Isis says it carried out attacks that security sources say involved two car suicide bombers and six gunmen

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

At least 14 people have been killed and 40 wounded when car suicide bombers and gunmen tried to storm the headquarters of a Yemeni counter-terrorism unit in Aden on Saturday, security and medical sources said.

Islamic State, in a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency, claimed responsibility for what it described as two “martyrdom operations” targeting the camp in Tawahi district in south-western Aden. The agency provided no immediate evidence for the claim.

Aden crisis: alliances of convenience unravel across Yemen Read more

Security sources said two suicide bombers detonated two cars laden with explosives at the camp’s entrance while six gunmen tried to storm the facility. They were all killed by guards and their bodies taken to a military hospital, a medical source told Reuters.



Aden police said in a statement on Facebook that security forces had foiled a major attack. “All the ... terrorists were liquidated immediately before they could reach the outer gate of the anti-terrorism headquarters,” it said.

Security sources and medics said at least three security men, a woman and two children died in the attack, while 40 other people, many of them civilians, were wounded.

Timeline Yemen since the Arab spring Show Hide Arab spring protests erupt against Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power in Yemen since 1978. He agrees to step down in return for immunity from prosecution Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, Saleh’s former deputy, succeeds him as president. Anti-Hadi protests hit the capital, Sana’a, after a cut to government fuel subsidies sharply increases fuel prices. Houthi rebels take control of most of Sana’a and form an anti-Hadi alliance with forces loyal to Saleh. The Saleh-Houthi forces seize the presidential palace in Sana’a and Hadi flees to Aden, Yemen’s second city. Saudi Arabia enters the war at the head of a nine-country coalition bombing the rebels in defence of Hadi’s internationally-recognised government. The UN puts the death toll at 10,000 since the Saudi intervention. Saudi Arabia tightens its blockade on Yemen, including of humanitarian aid, after a rocket fired from the country falls close to Riyadh. Saleh reaches out to the Saudi-led coalition, offering to “turn the page” if it lifts the blockade. The Houthis accuse him of a “coup against our alliance” and ambush his convoy as it flees Sana’a, killing him. A major Saudi-led coalition assault on the port city of Al Hudaydah begins, codenamed Operation Golden Victory.

Houthi drones attack two oil pumping stations inside Saudi Arabia, damaging pipelines. The UAE withdraws most of its forces from the Saudi-led coalition.

The attack was the first of its kind in southern Yemen since gun battles erupted in January between southern separatists and President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government over control of the city. Aden is the temporary capital of Yemen’s internationally recognised Hadi government, which is now operating out of Saudi Arabia.

Backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition, Hadi’s government has been battling the Iran-aligned Houthi movement since 2015 in a war that has driven the country to the verge of famine.

In a statement carried by the state-run Saba news agency, Hadi described the attack as a “cowardly act aimed to destabilise security in the temporary capital ... but it will not dissuade people from their will to achieve security, safety and decent living.”

Al Qaeda and Islamic State have exploited the war in Yemen to carry out assassinations and bombings, mostly in lawless southern Yemeni areas nominally controlled by the government.