Sanaa (Yemen): A large explosion struck Wednesday the airport in the southern Yemeni city of Aden, shortly after a plane carrying the newly formed Cabinet landed there, security officials said. At least 16 people were killed and 60 were wounded in the large explosion. The source of the blast was not immediately clear and no group claimed responsibility for attacking the airport.
Footage of this agency from the scene showed members of the government delegation disembarking as the blast shook the grounds. No one on the government plane was hurt but many ministers rushed back inside the plane or ran down the stairs, seeking shelter.
Thick smoke rose into the air from the near the terminal building. Officials at the scene said they saw bodies lying on the tarmac and elsewhere at the airport.
Yemeni Communication Minister Naguib al-Awg, who was also on the government plane, told this agency that he heard two explosions, suggesting they were drone attacks. Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed and the others were quickly whisked away from the airport to the Mashiq Palace in the city.
“It would have been a disaster if the plane was bombed,” Saeed said, insisting the plane was the target of the attack as it was supposed to land earlier.
Images shared on social media from the scene showed rubble and broken glass strewn about near the airport building and at least two lifeless bodies, one of them charred, lying on the ground.
In another image, a man was trying to help another man whose clothes were torn to get up from the ground.
According to one Yemeni security official, three Red Cross workers were among the wounded, though it was not clear if they were Yemenis or of other nationalities. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The UN Special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, condemned the explosion as an ‘unacceptable act of violence’. He said in a tweet that it was ‘a tragic reminder of the importance of bringing #Yemen urgently back on the path towards peace.
The ministers were returning to Aden after being sworn in last week as part of a reshuffle following a deal with rival southern separatists. Yemen’s internationally recognised government has worked mostly from self-imposed exile in the Saudi capital of Riyadh during the countrys years-long civil war.
