Governor of Yemen’s Aden province killed in blast

The governor of Yemen’s Aden province Jaafar Mohammed Saad was killed on Sunday when a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into the governor’s convoy, a local official said. ISIL says it was responsible.

ISIS militants ( also known as the Islamic State and Daesh) have claimed responsibility for the assassination of the governor of Yemen’s strategic s outhern port city of Aden.

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 Islamic State.

Hours after the blast, in Aden’s Tawahi district, the Islamic State released a statement claiming responsibility, as well as photographs allegedly showing the explosion.

They control the capital Sanaa and are fighting a coalition of mainly Gulf Arab forces, which began air strikes against them in March. Larry is our main news editor.

Previous U.N.-led efforts to end the conflict through dialogue have failed as battles rage across the country and Saudi-led warplanes bomb positions of Yemen’s ascendant Houthi group and its Yemeni army allies.

Hadi returned to Yemen last month to oversee the fight against the rebels and establish Aden as his government’s stronghold.

In Aden on Saturday, gunmen shot dead the presiding judge of a terrorism court, Mohsen Mohamed Alwan, and four of his bodyguards, a security source said, and police Colonel Al-Khadher Ali Ahmed was gunned down in a separate attack.

Several aides and Jaafar Mohammed Saad perished when their convoy was hit. The Houthis captured Aden in April, but an injection of ground troops helped the Saudi coalition retake it in July.

“It’s likely going to get even worse, especially now that al-Qaeda has taken over in two cities just a few kilometres away from Aden”.

The group referred to Mr Saad as a “tyrant” and warned the “heads of the infidels” in Yemen that it would carry out “operations to chop off their rotten heads”.

Its statement on Sunday threatened further attacks.