4 Yemen troops dead as Aden police chief survives bombing

Four Yemeni guards were killed in a bombing that targeted the convoy of Aden's police chief, officials said, the second such attack on him in the southern city this week.

A bomb-laden car in Aden's Mansura district exploded as General Shallal Shayae's convoy passed, damaging military vehicles and prompting clashes between his guards and Al-Qaeda suspects in the area, the officials added. 

Shayae himself escaped unharmed, according to his aides, but medical sources said that four of his guards were killed and eight others were wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but Shayae has survived attacks by jihadists more than once, the last of which was just days ago.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle packed with explosives when he was stopped at a checkpoint on the perimeter of the compound around Shayae's house, wounding a guard. 

In February, suspected Al-Qaeda militants opened fire on a convoy carrying Shayae and Aden governor Aidarus al-Zubaidi, but they escaped unharmed.

Shayae and Zubaidi also survived a car bombing that targeted their convoy in Aden on January 5 killing two of their guards.

Other security officials in Aden, the temporary base of Yemen's Saudi-backed government, have been targeted by bombings and assassinations -- some of which Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group have claimed.

Unidentified gunmen on Friday killed Aden's traffic police chief Colonel Marwan Abdulalim as he was in his car going to weekly Muslim prayers.

Jihadists have exploited the unrest in Yemen as loyalist forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, fought against Iran-backed rebels since March 2015 in a war that has left more than 6,400 people dead.

Pro-government forces last year drove the Shiite rebels and their allies out of southern provinces, including Aden, but have struggled to assert their authority over a growing presence of extremists. 

But with the help of coalition forces, mainly from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, loyalists launched an offensive against Al-Qaeda in March, pushing them out of neighbourhoods in Aden and several provincial capitals.

Source :AFP