The Yemeni airport attack kills 22 people when a new Saudi-backed government arrives

The blasts came moments after ministers in the cabinet of a Saudi-backed government had landed from Riyadh. The government information minister said all cabinet members were safe after the attack. A Fomento supply died in the attack, officials said.

“The cowardly terrorist act that took place at Aden Airport is part of the ongoing war against the Yemeni state and our great people, and will only deepen our decision to fulfill our duties, “Maeen Abdulmalek Saeed, the new government’s prime minister, said in a tweet.

The Yemeni government-affiliated interior ministry backed by Saudi Arabia said 22 people were killed in the attack and more than 50 injured. The local branch of Médecins Sans Frontières, the international charity, said it was preparing for a “mass casualty” event.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said two of its members died in the attack, while another was not discovered and three were injured. ICRC staff, a Yemeni national and Rwandan national, were passing through the airport at the time of the attack, the organization said.

The attack further shook Yemen, a country in a position of political and humanitarian crisis after years of a war fueled in part by the clash of regional powers.

Currently, the country is divided between Houthi rebels aligned with Iran who control the capital Sana’a and various factions, including the Saudi-backed government. Other Middle Eastern powers also have a hand in the conflict, including the United Arab Emirates, which is allied with the pro-independence Southern Transitional Council.

Violence poses a challenge to the new sworn government on December 26 as part of a power-sharing deal promoted by Saudi Arabia aimed at ending fighting between loyalists of the country’s president and allied southern separatists with the United Arab Emirates.

Fields backed by the Saudis and Emirates have clashed in recent years, further dividing Yemen into a multi-disposition conflict.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Western officials and analysts said it was probably carried out by Houthis, who receive military support from Iran. The Houthis denied involvement in the attack. The group also launched a precise strike at a military parade in Aden in August 2019, killing a senior Yemeni commander.

Yemen’s foreign minister affiliated with the new government, Ahmad Awad bin Mubarak, blamed the attack on Houthi rebels.

Western officials did not rule out the possibility that Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula or disgruntled factions in the southern separatist camp may have been responsible.

Different parts of the conflict were also quickly blamed, and the Southern Transitional Separatist Council blamed Qatar and Turkey.

“The real concern for the future is that this attack will divide the new government instead of uniting it,” said Elana DeLozier, a Yemeni expert at the Middle East Policy Institute in Washington.

“A Houthi attack should unite the new government in defense of a common enemy, but if the governing parties cannot come to a united view of guilt, instead it will arouse suspicion and fragment the new government from the first day, ”he said.

It was unclear what caused the blasts at the airport. Video footage broadcast by Sky News Arabia showed what looked like a missile hitting the tarmac. A source close to the Yemeni government said the source of the attack was three missiles fired from Houthi-controlled areas of the central city of Taiz.

—Stephen Kalin contributed to this article.

Write to Jared Malsin to [email protected]