4 yıl önce

Deadly blast hits Yemen’s Aden airport as plane carrying new Cabinet lands

Based on initial reports, at least 26 people have been killed in the airport attack. A blast was also heard near Aden’s presidential palace, to where the government members were taken after the attack.

Reuters

Dust rises after explosions hit Aden airport upon the arrival of the newly-formed Yemeni government in Aden, Yemen December 30, 2020.

A large explosion has struck the airport in Yemen's city of Aden moments after a plane landed carrying a newly formed Saudi-backed cabinet for government-held parts of Yemen.

Security sources said at least 16 people were killed and 60 were wounded in the blast while medical sources gave the much higher death toll of 26.

AP footage from the scene showed members of the government delegation disembarking as the blast shook the grounds. No one on the government plane was hurt but many ministers rushed back inside the plane or ran down the stairs, seeking shelter.

Officials at the scene said they have seen bodies lying on the tarmac and elsewhere at the airport.

The source of the blast was not immediately clear. Loud blasts and gunfire were heard at the airport shortly after the plane arrived, witnesses said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.

The cabinet members, including Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik, as well as Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed Said al Jaber, were transferred safely to the city's presidential palace, the witnesses and Saudi media said.

A separate explosion was then heard near Maasheq palace, where the cabinet was taken after the airport attack.

Live TV footage from Saudi-owned Al Arabiya channel showed dozens of people leaving the airplane when a first blast hit the airport's hall.

Heavy gunfire from armoured vehicles followed, with plumes of white and black smoke rising from the scene.

Other video showed damage to the terminal's concrete walls and smashed glass.

A local security source said three mortar shells landed on the airport's hall.

Images shared on social media from the scene showed rubble and broken glass strewn about near the airport building and at least two lifeless bodies, one of them charred, lying on the ground.

In another image, a man was trying to help another man whose clothes were torn to get up from the ground.

Rift over Aden port

The ministers, headed by Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, were returning to Aden after being sworn in last week as part of a reshuffle following a deal with rival southern separatists. Yemen’s internationally recognised government has worked mostly from self-imposed exile in the Saudi capital of Riyadh during the country’s years-long civil war.

Yemen’s embattled President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, in exile in Saudi Arabia, announced a Cabinet reshuffle earlier this month.

The newly formed cabinet unites the government of Hadi with UAE-backed southern separatists, intended to fulfil a Saudi aim of ending a feud among Riyadh's allies.

Reuters

Security personnel and people react during an attack on Aden airport moments after a plane landed carrying a newly formed cabinet for government-held parts of Yemen, in Aden, Yemen December 30, 2020.

The southern port city of Aden has been mired in violence because of a rift between the separatists and Hadi's government. The separatist Southern Transitional Council, which seeks independence for south Yemen, declared self-rule in Aden earlier this year, triggering violent clashes and complicating UN efforts to forge a permanent ceasefire in the overall conflict.

Hadi's Saudi-backed government is at war with Iran-allied Houthi rebels, who control most of northern Yemen, as well as the country's capital, Sanaa.

Last year, the Houthis fired a missile at a military parade of newly graduated fighters of a militia loyal to the UAE at a military base in Aden, killing dozens.