Al-Qaida gunmen killed 19 soldiers in an attack on an army base in southern Yemen on Friday, security officials said, a day after deadly assaults by the Daesh terrorist group. The attack began around midnight, with militants firing rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at the camp belonging to members of a Yemeni force trained by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a member of the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi rebels in Yemen since 2015.
The attack began around midnight, with militants firing RPGs at the camp belonging to members of a Yemeni force trained by the UAE, a member of the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi rebels in Yemen since 2015. The militants then overran the camp, seizing and confiscating equipment and weapons, before setting it on fire, according to the tribal leaders.
The attack came a day after the main southern city of Aden was shaken by double attacks. The Houthi rebels fired a missile at a military parade of the same UAE-trained militia known as the Security Belt, while suicide bombers blasted a police station in another of the city's neighborhoods. At least 51 people were killed in the double attacks, the deadliest day in Aden in nearly two years. The city has been the seat of Yemen's internationally recognized government, which is at war with the Houthis. For nearly four years, Yemen has been torn by the civil war between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, based in the capital, Sanaa, to the north, and the government forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition. The Yemen-based Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Daesh have exploited the chaos of the civil war to carry out bombings, shootings and assassinations in an effort to expand their footprint in Yemen, the Arab world's most impoverished country. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is the former Saudi defense minister, and Saudi Arabia's allies launched Operation Decisive Storm in March 2015. The ongoing war has resulted in the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. The coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE has prompted further fears of escalation in the humanitarian crisis in the country amid continuing military support from Western countries, which includes arms sales. Save the Children reported in March that 37 Yemeni children a month had been killed or injured by foreign bombs in the last year. Many atrocities have been reported so far, which have revealed multiple violations of human rights. The Saudi-led coalition has continued to target houses and civilian facilities in residential areas in the rebel-held cities.
