ADEN: Separate attacks by Shia rebels and a jihadist suicide bomber killed at least 49 people in Yemen’s government-held second city on Thursday, many of them newly trained police cadets.

The attacks were the first to hit Aden in more than a year and dealt a heavy blow to the government’s reorganised security forces, which have been trained and equipped by the United Arab Emirates.

Mohammed Rabid, a senior official at the health ministry, told reporters in Aden that 49 people were killed and 48 others wounded in the two attacks.

The first attack was a suicide car bombing carried out by jihadists on a police station, a security source said.

A correspondent saw dozens of troops and police reinforcements helping the wounded outside the entrance to the police station in Aden’s Sheikh Othman district.

“Ten people were killed, and we admitted 16 injured, including two in critical condition in MSF surgical hospital in Aden, following this morning explosion in Sheikh Othman police station,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Twitter.

The second attack was carried out by the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, who said they launched a drone and a ballistic missile at a training camp west of Aden.

The aerial attack hit as senior commanders were overseeing a passing out parade for newly graduated cadets at Al-Jala Camp, 20 kilometres from the centre of Aden.

The missile struck about five metres from the viewing platform and a senior commander was among the dead, a photographer reported.

Between 30 and 35 people were killed or wounded, most of them new graduates of the so-called Security Belt force.

The power of the blast left a large crater in the ground. Bodies were strewn around.

The internationally-recognised Yemeni government said on Thursday the “source and purpose (of the attacks) were the same”.

“The two attacks prove the Houthi militia rebels and other terrorist groups are sharing roles and complementing each other in a war against the Yemeni people,” the government said in a statement.

Aden is controlled by the Yemeni government and its supporters in a Saudi-led military coalition, which has been fighting the rebels since 2015.

The government established its headquarters in the city after the rebels forced it out of the capital Sanaa.

The UAE is a key partner in the coalition, which has enforced an air and sea blockade of rebel-held areas and carried out a controversial bombing campaign that has exacted a heavy civilian death toll.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2019