IS claims responsibility for suicide attack against security HQ in Yemen's Aden

The Islamic State (IS) group on Sunday claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack against the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and the security headquarters in the Yemeni southern port city of Aden.

"One of the group's jihadist members carried out the operation and detonated his explosives-loaded vehicle at the main gate of the Criminal Investigation Department in Aden," the group said in a brief statement, but its authenticity could not be independently verified.

The extremist group claimed that the "suicide operation that struck the main gate of the CID killed 30 soldiers and followed by another armed attack that resulted in killing 20 others."

According to the statement revealed by IS group, "heavy armed confrontations are still taking place between our jihadists and the security soldiers in the area and a number of armored vehicles were destroyed."

But it didn't disclose further details or how many attackers launched the armed attack against the CID building in Aden.

The IS-affiliated news agency Amaq also issued a series of brief statements claiming that "scores of security personnel were taken as hostages during twin jihadist operations against security in Aden."

The attack occurred around 8:10 a.m. local time (0510 GMT) when a suicide car bomber struck the main gate of the security headquarters, and a group of well-armed masked men launched an armed attack against a nearby building of the CID, a police official said on condition of anonymity.

Eyewitnesses confirmed to Xinhua that the explosion was followed by an exchange of heavy gunfire between the security guards and unknown gunmen who tried to storm the CID headquarters from different directions.

Heavy smoke could be seen billowing from the building of CID, and armed clashes are still ongoing in the area, the eyewitnesses said.

Earlier in the day, a medical source at Jamhuria public hospital said that "eight soldiers were killed as a result of the explosion and many injured soldiers were moved to the hospital for treatment."

A security source in Aden told Xinhua by phone saying that "the suicide attack primarily aimed at assassinating Aden's security chief General Shalal who was heading to his workplace at the time of the explosion."

The source said that "General Shalal escaped the attack and later he personally commanded an anti-terror military unit to eliminate the terrorists who were hiding inside the building."

"A number of terrorists wearing explosive belts were killed inside the security building and the situation is under control now," he added.

Today's powerful blast partially destroyed a number of nearby residential buildings and shops in addition to injuring local residents in Aden's neighborhood of KhorMaksar.

Aden's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences which is located in the same neighborhood was shut down as hundreds of students were waiting to take their admission tests.

The southern port city of Aden is considered as Yemen's temporary capital and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government based itself there since 2015.

Militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch and the Islamic State group (IS) are more active in the country's southern part and Yemeni armed forces supported by the UAE started waging large offensives against some hideouts there.

The al-Qaida and Islamic State-linked terrorists took advantage of the security vacuum and ongoing civil war to expand their influence and seize more territories in Yemen.

Security in Yemen has further deteriorated since March 2015, when war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and government forces backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.

UN statistics show more than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since the coalition intervened in the Yemeni civil war that also displaced around three million.

The impoverished Arab country is also suffering the world's largest cholera epidemic since April, with about 5,000 cases reported every day.

source: Xinhua