Six Yemeni soldiers killed in suicide car bombing

Six Yemeni pro-government soldiers were killed and five others injured when a booby-trapped car blast struck a military checkpoint in Yemen's southern port city of Aden on Monday, a security official told Xinhua.

"A suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car at a checkpoint manned by pro-government security forces in Aden's northern main entrance of Daar Saad, killing six soldiers and injuring five others on the spot, " the local security official said on condition of anonymity.

Witnesses said that "a speeding car hit the the cement barricades around the military outpost and caused a huge blast that shook the whole neighborhood."

Military intelligence sources confirmed that the huge explosion was caused by a car bomb that targeted a key military checkpoint linking Aden's northern entrance with neighboring southern provinces of Lahj.

Meanwhile, a landmine explosion hit a civilian vehicle and killed a whole family composed of four members in Aden's neighborhood of Beer Fadhel.

On Sunday evening, unknown gunmen assassinated a prominent pro-government Sunni cleric in Aden.

The port city of Aden, Yemen's temporary capital, has been witnessing a state of chaos and lawlessness during the past weeks resulted in the assassination of Aden's former governor, several high-ranking security officers and judges.

The turbulent and complicated security situation in Aden and neighboring southern provinces of Lahj and Abyan is one of the biggest challenges for the Saudi-led Arab coalition forces operating in Aden.

The Saudi-led Arab coalition has dispatched thousands of soldiers from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Sudan and Bahrain into five anti-Houthi southern provinces to support and train local Yemeni security forces there.

Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active regional al-Qaida insurgencies in the Middle East and the affiliate of the Islamic State. Endit