ADEN — Police in Yemen said they foiled two car bomb attacks in the southern port city of Aden early on Sunday, a day before peace talks to end a year of war were due to start.
Police at a checkpoint opened fire at a car traveling at high speed which then exploded, wounding at least five officers, they said. One of the policemen later died in hospital, a medical source said.
Officers also safely disarmed a booby-trapped car parked on a beach road near the airport in the northeastern part of the city, police added.
Security forces closed off the area and were investigating.
No one has claimed responsibility for the planned attacks near Aden airport in Khor Maksar district, which took place before UN-sponsored peace talks between President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi’s government and the Houthi rebels were scheduled to open in Kuwait on Monday.
On Friday, a car bomb was detonated outside the foreign ministry building in Aden but caused no casualties.
Daesh claimed responsibility for that attack and also for a suicide bombing Tuesday in Aden targeting army recruits.
Late Saturday, five Al-Qaeda suspects were killed in Arab coalition air raids against two vehicles carrying militants in Jaar, a town in the southern Abyan province, security officials said.
Other strikes hit suspected militants in Abyan’s provincial capital Zinjibar, the sources said.
Pro-government forces on Friday expelled Al-Qaeda fighters from Houta, another provincial capital close to Aden, and arrested 49 people suspected of being militants, security officials said.
The recapture of Houta, regional capital of southern Lahj province which has been held by the militants since last summer, is one of the Yemeni government’s most important inroads yet against Al-Qaeda forces who have taken advantage of more than a year of war to seize territory.
Government troops began their attack at daybreak and succeeded after several hours of air strikes and heavy combat, a military official said.
“The campaign to control Houta has been completed and it has been cleansed of al Qaeda and extremist elements,” he said. Several people were killed and injured on both sides and 48 militants were captured, he added.
