Car bomb attack targets Aden's governor in Yemen, six killed

Six policemen were killed and severl others wounded on Sunday in a car bomb attack that targeted armored police vehicles protecting the motorcade of Aden's governor and the city's security chief, a government official told Xinhua.

Some of the wounded are civilians, other injured are police officers. The bomb attack targeted the motorcade of Aden's governor General Aidarous Zubaidi and the city's security chief General Shalal Shayea in Aden's neighborhood of Mansourah, the government source said on condition of anonymity.

The car bomb exploded while armored police vehicles were passing near the Kaltex roundabout in Mansourah, he said.

A source of Aden's Police Command told Xinhua that Aden's governor and the police chief escaped the terrorist attack unharmed and only bodyguards were either killed or injured.

The official spokesman of Aden's local government said that a suicide bomber slammed his explosive-laden car into the motorcade carrying both the governor and the police chief.

Following the suicide attack, fierce gunfights broke out between al-Qaida assailants and army units in the same area, the spokesman said, adding that heavy security troops were deployed in the city.

Witnesses said that several ambulances were dispatched to the scene while the injured police officers were transferred to nearby medical centers for treatment.

On Thursday, a suspected al-Qaida suicide bomber wearing women clothes rammed his explosive-laden car into the residential building of Aden's police chief, leaving four people injured.

Thursday's attack was the third failed attempt by suspected al-Qaida assailants to assassinate Aden's police commander in recent weeks.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot is believed to be behind most such attacks in the past, which usually targeted security and government officials.

Security experts fear that al-Qaida terrorist group may carry out coordinated suicide bombings against army bases in southern Yemen in revenge for the latest anti-terror military operations in neighboring southern provinces of Lahj and Abyan.

The government authorities in the port city of Aden, Yemen's temporary capital, tightened the security measures near state facilities and deployed armored vehicles around the city's entrances.

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 group.

The al-Qaida branch in Yemen, also known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, emerged in January 2009. It had claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks on Yemen's army and government institutions.

It took advantage of the current security vacuum and the ongoing civil war to expand its influence and seize more territories in Yemen's southern part.

The already fragile security in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015, when an all-out war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes since then, half of them civilians. Endit