Suicide attack kills 8 at security headquarters in Yemen's Aden

Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-05 15:52:39|Editor: Yurou
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YEMEN-ADEN-SUICIDE ATTACK 

Smoke rises from the bomb attack site in Aden, Yemen on Nov. 5, 2017. A suicide car bomb killed eight soldiers in Yemen's temporary capital of Aden city in front of the well-guarded headquarters of the security forces on Sunday, a police official told Xinhua. (Xinhua/Hasan)

ADEN, Yemen, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- A suicide car bomb killed eight soldiers in Yemen's temporary capital of Aden city in front of the well-guarded headquarters of the security forces on Sunday, a police official told Xinhua.

Following the car bomb that targeted the main gate of the security headquarters, a group of well-armed masked men launched an armed attack against a nearby building of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the police official said on condition of anonymity.

A medical source at Jamhuria public hospital said that "eight soldiers were killed as a result of the explosion and many injured soldiers were moved to the hospital for treatment."

Eyewitnesses confirmed to Xinhua that the explosion was followed by an exchange of heavy gunfire between the security guards and unknown gunmen who tried to storm the CID headquarters from different directions.

Heavy smoke could be seen billowing from the building of CID, and armed clashes are still ongoing in the area, the eyewitnesses said.

The suicide attack, according to Yemeni sources, took place at 8:10 a.m. local time (0510 GMT) and security forces are fighting to kill the attackers and bring the situation under control.

The security forces cordoned off the area after the explosions and set up cement barricades to prevent access to the security buildings in Aden's neighborhood of Khormaksar.

Additional security reinforcements backed by armored vehicles were deployed in the neighborhood of Khormaksar, where government institutions and offices of United Nations are based.

The Yemeni government authorities based in Aden did not release details yet on the attack.

No one has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack so far, but Yemeni security officials accused gunmen linked to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group of being behind such terrorist operations in Aden.

Militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch and the IS group are more active in the country's southern part and Yemeni armed forces supported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) started waging large offensives against some hideouts there.

The al-Qaida and IS-linked terrorists took advantage of the security vacuum and ongoing civil war to expand their influence and seize more territories in Yemen.

Security in Yemen has further deteriorated since March 2015, when war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and government forces backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.

UN statistics show more than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since the coalition intervened in the Yemeni civil war that also displaced around 3 million.

The impoverished Arab country is also suffering the world's largest cholera epidemic since April, with about 5,000 cases reported every day.

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KEY WORDS: Yemen
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