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At least six people lost their lives on October 30 in a deadly explosion near the international airport of Aden, the second Yemeni city at war and a transitional stronghold of the government. It is not known whether an intentional attack is hidden behind the incident, in a country devastated by conflict and famine.
An explosion near the entrance to the Aden international airport caused at least six deaths and about twenty injured on Saturday, October 30, according to a senior security source and another medical source who spoke to the Reuters news agency.
According to the agency, a truck carrying petroleum products was the one that detonated at one of the access doors, in a blast that echoed throughout the city, to the point that it destroyed the windows of those who live in the vicinity.
“Twelve civilians were killed in an explosion near the Aden airport,” a security official told the French AFP agency, unable to argue the figure or whether it was an attack or an incident.
At the scene, firefighters quickly tried to stop the flames caused by the explosion, while others removed the body from a destroyed car, according to an AFP correspondent.
Aden, the target city of numerous attacks
If confirmed, it would not be the first time that this temporary stronghold of the Yemeni government – recognized by the international community – has been the target of an attack. On October 10, a car bomb attack took the lives of six people, when their destination was a convoy of government officials, including the governor of Aden and a Yemeni minister, who escaped unharmed.
In December 2020, other explosions at the airport caused 26 deaths in a plane carrying members of the Government, just at the time of disembarkation after landing.
This is the reality that Yemen has been experiencing since 2014, mired in a war between pro-government forces backed militarily by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, and the Houthis, a rebel group that has control of much of the north of the country – including the capital Sanaa. – and that receives political support from Iran.
But not only. The Government has another front with the separatists in the south of the nation, an area in which they have an ally to the Southern Transitional Council (STC).
Against this background, international organizations denounce that tens of thousands of people have been victims of the deadly conflict, while millions have been forced into forced displacement and famine.
In addition, in recent weeks fighting has intensified in the city of Marib, the last loyal stronghold in northern Yemen that insurgents seek to capture. One of them, Mohammed Nasser al-Atifi, claimed that the city was “practically cornered” and that its capture “was a matter of time.”
With AFP and Reuters
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