15 killed in Yemen hotel attack

Houthi officials and their allied media had no immediate comment on the Aden attack.

A government spokesperson said Prime Minister and Vice President Khaled Bahah escaped unharmed.

Military installations were also hit.

Yemen has been embroiled in fighting that pits the Shiite rebels known as Houthis and forces loyal to a former president against the Saudi-backed and internationally recognized government as well as southern separatists, local militias and Sunni extremists.

Basalma said two rockets hit the building, and another landed outside. And the Saudi official press agency SPA said one Saudi soldier was killed. A new Daesh affiliate claimed responsibility for the assault, which officials previously blamed on Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Meanwhile, Abu Hamza al-Sanaani blew up a UAE-held military position using another armoured vehicle, the group said.

IS published the names and photographs of the four alleged assailants.

Members of the Gulf coalition have been providing security at the luxury Al Qasr hotel, and the Yemeni government officials’ presence there makes it a highly symbolic target for the rebels.

Four of the men belonged to U.A.E. forces from the coalition and the others were coalition and Yemeni soldiers, it said.

But the newspaper Aden al-Ghad quoted Minister of Youth and Sport Nayef al-Bakri as saying the attacks were by suicide bombers.

And medics told AFP that two Yemeni guards were killed and 12 were wounded in the attack on Bahah’s hotel.

The claim was then denied by a spokesman for the coalition.

Amnesty worldwide has accused the Arab coalition fighting in Yemen of carrying out unlawful air strikes, a few of which amount to war crimes.

The plush al-Qasr hotel is serving as informal headquarters of Yemen’s government and of Emirati troops based in Aden. “The soldiers at the door died in the attack, but I don’t know how many there were”.

Islamic State, which is centred in Iraq and Syria, first emerged in Yemen in March with a series of suicide attacks on Shi’ite mosques in which 137 people were killed.

The Bab-el-Mandeb is the narrow strait – considered highly strategic – that separates the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa and links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.

He has also pressed the army to restore security in the city, which is still experiencing violence.

The call to the United Kingdom is made because it is a major supplier of weapons to Saudi Arabia, including a recent consignment of 500lb Paveway IV bombs, used by Tornado and Typhoon fighter jets, which are manufactured and supplied by the United Kingdom arms company BAE Systems.

It is thought that at least 2,355 out of more than 4,500 people killed between March to September 24 were civilians.