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Gunmen attack Aden's airport, 2 civilians killed

Xinhua, June 6, 2016 Adjust font size:

Two civilians were killed when scores of gunmen with suspected links to extremist groups tried to break into the international airport in Yemen's temporary capital of Aden early on Monday, a security official told Xinhua.

The gunmen stormed military checkpoints positioned around the airport in Aden's district of KhorMaksar, sparking fierce gun battles with security forces, leaving two civilians killed, the source said on condition of anonymity.

According to the source, the attackers were trying to liberate a fellow jihadist of Western origin who was in May captured by security authorities in Aden, but failed.

An army officer of the Aden-based Emergency Forces said security forces successfully foiled the attack and that several terrorists were arrested.

Witnesses said that helicopters of the Saudi-led coalition forces operating in Aden participated in protecting the airport.

In May, Aden's security authorities announced that a terror cell linked to the Islamic State (IS) group was busted and seven terrorists were arrested, including a Westerner.

Yemeni sources said that a French national, who was leading the IS terror cell and suspected of being the mastermind of several attacks in Yemen's Aden, was among the arrested.

The detained terrorists were in touch with a number of individuals involved in the latest deadly suicide attacks that struck Yemen's Aden and other provinces, according to local sources.

Over the last two months, Yemeni government forces have launched anti-terror offensives and driven out scores of gunmen linked to al-Qaida and the Yemen-based affiliate of the IS from key neighborhoods and government compounds in Lahj and Abyan provinces.

Pro-government forces, backed by United Arab Emirates (UAE) helicopters, made significant gains and recaptured key areas from al-Qaida militants in the country's southern provinces during the past weeks.

However, Yemen's temporary capital of Aden and other provinces controlled by the internationally recognized government are still witnessing a state of chaos and lawlessness that resulted in the assassinations of several high-ranking security and military officials.

The 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 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 IS.

The fragile security situation in the country has deteriorated since March 2015 when 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. Endit