Suicide bombing rocks Yemen’s Aden; 5 policemen killed

By Fouad Mossad

ADEN, Yemen

Five policemen were killed and another six injured by a suicide bombing in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden on Wednesday, according to a local security source.

The source, who spoke to Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to media, said the bomber had blown himself up at a security checkpoint in a northern district of the city.

There has as yet been no claim of responsibility for the attack.

Since the Shia Houthi group seized control of capital Sanaa in late 2014, Aden has served as the temporary headquarters of Yemen’s embattled government.

In a related development, the Houthis early Tuesday announced they had fired a ballistic missile at a military camp located in the city of Najran in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen.

The pro-Houthi Al-Masirah television channel said the attack had come in response to recent airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen carried out by an anti-Houthi coalition of Arab states led by Riyadh.

There has been no information regarding casualties, while the Saudi authorities have yet to comment on the reported attack.

The reported missile attack came amid reports of renewed clashes between Houthi militants and Saudi forces along the Saudi-Yemeni border.

Yemen has been racked by chaos since late 2014, when the Houthis and their allies overran Sanaa and other parts of the country, forcing President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and his Saudi-backed government to temporarily flee to Riyadh.

In March of last year, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive military campaign aimed at reversing Houthi gains in Yemen and restoring Hadi’s embattled government.

Backed by Saudi-led airstrikes, pro-Hadi forces have since managed to reclaim large swathes of the country’s south -- including provisional capital Aden -- but have failed to retake Sanaa and other strategic areas.

In April of this year, the Yemeni government and the Houthis entered into UN-backed peace talks in Kuwait aimed at resolving the conflict, in which more than 6,400 people have been killed and another 2.5 million forced to flee their homes.

The negotiations, which resumed this week after a two-week hiatus, have largely failed to produce any serious breakthroughs, however.