Twin attacks kill 20 police in Yemen’s Aden
Two separate attacks killed at least 20 police in Yemen’s government-held second city Aden Thursday, one by Shiite rebels and the other by jihadists, security and medical sources said.
Civilians were among scores of people wounded in the two attacks which targeted the United Arab Emirates-backed police and shattered a year of relative calm in the southern port city.
The first attack was a suicide car bombing carried out by jihadists on a police station, which killed three officers and wounded at least 20 others, including civilians, a security source said.
The second attack was carried out by the Huthi rebels, who used a drone and a ballistic missile to target a parade in a police camp west of Aden and killed 17 officers and wounded scores more, medical sources and the rebels said.
The suicide bombing targeted policemen who were gathering early in the morning at the entrance of a police station in Aden’s Sheikh Othman area.
“Tens of wounded were hospitalised at Aden surgical hospital after an explosion in the surrounding area,” Doctors Without Borders said on Twitter.
The Huthi rebels said the attack on al-Jala Camp, about 20 kilometres west of Aden, was carried out with a drone and a ballistic missile.
Aden is controlled by the Yemeni government and its supporters in a Saudi-led coalition, who have been fighting the Huthi rebels since 2015.
But it also hosts Sunni extremists of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, who have claimed a number of attacks in the city in recent years.
The conflict has killed or wounded tens of thousands of people and resulted in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.
An estimated 24 million Yemenis — more than 80 per cent of the population — depend on some form of humanitarian assistance for survival, UN agencies say. — AFP