Giants Brigades commander Hamdi Shoukri survived an assassination attempt in the southern Yemeni city of Aden today, when a car bomb targeted his motorcade as he was traveling through the northern part of the city.
Security forces in the area reported that four people were killed in the attack, and five others were wounded when a booby-trapped car exploded as the motorcade passed by the Joulah roundabout in the area.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, the self-proclaimed government of Yemen that operates out of Saudi Arabia, vowed efforts would be doubled to monitor Houthi militias after today’s attack.
Aftermath of bombing in Aden | Image from X
Though the Houthis are at odds with the Saudi-backed forces, they are not generally active in southern Yemen, but rather control the north of the country, in and around Sanaa. On the other hand, the Saudi-backed forces, including the Giants Brigade, only recently seized Aden from the separatist STC.
The Saudis claimed the STC was disbanded after these attacks, though the group has denied that was the case, and their control over Aden is limited enough that officials with the Presidential Leadership Council suggested they will remain in Riyadh for now, and not try to relocate to Aden. Today’s attack, whoever carried it out, reflects that lack of control.
STC President Aidarous al-Zubaidi has called on the public to come out in force in Aden on Friday in favor of their movement, calling it a “Million March of Steadfastness and Popular Escalation” after the Saudi-led attacks on them.
The STC has been calling for a separation of South Yemen from the rest of the country, undoing the unification that took place in 1990. South Yemen has retained a large separatist movement since unification, and the STC, backed by the United Arab Emirates, is the largest bloc of those movements.
