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2nd LD: Rocket attacks target government headquarters in Yemen's Aden

Xinhua, October 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

About three rockets hit the headquarters of Yemen's prime minister and his cabinet in the southern port city of Aden on Tuesday morning, causing massive explosions that rocked the whole city, local sources told Xinhua.

"The hotel where Yemen's Prime Minister Khaled Bahah has been residing along with a number of ministers and elite troops of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was targeted by rocket attacks," a local military official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Bahah told Xinhua that he escaped the rocket attack unharmed, adding that "we will stay in Aden and our efforts will not be stopped."

Xinhua reporter tried to contact Yemeni ministers but couldn't receive any answers. Government spokesman Rajeh Badi said that Bahah and all the ministers are safe and have moved to a well-guarded place.

Medical sources said that initial reports indicate that more than 18 people were killed during the attack, most of them are the UAE soldiers who were guarding the hotel.

Columns of black smoke could be seen rising from the targeted hotel and heavy armored vehicles and UAE troopers were deployed around the area, according to Xinhua reporter near the scene.

Witnesses said that warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition were heard flying over Aden city a few minutes after the blasts took place at the government headquarters.

A security source said that a military base located in Aden's district of Buraiga that was used by the UAE forces was also hit by rockets.

The coalition transferred UAE officers, Yemeni government officials and military experts out of Aden city after the attacks, according to local sources.

An army officer of the pro-government forces said that the rockets were fired by gunmen of the Shiite Houthi group from outside Aden city, particularly from an area located between neighboring provinces of Lahj and Taiz.

Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, Prime Minister Bahah and the cabinet returned to Aden last month, after almost six months in exile in Saudi Arabia since late March when the Houthis besieged Aden.

Hadi fled to Aden in late February after about one month of house arrest and declared that the country's second largest city is the temporary capital.

The Saudi-led coalition comprised of nine countries has carried out military operations, including airstrikes on a daily basis, against Houthis since late March in Yemen in an effort to restore Hadi's authority.

Pro-Hadi forces have retaken several southern provinces in recent months, however the Houthis still controls the northern part of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

The warring parties were battling Monday in the central province of Marib, about 170 km away from Sanaa. Local media reported that 40 soldiers were killed and 137 others wounded during Monday's fighting.

The airstrikes by the coalition and ground battles in Yemen have left about 5,000 thousand people killed, half of them civilians, and more than 1.5 million people displaced, according to UN agencies. Endi