Local Editor
Three suicide bombings claimed by the ISIS group on Friday struck checkpoints of Yemeni loyalist forces in Aden, killing 22 people, including 10 civilians, a security official said.
The bombings were followed by an attempt to attack a nearby large base of the Saudi-led Arab pro-Hadi coalition.
The attacks came a year after the coalition launched on March 26, 2015 an air campaign against the Houthi Ansarullah revolutionaries, to allegedly bring back to power fugitive former President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
The ISIS-affiliated Amaq news agency said in an online report that "ISIS fighters have launched three suicied operations and an attack on a base of the coalition in Aden".
Two bombs went off simultaneously at separate checkpoints in Shaab district, on Aden’s western outskirts, before gunmen launched an attack on the nearby base of the military coalition, an official said.
Apache helicopters belonging to the coalition carried out strikes on positions of gunmen in the surrounding area as the assailants tried to advance toward the base.
A third explosive device planted in an ambulance was detonated at checkpoint near Mansura, in central Aden, the official said.
The Arab coalition waging the year-long bombing campaign against the ansarullah fighters only began targeting extremists for the first time last week in Aden.
The ISIS group and Al Qaeda have exploited the chaos, widening their footholds in the south and carrying out deadly attacks.
Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen is considered by Washington to be the most dangerous affiliate of the international terror organization.
The United Nations says about 6,300 people have been killed since March last year, with civilians accounting for more than half.
New hopes for a breakthrough in the conflict surfaced on Wednesday when UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said warring parties had agreed on a ceasefire that would be observed before peace talks start on April 18.
Sources: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
