ADEN: A senior army officer was among five Yemeni soldiers killed in a bomb attack near the southern city of Aden, officials said.
“Major General Thabet Jawas and four soldiers were killed in a car bomb explosion” as they travelled through the village of Al-Madina al-Khadra, 10 kilometres (six miles) north of Aden, a security official told AFP.
A local official confirmed the attack and the death toll.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Jawas was considered one of the main commanders fighting Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels since the start of the country’s civil war in 2014.
Yemen’s internationally-recognised government relocated to Aden from the capital Sanaa in late 2014, forced out by the Huthis.
The bomb attack came just days before the seventh anniversary on March 26 of the start of a Saudi-led military coalition’s intervention in support of the government.
Yemen’s south is often the target of car bomb or missile attacks that the authorities blame on the rebels.
Aden, which is also home to a separatist movement, has been the target of several attacks claimed by the Islamic State group.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and other militants loyal to IS have thrived in the chaos of Yemen’s war.
Aqap has carried out operations against both the Huthis and government forces.
In October last year, six people were killed in a car-bomb attack targeting Aden’s governor.
The governor, Ahmed Lamlas, and Salem al-Socotri, a government minister, both survived the explosion, which went off as their convoy passed.
Later that same month, at least 12 civilians, including children, were killed in a car bomb blast near Aden’s airport.
