Roadside bomb explosion kills 12 civilians in southwestern Yemen: Local sources

Yemenis check a burning vehicle following a car bombing attack in Huta, the capital of the southern province of Lahij, on March 27, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

At least 12 civilians have been killed and many others have sustained injuries in southern Yemen after a roadside bomb went off under a vehicle, local sources say.

The deadly incident occurred in a crowded market in the Qa'atabah district of the southwestern province of Dali' on Monday afternoon, Yemen's Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported, citing local sources, adding that the death toll could increase due to the magnitude of the explosion.

Furthermore, a security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the explosive device had been planted there to target a military vehicle but instead it hit the victims’ vehicle.

It was not immediately clear whether all the casualties were all in the ill-fated vehicle or the huge blast hit a number of pedestrians as well.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it has the hallmark of the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Takfiri terrorist outfit, which alongside its rival, the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group, has exploited more than two years of Saudi Arabia’s war against the Yemeni nation, trying to deepen its influence in the impoverished country by launching bombings and shooting attacks.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has been heavily bombarding Yemen as part of a brutal campaign against its impoverished southern neighbor in an attempt to reinstall Yemen's resigned president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, and crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement, which is in control of large parts of Yemen including the capital Sana'a. The Saudi campaign, however, has failed to achieve its goals.

Hadi, who initially fled the country to Riyadh, managed to capture Aden in July 2015 with the military help of the regime in Riyadh after it fell into the hands of Houthis in September 2014.

Since then, Hadi, along with his supporters and militiamen, has turned the port city into their base, calling it the country's temporary capital, and has gone hand-in-hand with the Saudi war machine against the nation, trying to take control of more regions in the country.

Earlier in the day, another attack was reported to have targeted a senior pro-Hadi militia, wounding him and killing his son in the town of Loder in the southern province of Abyan, which neighbors Eden Province from the east. The attack is strongly suspected to have been carried out by the AQAP.  

Over the past two years, Houthis have been running state affairs and defending Yemeni people against the Saudi campaign.

Latest figures show that the imposed war has so far killed over 12,000 Yemenis and wounded thousands more. The Saudi aggression has also taken a heavy toll on the country's facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.

Certain Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, are key partners to the campaign, which lacks any international mandate and has faced increasing criticism.