AL MUKALLA, Yemen — A bomb-packed car driven by a suicide attacker exploded at a checkpoint near the presidential palace in the southern city of Aden on Thursday, and security officials said at least eight people were killed.
The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the blast, the latest in a series of assaults that underscored the frail security in a part of the war-ravaged country that was triumphantly reclaimed by the government less than six months ago.
President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi was unharmed in the explosion, according to a security official and a witness. Officials said that the bomber appeared to have been targeting a convoy of senior officials who were driving toward the palace.
Mr. Hadi was forced out of power last year by Yemen’s Houthi rebels and exiled from Sana, the capital. After spending months in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Hadi and other cabinet members returned to Yemen in September but stayed in Aden, proclaiming that it had been liberated from the Houthis.
But the government, which is backed by a Saudi-led military coalition, still has only a tenuous hold on Aden and other parts of southern Yemen. Among the armed groups vying for power are Al Qaeda’s powerful affiliate and the Islamic State, which has carried out a series of large-scale attacks in Aden, including one in December that killed the governor of Aden Province.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/world/middleeast/yemen-bombing.html?ref=world
