Car bomb hits motorcade of Aden's governor in south Yemen

The governor of Yemen's southern port city of Aden on Friday escaped unharmed a car bomb attack on his convoy, which injured a number of guards, a provincial police source told Xinhua.

The source said that the attack occurred when a car loaded with explosives on side of the main road in Enma neighborhood of Aden detonated as the Aden governor's convoy was passing on its way to visit Bureiqa district.

The vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) targeted his motorcade and caused a huge explosion that damaged an armored car at the scene, the police source said.

Aden's newly-appointed governor Major General Aidarous Zubaidi survived several botched assassination attempts masterminded by terrorist groups in the past months.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for Friday's car bomb attack in Aden, where the country's Saudi-backed government has temporarily based itself.

However, the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot and the Islamic State (IS) group used to target Yemeni government officials with similar attacks in the past.

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 Abdullah Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.

More than 6,400 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes since then, half of them civilians. Endit