Yemen: Five killed in explosion targetting governor of Aden

Aden - Both Governor Ahmed Lamlas and Agriculture Minister Salem Al Suqatri survived the attack.

A car bomb targetting the governor’s convoy shook Yemen’s southern port city of Aden on Sunday killing at least four people, security and military sources said.

Governor Ahmed Lamlas and agriculture minister Salem Al Suqatri, both members of a southern separatist group, survived a “terrorist assassination attempt”, the state news agency said.

At least four soldiers in the convoy were killed, a security source said.

A military spokesman of the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) said at least five people were injured including three civilians, one of them a child.

A body covered with a blanket lay on the street next to a charred vehicle in Al Tawahi district, which houses the STC headquarters. Firefighters and police were deployed to the area.

Lamlas is secretary general of the STC. Riyadh had brokered a deal to end the power struggle, including forming a new cabinet that includes STC members, but tensions have simmered.

Instability in the south complicates United Nations-led peace efforts to end the war in Yemen which has killed tens of thousands of people and left 80 per cent of the population reliant on aid.

• MENA