17 Yemeni civilians killed in roadside bomb blast

Aden Aug 14 (IANS) At least 17 Yemeni civilians were killed and seven others injured in a roadside bomb blast in the country s southern province of al-Dhalea on Monday a police official told media.

The blast occurred in Qatabah district of al-Dhalea province when civilian vehicles running along a main road touched off an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) planted by terrorists Xinhua reported.

Local medical sources confirmed that the violent explosion resulted in the killing of 17 civilians.

A local government official blamed the al-Qaida militant group for planting the IED in the district of Qatabah in an obvious attempt to blow up military vehicles passing through the area.

"The al-Qaida terrorists apparently planned to target the pro-government forces by IED but they failed and killed innocent civilians " the government source said.

The Yemen-based al-Qaida branch seen by the United States as the global terror network s most dangerous branch has exploited years of deadly conflict between Yemen s government and Houthi rebels to expand its presence especially in Shabwa and Abyan provinces.

Yemen s government allied with a Saudi-led Arab military coalition has for years been battling Shiite Houthi rebels for control of the impoverished country.

UN statistics showed that more than 8 000 people have been killed in Yemen s conflict most of them civilians since the Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict in 2015.

The impoverished Arab country is also suffering the world s largest cholera outbreak where about 5 000 cases are reported every day.

--IANS
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