Terror on the runway: attack on Yemen’s new unity cabinet – politics

Uniformed men with flags have gathered on the apron at Aden airport. They are waiting for a plane operated by the Yemenia national airline. The prime minister and most of the members of the new unit cabinet are on board on their way back to Yemen. They had previously been sworn in before President Abd Rabbo Masur Hadi in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

The ministers are descending the catwalk when a loud explosion echoes over the airfield of the port city on the Red Sea. Thick smoke penetrates the airport building. Then follows automatic weapons fire. People flee in panic. The images show corpses and wounded on the ground, burned cars, fragments and debris from the waiting room.

At least 30 dead will be recovered Wednesday night, many of them civilians. You had been waiting for the next flight, informants in Yemen said. Süddeutsche Zeitung. More than 60 other people were injured, some of them life-threatening. The death toll could rise even further given rudimentary medical care and the severity of the injuries.

The government accuses the Houthis of rejecting it

Members of the government and the Saudi Ambassador, Mohammed Said al-Jaber, who was also on board the plane, were taken to safety in the heavily guarded al-Mashiq presidential palace. “We and the members of the government are in the temporary capital, Aden, and we are doing well,” he wrote. Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik on the short message service Twitter.

The information turned out to be incorrect: as Yemeni media reported in the evening, a deputy minister was killed and two others were injured. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced that two of its employees had been killed and a third was missing. Prime Minister Abdulmalik emphasized that the cowardly act of terrorism would only strengthen the government’s resolve and was part of the war against the Yemeni state.

There was different information about the course of the attack. It was said from security circles in Aden that several mortar shells had been fired at the airport. Communications Minister Naguib al-Awg said he had heard two explosions and suspected a drone strike. Video images suggest that several projectiles hit the airfield, possibly missiles. The violence of the first explosion may also have been caused by a previously placed explosive device.

President Hadi, like Information Minister Muammar al-Eryanidie, accused the Houthi militias of being responsible for the attack. Hadi was expelled from the capital Sanaa in 2014 and then completely out of the country. Thus began the civil war, which continues to this day, in which a military coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia intervened on Hadi’s side and fought against the Iranian-backed Houthis.

The Houthis denied responsibility for the attack. They showed what they are capable of with a missile strike in a military parade in Aden. But there are also strong offshoots of the Al Qaeda terror network and the jihadist militia of the Islamic State (IS) in Yemen, as well as a number of other armed groups that are not well disposed towards the new government, including militias allied with the Emirates. No one had confessed to the attack late at night.

The new government does not include the Houthis, who control Sanaa and the north of the country, where most of the roughly 30 million Yemenis live. The cabinet is part of a deal brokered by Saudi Arabia in November 2019 to resolve the conflict between President Hadi’s camp and the separatist al-Hirak movement, which is strong in the south.

Al-Hirak had temporarily seized military control of Aden and much of the south and, with the support of the United Arab Emirates, fought for a new separation from the north; Yemen did not reunify until 1990. Hadi had appointed many representatives from the north and south to the cabinet and also involved the Islah party, which is close to the Muslim Brotherhood. In recent weeks, protesters have called for the government to return to the country, which they blame for the economic crisis and the devaluation of the currency.