Rebel missile attack, suicide bombs kill 51 in Yemen's Aden

Rebels in Yemen fired a ballistic missile Thursday at a military parade in the southern port city of Aden and coordinated suicide bombings targeted a police station in another part of the city, killing at least 51 people and wounding dozens, officials said.

The missile hit in the city's neighbourhood of Breiqa where a military parade was underway by forces loyal to the United Arab Emirates, a member of the Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since 2015 in support of Yemen's internationally recognized government.

Since the rebels seized the country's capital, Sanaa, in 2014, Aden has served as the temporary seat of the government.

The parade was taking place in the pro-coalition al-Galaa camp, said a security official, without give a breakdown for the casualties.

The website of the Houthi rebels, Al-Masirah, quoted spokesman Brig. Gen. Yehia Sarea as saying the rebels had fired a medium-range ballistic missile at the parade, leaving scores of casualties, including military commanders.

The security official told The Associated Press that UAE-backed commander Monier al Yafie, also known by his nickname Aboul Yamama, was among those killed. He was delivering a speech during the parade, the official said.

A short while earlier, a car, a bus and three motorcycles laden with explosives targeted a police station in the city's Omar al-Mokhtar neighborhood during a morning police roll-call, said Abdel Dayem Ahmed, a senior police official.

Four suicide bombers were involved in the attack, he said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the police station bombings. Both Yemen's al-Qaida branch and an Islamic State group affiliate have exploited the chaos of the country's war between the Houthis and the government forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition.

Ahmed told The Associated Press that 11 were killed in the attack at the police station and that at least 29 were wounded. A Yemeni health official said that along with the 51 killed, at
Zakarya Ahmed, a senior police officer who was inside the three-story station when the bombings took place, described the attack as "a disaster."
"I felt myself flying in the air and falling down, hitting the floor," Ahmed said. "When I got up on my feet, I saw bodies burning, others torn into pieces."