ADEN: Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement launched missile and drone attacks yesterday on a military parade in Aden, the seat of government, killing 49 people according to the interior ministry.
An explosion hit a military camp belonging to the Yemeni Security Belt forces, a witness said.
Soldiers screamed and ran to lift the wounded and place them on trucks. Red berets lay on the ground in pools of blood as several soldiers cried near the body of a commander who was a leading figure among southern separatists.
Yemen’s Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed and Saudi Arabia’s envoy to Yemen accused Iran of being behind the parade attack and a separate blast at a police station, also in the southern port city, involving an explosives-laden car.
No one has claimed responsibility for the other attack which the interior ministry statement said killed 13 policemen. Past car attacks in Yemen have been carried out by militant group Al Qaeda, one of Yemen’s many destabilising forces.
The escalation in violence could complicate UN-led efforts to implement a stalled troop withdrawal in the main port city of Hodeidah to pave the way for political talks to end the war amid mistrust among all parties and competing agendas among Yemen’s fractious groups.
“I call on parties to honour their commitment to peace and put more efforts towards a political solution to the conflict,” UN special envoy Martin Griffiths tweeted yesterday.
A Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognised government toppled from power in the capital Sanaa in late 2014 by the Houthis.
The Saudi envoy, Mohammed bin Saeed Al Jabir, said the Aden attacks indicate that Iran “shares common goals with fellow terrorists such as Da’esh (Islamic State) and Al Qaeda”.
The Houthis’ official channel Al Masirah TV said the group had launched a medium-range ballistic missile and an armed drone at the parade, which it described as being staged in preparation for a military move against provinces held by the movement.
The commander killed at the parade was Brigadier General Muneer Al Yafee, the interior ministry said.
Al Yafee had stepped off the stage to greet a guest when the explosion took place. Flags of the former South Yemen and those of the coalition fluttered as the military band was waiting for its cue to start playing.
“The blast occurred behind the stand where the ceremony was taking place at Al Jalaa military camp in Buraiqa district in Aden,” a Reuters witness said.
The government of Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi controls Aden. The Houthi movement, which denies being a puppet of Iran and says its revolution is against corruption, holds Sanaa and most of the biggest urban centres in the Arabian Peninsula nation.
* Bahrain last night condemned the Houthi attacks. The Foreign Ministry affirmed Bahrain’s stance in support of the legitimate government in Yemen and efforts to reach a political solution based on the GCC initiative, the national dialogue and Security Council resolutions.