Yemen airport explosion and gunfire kill dozens…

Input 2020.12.31 08:12

Major foreign media such as Reuters and AFP reported on the 30th (local time) that at least 10 people were killed and dozens were injured in a shooting incident along with a large explosion at Aden International Airport in southern Yemen in the Middle East.

According to foreign reports, a loud explosion and gunfire was heard at Aden Airport shortly after the plane carrying newly formed Yemeni government ministers arrived at the airport this afternoon.

In the footage taken at the time, the first explosion occurred when the plane’s door opened and the passengers tried to exit through the door. Local sources told Reuters that “three mortar shells fell,” and one witness told Bloomberg that “a shooting took place after the explosion.”

It was reported that at least 10 people were killed and dozens were injured in the explosion and shooting, but none of the Yemeni government ministers are known to have had any casualties. Prime Minister Main Abdulmalik Said and other government ministers safely moved to the presidential palace in downtown Aden, Reuters said.

Prime Minister Said tweeted, “All government ministers are safe,” and condemned that “(explosions and shootings) were attacked by cowardly terrorists targeting Aden Airport.”

Aden was the temporary capital of the Yemeni Sunni government backed by Saudi Arabia when the Huti rebels, a Shi’ite armed group backed by Iran, overthrew the government in 2015.

The Yemeni government and the southern separatist forces, who were fighting the Huti rebels together, split and engaged in a war, but in November of last year, they halted the fighting and officially signed an agreement to divide power. The Yemeni government and the southern separatist forces formed a new cabinet together in the middle of this month.

Until now, no forces have emerged that claim to be behind the airport explosions and shootings, but the Yemeni government has pointed to the Huti rebels as the forces behind them. The Huti rebels are in control of northwestern Yemen, including the capital Sana.

The Yemeni Civil War, which broke out in March 2015 and has been continuing for more than five years, is a proxy war between Saudi Arabia’s Arab allied forces supporting the Yemeni government and Iran supporting the Huti rebels. The UN ranks the Yemeni civil war as the worst catastrophe of the century. According to the United Nations, the number of Yemenis killed in civil war has already surpassed 10,000 last year. Some argue that the actual number of deaths is in the tens of thousands.