On the 30th, a serious conflict broke out again in the endless civil war in Yemen. The new “coalition cabinet” of the Yemeni government, which was originally divided among themselves but could barely be reorganized, was attacked by a series of bombs on Thursday when officials returned to Aden airport from Saudi Arabia.
“The new Shaudi-backed coalition cabinet in Yemen was nearly ‘wiped out’…” The Yemeni civil war, which has been a bloody battle for six years, has killed at least 230,000 people and plunged 24.3 million into famine, erupted into serious conflict again on the 30th.
The new “coalition cabinet” of the Yemeni government, originally divided but reluctantly reconstituted by the pressure of its powerful allied forces in Saudi Arabia, returned home to the government’s stronghold of Aden port on Thursday, and the officials were just stepping out of the plane when the international airport was hit by a series of bombs. A series of bomb attacks at the international airport. Although the new prime minister, foreign minister, ministerial officials and ambassador Shaudi on board the plane survived the attack, the residence was attacked again when they were evacuated to the presidential palace in Aden. Although Shaudi has angrily accused the Houthis, who are splitting the Yemeni world with government forces, and their backer Iran of being the “real culprits” in the attack on the civilian airport, disgruntled southern Yemeni separatist forces and even the resurgent al-Qaeda organization (al-Qaeda) have been killed and seriously injured. al-Qaeda), are all possible masterminds active in Aden.
The Yemeni civil war, which began in 2015, began as a massive rebellion by the Houthis, an armed Shiite sect in the northwest, against the corruption and incompetence of the central Yemeni government. The armed uprising coincided with the central government’s factional turmoil, so the Houthis stormed up to Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, and even placed President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi under house arrest in a very short time. President Hadi then, with the support of his faction and neighboring Arab countries, unexpectedly escaped from the Houthis’ house arrest and led the remnants of the government to the southern port of Aden, plunging Yemen into a north-south civil war.
The rapid rise of the Houthis, however, sparked alarm and anger among their powerful neighbor to the north, the Shahudis. King Abdullah, the previous king of the Shaudis, died, and the new king, King Salman, was intent on promoting his favorite son, the notorious journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who later ordered the dissident’s body to be split at the consulate in Istanbul. King Salman’s intention to promote his favorite son, Mohammed (MbS), the current crown prince who later became notorious for ordering the beheading of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the consulate in Istanbul, was to put an end to the Shah’s tradition of passing on power to his younger sons, which is why King Salman allowed MbS to join the Shah’s Ministry of Defense and mobilized the three armies for an “expedition to Yemen” in the name of assisting the Yemeni government in putting down the Houthi rebellion.
The Shah’s “Yemeni expedition” was expected to quickly destroy the Houthis with the overwhelming advantage of advanced weapons. On the one hand, he hoped to completely stop the strategic penetration of his arch-rival Iran into the Arabian Peninsula; on the other hand, he also hoped to give his young prince MbS more “war prestige” to succeed him. Unbeknownst to the Shaudi-led coalition of Gulf oil countries, they encountered an unexpectedly bitter battle, not only unable to effectively defeat the Houthis, but also their own three armies were caught in a “Vietnam-style” war of attrition, with Iran, which saw the need to export short-range rockets and drone technology to the Houthis, not only let the war burn back to the Shaudi homeland – even Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, thousands of miles away from the Yemeni border, has been subjected to constant air strikes by the Houthis.
Although the new prime minister, foreign minister, ministerial officials and the Shah’s ambassador on the plane survived, the residence was attacked again when they were evacuated to the presidential palace in Aden. Photo / Associated Press
The nearly successful “decapitation attack” against the entire Yemeni cabinet, at least 25 people are known to have been killed and 110 seriously injured. The picture shows the explosion at the moment, people are near the airport to assist an injured person. Photo／Associated Press
The development of the bitter war has not only disgraced Sha’udi, the embargo, extreme weather and war disasters, but also made Yemen the world’s most serious “food shortage areas” – according to the latest statistics of the United Nations in December 2020, since the outbreak of civil war, the Yemeni civil war has killed at least 230,000 people; more than half of the dead, are More than half of the dead were “killed by a combination of infectious disease and hunger” due to a lack of medical care and food. Currently, more than 80 percent of the Yemeni population must rely on international humanitarian aid, while one-half of the population is at risk of starvation and famine.
The Houthi army and the Yemeni government forces have been fighting against each other, and it was already tough enough; however, since 2019, the Yemeni government forces have disintegrated into an armed confrontation between the “President Hadi’s Army” and the “Southern Yemeni Separatists” – among them, President Hadi’s Central Army is backed by the Shah Al-Arab; the Southern Yemeni Separatists The South Yemens Separatist Army, under the name of the Southern Transitional Conference (STC), has been receiving military aid and arms from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a long time, thereby joining the “government forces’ anti-Houthi coalition.
The main reason why the STC turned against the central government is still dissatisfaction with President Hadi’s incompetence and corruption, and disappointment with the leadership of the current government. During the conflict, the Southern Independence Army once occupied Aden, the temporary capital of the Yemeni government, and if not for the intervention of UAE and Shaudi, it nearly forced the “second collapse” of Hadi’s government.
The internal division of the government forces not only gave the Houthis the opportunity to “expand deeper”; for the Shaudi coalition, which regretted the war and was eager to find a step to withdraw, it represented an endless vertical fall of the “Yemeni civil war”. Therefore, since the summer, the Shaudi government has invested huge external resources and pressure, and finally in December 2020, the Hadi government “temporarily reconciled” with the southern separatists and reluctantly reorganized the “coalition cabinet”.
The December 30 attack on Aden Airport was the “key swearing-in ceremony” for the new coalition cabinet to complete unity talks and return to Aden from Sha’udi to take office.
On Dec. 30, it was supposed to be the “key swearing-in ceremony” for the new unity cabinet to complete the unity talks and return to Aden from Shaudi to take office, and the Yemeni army was waiting at Aden airport to welcome the new unity government members. Photo / Associated Press
The reorganization of the “unity cabinet” was originally the focus of media attention, but the explosion that occurred this time, the scene of the incident was also accidentally recorded in full by many media. Photo / Associated Press
At present, more than 80 percent of the population of Yemen must rely on international humanitarian relief, 1 in 2 of the population will die of hunger at any time, hovering in the famine crisis. Photo／Reuters
The attack was witnessed by al-Arabiya, the Saudi Arabian satellite television station, which pointed out that the newly appointed Prime Minister, Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, was just about to lead his new cabinet team from the special plane of Yemeni Airlines. But what was the attack amidst the smoke? Who launched the attack? Were there any ambushers besides the bombs? The government forces’ security collapsed into chaos.
In the midst of the panic, Abdu’l-Malik and his entourage of “important VIPs”, the Shaudi ambassador to Yemen, were also evacuated from the presidential palace in Aden. The cabinet team had just entered the residence when the presidential palace was once again attacked by “bombs”.
Although the Prime Minister Abdu Malik, the ambassador and cabinet members at ministerial level, all lucky to survive, no one was injured by the double bombing. But as of early morning on the 31st, the attack in Aden has left at least 25 people dead and 110 seriously injured.
Three of the deceased, or the “International Red Cross and Crescent”, just people in the Aden International Airport rescue mission members; another dead is the Yemeni “Belgis TV” field reporter Janani (Adeeb Al-Janani), he was live with the studio reporting, in the connection of the phone was killed instantly.
Aden airport bombing is the reason why the Middle East shocked, on the one hand, is the successive bombings not only nearly “destroy the central government”; the second is the process of the attack, but also by the Shaughnessy TV stations accidentally broadcast the entire process; the third is the perpetrators were not only able to break into the heavily guarded Aden International Airport, but also accurately anticipate the evacuation route of senior government officials, chasing the presidential palace in Aden to launch a second wave of bomb attacks.
The devastation at Aden Airport after the explosion. Three of the victims are known to be members of the International Red Cross and Crescent Society’s rescue mission at Aden International Airport; another victim was Adeeb Al-Janani, a field reporter for Yemen’s “Belgis TV”, who was killed on the spot during a live phone call with the studio. Photo／Associated Press
“Aden Airport is an international civilian airport, and this attack is clearly a ‘terrorist attack’ launched by the Houthi government in conspiracy with Iran!”
After the attack, the disgraced Shaudi and the Yemeni government also pointed the finger at their arch-enemies, the Houthis; but most of them, including the United States, the United Nations and the European Union, simply condemned the attack for “harming civilians and peace opportunities” and did not follow up on Shaudi’s accusations, putting the responsibility for the attack on the Houthis, who have not yet taken the initiative to take responsibility.
The international community does not yet know how to react to the main reason, one is because the central government of Yemen is still in chaos, just the number of dead and wounded and the list of names, within 24 hours of the attack are still not credible information; the second is because the serial bombing of Aden Airport, still do not know what kind of attack? Al Jazeera said that the Yemeni government forces suspect that the airport was “mortar bombing”; the Associated Press clues claim that it should be “drone airstrikes”; but the live images from Shaudi TV, but also captured the wreckage of a blown-up car, so it is not ruled out that it was a “car bomb” or a “suicide attack.
The different forms of attack also affect the judgment of different possible culprits. Because in the battlefield of Yemen, “drone attack” is indeed the specialty and tactical characteristics of the Houthi army, which has developed the technology of homemade drone airstrikes, and there is a precise example of attacking oil refineries deep into the mainland of Sha’udi; but if it is “mortar bombing”, it is more likely to be the discontented assassination of southern Yemeni separatists, on the one hand because the faction controlling Aden in the land is still dominated by the STC, but the separatists On the one hand, this is because the STC is still the dominant faction in control of Aden, but the separatists are not entirely happy to accept “political pressure from the Sha’udi”.
At the same time, the terrorist group al-Qaeda, which has long been active in the mountains of central Yemen and has a similarly deep threat footprint in Aden, has also re-emerged, nourished by the long years of civil war in Yemen, so if it was involved in the “suicide bomber” terror attack, it could have been the work of al-Qaeda.
But what weapons are being used to launch the attack? And who did it? It has not yet been determined.
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