Sana’a, Dec. 31, (dpa/GNA) – The death toll in an explosion that hit a main airport in Yemen’s southern city of Aden has climbed to 25 people, a Yemeni government official said Thursday.
Some 110 others were injured in Wednesday’s blast that took place shortly after a new unity government arrived at the airport from Saudi Arabia, Health Minister Qasim Buhaibeh tweeted.
On Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said 22 people were killed and 50 others injured in the attack that the government blamed on Yemen’s Iran-linked Houthi rebels.
“Evidence and indications are that the Houthi militias were the ones that targeted the airport with three rockets, using technologies it used in previous crimes,” the Yemeni Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Wednesday.
So far, there has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.
Aden has been Yemen’s temporary capital since the Houthis overran the capital Sana’a in late 2014 in a devastating power struggle.
On Saturday, Yemeni President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi swore in the new government that was formed under a power-sharing deal brokered by Saudi Arabia last year.
The 24-strong government includes members of the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) as part of a bid to end a power struggle between the secessionists and loyalists to Hadi.
The new government represents Yemen’s northern and southern areas with an equal number of members from each region.
The STC, formed in 2017, is backed by the United Arab Emirates, while Hadi’s government is backed by Saudi Arabia.
Both are part of the Saudi-led coalition formed in 2015 to fight the Houthi rebels.
Yemen’s conflict has pushed the Arab country to the brink of famine and devastated its health facilities.
GNA