An officer of Yemen’s security forces was killed by unknown gunmen in the country’s southern port city of Aden on Thursday, a government official told Xinhua.
The unknown gunmen opened fire from their assault rifles and killed Jamal Tineh, an officer of the newly-recruited security troops in Aden’s neighborhood of Mansourah, the local government source said on condition of anonymity.
The city’s security forces issued a condemnation statement saying that “Tineh was assassinated by unidentified terrorists,” adding that “he was one of the most courageous officers.”
Elsewhere in Aden, a military leader loyal to the Southern Transitional Council (STC) survived an attempted assassination when an explosion targeted his convoy in the city’s western part.
An explosion of an improvised explosive device (IED) targeted the convoy of Brigadier Farouk Kaalouli, commander of the 9th Army Brigade in Aden’s district of Al Buraiqeh.
The strategic port city of Aden is considered Yemen’s temporary capital where the Saudi-backed Yemeni government has been based since 2015.
The impoverished Arab country has been locked into a civil war since late 2014, when the Houthi rebels overran much of the country and seized all northern provinces, including the capital Sanaa.
Millions of men, women and children in war-torn Yemen are facing famine with the UN World Food Programme (WFP), raising the alarm about “a countdown to a catastrophe.”
