IS claims deadly attack on Aden governor, 6 guards in Yemen

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Yemeni security officials on Sunday said a huge explosion has killed the governor of Aden and six of his bodyguards, AP reports.

Islamic State (IS), which has a growing presence in Yemen since its civil war broke out, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Jaafar Saad's convoy was targeted while he was driving in Al-Tawahi district of Aden early Sunday

Gov. Jaafar Mohamed Saad was traveling to his office in a convoy on Sunday morning when the explosion took place in the Rimbaud area of the southern port city, officials said.

Authorities are still investigating the exact cause of the explosion.

http://atimes.com/2015/12/blast-kills-governor-of-aden-6-bodyguards-in-yemen/

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1. Yemen peace elusive as war expands

In the last week of November, Yemeni “rebels” once again succeeded in moving inside Saudi Arabia and consequently captured certain military bases and outposts. The Yemeni “rebels” were reported to have seized Malhama, al-Radif and al-Mamoud military bases in Jizan, al-Rabou’a military base in Asir and Nahouqa military base in Najran province in southern Saudi Arabia. The Saudi military was reported to have retaliated by massive bombing inside its own territory as well as in Yemen’s Hajjah province.

The latest episode is only a tip of the iceberg as the war in Yemen, which has now very well spilled over in Saudi Arabia, continues to drag on. It is, as reports indicate, no longer confined to the fight between Saudi-led coalition forces and the Houthi “rebels.” Yemen`s powerful branch of Al Qaeda, for years the target of CIA’s drone war, has emerged with control of swathes of territory, including the port city of Mukalla, capital of eastern Hadramout province.

The Saudi-led forces have informally cooperated with Al Qaeda fighters against the common Houthi foe. Some Al Qaeda fighters, meanwhile, have rallied behind a newly opened Yemeni branch of Islamic State (IS) group which has taken on all sides, blowing up Houthi mosques in Sanaa and targets from Hadi`s government and his Arab allies in Aden.

While the presence of IS is a clear indication of territorial expansion of the conflict from Iraq and Syria to Yemen, it also shows ‘peace’ cannot simply be established through a settlement between the Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Iran-backed Houthis.

http://atimes.com/2015/12/yemen-peace-elusive-as-war-expands/

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2. Qaeda offers bounty for head of Yemen pro-government force

Al-Qaeda threatened on Friday to kill the leader of a pro-government force in southern Yemen, putting a bounty on his head, as it seeks to impose itself on the war-torn country.

Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen, in a statement circulated during main weekly prayers in mosques, vowed to kill Abdellatif al-Sayed, the Abyan provincial commander of the Popular Resistance, an alliance of Sunni Islamists, tribesmen, loyalist soldiers and southern secessionists.

Accusing him of having "stabbed the mujahedeen in the back", it placed a bounty of seven million Yemeni riyals ($32,500) on his head and warned that his accomplices would be regarded as "legitimate targets".

On Wednesday, the miliants briefly seized control of the town of Jaar in Abyan province, killing 11 members of the Popular Resistance, including its deputy leader, Ali al-Sayed.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/qaeda-offers-bounty-head-yemen-pro-government-force-1713768314