Yemeni officials survive assassination attempt in Aden

Car bomb targets Aden governor's convoy one month after similar attack killed his predecessor.

This image, provided by the office of the governor of Aden, shows the vehicle Aidarous Al Zubaidi was driving in after the attack on January 5, 2016.

ADEN // The governor of Aden survived an assassination attempt in the city that killed two of his guards and injured seven on Tuesday.

Aidarous Al Zubaidi was travelling with the governor of Lajh province, Nasser Al Khabagi, and Aden’s director of security, Shalal Shaei, when their convoy was struck by a car bomb in the Inma area.

The officials were returning from a visit to the headquarters of the Emirati forces in Al Hoswa when the car bomb hidden in bushes along the road pulled out in front of the convoy in the Inma area .

"The explosives car targeted an armoured car, but the officials were not inside that car. They were in different cars in the same convoy and they were unharmed," a source in Aden's security forces told The National.

The injuries to some of the guards were serious, the source said.

Mr Al Zubaidi posted a defiant message on his Facebook page after the attack.

“The sowers of death cannot stop us making Aden a peaceful and stable city, and we do not care about the cost,” he wrote.

Witnesses in Al Moaala district said they saw men fire shots at the provincial headquarters from a passing car at the same time as the assassination attempt.

The area saw deadly clashes on Sunday after Southern Resistance fighters refused to hand control of the Aden port to government security forces.

The dispute was resolved on Monday when the government promised to integrate the fighters into the security forces.

Authorities in Aden imposed an 8pm-5am curfew from Monday to help security forces protect the city.

The attack on Mr Al Zubaidi, a leader of the Southern Resistance militia that helped liberate Aden from Houthi rebels in July, came one month after his predecessor was killed in a car bombing claimed by ISIL.

Last Thursday, Gen Ahmed Saif Al Yafie, commander of the Fourth Military Region, which includes Aden and its surroundings, escaped unharmed when a bomb planted in his vehicle went off, killing a bodyguard.

There were no claims of responsibility for the latest attacks.