SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A car bomb rocked Yemen’s southern city of Aden on Wednesday, killing a senior military official and at least four others, officials said.
The bombing targeted the convoy of Maj. Gen. Thabet Jawas, commander of the Al-Anad Axis in southern Yemen, said the officials.
Jawas was driving to his home in Aden after he attended the funeral of a relative in Laj province when a parked car exploded as his convoy passed near a fuel supply facility, the officials said.
The dead included Jawas, three guards and one of his relatives, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
Images from the scene showed fire with charred bodies on the ground.
President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed mourned the death of Jawas, describing the explosion as a “terrorist attack.”
Aden has been the seat of the internationally recognized government since the Houthi rebels seized the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in 2014, triggering the country’s conflict.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. The coastal city however has been rocked by several explosions in past years, which were blamed on local affiliates of al-Qaida and the Islamic State groups.
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have also targeted the city with ballistic missiles and explosives-laden drones.
In October, at least 14 people were killed in two separate explosions in Aden. In the southern province of Abyan, a car bombing last week claimed by the al-Qaida affiliate targeted a senior security official, leaving four of his companions dead.
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