‘Female’ suicide bomber targets Aden police chief

It was the third attempted assassination of the police chief by extremists since December.

Yemeni loyalist forces and onlookers gather at the scene of a suicide attack targeting Aden’s police chief Maj Gen Shalal Shaei in Aden on April 28, 2016. Saleh Al Obeidi / AFP
Powered by automated translation

Aden // A suicide bomber dressed as a woman detonated his car bomb at the security gate near the home of Aden’s police chief on Thursday after guards opened fire on the vehicle.

Maj Gen Shalal Shaei, who was unharmed, told The National that two of the guards – who tried to shoot the militant when they realised he was a man – were injured.

The attack occurred at around 6am and partially damaged his house, he said.

“The extremist groups have resorted to creating chaos and targeting officials in Aden as a reaction to the offensive against them in Aden and the other southern provinces,” Maj Gen Shaei said.

The attack was the third attempted assassination of the police chief by extremists since December. No one has claimed responsibility for the latest attack.

In February, Al Qaeda fighters shot at a convoy of vehicles transporting the police chief and the governor of Aden province, Aidarus Al Zubaidi. Neither official was injured in that attempt. The pair's convoy was also targeted by a car bomb the month before, which left two of their bodyguards dead.

Pro-government forces on Wednesday arrested members of a terrorist cell in neighbouring Lahj province which had targeted Aden airport with Katyusha missiles earlier this week, Maj Gen Shaei said, adding that the militants told police Thursday’s attack was in retaliation for their arrests.

Taking advantage of the war between Houthi rebels and their allies of the former regime, on one side, and forces loyal to Yemen’s government who are backed by the Saudi-led coalition on the other, Al Qaeda and its rival ISIL have seized territory across southern Yemen over the past year.

But as peace talks between the two sides began last week following a tentative ceasefire between the warring parties on April 11, southern tribal fighters and other forces loyal to the government led by coalition special operations forces and backed by coalition air strikes have turned their sights on retaking the territory from extremist groups.

Al Qaeda was driven without much of a fight from their base in the key port city of Mukalla last week with the support of the Saudi-led coalition forces who also helped secure the airport and an important oil facility, after the militants had held the city for a year.

Staff Brigadier Musallam Al Rashidi, the commander of UAE forces in Hadramawt province who is leading the operation in Mukalla, said the coalition support had been key in driving Al Qaeda militants out of the city. He affirmed the coalition’s determination to pursue the extremists wherever they were.

“The liberation of Mukalla has proved how Al Qaeda was fragile,” he said at a joint press conference of the coalition and the Yemeni army.

Farther west, the forces cleared Aden’s Mansoura district and Hawta in Lahj earlier this month, with operations in Abyan are continuing.

“We are training the security forces to identify suspicious cars, and we have spread security forces around the province to prevent extremist groups from coming into Aden,” Maj Gen Shaei said.

He said Al Qaeda had not re-entered Aden, which has been cleared of most militants, but there were sleeper cells in the city.

“The security forces are carrying out raids on suspected hideouts daily in Aden,” the police chief said.

The coalition needs more time to train local security and intelligence forces after the war to liberate the city from Houthi rebels last July, he added.

There has been an increase in attacks on government officials as well as others in recent months. This week, a young Yemeni activist who was an outspoken critic of religious extremism was kidnapped and shot dead by suspected militants.

The bullet-riddled body of Omar Batawil, 18, was found on Monday in a street in the Sheikh Othman neighbourhood of Aden, AFP reported.

As peace talks in Kuwait between the Yemeni government and the Houthis and their allies entered their second week, the negotiations still have a “positive atmosphere” despite continuing disagreements over key issues, the UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said on Thursday.

Mr Cheikh Ahmed said he has held several rounds of meetings with both sides separately, and discussed bolstering the ceasefire as well as “issues related to the withdrawal of armed groups, handover of heavy weapons, resumption of the political transition and the release of prisoners and detainees”.

The two sides have reportedly not yet held direct talks.

foreign.desk@thenational.ae

* With additional reporting from Wam