ADEN (AFP) – A senior army officer was among five Yemeni soldiers killed on Wednesday in a bomb attack near the southern city of Aden, officials said.
“Major General Thabet Jawas and four soldiers were killed in a car bomb explosion” as they travelled through the village of Al-Madina al-Khadra, 10 kilometres north of Aden, a security official told AFP. A local official confirmed the attack and the death toll. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Jawas was considered one of the main commanders fighting Yemen’s Huthi rebels since the start of the country’s civil war in 2014.
Yemen’s internationally-recognised government relocated to Aden from the capital Sanaa in late 2014, forced out by the Huthis.
The bomb attack came just days before the seventh anniversary of the start of a military coalition’s intervention in support of the government tomorrow.
Yemen’s south is often the target of car bomb or missile attacks that the authorities blame on the rebels.
Aden, which is also home to a separatist movement, has been the target of several attacks claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and other extremists loyal to IS have thrived in the chaos of Yemen’s war.
In October last year, six people were killed in a car-bomb attack targetting Aden’s governor.
Governor Ahmed Lamlas and Minister Salem al-Socotri both survived the explosion, which went off as their convoy passed.
Later that same month, at least 12 civilians, including children, were killed in a car bomb blast near Aden’s airport.
That explosion was the deadliest since December 2020 when explosions ripped through Aden’s airport targetting Cabinet members.
