According to press reports, a vehicle bomb targeting the governor’s convoy in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden killed at least four people.
At least four people were killed, according to an international news agency, which cited security and military sources. Governor Ahmed Lamlas and agricultural minister Salem al-Suqatri, both members of a separatist faction in southern Yemen, survived the bomb.
Lamlas is the Secretary-General of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a separatist organization that has fought the Saudi-backed government for control of Aden and the rest of Yemen’s south.
Al-Suqatri is also a member of the STC, which is sponsored by the UAE.
At least five persons were injured, according to an STC military spokesperson, including three civilians, one of which was a kid.
The government and the STC are nominal partners in a coalition led by Saudi Arabia that is fighting the Houthi movement, which is linked with Iran. Instability in the south makes UN-led peace efforts more difficult.
In March 2015, the military coalition engaged in Yemen, months after the Houthis deposed the internationally recognized government in Sanaa.
The government is headquartered in the south, while the Houthis hold the majority of the country’s northern territory.
Yemen’s conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, primarily civilians, and displaced millions, according to the UN, making it the world’s greatest humanitarian disaster.
