadliest day in nearly two years in the de facto capital of the U.S.- and Saudi-backed side in Yemen’s civil war.

Most of the dead were victims of the missile strike, which slammed into a parade of newly graduated fighters belonging to a militia loyal to the United Arab Emirates known as the Security Belt.

Among the dead was a senior commander in the militia, Monier al Yafie, who had just given a speech to the graduates, a security official told The Associated Press.

At least 40 people were killed at the base on Aden’s western outskirts, a health official said.

The earlier attack at the police station in Aden’s central neighborhood of Omar al-mokhtar, was believed An attack Thursday left this building in Aden, Yemen, charred. Dozens died when Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile at a military parade, while coordinated suicide bombings targeted a police station elsewhere in the southern port city. to have been carried out by Islamic militants.

The violence left at least 56 people wounded, health officials said.

Yemen’s 4-year-old civil war is locked in a stalemate. The northern part of the country is controlled by Iranian-backed rebels, known as Houthis, who have positions on front lines as close as 60 miles from Aden and often attack the city and nearby areas with missiles or bombs dropped by drones.

Islamic militants — from both al-qaida and an Islamic State group affiliate — also operate in Aden. Their mass bombings had become less frequent, although assassinations and shootings regularly are carried out.

Aden is also at the center of stormy and often violent divisions within the Saudiled coalition fighting the Houthis. Ostensibly, the coalition aims to restore Yemen’s internationally recognized government, which was driven out of the capital, Sanaa, during the Houthis’ 2014 takeover. But the UAE, a coalition member, dominates Aden and the south through militias such as the Security Belt that it funds and arms, sidelining the government.

PRO-UAE and pro-government militias waged bloody battles in Aden in early 2017 — fighting that Aboul Yamama was involved in. Since then, such violence has eased. But the UAE has begun withdrawing thousands of its troops from Yemen, saying it wants to give a boost to peace talks with the Houthis. Its reduced presence could open up factional tensions once more.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for the missile strike in a statement on their website by a military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yehia Sarea. He said Houthis had fired a medium-range ballistic missile at the parade.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the police station attack.