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High-ranking Yemeni military commander escapes suicide bombing, 8 killed

Xinhua, May 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

A high-ranking military commander survived an assassination attempt when a suicide bomber struck his convoy in Yemen's southeastern province of Hadramout on Wednesday, leaving about eight people killed and 15 others injured, a security official told Xinhua.

According to the Yemeni security source, a suspected al-Qaida suicide bomber slammed his explosive-laden car into the motorcade of General Abdul-Rahman Halili, head of the First Regional Military Command based in Hadramout province.

The suicide attack occurred near a military base loyal to the Saudi-backed Yemeni government in the Qatan area of Hadramout province.

An intelligence officer told Xinhua that the suicide attack slightly injured General Halili and left eight of his bodyguards killed and 15 others injured.

Yemeni government forces and the Saudi-led Arabian Coalition launched well-planned and unprecedented attacks against key bastions of the al-Qaida terrorist group in the country's southern and eastern regions during the past few weeks.

Hundreds of Yemeni soldiers newly trained by the Saudi-led coalition and supported by special UAE troops managed last month to recapture the coastal city of Mukalla, Hadramout's provincial capital, after intense fighting and intensified air raids on al-Qaida positions.

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

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

The Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot, also known as Ansar al-Sharia, emerged in January 2009. It had claimed responsibility for a number of 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 in Yemen's southern regions.

The fragile security situation in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015, when a 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