Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for an explosion which killed the governor of Yemen’s southern Aden province on Sunday.In a statement posted on a messaging service, the local ISIS affiliate said it detonated an explosives-laden car as Jaafar Mohammed Saad’s convoy was traveling to his office in a western district of Aden.
The statement by the militant group said that the bomb was concealed in a parked car along the convoy’s route. The group referred to Saad as a “tyrant” and warned the “heads of the infidels” in Yemen that it would carry out “operations to chop off their rotten heads.”
Residents and security sources said the huge explosion killed six of his bodyguards in Tawahi district of the city.
Authorities are investigating the exact cause of the explosion.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media.
Bystanders present at the scene postede videos on soical media of the distroyed vehicle.
Saad had been a general in the army of the former southern Yemen before the Marxist state merged with northern Yemen in 1990. He was appointed governor in October.
Local officials said Saad, who fought in the 1994 civil war for southern forces against the northerners, had lived in exile in Egypt and Britain before he returned earlier this year at Hadi’s request.
ISIS in Yemen
In October, the government of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah was forced to relocate to Saudi Arabia after four coordinated suicide bombings by ISIS killed at least 15 people, including four Emirati soldiers.
ISIS has claimed a series of bombings that killed 159 people and wounded 345 this year in Yemen, according to an AP count.
The extremists have been able to expand their reach in the chaos of Yemen’s larger conflict, between a loose array of pro-government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition and Shiite Houthi rebels, who control the capital, Sanaa, and large parts of northern Yemen. Pro-government forces drove the Houthis out of Aden earlier this year.
A local al-Qaeda affiliate has exploited the chaos to seize territory in Yemen’s south and east, and has a growing presence in Aden. On Saturday, masked gunmen in Aden killed a military intelligence official and a judge known for sentencing al-Qaeda militants. No one claimed those attacks.
