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17 killed in gunmen attack at elderly care home in Yemen

Xinhua, March 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

Unknown gunmen launched an armed attack against a care home for the elderly in Yemen's southern port city of Aden on Friday, killing about 17 people including four Indian nurses, a security official told Xinhua.

"A group of well-armed gunmen stormed the elderly care home in Sheikh Othman district of Aden province, and opened heavy fire randomly after killing the building's guards," the local security official said on condition of anonymity.

Initial reports said that 17 people were killed including four Indian nurses working there, the security source said.

A senior official of Aden's local government told Xinhua over phone that "suspected gunmen of the Yemen-based affiliate of the Islamic State (IS) group were behind the terrorist attack on the care home."

He added that the "care home for elderly is run by Christian nurses and missionaries of charity."

Aden, Yemen's temporary capital, has been witnessing a state of chaos and lawlessness during the past weeks resulting 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.

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 IS.

The security situation in the country has deteriorated since war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by the Saudi-led Arab coalition. Endit