IS GROUP CLAIMS ATTACK IN YEMEN’S ADEN AS FIGHT FOR CONTROL GOES ON
A suicide bomber on a
motorcycle killed six southern separatist fighters on the edge of the Yemeni
city of Aden on Friday, witnesses said, part of a surge of violence that has
complicated a near five-year-old war and undermined U.N. peace efforts.
Islamic State claimed
responsibility for the attack on a patrol of Security Belt forces, a separatist
front fighting Yemeni government forces for control of the port city.
The separatists and
the Yemeni government forces are both part of a Saudi-led coalition battling
the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which took over most of Yemen’s cities in
2014.
But the separatists
broke with the government this month, accused it of ties to Islamists and
seized its temporary base of Aden on Aug. 10.
The fighting since
then has exposed deep rifts in the coalition - the Saudis back the government
while the United Arab Emirates, the alliance’s second-biggest backer, funds and
arms Security Belt and other southern separatist forces.
Militant groups have
also sought to take advantage of the turmoil. Islamic State has claimed
responsibility for a series of attacks during the war, though there was no
independent confirmation of its involvement in Friday’s blast.
The suicide bomber
struck in Aden’s northern Dar Saad neighbourhood a day after the UAE raised the
stakes by carrying out air strikes against government forces in southern Yemen.
The UAE said it had
carried out “precise and direct” strikes on Thursday on what it called
terrorist militias which it said had attacked Saudi-led coalition forces
fighting at Aden’s airport.
Yemen’s government
condemned the strikes which it said had killed and wounded more than 300 of its
forces and a number of civilians.
Other parts of Aden
were largely quiet on Friday after days of heavy fighting, with shops,
restaurants and bakeries reopening and people attending Friday prayers.
The Saudi-led, Sunni
Muslim coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 against the Houthis, who ousted
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government from power in the capital Sanaa.
Divisions have spread
in a war which is widely seen as a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and
Shi’ite Muslim regional rival Iran.
“The recent escalation
of violence in Aden is a clear indication that once more, political and
military interests are overriding the well-being and safety of the Yemeni
people,” Jason Lee, Acting Country Director of Save the Children in Yemen, said
in a statement.
Source: france24– 30 August 2019
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