Senior Yemeni military leader killed in car bombing in Aden

ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) -A car bombing killed a senior Yemeni military leader and three of his entourage in the southern port city of Aden on Wednesday, three security sources said.

The defence ministry confirmed that Brigadier General Thabet Gawas was killed in a “cowardly attack carried out by several terrorist elements” but provided no further details. Gawas was returning from a personal visit when his car was hit by the blast in a suburb of the city, the security sources said. Aden’s AIC Television showed footage of a car in flames.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Gawas had long been an enemy of Yemen’s Houthi movement, fighting the group in their northern stronghold of Saada even before they ousted the Saudi-backed government from the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014. He participated in operations that expelled the Houthis from the southern Lahj region in 2015, the year that a Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen against the Iran-aligned movement.

The defence ministry and the head of the separatist Southern Transitional Council, which has vied with the government for control of Aden, each issued statements mourning Gawas.