SANAA, Yemen (AP) – A huge explosion killed the governor of Yemen’s southern Aden province and six of his bodyguards on Sunday, security officials said, in an attack that was later claimed by a local Islamic State affiliate.
If true, it would be the most high-profile assassination carried out by the Islamic State group in Yemen. The war-torn country is home to what Washington considers the most dangerous al-Qaida offshoot, which controls parts of the country, mainly in the east and the south. However, the Islamic State’s local affiliate has been stepping up its attacks lately, including an explosion at a mosque and targeted suicide car bombings.
Gov. Gaafar Mohamed Saad was traveling to his office Sunday when the explosion struck his convoy in the southern port city. Authorities are investigating the exact cause of the explosion. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
An IS affiliate claimed the attack in a statement circulated online by supporters, saying the bomb was concealed in a parked car along the convoy’s route. The group referred to Saad as a “tyrant” and warned the “heads of the infidels” in Yemen that it would carry out “operations to chop off their rotten heads.”
IS has claimed a series of bombings that killed 159 people and wounded 345 this year in Yemen, according to an AP count. That includes explosions in September targeting worshippers in a mosque in the capital Sanaa that killed more than 20 people, and suicide car bombings targeting exiled Yemeni officials and Saudi and Emirati troops which killed at least 15 people in Aden in October.