Two guards killed in IS-claimed car bombing in Yemen

By afp
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November 30, 2017
ADEN: A dawn car bombing claimed by the Islamic State group hit the finance ministry of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government on Wednesday, killing two guards and wounding four, a security source said.
In a statement on its Amaq propaganda arm, IS claimed the "detonation of a parked explosive-laden vehicle" outside the ministry building in Yemen’s second city Aden, the SITE Intelligence monitoring group reported.
Aden serves as the headquarters of the Yemeni government. Despite a Saudi-led military intervention launched in March 2015, the capital Sanaa and much of north of the country remain in the hands of rebels.
The power vacuum has allowed both al-Qaeda and its jihadist rival IS to bolster their presence in Yemen, particularly in the government-held south. Aden has been hit by a spate of bombings that have killed hundreds of people, some claimed by al-Qaeda and some by IS.
With US-backing, the Saudi-led coalition has expanded its campaign in Yemen to battle the jihadists in the south, but they retain control of parts of the mountainous and desert interior. Al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based arm is regarded by Washington as the jihadist network’s most dangerous but IS has claimed a growing number of attacks in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country over the past two years.