Yemen raids condemned as governor’s office hit
A bomb destroyed the secret police headquarters in Aden on Saturday, residents of the southern Yemen city said, in an attack that one official blamed on Al-Qaeda.
Fighters took Tawahi district, home to a presidential palace and Aden’s main port, and were patrolling the streets, some carrying black banners, the officials said. Yemeni security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the violence in Taiz began with Shi’ite rebels, also known as Houthis, first shelling residential areas and killing 23 civilians.
The Houthis were pushed out of Aden last month.
Over four weeks ago, Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s forces, backed by elite troops and armored vehicles from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, launched a number of offensives to liberate Aden, Lahj and Abyan provinces from Houthi’s control. Al-Qaeda took advantage of the security vacuum there after the pro-government forces moved outside the city to challenge the Houthis, as clashes raged between the two sides in other parts of the country.
In the Tawahi district, resident Taha Faris described a similar situation.
Al-Qaida’s Yemen branch is considered by Washington to be the most risky offshoot of the terror network. “Patients and MSF staff are unable to reach hospitals due to the heavy fighting and airstrikes”, the aid group said in a statement, adding that 923 people have been wounded over the past three days, and that 133 of them died due to their severe injuries.
Affiliates of the local al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have claimed responsibility for the attack in several posts online, but the claims can not be independently verified.
A high-ranking military official said the authorities in Aden wrongfully gave weapons to al-Qaida when they randomly distributed them to pro-government forces in Aden in March and April while pursuing the Houthis.
Washington, meanwhile, has kept up its drone attacks targeting al-Qaida militants in Yemen, including one in June in the city of Mukalla that killed the group’s top leader.
In late March, Saudi Arabia and its fellow Sunni allies started an air campaign in Yemen after the rebels advanced on Aden, forcing Hadi and his government to flee the country. Some Yemeni officials are now in Aden but the government remains in Saudi Arabia.